Page 1908 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1
P. 1908
Exeunt.
Scene III IT
Enter Launce [with his dog Crab].
LAUNCE
Nay, ’twill be this hour ere I have done weeping; all the kind of the
Launces have this very fault. I have received my proportion, like the
prodigious son, and am going with Sir Proteus to the Imperial’s court. I
think Crab my dog be the sourest-natured dog that lives. My [5] mother
weeping, my father wailing, my sister crying, our maid howling, our cat
wringing her hands, and all our house in a great perplexity; yet did not this
cruel-hearted cur shed one tear. He is a stone, a very pebblestone, and has
no more pity in him than a dog. A Jew would [10] have wept to have seen
our parting. Why, my grandam, having no eyes, look you, wept herself
blind at my parting. Nay, I’ll show you the manner of it. This shoe is my
father. No, this left shoe is my father. No, no, this left shoe is my mother.
Nay, that cannot be so neither. Yes, it [15] is so, it is so; it hath the worser
sole. This shoe with the hole in it is my mother, and this my father. A
vengeance on’t, there ’tis. Now, sir, this staff is my sister; for, look you, she
is as white as a lily, and as small as a wand. This hat is Nan our maid. I am
the dog. No, the dog is himself, [20] and I am the dog. O, the dog is me,
and I am myself. Ay, so, so. Now come I to my father: “Father, your
blessing”. Now should not the shoe speak a word for weeping. Now should
I kiss my father; well, he weeps on. Now come I to my mother. O, that she
could speak [25] now like an old woman! Well, I kiss her. Why, there ’tis;
here’s my mother’s breath up and down. Now come I to my sister. Mark the
moan she makes. Now the dog all this while sheds not a tear, nor speaks a
word; but see how I lay the dust with my tears. [30]
[Enter Panthino]
PANT HINO
Launce, away, away! Aboard! Thy master is shipped, and thou art to post
after with oars. What’s the matter? Why weepest thou, man? Away, ass,
you’ll lose the tide, if you tarry any longer.
LAUNCE
It is no matter if the tied were lost, for it is the [35] unkindest tied that
