3 Have lov'd it too. I would not change this hue, For my affection. Mor. 4 Even for that I thank you: 5 And so may I, blind Fortune leading me, Por. You must take your And either not attempt to choose at all, chance; Or swear, before you choose, if you choose wrong Never to speak to lady afterward In way of marriage; therefore be advis'd. Mor. Nor will not: Come, bring me unto my chance. 3 She means that reason and judgment have a voice potential in her matrimonial thoughts. Nice has somewhat the sense of fanciful here. 4 A "History of the Wars between the Turks and Persians," translated from the Italian, was published in London in 1595; from which Shakespeare might have learned that "Soffi, an ancient word signifying a wise man," was grown to be the common name of the Emperors of Persia." Ismael Sophi is said to have been the founder of what was called the Suffavian dynasty. The same potentate is twice referred to in Twelfth Night. - Solyman the Magnificent had an unfortunate campaign with the Persians in 1535. 5 If they stake the question of which is the braver man upon a game of dice Lichas was the servant or page of Hercules, who ignorantly brought to his master from Dejanira the poisoned shirt. Hercules was a descendant of Alceus, and so is called, in the Greek idiom, Alcides. Por. First, forward to the Temple: after dinner Your hazard shall be made. Mor. Good fortune then! [Exeunt. To make me bless'd, or cursed'st among men. to me, SCENE II. Venice. A Street. Enter LAUNCELOT GOBBO. Laun. 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;1 away! says the fiend; for the Heavens,2 rouse up a brave mind, says the fiend, and run. Well, my conscience, hanging about the neck of my heart, says very wisely 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. science, say I, you counsel well; fiend, say I, you counsel well : to be rul'd 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 rul'd by the fiend, who, saving your reverence, is the Devil himself. Certainly the Jew is the very Devil incarnation; 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 commandment; I will run. 3 Con 6 That is, to the church, to take the oath mentioned just before, and described more particularly in the eighth scene of this Act. Bibles were not kept in private houses in the Poet's time. 1 Via! is Italian, meaning, away!-To scorn a thing with the heels appears to have been an old phrase for spurning or kicking at a thing. Shakespeare has the phrase again in Much Ado about Nothing, iii. 4. Launcelot seems to be in chase of a quibble between the heels as used in kicking, and the heels as used in running. 2 For the Heavens was merely a petty oath. To make the fiend conjure Launcelot to do a thing for Heaven's sake, is a specimen of that "acute nonsense" which Barrow makes one of the species of wit. 8 Saving your reverence is a sort of apologetic phrase for saying something lewd or coarse or profane; somewhat like our," If you will allow me to say so.' "God save the mark," and "God bless the mark," are phrases of similar import. Enter old GOBBO, with a Basket. Gob. Master young man, you, I pray you, which is the way to Master Jew's? Laun. [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.* Gob. Master 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 indirectly to the Jew's house. Gob. By God's sonties,5 '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 Master Launcelot? — [Aside.] Mark me now; now will I raise the waters. [To him.1 Talk you of young Master Launcelot? Gob. No master, sir, but a poor man's son: 6 his father, though I say it, is an honest exceeding poor man, and, God be thanked, well to live. Laun. Well, let his father be what 'a will, we talk of young Master Launcelot. Gob. Your worship's friend, and Launcelot, sir." Laun. But I pray you, ergo, old man, ergo, I beseech you, talk you of young Master Launcelot? Gob. Of Launcelot, an't please your mastership. Laun. 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. Gob. Marry, God forbid! the boy was the very staff of my age, my very prop. 4 This is usually printed conclusions, following one of the quartos. The other quarto and the folio have confusions. To try conclusions is, in old language, to try experiments. Try confusions is a Gobboism, like "the Devil incarnation" above. 5 God's sonties was probably a corruption of God's saints, in old language saunctes. 6 Master, which we have bled and disbrained into mister, meant something in the Poet's time, as a title of respect. Shakespeare himself had no right to the title till he got his father made into a gentleman by procuring for him a coat of arms from the Herald's College. 7 It appears that old Gobbo himself was named Launcelot: hence in the next speech Launcelot junior asks him if he talks or young Master Launcelot. The reader will see that Launcelot senior scruples to give his son the title of master. Laun. [Aside.] Do I look like a cudgel. or a hovel-post, a staff, or a prop? [To him.] Do you not know me, father? Gob. 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? Laun. Do you not know me, father? 8 Gob. Alack, sir, I am sand-blind; I know you not. Laun. 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. [Kneels, with his back to him.] Give me your blessing: truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long, may; but, in the end, truth will out. a man's son Gob. Pray you, sir, stand up: I am sure you are not Launcelot, my boy. Laun. 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. Gob. I cannot think you are my son. Laun. 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. Gob. Her name is Margery indeed: I'll be sworn, if thou be Launcelot, thou art mine own flesh and blood. [Taking hold of his back hair.] Lord worshipp'd might He be! what a beard hast thon got! thou hast got more hair on thy chin, than Dobbin my phill-horse has on his tail.1o 9 Laun. [Rising] 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. Gob. Lord, how art thou chang'd! How dost thou and thy master agree? I have brought him a present. How 'gree you now? 11 Laun. 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 famish'd in his service; you may tell every finger I have with my ribs. Father, I am glad you are come : 8 It was customary for young people to address any old man or woman as father or mother. Hence old Gobbo does not recognize his son on being called father by him. 9 That is, shaft-horse, or horse that goes in the shafts. Phill is usually printed thill; the editors probably not knowing that phill or fill was a common form of thill. 10 A stage tradition makes young Launcelot turn the back of his head to the old man, instead of his chin. 11 A phrase from the old game of primero; meaning, to stand upon the cards you have in hand, hoping your adversary's hand will prove worse. Hence to make up one's mind, or be determined. 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.12. 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. Bass. 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. Laun. To him, father. Gob. God bless your worship! Bass. Gramercy! 13 Would'st thou aught with me? Laun. Not a poor boy, sir, but the rich Jew's man, that would, sir, as my father shall specify, Gob. He hath a great infection, sir, as one would say, tc Laun. Indeed, the short and the lông is, I serve the Jew, and I have a desire as my father shall specify, Gob. His master and he (saving your worship's reverence) are scarce cater-cousins,14 . Laun. 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, Gob. I have here a dish of doves 15 that I would bestow upon your worship; and my suit is, Laun. 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. : Bass. One speak for both: Laun. Serve you, sir. What would you? Gob. That is the very defect of the matter, sir. Bass. I know thee well; thou hast obtain❜d thy suit: Shylock thy master spoke with me this day, 12 We must remember that in Venice it was not easy to find ground enough to run upon. 13 Great thanks! from the French grand merci. 14 Cater-cousin is commonly explained fourth cousin; cater being, it is said, from the French quatre. 15 There has been no little speculation among the later critics, whether Shakespeare ever visited Italy. Mr. C. A. Brown argues strongly that he did, and refers to this passage among others in proof of it: "Where did he learn of an old villager's coming into the city with a dish of doves' as a present to his son's master? A present thus given, and in our days too, and of doves, is not uncommon in Italy. I myself have partaken there, with due relish, in memory of poor old Gobbo, of a dish of doves, presented by the father of a servant." |