ACT 2, SCENE 2


BASSANIO Well, we shall see your bearing.99


GRATIANO Nay, but I bar tonight.100 You shall not gauge101 me By what we do tonight.


BASSANIO No, that were pity.


I would entreat102 you rather to put on Your boldest suit of mirth,103 for we have friends That purpose merriment. But fare you well. I have some business.


GRATIANO And I must to Lorenzo and the rest.


But we will visit you at supper-time. Exeunt.


195 190


102. ask 103. fun/enjoyment


99. behaviour


100. I am excluding tonight. 101. judge


OVERVIEW OF ACT 2, SCENE 2 l


This is a scene of comedy which forms a contrast to the more serious scenes that have gone before it. In this scene, we meet Launcelot Gobbo who is Shylock’s servant. At the start of the scene he is conflicted about whether or not he should leave Shylock’s service. His conscience is telling him to stay, but the ‘fiend’ (devil) is urging him to go:


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 incarnation (lines 21–26)


l


It is clear that Launcelot has a very negative opinion of Shylock, saying that he is ‘a kind of devil’ and that he is ‘the very devil incarnation’. It is not surprising then that, by the end of his speech, he has made up his mind to leave.


l


Next, Launcelot Gobbo meets an almost-blind old man whom he recognises as his own father, Old Gobbo. Old Gobbo doesn’t recognise his son and asks him for directions to Shylock’s house. Launcelot, being a comedic character, takes the opportunity to play a cruel trick on his father, saying that he ‘will try


Junior Cycle English 57


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