# Result number

Work The work is either a play, poem, or sonnet. The sonnets are treated as single work with 154 parts.

Character Indicates who said the line. If it's a play or sonnet, the character name is "Poet."

Line Shows where the line falls within the work.

The numbering is not keyed to any copyrighted numbering system found in a volume of collected works (Arden, Oxford, etc.) The numbering starts at the beginning of the work, and does not restart for each scene.

Text The line's full text, with keywords highlighted within it, unless highlighting has been disabled by the user.

1

Merchant of Venice
[II, 2]

Old Gobbo

631

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

2

Merchant of Venice
[II, 2]

Old Gobbo

635

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?

3

Merchant of Venice
[II, 2]

Old Gobbo

646

Pray you, sir, stand up: I am sure you are not
Launcelot, my boy.

4

Merchant of Venice
[II, 2]

Launcelot Gobbo

648

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.

5

Merchant of Venice
[II, 2]

Old Gobbo

687

Here's my son, sir, a poor boy,—

6

Merchant of Venice
[II, 2]

Launcelot Gobbo

688

Not a poor boy, sir, but the rich Jew's man; that
would, sir, as my father shall specify—

7

Merchant of Venice
[II, 5]

Launcelot Gobbo

888

I will go before, sir. Mistress, look out at
window, for all this, There will come a Christian
boy, will be worth a Jewess' eye.

8

Merchant of Venice
[II, 6]

Jessica

944

Here, catch this casket; it is worth the pains.
I am glad 'tis night, you do not look on me,
For I am much ashamed of my exchange:
But love is blind and lovers cannot see
The pretty follies that themselves commit;
For if they could, Cupid himself would blush
To see me thus transformed to a boy.

9

Merchant of Venice
[II, 6]

Lorenzo

956

So are you, sweet,
Even in the lovely garnish of a boy.
But come at once;
For the close night doth play the runaway,
And we are stay'd for at Bassanio's feast.

10

Merchant of Venice
[III, 2]

Gratiano

1584

We'll play with them the first boy for a thousand ducats.

11

Merchant of Venice
[III, 4]

Portia

1813

They shall, Nerissa; but in such a habit,
That they shall think we are accomplished
With that we lack. I'll hold thee any wager,
When we are both accoutred like young men,
I'll prove the prettier fellow of the two,
And wear my dagger with the braver grace,
And speak between the change of man and boy
With a reed voice, and turn two mincing steps
Into a manly stride, and speak of frays
Like a fine bragging youth, and tell quaint lies,
How honourable ladies sought my love,
Which I denying, they fell sick and died;
I could not do withal; then I'll repent,
And wish for all that, that I had not killed them;
And twenty of these puny lies I'll tell,
That men shall swear I have discontinued school
Above a twelvemonth. I have within my mind
A thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks,
Which I will practise.

12

Merchant of Venice
[V, 1]

Gratiano

2626

Now, by this hand, I gave it to a youth,
A kind of boy, a little scrubbed boy,
No higher than thyself; the judge's clerk,
A prating boy, that begg'd it as a fee:
I could not for my heart deny it him.

13

Merchant of Venice
[V, 1]

Gratiano

2644

My Lord Bassanio gave his ring away
Unto the judge that begg'd it and indeed
Deserved it too; and then the boy, his clerk,
That took some pains in writing, he begg'd mine;
And neither man nor master would take aught
But the two rings.

14

Merchant of Venice
[V, 1]

Nerissa

2730

And pardon me, my gentle Gratiano;
For that same scrubbed boy, the doctor's clerk,
In lieu of this last night did lie with me.