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fon ;-for, indeed, my father did something fmack, 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 counfel well; fiend, fay I, you counsel well: to be rul'd by my confcience, I should stay with the Jew my mafter, who, God bless the mark, is a kind of a devil; and, to run away from the Jew, I fhould be rul'd by the fiend, who, faving your reverence, is the devil himfelf: 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. Mafter, 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, highgravel blind, knows me not :-I will try conclufions with him.

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

Try conclufions] So the old quarto. The firft folio, by a mere blunder, reads, try confufions, which, because it makes a kind of paultry jeft, has been copied by all the editors. JOHNSON. To try conclufions is to try experiments. So, in Heywood's Golden Age, 1611:

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-fince favour

"Cannot attain thy love, I'll try conclufions."

Again, in the Lancashire Witches, 1634:

"Nay then I'll try conclufions:

"Mare, Mare, fee thou be,

"And where I point thee, carry me.” STEEVENS.

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Laun. Turn up on your right hand, at the nex 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 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 worship's friend, and. Launcelot, fir'..

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:

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ubi eas præterieris,

"Ad finiftram hac recta platea: ubi ad Dianæ veneris,. "Ito ad dextram : prius quam ad portam venias, &c. WARBURTON

1 God's fonties,] I know not exactly of what oath this is a corruption. I meet with God's fanty in Decker's Honest Whore, 1635

Again, in The longer thou liveft the more Fool thou art, a comedy, bl. 1. without date:

"Gods fainte, this is a goodly book indeed." Perhaps it was once customary to swear by the fanté, i. e. health, of the Supreme Being, or by his faints. Oaths of such a turn are. not unfrequent among our ancient writers. All, however, feem to have been fo thoroughly convinced of the crime of prophane fwearing that they were content to difguife their meaning by abbrevations which were permitted filently to terminate in irremediable corruptions. STEEVENS.

2 Your worfip's friend and Launcelot, fir.] Dr. Farmer is of opinion we should read Gobbo instead of Launcelot. It may be inferred from the name of Gobbo that Shakspeare defigned this character to be reprefented with a bump back. STEVENS.

Laun.

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 ftaff of my age, my very prop.

very

Laun. Do I look like a cudgel, or a hovel-poft, a ftaff, or a prop-Do you know me, father?

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

haft thou got! thou haft got more hair on thy chin, than Dobbin my thill-horse 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 doft thou and thy mafter agree? I have brought him a prefent; How agree you now?

Laun. Well, well; but, for mine own part, as I have fet 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 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 Baffanio, 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 thefe letters deliver'd; put the liveries to making; and defire Gratiano to come anon to my lodging.

Laun. To him, father.

3my thill-horfe] Thill or fill, means the fhafts of a cart or waggon. So, in A Woman never Vex'd, 1632:

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I will

"Give you the fore-horse place, and I will be

"I' the fills."

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. STEEVENS.

The two firft folios read phil-horfe. So alfo the word is fpelled in the two inftances produced by Mr. Steveens. MALONE.

Gob.

Gob. God bless your worship!

Baff. Gramercy; Would'ft 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 specify,

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

Laun. Indeed, the fhort and the long is, I ferve the Jew, and I have a defire, as my father shall specify,——

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. I have here a dish 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 honeft old man; and, though I say it, though old man, yet, poor man, my father.

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

Gob. This is the very defect of the matter, fir. Baff. I know thee well, thou haft obtain'd thy fuit : Shylock, thy mafter, fpoke with me this day, And hath preferr'd thee; if it be preferment, To leave a rich Jew's fervice to become The follower of fo poor a gentleman.

Laun. The old proverb is very well parted be tween my mafter Shylock and you, fir; you have the grace of God, fir, and he hath enough.

Baff. Thou speak'ft it well: Go, father, with thy

fon:

Take leave of thy old mafter, and enquire

My lodging out :-give him a livery

[To his followers.

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