Launce: The Dog Owner Who Steals the Show
First appears: Act 2, Scene 3
Launce is Proteus's servant, and his scenes with his dog Crab are the play's most famous. In Act 2 he delivers a long speech about leaving home, in which his family are devastated and his dog shows no emotion whatsoever. He cannot work out whether to be impressed or offended by this.
Crab the dog (almost certainly played by a real dog, trained or otherwise) is the straight man to his owner's exasperation. In Act 4 Launce reports that Crab urinated under the Duke's table at dinner and Launce took the punishment for him.
He is the play's most beloved character in performance, despite having almost nothing to do with the main plot.
Key Scenes
Famous Quotes
“When a man's servant shall play the cur with him, look you, it goes hard.”
Launce — Act 4, Scene 4
“Nay, 'twill be this hour ere I have done weeping; all the kind of the Launces have this very fault.”
Launce — Act 2, Scene 3
Themes
Other Characters in The Two Gentlemen of Verona
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