Dear slithy: Nice post. I wonder where Shakespeare got the name. If "Cali-" is from the
Greek root meaning "beautiful", where does the " -ban" come from. That would make it
a one-word oxymoron, as discussed in another thread.

I found a discussion of Caliban at:
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~slacheen/bibpage.html

The only suggestions about origin of name I saw were "anagram of cannibal" and "Kali = Hindu
goddess of destruction. I suspect that would be an anachronism, since I doubt that Shakespeare
was familiar with Hindu religion.