Open Source Shakespeare

Speeches (Lines) for Launcelot Gobbo
in "Merchant of Venice"

Total: 44

# Act, Scene, Line
(Click to see in context)
Speech text

1

II,2,566

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; 'away!' says the
fiend; 'for the heavens, rouse up a brave mind,'
says the fiend, 'and run.' Well, my conscience,
hanging about the neck of my heart, says very wisely
to me '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.
'Conscience,' say I, 'you counsel well;' ' Fiend,'
say I, 'you counsel well:' to be ruled 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 ruled by the
fiend, who, saving your reverence, is the devil
himself. Certainly the Jew is the very devil
incarnal; 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 command; I will run.

2

II,2,600

[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.

3

II,2,605

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.

4

II,2,612

Talk you of young Master Launcelot?
[Aside]
Mark me now; now will I raise the waters. Talk you
of young Master Launcelot?

5

II,2,619

Well, let his father be what a' will, we talk of
young Master Launcelot.

6

II,2,622

But I pray you, ergo, old man, ergo, I beseech you,
talk you of young Master Launcelot?

7

II,2,625

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.

8

II,2,633

Do I look like a cudgel or a hovel-post, a staff or
a prop? Do you know me, father?

9

II,2,638

Do you not know me, father?

10

II,2,640

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: give me your blessing: truth will come
to light; murder cannot be hid long; a man's son
may, but at the length truth will out.

11

II,2,648

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.

12

II,2,653

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.

13

II,2,661

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.

14

II,2,667

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 famished in
his service; you may tell every finger I have with
my ribs. Father, I am glad you are come: 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. O rare
fortune! here comes the man: to him, father; for I
am a Jew, if I serve the Jew any longer.

15

II,2,684

To him, father.

16

II,2,688

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

17

II,2,691

Indeed, the short and the long is, I serve the Jew,
and have a desire, as my father shall specify—

18

II,2,695

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—

19

II,2,700

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.

20

II,2,704

Serve you, sir.

21

II,2,711

The old proverb is very well parted between my
master Shylock and you, sir: you have the grace of
God, sir, and he hath enough.

22

II,2,718

Father, in. I cannot get a service, no; I have
ne'er a tongue in my head. Well, if any man in
Italy have a fairer table which doth offer to swear
upon a book, I shall have good fortune. Go to,
here's a simple line of life: here's a small trifle
of wives: alas, fifteen wives is nothing! eleven
widows and nine maids is a simple coming-in for one
man: and then to 'scape drowning thrice, and to be
in peril of my life with the edge of a feather-bed;
here are simple scapes. Well, if Fortune be a
woman, she's a good wench for this gear. Father,
come; I'll take my leave of the Jew in the twinkling of an eye.

23

II,3,785

Adieu! tears exhibit my tongue. Most beautiful
pagan, most sweet Jew! if a Christian did not play
the knave and get thee, I am much deceived. But,
adieu: these foolish drops do something drown my
manly spirit: adieu.

24

II,4,811

An it shall please you to break up
this, it shall seem to signify.

25

II,4,817

By your leave, sir.

26

II,4,819

Marry, sir, to bid my old master the
Jew to sup to-night with my new master the Christian.

27

II,5,853

Why, Jessica!

28

II,5,855

Your worship was wont to tell me that
I could do nothing without bidding.

29

II,5,867

I beseech you, sir, go: my young master doth expect
your reproach.

30

II,5,870

An they have conspired together, I will not say you
shall see a masque; but if you do, then it was not
for nothing that my nose fell a-bleeding on
Black-Monday last at six o'clock i' the morning,
falling out that year on Ash-Wednesday was four
year, in the afternoon.

31

II,5,888

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.

32

III,5,1841

Yes, truly; for, look you, the sins of the father
are to be laid upon the children: therefore, I
promise ye, I fear you. I was always plain with
you, and so now I speak my agitation of the matter:
therefore be of good cheer, for truly I think you
are damned. There is but one hope in it that can do
you any good; and that is but a kind of bastard
hope neither.

33

III,5,1850

Marry, you may partly hope that your father got you
not, that you are not the Jew's daughter.

34

III,5,1854

Truly then I fear you are damned both by father and
mother: thus when I shun Scylla, your father, I
fall into Charybdis, your mother: well, you are
gone both ways.

35

III,5,1860

Truly, the more to blame he: we were Christians
enow before; e'en as many as could well live, one by
another. This making Christians will raise the
price of hogs: if we grow all to be pork-eaters, we
shall not shortly have a rasher on the coals for money.

36

III,5,1878

It is much that the Moor should be more than reason:
but if she be less than an honest woman, she is
indeed more than I took her for.

37

III,5,1885

That is done, sir; they have all stomachs.

38

III,5,1888

That is done too, sir; only 'cover' is the word.

39

III,5,1890

Not so, sir, neither; I know my duty.

40

III,5,1896

For the table, sir, it shall be served in; for the
meat, sir, it shall be covered; for your coming in
to dinner, sir, why, let it be as humours and
conceits shall govern.

41

V,1,2491

Sola, sola! wo ha, ho! sola, sola!

42

V,1,2493

Sola! did you see Master Lorenzo?
Master Lorenzo, sola, sola!

43

V,1,2496

Sola! where? where?

44

V,1,2498

Tell him there's a post come from my master, with
his horn full of good news: my master will be here
ere morning.