celot Gobbo, good Launcelot, or good Gobbo, or good Launcelot Gobbo, ufe your legs, take the ftart, run away : My confcience fays,-no; take heed, honeft Launcelot, take heed, honeft Gobbo; or, as aforefaid, honeft Laun celot Gobbo; do not run ; fcorn running with thy heels Well, the most courageous fiend bids me pack; via! fays the fiend; away! fays the fiend, for the heavens ; roufe up a brave mind, fays the fiend, and run. Well, my confcience, hanging about the neck of my heart, fays very wifely to me, my honest friend Launcelot, being an honeft man's fon,-or rather an honest woman's fon;-for, indeed, my father did fomething fmack, fomething grow to, he had a kind of taste;well, my confcience fays,Launcelot, budge not; budge, fays the fiend; budge not, says my confcience: Confcience, fay I, you counfel well; fiend, fay I, you counsel well: to be rul'd by my confcience, I fhould ftay with the Jew my mafter, who, God blefs the mark, is a kind of devil; and, to run away from the Jew, I fhould be rul'd by the fiend, who, faving your reverence, is the devil himself: Certainly, the Jew is the very devil incarnation; and, in my confcience, my confcience is but a kind of hard confcience, to offer to counsel me to stay with the Jew: The fiend gives the more friendly counfel; I will run, fiend; my heels are at your commandment; I will run.

Enter old GOBBO, his Father, with a basket.

Gob. Master, young man, you, I pray you, which is the way to master Jew's?

Laun. [Afide.] O heavens, this is my true-begotten father! who, being more than fand-blind,

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high-gravel blind, knows me not :-) clufions with him.

-I will try con

Gob. Mafter young gentleman, I pray you, which is the way to master Jew's?

Laun. 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 directly to the Jew's houfe.

Geb. By God's fonties, 'twill be a hard way to hit. Can you tell me whether one Launcelot, that dwells with him, dwell with him, or no.

Laun. Talk you of young mafter Launcelot ?— Mark me now, [afide.] now will I raise the waters:-Talk you of young mafter Launcelot?

Gob. No mafter, fir, but a poor man's fon; his father, though I fay it, is an honeft exceeding poor man, and, God be thanked, well to live.

Laun. Well, let his father be what he will, we talk of young mafter Launcelot.

Gob. Your worthip's friend, and Launcelot, fir, Laun. But I pray you ergo, old man, ergo, I befeech you; Talk you of young mafter Launcelot ? Gob. Of Launcelot, an't please your mastership.

Laun. Ergo, mafter Launcelot; talk not of mafter Launcelot, father: for the young gentleman (according to fates and deftinies, and fuch odd fayings, the fifters three, and fuch branches of learning) is, indeed, deceafed; or, as you would say, in plain terms, gone to heaven.

Gob. Marry, God forbid! the boy was the very ftaff of my age, my very prop.

Laun. Do I look like a cudgel, or a hovel-post, a ftaff, or a prop-Do you know me, father? Gob. Alack the day, I know you not, young gentleman:

gentleman: but, I pray you, tell me, is my boy (God reft his foul!) alive, or dead?

Laun. Do you not know me, father?

Gob. Alack, fir, I am fand-blind, I know you not. Laun. Nay, indeed, if you had your eyes you might fail of the knowing me: it is a wife father that knows his own child. Well, old man, I will tell you news of your fon: Give me your bleffing: truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long, a man's fon may; but, in the end, truth will out.

Gob. Pray you, fir, ftand up; I am fure you are not Launcelot my boy.

Laun. Pray you, let's have no more fooling about it, but give me your bleffing; I am Launcelot, your boy that was, your fon that is, your child that fhall be.

Gob. I cannot think you are my fon.

Laun. I know not what I fhall think of that: but I am Launcelot, the Jew's man; and, I am fure, Margery, your wife, is my mother.

Gob. Her name is Margery, indeed: I'll be fworn if thou be Launcelot, thou art my own flesh and blood. Lord worfhipp'd might he be! what a beard haft thou got; thou haft got more hair on thy chin, than Dobbin my thill-horfe has on his tail.

Laun. It fhould feem, then, that Dobbin's tail grows backward; I am fure, he had more hair on his tail, than I have on my face, when I last saw him.

Gob. Lord, how thou art chang'd! How doft thou and thy mafter agree? I have brought him a prefent; How agree ye now?

Laun. Well, well; but, for mine own part, as I have fet up my reft to run away, fo I will not

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reft

reft 'till I have run fome ground: My master's a very Jew; Give him a prefent! give him a halter: I am famifh'd in his fervice; you may tell every finger I have with my ribs. Father, I am glad you are come; give me your present to one mafter Baffanio, who, indeed, gives rare new liveries; if I ferve 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 ferve the Jew any longer.

Enter BASSANIO, with LEONARDO, and a Follower

or two more.

Baff. You may do fo;-but let it be fo hafted, that fupper be ready at the fartheft by five of the clock; See these letters deliver'd; put the liveries to making; and defire Gratiano to come anon to my lodging.

Laun. To him, father.

Gob. God blefs your worship!

Baff. Gramercy; Wouldft thou aught with me? Gob. Here's my fon, fir, a poor boy

Laun. Not a poor boy, fir, but the rich Jew's man; that would, fir, as my father shall specifyGob. He hath a great infection, fir, as one would fay, to ferve

Laun. Indeed the fhort and the long is, I ferve the Jew, and have a defire, as my father fhall fpecify

Gob. His mafter and he, (faving your worship's reverence) are fcarce cater-coufins.

Laun. To be brief, the very truth is, that the Jaw, having done me wrong, doth caufe me, as my fa

ther,

ther, being I hope an old man, fhall frutify unto you

Gob. I have here a dish of doves, that I would bestow upon your worship; and my fuit is

Laun. In very brief, the suit is impertinent to myfelf, as your worship fhall know by this honest old man; and, though I fay it, though old man, yet, poor man, my father.

Baff. One fpeak for both ;-What would you? Laun. Serve you, fir.

Gob. This is the very defect of the matter, fir. Bass. I know thee well, thou haft obtain❜d thy fuit; 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 fo poor a gentleman?

have

Laun. The old proverb is very well parted between my master Shylock and you, fir; you the grace of God, fir, and he hath enough.

Baff. Thou fpeak'ft it well; Go, father, with thy Take leave of thy old mafter, and inquire [fon: My lodging out:-Give him a livery,

[To his followers. More guarded than his fellows: fee it done.

Laun. Father, in :-I cannot get a service, no; -I have ne'er a tongue in my head.-Well, [looking on his palm] if any man in Italy have a fairer table, which doth offer to fwear upon a book, I fhall have good fortune.-Go to, here's a fimple 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 'fcape drowning thrice; and to be in peril my life with the edge of a feather-bed ;-here

of

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are