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And fo may I, blind fortune leading me,

Mifs that, which one unworthier may attain;
And die with grieving.

Por. You must take your chance:

And either not attempt to chufe at all,

Or fwear, before you chufe, if you chufe wrong, Never to speak to lady afterward

In way of marriage. Therefore be advis'd. 7

Mor. Nor will not. Come, bring me unto my

chance.

Por. Firft, forward to the temple :-After dinner

Your hazard fhall be made.

Mor. Good fortune then,

To make me bleft, or curfed'ft among men.

[Cornets.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Changes to Venice.

Enter Launcelot alone.

Laun. Certainly, my confcience will ferve me to run from this Jew my mafter. The fiend is at mine elbow; and tempts me, faying to me, Gobbo, Launcelot Gobbo, good Launcelot, or good Gobbo, or goed Laun. celot Gobbo, ufe your legs, take the start, run away.

beaten by his rage? The poet means no more, than, if Lichas had the better throw, fo might Hercules himself be beaten by Lichas. And who was he, but a poor unfortunate fervant of Hercules, that unknowingly brought his mafter the envenomed fhirt, dipt in the blood of the Centaur Neffus, and was thrown headlong into the fea for his pains? This one circumftance of Lichas's quality known, fufficiently afcertains the emendation, I have fubftituted page instead of rage. THEOBALD.

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? Therefore be advis'd.] Therefore be not precipitant; confider well what we are to do. Advis'd is the word oppofite to rash. JOHNSON.

The old copies read-Enter the Clown alone; and throughout the play he is called fo at most of his entrances or exits. STEEVENS.

My conscience says, no; take heed, boneft Launcelot; take heed, boneft Gobbo; or, as aforefaid, boneft Launcelot 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 conscience, hanging about the neck of my heart, fays very wifely to me, my honeft friend Launcelot, being an honest man's fon, or rather an honeft woman's fon-(for, indeed, my father did something smack, fomething grow to: he had a kind of tafte.).

well, my confcience fays, Launcelot, budge not; budge, fays the fiend; budge not, fays my confcience: confcience, fay I, you counsel well, fiend, say I, you counsel well. To be rul'd by my conscience, I should stay with the Jew my mafter, 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, 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, with a basket.

Gob. Mafter, young man; you, I pray you, which is the way to mafter Jew's?

Laun. [afide.] O Heavens, this is my true-begotten father, who being more than fand-blind, highgravel blind, knows me not.-I will try conclufions with him.

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To try conclufions.]So the old quarto. The firft folio, by a mere blunder, reads, try confufions, which, because it makes a kind of paltry jeft, has been copied by all the editors.

JOHNSON.

Gob.

Gob. Mafter young gentleman, I pray you, which is the way to mafter 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 unto the Jew's house.

Gob. 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't, 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 worship'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 master 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, deceased; or, as you would fay, 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-poft, a ftaff or a prop? Do you know me, father?

9 Turn up, on your right-hand, &c.] This arch and perplexed. direction, to puzzle the enquirer, feems to imitate that of Syrus to Demea in the Brothers of Terence :

ubi eas præterieris,

Ad finiftram hac rectâ plateâ: ubi ad Dianæ veneris,
Ito ad dextram prius quam ad pertam venias, &c,

K4

WARBURTON.

Gob.

Gob. Alack the day, I know you not, young 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 worshipp'd might he be! what a beard haft thou got thou hast 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 laft faw him. Gob. Lord, how thou art chang'd! How dost thou

Your child that shall be.] The diftinction between boy and fen is obvious, but child feems to have fome meaning, which is now loft. JOHNSON.

Launcelot, by your child that shall be, may mean, that his duty to his father fhall, for the future, fhew him to be his child. It became neceffary for him to fay fomething of that fort, after all the tricks he had been playing him. STEEVENS.

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and

and thy master agree? I have brought him a prefent; how agree you now?

Laun. Well, well; but for mine own part, as I have set up my reft to run away, fo I will not rest 'till I have run fome ground. My mafter'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 prefent to one mafter Baffanio, who, indeed, gives rare new liveries; if I ferve him not, 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 hasted, that fupper be ready at the fartheft by five of the clock. See thefe letters deliver'd; put the liveries to making; and defire Gratiano to come anon to my lodging. Laun. To him, father.

Gob. God bless your worship!

Baff. Gramercy; would'st 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 fhall specify,

Gob. He hath a great infection, fir, as one would fay, to ferve.

Laun. Indeed, the short 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 scarce cater-coufins.

Laun. To be brief, the very truth is, that the Jew, having done me wrong, doth caufe me, as my father, being I hope an old man, fhall frutify unto

you,

Gob.

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