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Dramatis Personae
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/ Home / Library / Complete Shakespeare / The Merchant of Venice / Act II Scene II
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The Merchant of Venice: Act 2 Scene 2
Scene II Venice. A street.
- [Enter LAUNCELOT]
- LAUNCELOT
- Certainly my conscience will serve me to run from
- this Jew my master. The fiend is at mine elbow and
- tempts me saying to me 'Gobbo, Launcelot Gobbo, good
- Launcelot,' or 'good Gobbo,' or good Launcelot
- Gobbo, use your legs, take the start, run away. My
- conscience says 'No; take heed,' honest Launcelot;
- take heed, honest Gobbo, or, as aforesaid, 'honest
- Launcelot Gobbo; do not run; scorn running with thy
- heels.' Well, the most courageous fiend bids me
- pack: 'Via!' says the fiend; 'away!' says the
- fiend; 'for the heavens, rouse up a brave mind,'
- says the fiend, 'and run.' Well, my conscience,
- hanging about the neck of my heart, says very wisely
- to me 'My honest friend Launcelot, being an honest
- man's son,' or rather an honest woman's son; for,
- indeed, my father did something smack, something
- grow to, he had a kind of taste; well, my conscience
- says 'Launcelot, budge not.' 'Budge,' says the
- fiend. 'Budge not,' says my conscience.
- 'Conscience,' say I, 'you counsel well;' ' Fiend,'
- say I, 'you counsel well:' to be ruled by my
- conscience, I should stay with the Jew my master,
- who, God bless the mark, is a kind of devil; and, to
- run away from the Jew, I should be ruled by the
- fiend, who, saving your reverence, is the devil
- himself. Certainly the Jew is the very devil
- incarnal; and, in my conscience, my conscience is
- but a kind of hard conscience, to offer to counsel
- me to stay with the Jew. The fiend gives the more
- friendly counsel: I will run, fiend; my heels are
- at your command; I will run.
- [Enter Old GOBBO, with a basket]
- GOBBO
- Master young man, you, I pray you, which is the way
- to master Jew's?
- LAUNCELOT
- [Aside] O heavens, this is my true-begotten father!
- who, being more than sand-blind, high-gravel blind,
- knows me not: I will try confusions with him.
- GOBBO
- Master young gentleman, I pray you, which is the way
- to master Jew's?
- LAUNCELOT
- Turn up on your right hand at the next turning, but,
- at the next turning of all, on your left; marry, at
- the very next turning, turn of no hand, but turn
- down indirectly to the Jew's house.
- GOBBO
- By God's sonties, 'twill be a hard way to hit. Can
- you tell me whether one Launcelot,
- that dwells with him, dwell with him or no?
- LAUNCELOT
- Talk you of young Master Launcelot?
- [Aside]
- Mark me now; now will I raise the waters. Talk you
- of young Master Launcelot?
- GOBBO
- No master, sir, but a poor man's son: his father,
- though I say it, is an honest exceeding poor man
- and, God be thanked, well to live.
- LAUNCELOT
- Well, let his father be what a' will, we talk of
- young Master Launcelot.
- GOBBO
- Your worship's friend and Launcelot, sir.
- LAUNCELOT
- But I pray you, ergo, old man, ergo, I beseech you,
- talk you of young Master Launcelot?
- GOBBO
- Of Launcelot, an't please your mastership.
- LAUNCELOT
- Ergo, Master Launcelot. Talk not of Master
- Launcelot, father; for the young gentleman,
- according to Fates and Destinies and such odd
- sayings, the Sisters Three and such branches of
- learning, is indeed deceased, or, as you would say
- in plain terms, gone to heaven.
- GOBBO
- Marry, God forbid! the boy was the very staff of my
- age, my very prop.
- LAUNCELOT
- Do I look like a cudgel or a hovel-post, a staff or
- a prop? Do you know me, father?
- GOBBO
- Alack the day, I know you not, young gentleman:
- but, I pray you, tell me, is my boy, God rest his
- soul, alive or dead?
- LAUNCELOT
- Do you not know me, father?
- GOBBO
- Alack, sir, I am sand-blind; I know you not.
- LAUNCELOT
- Nay, indeed, if you had your eyes, you might fail of
- the knowing me: it is a wise father that knows his
- own child. Well, old man, I will tell you news of
- your son: give me your blessing: truth will come
- to light; murder cannot be hid long; a man's son
- may, but at the length truth will out.
- GOBBO
- Pray you, sir, stand up: I am sure you are not
- Launcelot, my boy.
- LAUNCELOT
- Pray you, let's have no more fooling about it, but
- give me your blessing: I am Launcelot, your boy
- that was, your son that is, your child that shall
- be.
- GOBBO
- I cannot think you are my son.
- LAUNCELOT
- I know not what I shall think of that: but I am
- Launcelot, the Jew's man, and I am sure Margery your
- wife is my mother.
- GOBBO
- Her name is Margery, indeed: I'll be sworn, if thou
- be Launcelot, thou art mine own flesh and blood.
- Lord worshipped might he be! what a beard hast thou
- got! thou hast got more hair on thy chin than
- Dobbin my fill-horse has on his tail.
- LAUNCELOT
- It should seem, then, that Dobbin's tail grows
- backward: I am sure he had more hair of his tail
- than I have of my face when I last saw him.
- GOBBO
- Lord, how art thou changed! How dost thou and thy
- master agree? I have brought him a present. How
- 'gree you now?
- LAUNCELOT
- Well, well: but, for mine own part, as I have set
- up my rest to run away, so I will not rest till I
- have run some ground. My master's a very Jew: give
- him a present! give him a halter: I am famished in
- his service; you may tell every finger I have with
- my ribs. Father, I am glad you are come: give me
- your present to one Master Bassanio, who, indeed,
- gives rare new liveries: if I serve not him, I
- will run as far as God has any ground. O rare
- fortune! here comes the man: to him, father; for I
- am a Jew, if I serve the Jew any longer.
- [Enter BASSANIO, with LEONARDO and other followers]
- BASSANIO
- You may do so; but let it be so hasted that supper
- be ready at the farthest by five of the clock. See
- these letters delivered; put the liveries to making,
- and desire Gratiano to come anon to my lodging.
- [Exit a Servant]
- LAUNCELOT
- To him, father.
- GOBBO
- God bless your worship!
- BASSANIO
- Gramercy! wouldst thou aught with me?
- GOBBO
- Here's my son, sir, a poor boy,--
- LAUNCELOT
- Not a poor boy, sir, but the rich Jew's man; that
- would, sir, as my father shall specify--
- GOBBO
- He hath a great infection, sir, as one would say, to serve--
- LAUNCELOT
- Indeed, the short and the long is, I serve the Jew,
- and have a desire, as my father shall specify--
- GOBBO
- His master and he, saving your worship's reverence,
- are scarce cater-cousins--
- LAUNCELOT
- To be brief, the very truth is that the Jew, having
- done me wrong, doth cause me, as my father, being, I
- hope, an old man, shall frutify unto you--
- GOBBO
- I have here a dish of doves that I would bestow upon
- your worship, and my suit is--
- LAUNCELOT
- In very brief, the suit is impertinent to myself, as
- your worship shall know by this honest old man; and,
- though I say it, though old man, yet poor man, my father.
- BASSANIO
- One speak for both. What would you?
- LAUNCELOT
- Serve you, sir.
- GOBBO
- That is the very defect of the matter, sir.
- BASSANIO
- I know thee well; thou hast obtain'd thy suit:
- Shylock thy master spoke with me this day,
- And hath preferr'd thee, if it be preferment
- To leave a rich Jew's service, to become
- The follower of so poor a gentleman.
- LAUNCELOT
- The old proverb is very well parted between my
- master Shylock and you, sir: you have the grace of
- God, sir, and he hath enough.
- BASSANIO
- Thou speak'st it well. Go, father, with thy son.
- Take leave of thy old master and inquire
- My lodging out. Give him a livery
- More guarded than his fellows': see it done.
- LAUNCELOT
- Father, in. I cannot get a service, no; I have
- ne'er a tongue in my head. Well, if any man in
- Italy have a fairer table which doth offer to swear
- upon a book, I shall have good fortune. Go to,
- here's a simple line of life: here's a small trifle
- of wives: alas, fifteen wives is nothing! eleven
- widows and nine maids is a simple coming-in for one
- man: and then to 'scape drowning thrice, and to be
- in peril of my life with the edge of a feather-bed;
- here are simple scapes. Well, if Fortune be a
- woman, she's a good wench for this gear. Father,
- come; I'll take my leave of the Jew in the twinkling of an eye.
- [Exeunt Launcelot and Old Gobbo]
- BASSANIO
- I pray thee, good Leonardo, think on this:
- These things being bought and orderly bestow'd,
- Return in haste, for I do feast to-night
- My best-esteem'd acquaintance: hie thee, go.
- LEONARDO
- My best endeavours shall be done herein.
- [Enter GRATIANO]
- GRATIANO
- Where is your master?
- LEONARDO
- Yonder, sir, he walks.
- [Exit]
- GRATIANO
- Signior Bassanio!
- BASSANIO
- Gratiano!
- GRATIANO
- I have a suit to you.
- BASSANIO
- You have obtain'd it.
- GRATIANO
- You must not deny me: I must go with you to Belmont.
- BASSANIO
- Why then you must. But hear thee, Gratiano;
- Thou art too wild, too rude and bold of voice;
- Parts that become thee happily enough
- And in such eyes as ours appear not faults;
- But where thou art not known, why, there they show
- Something too liberal. Pray thee, take pain
- To allay with some cold drops of modesty
- Thy skipping spirit, lest through thy wild behavior
- I be misconstrued in the place I go to,
- And lose my hopes.
- GRATIANO
- Signior Bassanio, hear me:
- If I do not put on a sober habit,
- Talk with respect and swear but now and then,
- Wear prayer-books in my pocket, look demurely,
- Nay more, while grace is saying, hood mine eyes
- Thus with my hat, and sigh and say 'amen,'
- Use all the observance of civility,
- Like one well studied in a sad ostent
- To please his grandam, never trust me more.
- BASSANIO
- Well, we shall see your bearing.
- GRATIANO
- Nay, but I bar to-night: you shall not gauge me
- By what we do to-night.
- BASSANIO
- No, that were pity:
- I would entreat you rather to put on
- Your boldest suit of mirth, for we have friends
- That purpose merriment. But fare you well:
- I have some business.
- GRATIANO
- And I must to Lorenzo and the rest:
- But we will visit you at supper-time.
- [Exeunt]
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