Abstract
Upon first seeing the beastly Caliban in The Tempest, Trinculo ponders: “What have we here? A man or a fish? Dead or alive? A fish! He smells like a fish; a very ancient and fishlike smell; a kind of, not of the newest Poor John” (2.2.25–28). Scholars frequently identify Caliban’s symbolic monstrosity—half-man, half-fish—with an inhuman and preternatural creature, a “thing of darkness,” a servant, savage, or a slave. His finny half, however, remains obscure. By stating he is a “kind of … Poor John,” Shakespeare places on stage what his contemporaries would unmistakably recognize as the name for Newfoundland salt-dry cod.1 When The Tempest was first performed in 1611, England dominated the lucrative market in salt-dry codfish, trading with France, Spain, and other Mediterranean countries. Not only did this international commerce fill English coffers, but it also strengthened England’s navy, supplying the English with seaworthy vessels and experienced seamen. English fishermen had harvested Newfoundland waters since at least the 1550s, using temporary spring fishing stations to dry cod ashore and abandoning them in autumn at the end of the fishing season; migratory fishermen made no attempt to settle in America.
The codfish forms the basis alike of food and amusements, of business and general talk, of regrets, hope, good luck, everyday life—I would almost be ready to say existence itself.
—L’Abbé Ferland, 1871
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© 2008 Barbara Sebek and Stephen Deng
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Test, E.M. (2008). The Tempest and the Newfoundland Cod Fishery. In: Sebek, B., Deng, S. (eds) Global Traffic. Early Modern Cultural Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230611818_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230611818_11
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