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 worship's friend, and Launcelot, fir.' LAUN. But I pray you ergo, old man, ergo, I befeech you; Talk you of young master Launcelot ? GOB. Of Launcelot, an't please your maftership. 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, deceased; or, as you would fay, in plain terms, gone to heaven. GOB. Marry, God forbid! the boy was the very staff of my age, my very prop. LAUN. Do I look like a cudgel, or a hovel-post, a staff, or a prop?-Do you know me, father? Perhaps it was once cuftomary to fwear by the santé, i. e. health, of the Supreme Being, or by his faints; or, as Mr. Ritfon obferves to me, by his fanctity. Oaths of fuch a turn are not unfrequent among our ancient writers. All, however, feem to have been fo thoroughly convinced of the crime of profane fwearing, that they were content to difguife their meaning by abbreviations which were permitted filently to terminate in irremediable corruptions. STEEVENS. 5 Your worship's friend, and Launcelot, fir.] Dr. Farmer is of opinion we should read Gobbo inttead of Launcelot. STEEVENS. -and Launcelot, fir.] i. e. plain Launcelot; and not, as you term him, mafter Launcelot. MALONE. 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: Give me your bleffing:] In this converfation between Launcelot and his blind father, there are frequent references to the deception practifed on the blindnefs of Ifaac, and the bleffing obtained in confequence of it. HENLEY. 7-your child that shall be.] Launcelot probably here indulges himself in talking nonfenfe. So afterwards:" you may tell every finger I have with my ribs." An anonymous critick fuppofes," he means to fay, I was your child, I am your boy, and hall ever be your fon." But fon not being firft mentioned, but placed in the middle member of the fentence, there is no ground for fuppofing fuch an inverfion intended by our author. Befides; if Launcelo is to be seriously defended, what would his father learn, by being told that he who was child, fhall be his fon? MALONE. Launcelot may mean, that he thall hereafter prove his claim to the title of child, by his dutiful behaviour. Thus fays the Prince of Wales to King Henry IV; I will redeem my character; "And, in the clofing of fome glorious day, "Be bold to tell you, that I am your fon." STEEVENS. 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 mine own flesh and blood. Lord worshipp'd might he be! what a beard haft thou got! thou haft got more hair on thy chin, than Dobbin my thill-horse has on his tail 8 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 art thou changed! How doft thou and thy mafter agree? I have brought him a prefent; How 'gree you now? LAUN. Well, well; but, for mine own part, as I have fet up my reft to run away, fo I will not reft 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 fin ger I have with my ribs. Father, I am glad you are come; give me your prefent to one master Baffanio, who, indeed, gives rare new liveries; if Į 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 ferve the Jew any longer. 8 - my thill-horfe- Thill or fill, means the shafts of a cart or waggon. So, in A Woman never Vex'd, 1632: 66 I will "Give you the fore-horse place, and I will be Again, in Fortune by Land and Sea, 1655, by Tho. Heywood and W. Rowley: acquaint you with Jock the fore-horse, and Fibb the fil-horfe," &c. STERVENS. All the ancient copies have phil-horfe, but no dictionary that I have met with acknowledges the word. It is, I am informed, a corruption used in fome counties for the proper term, thill-horse. Enter BASSANIO, with LEONARDO, and other followers. BASS. 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. [Exit a Servant. LAUN. To him, father. GOB. God bless your worship! BASS. Gramercy; Would't thou aught with me? LAUN. Not a poor boy, fir, but the rich Jew's · man; that would, fir, as my father fhall fpecify, GOB. 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 I 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 Jew having done me wrong, doth caufe me, as my father, being I hope an old man, fhall frutify unto you, GOB. I have here a difh of doves, that I would bestow upon your worship; and my fuit is,— LAUN. In very brief, the fuit 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. BASS. One fpeak for both;-What would you? 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, LAUN. The old proverb is very well parted between my master Shylock and you, fir; you have the grace of God, fir, and he hath enough. BASS. Thou fpeak'ft it well: Go, father, with thy fon: Take leave of thy old mafter, and enquire [to his followers. More guarded' than his fellows': See 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 swear upon a book.-I more guarded-] i. e. more ornamented. So, in Soliman and Perfeda, 1599: Pifton. But is there no reward for my false dice? "Eraftus. Yes, fir, a guarded suit from top to toe." Again, in Albumazar, 1615: turn my ploughboy Dick to two guarded footmen.” STEEVENS. * Well; if any man in Italy have a fairer table, which doth offer to fewear upon a book.] Table is the palm of the hand extended. Launcelot congratulates himfelf upon his dexterity and good fortune, and, in the height of his rapture, infpects his hand, and congratulates himself upon the felicities in his table. The act of expanding his hand puts him in mind of the action in which the palm is shown, by raifing it to lay it on the book, in judicial atteftations. Well, fays he, if any man in Italy have a fairer table, that doth offer to fwear upon a book- -Here he ftops with an ab ruptness very common, and proceeds to particulars. JOHNSON. |