Ariel: No, I've come on my own. I came to warn you. Prospero is planning horrible acts of revenge against you. I thought it my duty to alert you.

Caliban: I'm ready for him.

Ariel: Poor Caliban, you're doomed. You know that you aren't the stronger, you'll never be the stronger. What good will it do you to struggle?

Caliban: And what about you? What good has your obedience done you, your Uncle Tom patience and your sucking up to him. The man's just getting more demanding and despotic day by day.

Ariel: Well, I've at least achieved one thing: he's promised me my freedom. In the distant future, of course, but it's the first time he's actually committed himself.

Caliban: Talk's cheap! He'll promise you a thousand times and take it back a thousand times. Anyway, tomorrow doesn't interest me. What I want is "Freedom now!"

Ariel: Okay. But you know you're not going to get it out of him "now", and that he's stronger than you are. I'm in a good position to know just what he's got in his arsenal.

Caliban: The stronger? How do you know that? Weakness always has a thousand means and cowardice is all that keeps us from listing them.