I wouldn’t drink so much Whiskey,
If my motley made women feel frisky,
Like the Tailor with Kate,
Or like Meg with the Mate,
But less Wine, far from fine, is too risky.
I based my poem off of the drinking song that Stephano sings in The Tempest (2.2.45-53). It’s a limerick written in rough anapestic about Trinculo. I chose to write a limerick because they’re known for their obscenities, so I thought it appropriate to write one for the drunk jester of the play. The poem isn’t distinguishably about Trinculo past the fact that I refer to his motley, which I presume no other character in the play wears. The characters the Tailor, Kate, Meg, and the Mate are all from the drinking song. I got the title from Google-translating an Italian euphemism for being drunk: fuori come un balcone. I picked an Italian one because Trinculo and the rest of the royal court are all from Italy (Naples). I did use Google to translate the phrase, so I hope it’s accurate enough. Also because Trinculo is Italian, I figured he would rather give up whiskey over wine, which is more faithfully Italian compared to whiskey. The main point of this poem was to try and expand on Trinculo’s character, since he really doesn’t have one. And that was one of the things that I primarily discovered about Trinculo while writing this poem. Looking into his character to see what I could expand upon, I found that there really isn’t much too him: he’s just a drunk fool. So there really isn’t anything I left out from his paltry character. I expanded on his character by continuing to illustrate Trinculo as a drunk. I used the drinking song simply because it's a drinking song, so I felt it appropriate to tie it to Trinculo, the other drunk fool. I added to his character in terms of alcohol, but I also added the motivation of sex to his character. Sex is something quite far from what we see about the jester in the play, but I thought that it would be fitting for a character known for drinking and being a fool. I also tried to show that Trinculo would willingly compromise some of his drink for sex, but ultimately he is ruled by wine over women. So now my ridiculous limerick has hopefully painted Trinculo as even more of a drunk fool.