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[to Launcelet] Take leave of thy old master; then make way
Unto my house. [To one of his men] Give him a uniform° {livery}
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More fancy° than his fellows.° See it done. / braided / trimmed // the others
—Launcelet
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Father, let’s go.° I cannot get a service job +on my own,?—I have ne’er a tongue in my head!
[Looking at his palm] Well, if any man in Italy have a fairer palm, which he may° offer to swear
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upon the Book, I shall have good fortune. [Looking more closely at the lines] What —here’s a
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simple line of life—and it tells of° a small trifle of wives—alas, fifteen in the least.° A dozen 63
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widows and nine maids is a simple income—or coming-in—for one man. And here it says I
will ‘scape from drowning thrice and elude the peril of a sword—belonging to a man who
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catches me on the edge of a featherbed with his wife. Well, if Fortune be a woman, she’s a
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good wench for this task. Father, come, I’ll take my leave of the Jew before I take a tinkle.

59. {Give him a livery | More guarded than his fellows.}
guarded: ornamented with braid or trim; fancy, trimmed, ornamental. Why Launcelet gets a uniform ‘more
guarded than his fellows’’ is not clear. Launcelet’s fancy uniform finds likeness to the gold casket which is the most
ornamental in show yet which contains the least inside. The ornamental garment also brings to mind the image of a
‘yellow-guarded coat’ which might be worn by a fool or a jester. We must, however, assume Bassanio’s motives are
generous, and welcoming, and have nothing to do with accentuating Lancelet’s fool-heartedness.
60. / I cannot speak for myself?
This line is delivered with sarcasm. Launcelet is realizing (in a moment of clarity) that he is a fool, and cannot
even get a service job for himself (without the help of his father). This is soon remedied when Launcelet takes to
reading his own palm, and ‘discovers’ that rather than having a simple life (as expected) he is going to be a grand
personage, with 15 wives! In his reading he reinterprets the word simple, imparting it with a new and grandiose
meaning. (A simple man would ordinarily have one wife, but simple, in Launcelet’s new definition of the terms,
means he is going to have a great number of wives).
61. {Go to}: a) a slight expression of disbelief and surprise: come on, what’s this (unexpected thing I see); b) a slight
curse, such as: damn, to hell, go to hell. Launcelet, looking at his palm, could a) be pleasantly surprised about his
good fortune and all the wives and adventure he is going to have, or b) be taken aback and cursing his discovery of a
simple lifeline—which he then refutes. [See Additional Notes, 2.2.153]
Shylock uses the same phrase, in 1.3.112 [Well, now it appears you need my help— | Go to, then].
62. / And in regards to that small matter of wives, [looking down again]—alas, here it says fifteen wives in the very
least.
63. {a leven}: The two-word term suggests the analogy of ‘a dozen’ (or ‘an even dozen’) though most editions
supplant the term with ‘eleven.’ Some editions retain the spelling ‘aleven’ which seems to imply ‘eleven.’
64. {is a simple coming-in}: implies income, perhaps from dowries, but also has the sexual innuendo of entering into
(coming-in) a woman.
65. {and to be in peril of my life with the edge of a feather-bed—here are simple scapes}
the edge of a feather-bed: this implies that he is coming out of a soft-bed with another man’s wife (which puts
his life in peril). This is humorous mix-up of the phrase, ‘the edge of a sword’ becomes ‘edge of a feather-bed.”
66. {I’ll take my leave of the Jew in the twinkling.}
in the twinkling: immediately, without delay, in the blink of an eye, in ‘the twinkling of an eye.’ This line,
along with a few others in the scene [including 24-5, and 108] are amiss in terms of content and tonality—and may
have been later-made additions. This line could be left as is (in its incomplete form), emended (‘in the twinkling of
an eye’), or rectified—preserving the intent of the line, which is that Launcelet intends to take leave of the Jew
without delay.
In this rendering, the term tinkle is used only because is sounds like twinkle. The absurd image used in this
rendering echos (or rather mocks) the hero’s cry, who, having an urgent task to perform, tells his lady that he will not
sleep until the task is accomplished (and he returns). This is the pledge Bassanio makes to Portia right before be
takes his leave from Belmont [3.2.321-24]. Here Launcelet is claiming that he will not urinate until his task is
accomplished. As part of a comic staging, Launcelet could look very restless, needing to go real bad, and hence in a
great hurry to take leave of the Jew and relieve himself.
before I take a tinkle: / before I relieve myself / before I take my tinkling / before I take a piss.
67. let’s go: {in} he may: {doth} palm: {table} and it tells of: {here’s} in the least: {is nothing}
task: {gear} / work / stuff / business / matter