Trinculo: The Jester Who Finds the Wrong Shelter

Trinculo is a professional jester (someone paid to be funny at a king's court) and he finds nothing remotely funny about washing up on a strange island alone. He stumbles across Caliban in Act 2, Scene 2, mistakes him briefly for a dead island monster, then crawls under his gaberdine (a loose cloak) to shelter from the approaching storm. Stephano finds them both there and assumes he has discovered a four-legged monster. The scene is the play's broadest physical comedy.

He follows Stephano into the plot against Prospero, though with noticeably less conviction. He keeps pointing out that Caliban is drunk and not to be trusted, which Stephano ignores. He is also caught stealing decorative clothes from Prospero's washing line in Act 4 while the supposed murder plan is supposed to be happening.

'Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows,' he says in Act 2, Scene 2, crawling under Caliban's cloak. It is the play's most accurate comic observation. He ends the play back in service, which is already a step up from where he started.