Page 172 - William_Shakespeare_-_The_Merchant_of_Venice_191

—Lorenzo Who calls?

—Launcelet Da-doo! Did you see Master Lorenzo? [calling] Master Lorenzo! Da-doo, Da-
doo! 16

—Lorenzo Leave° hollering° man: I am here! 17 /Stop {halloaing}

18 19
—Launcelet Where? Where?
—Lorenzo Here!

—Launcelet
Tell him there’s a messenger° come from my master, with his mouth° full of good news. My
master will be here before the morning. 20 messenger: {post} mouth: {horn}

Exit

—Lorenzo
Sweet soul, let’s in° and there await° their coming. {expect}
And yet no matter—why should we go in?
My friend Stephano, please announce,° I pray you, {signify}/ please tell them
Within the house, their mistress is at hand,° / soon approaches / is nearby

may be that Launcelet is parodying a tucket, which is a distinct trumpet signature played to announce the arrival of
royalty or a very important person. Indeed, later in the scene we find Bassanio—who is hardly royalty—being
announced with a tucket [5.1.122] and perhaps Launcelet, knowing about Bassanio’s newfangled tucket (which may
be see as a pretentious self-assignment of status), is here mocking it (and all like him) with his own, self-styled
tucket. It could also be that he is using this new tucket to mockingly announce Lorenzo, who is temporarily acting in
stead of Bassanio, as master of the house.
In this rectification, Launcelet mouths a more familiar tone, which most people would recognize as a
trumpet melody which announces someone’s arrival. More effective than mouthing the entry found in the original
(sola!) or in this rectification (da-doo!) would be for Launcelet to form a mouthpiece with his fingers and actually
blow out the sound of a mock trumpet—playing ‘da-doo’ and speaking ‘wa ha ho.’
16. {Sola, did you see M. Lorenzo, & M. Lorenzo sola, sola}— Q1
Most editions treat the ampersand as a misprint for question mark, which is suspect—since there is also a
comma—but a justifiable reading since this line is in the form of a question. ‘M.’ is also an abbreviation for Master
(or Mistress) and most editions fill out the ‘M. Lorenzo’ to read ‘Master Lorenzo.’
Various forms of punctuation are: ‘Sola! Did you see Master Lorenzo? Master Lorenzo, sola, sola.’
(Oxford, Cambridge, Arden, Folger); ‘Sola! Did you see Master Lorenzo? [Calls.] Master Lorenzo! Sola! Sola!’
(Arden); ‘Sola! Did you see Master Lorenzo and Mistress Lorenzo? Sola, sola!’ (Norton, Signet)
17. {Leave hollowing man, here.}
hollering (Oxford, Applause); holloaing (Cambridge, Kittredge Norton, Pelican, Signet); holloing
(Bevington)
leave hollowing: a) leave hollering—stop hollering, b) leave halloaing—stop making hunting calls
18. {Sola! Where, where?}
In the previous line, a second iamb was added (instead of ‘here’ it reads, ‘here I am’); thus, in this line, one
iamb has been removed 45(‘sola’) to preserve the meter.
19. Launcelet continues with his mocking: he clearly knows the whereabouts of Lorenzo but continues to ignore
him. This could be a metaphor for Lorenzo’s low status and wealth (which no one can see). Launcelet’s mockery
continues in the next line when he is delivering a message to Lorenzo yet referring to him in the third person, as
though he were not there: Tell him there’s a post come from my master.
20. Q1 reads, {My master will be here ere morning, sweet soul.} Most editions transpose the last iamb (‘sweet
soul’) which is decidedly out of place here, to Lorenzo’s next line, which not only fits the context, but completes the
meter.