| 释义 |
Caliban|ˈkælɪbæn|
[App. a variant of cannibal1, or perh. actually a form of Carib. It does not appear, however, where Shakespeare found the form.]
The name of a character in Shakespeare's Tempest, ‘a saluage and deformed slaue’ (Dram. Personæ); thence applied to a man of degraded bestial nature. Also attrib. and Comb., as Caliban-like adj. Hence ˈCalibanish a.; ˈCalibaˌnism.
[1610Shakes. Temp. i. ii. 308 Wee'll visit Caliban, my slaue, who neuer Yeelds vs kinde answere.] 1678Butler Hud. iii. i. 282, I found th' Infernal Cunning-man, and th' Vnder-witch, his Caliban, With Scourges..arm'd. 1839Kemble Jrnl. Georgian Plantation (1863) 222 The Calibanish wonderment of all my visitors..is very droll. 1859Sala Tw. round Clock (1861) 69 Where is the Dutch pug? Where is that Narcissus of canine Calibanism? 1872P. B. Du Chaillu Country of Dwarfs 62 The fiendish countenances of the living calibanish trio. 1876Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. iv. xxix, Grandcourt held that the Jamaican negro was a beastly sort of baptist Caliban. 1909Lady's Realm Feb. 465/2 He was a Caliban-like creature, primitively ugly. 1921Chambers's Jrnl. 22/2 A lunatic..indulges in Caliban-like gambols, unheeded. 1965F. Sargeson Memoirs of Peon iv. 90 Mr. Gower-Johnson with his Caliban fish-eye. |