210
NOTES ON THE TEXT OF SHELLEY.
"Unhappy man!
How was it with you, then, faring like this? "
The next break is at v. 439; if the verses here omitted be spurious, there is no need to retain the asterisks. Anyhow they can only be given thus trimmed for translation and curtailed into decency; the satyrs, though perforce living virtuously in a state of servitude, retain their natural amativeness. Read:—
"And leave for ever
The impious Cyclops: for this long time now
Our poor dear flesh has lived a widower's life
Toward women, as we can't give him the slip."
At v. 585 there is a point of interrogation missed, and the dialogue has not all its original briskness and ease of motion. Here the Cyclops-now in Trinculo's phrase, "a howling monster; a drunken monster"[1]-shows his affection for Silenus, as Caliban in the like case shows his adoration of Stephano. The parallel would be closer if Caliban had met Falstaff, but the humour of the two scenes is much alike. It must be remembered that "the poor monster's in drink; an abominable monster!" Read:—
"No, I'll no kissing; let the Graces tempt me;
I can do well enough with Ganymede here,
Gloriously, by the Graces! where are women
Worth such sweet youths as this now?!
Silenus.
Am I Jove's Ganymede, then?
- ↑ "A most ridiculous monster! to make a wonder of a poor drunkard."(Tempest, ii. 2.)
But poor old Silenus is now as sober or semi-sober as Trinculo.