Context

Ironically, although "William Shakespeare" is by far the better-known name today, we know a great deal more about the life of his fellow Elizabethan dramatist Ben onson! "ur knowledge of his personal life comes mainly from personal con#ersations conducted between the playwright and William $rummond, the %aird of &awthornden, in '('), which $rummond later wrote down! But it also reflects the fact that whereas Shakespeare chose solely to e*press himself through his plays and poems, onson was more of a public figure, prone to dramatic commentary on literature and philosophy, highly personalized poems +as opposed to the mystery of Shakespeare,s sonnet cycle-, as well as hea#y in#ol#ement in the royal entertainments of both .ing ames I and /harles I! In his lifetime, he was more honored than Shakespeare and ser#ed as an ad#isor to young poets until the time of his death on 0ugust '(, '(12, at the age of si*ty- fi#e! $espite this popularity, the facts surrounding onson,s birth remain, for the most part, obscure! Based on e#idence gathered later in his life, historians belie#e his birth date to be une '', '324, a month after his biological father,s death! &is birthplace and the names of his parents remain unknown! What is known is that he grew up in the #illage of /haring /ross, which was then a mile outside the walled /ity of %ondon! /haring was home both to the townhouses of courtiers +nobles who attended at the court of 5ueen Elizabeth- as well as masses of the urban poor, li#ing in close pro*imity! 6hough onson,s family was by no means wealthy, it also was not e*tremely poor, since the man usually identified as onson,s stepfather, 7obert Brett, was a moderately prosperous bricklayer! 0s $a#id 7iggs notes, onson was "surrounded by e*tremes of po#erty and wealth from the earliest years of his life!" 0 "friend," whose name is lost to history, paid for onson to attend Westminster school, one of the elite schools of Elizabethan England, where Elizabeth herself attended the school,s /hristmas play regularly! 0ttending the school greatly widened onson,s social and intellectual horizons, as it was the place where England,s future ruling classes were trained! Its students were either on scholarship for academic ability, or they were sons of the nobility! 0s a result, onson friends in later life would include many lawyers and a good share of nobility! 0t the age of si*teen, he was forced to lea#e the school and tried his hand at soldiering8he 9oined the English forces camped in the :etherlands8before becoming apprenticed to a bricklayer in %ondon! 6he apprenticeship was terminated when onson decided to marry 0nne %ewis! In an era where marriage meant the termination of an apprenticeship and was e*pected of men only when they had achie#ed some sort of economic independence, this was an e*tremely rash mo#e! But it may #ery well be related to another decision onson made in the mid '3);s, which was a decision to de#ote his life to the theater! onson became known as an hilariously bad actor, as well as a #iolent ruffian who once killed a fellow actor without pro#ocation, and it was only when he tried his hand at writing plays instead of performing in them that he began to ha#e success! 6he profession of playwriting hadn,t e*isted at the time of onson,s birth! It was a product of a change in the acti#ity of acting companies< whereas companies had pre#iously toured, beginning in the '32;s and '3=;s they began to station themsel#es in the e#er-growing city of %ondon, fast becoming the most important city in >reat Britain! Since the audience would now consist of repeat customers, a great demand for new plays was created! 0s the theatre grew into an e#er more profitable industry, thanks to more and more %ondoners, demands for more and more entertainment, one began to be able support oneself by writing plays, and playwriting became a profession +though one without a name< "playwright" wasn,t used officially until '(=4, and onson actually used the term as one of abuse-! onson, with a string of popular plays such as Every Man in His Humour +and some unpopular ones, such as Every Man out of His Humour- gradually began to make a name for himself, establishing a reputation as a witty, intellectual playwright, who was less romantic and more cerebral than Shakespeare +by now a personal friend of onson,s-! &e became famous and well respected e#en though he had con#erted to /atholicism during his first time in 9ail +being a /atholic in ?rotestant England at the time was a #ery unpopular thing-! But in '(;3, he was arrested for co-writing a play titled Eastward Ho, which the censors interpreted +probably correctly- as a derogatory statement on the newly crowned .ing ames! 6hat year, he had also separated from his wife! Volpone was written at the end of this e*tremely trying period, in the early months of '(;(! It was one of onson,s biggest hits, and it firmly re- established him as an important literary figure! 0round the same time, he re- united with his wife! With

this wealth of personal and situational information about onson,s life, many scholars ha#e made attempts to interpret the writing of Volpone as a psychological way of resol#ing a fundamental conflict that we know e*isted within him! 6his conflict was between onson,s #iolent past and his fairly conser#ati#e #iew of life and art, which was grounded in his classical education at Westminster! &e idealized the countryside in such poems as To Penshurst and saw much of the city life around him as grasping, brutish, and nasty! &e #iewed his art as being a sort of moral correcti#e to this "publicke riot!" But, as was seen in '(;(, he still had some fairly rough character traits, which were inappopriate for the #oice of classical moderation and reason! So, according to critics such as 7iggs, Volpone ser#es as the repudiation of what @olpone the character symbolizesA onson,s rambunctious, reckless side, which had nearly cost him his marriage, li#elihood, and respectability! 6his interpretation does not tell us e#erything about Volpone, but it may help us understand onson,s seeming delight in portraying his Buick-witted, tricky types, which may ha#e been characters he identified with on an emotional le#el! But intellectually, he identified with /elia and her #alue system! 6he conflict between the two #alue systems8one full of desire and greed and another based on /hristian morality and reason8is central to Volpone and seems to ha#e been a conflict with which onson dealt personally!

Plot Overview
Volpone takes place in se#enteenth-century @enice, o#er the course of one day! 6he play opens at the house of @olpone, a @enetian nobleman! &e and his "parasite" Cosca8part sla#e, part ser#ant, part lackey8enter the shrine where @olpone keeps his gold! @olpone has amassed his fortune, we learn, through dishonest meansA he is a con artist! 0nd we also learn that he likes to use his money e*tra#agantly! Soon, we see @olpone,s latest con in action! Dor the last three years, he has been attracting the interest of three legacy huntersA @oltore, a lawyer< /orbaccio, an old gentleman< and /or#ino, a merchant8indi#iduals interested in inheriting his estate after he dies! @olpone is known to be rich, and he is also known to be childless, ha#e no natural heirs! Durthermore, he is belie#ed to #ery ill, so each of the legacy hunters la#ishes gifts on him, in the hope that @olpone, out of gratitude, will make him his heir! 6he legacy hunters do not know that @olpone is actually in e*cellent health and merely faking illness for the purpose of collecting all those impressi#e "get-well" gifts! In the first act, each legacy hunter arri#es to present a gift to @olpone, e*cept for /orbaccio, who offers only a worthless +and probably poisoned- #ial of medicine! But /orbaccio agrees to return later in the day to make @olpone his heir, so that @olpone will return the fa#or! 6his act is a boon to @olpone, since /orbaccio, in all likelihood, will die long before @olpone does! 0fter each hunter lea#es, @olpone and Cosca laugh at each,s gullibility! 0fter /or#ino,s departure %ady ?olitic Wouldbe, the wife of an English knight li#ing in @enice, arri#es at the house but is told to come back three hours later! 0nd @olpone decides that he will try to get a close look at /or#ino,s wife, /elia, who Cosca describes as one of the most beautiful women in all of Italy! She is kept under lock and key by her husband, who has ten guards on her at all times, but @olpone #ows to use disguise to get around these barriers! 6he second act portrays a time 9ust a short while later that day, and we meet Sir ?olitic Would-be, %ady ?olitic,s husband, who is con#ersing with ?eregrine, an young English tra#eler who has 9ust landed in @enice! Sir ?olitic takes a liking to the young boy and #ows to teach him a thing or two about @enice and @enetians< ?eregrine, too, en9oys the company of Sir ?olitic, but only because he is hilariously gullible and #ain! 6he two are walking in the public sBuare in front of /or#ino,s house and are interrupted by the arri#al of "Scoto Cantua," actually @olpone in diguise as an Italian mountebank, or medicine-show man! Scoto engages in a long and colorful speech, hawking his new "oil", which is touted as a cure-all for disease and suffering! 0t the end of the speech, he asks the crows to toss him their handkerchiefs, and /elia complies! /or#ino arri#es, 9ust as she does this, and flies into a 9ealous rage, scattering the crows in the sBuare! @olpone goes home and complains to Cosca that he is sick with lust for /elia, and Cosca #ows to deli#er her to @olpone! Ceanwhile, /or#ino berates his wife for tossing her handkerchief, since he interprets it as a sign of her unfaithfulness, and he threatens to murder her and her family as a result! &e decrees that, as punishment, she will now no longer be allowed to go to /hurch, she cannot stand near windows +as she did when watching @olpone-, and, most bizarrely, she must do e#erything backwards from now onEshe must e#en walk and speak backwards! Cosca then arri#es, implying to /or#ino that if he lets /elia sleep

with @olpone +as a "restorati#e" for @olpone,s failing health-, then @olpone will choose him as his heir! Suddenly, /or#ino,s 9ealousy disappears, and he consents to the offer! 6he third act begins with a soliloBuy from Cosca, indicating that he is growing increasingly conscious of his power and his independence from @olpone! Cosca then runs into Bonario, /orbaccio,s son, and informs the young man of his father,s plans to disinherit him! &e has Bonario come back to @olpone,s house with him, in order to watch /orbaccio sign the documents +hoping that Bonario might kill /orbaccio then and there out of rage, thus allowing @olpone to gain his inheritance early-! Ceanwhile %ady ?olitic again arri#es at @olpone,s residence, indicating that it is now mid-morning, approaching noon! 6his time, @olpone lets her in, but he soon regrets it, for he is e*asperated by her talkati#eness! Cosca rescues @olpone by telling the %ady that Sir ?olitic has been seen in a gondola with a courtesan +a high-class prostitute-! @olpone then prepares for his seduction of /elia, while Cosca hides Bonario in a corner of the bedroom, in anticipation of /orbaccio,s arri#al! But /elia and /or#ino arri#e first8/elia complains bitterly about being forced to be unfaithful, while /or#ino tells her to be Buiet and do her 9ob! When /elia and @olpone are alone together, @olpone greatly surprises /elia by leaping out of bed! /elia had e*pected and old, infirm man, but what she gets instead is a lothario who attempts to seduce her with a passionate speech! 0lways the good /hristian, /elia refuses @olpone,s ad#ances, at which point @olpone says that he will rape her! But Bonario, who has been witnessing the scene from his hiding place the entire time, rescues /elia! Bonario wounds Cosca on his way out! /orbaccio finally arri#es, too late, as does @oltore! Cosca plots, with @oltore,s assistance, how to get @olpone out of this mess! 0 short while later, in the early afternoon, ?eregrine and Sir ?olitic are still talking! Sir ?olitic gi#es the young tra#eler some ad#ice on li#ing in @enice and describes se#eral schemes he has under consideration for making a great deal of money! 6hey are soon interrupted by %ady ?olitic, who is con#inced that ?eregrine is the prostitute Cosca told her about8 admittedly, in disguise! But Cosca arri#es and tells %ady ?olitic that she is mistaken< the courtesan he referred to is now in front of the Senate +in other words, /elia-! %ady ?olitic belie#es him and ends by gi#ing ?eregrine a seducti#e goodbye with a coy suggestion that they see each other again! ?eregrine is incensed at her beha#ior and #ows re#enge on Sir ?olitic because of it! 6he scene switches to the Scrutineo, the @enetian Senate building, where /elia and Bonario ha#e informed the 9udges of @enice about @olpone,s deceit, @olpone,s attempt to rape /elia, /orbaccio,s disinheritance of his son, and /or#ino,s decision to prostitute his wife! But the defendants make a #ery good case for themsel#es, led by their lawyer, @oltore! @oltore portrays Bonario and /elia as lo#ers, /or#ino as an innocent 9ilted husband, and /orbaccio as a wounded father nearly killed by his e#il son! 6he 9udge are swayed when %ady ?olitic comes in and +set up perfectly by Coscaidentifies /elia as the seducer of her husband Sir ?olitic! Durther, they are con#inced when @olpone enters the courtroom, again acting ill! 6he 9udges order that /elia and Bonario be arrested and separated! In the final act, @olpone returns home tired and worried that he is actually growing ill, for he is now feeling some of the symptoms he has been faking! 6o dispel his fears, he decides to engage in one final prank on the legacy hunters! &e spreads a rumor that he has died and then tells Cosca to pretend that he has been made his master,s heir! 6he plan goes off perfectly, and all three legacy hunters are fooled! @olpone then disguises himself as a @enetian guard, so that he can gloat in each legacy hunter,s face o#er their humiliation, without being recognized! But Cosca lets the audience know that @olpone is dead in the eyes of the world and that Cosca will not let him "return to the world of the li#ing" unless @olpone pays up, gi#ing Cosca a share of his wealth! Ceanwhile, ?eregrine is in disguise himself, playing his own prank on Sir ?olitic! ?eregrine presents himself as a merchant to the knight and informs ?olitic that word has gotten out of his plan to sell @enice to the 6urks! ?olitic, who once mentioned the idea in 9est, is terrified! When three merchants who are in collusion with ?eregrine knock on the door, ?olitic 9umps into a tortoise-shell wine case to sa#e himself! ?eregrine informs the merchants when they enter that he is looking at a #aluable tortoise! 6he merchants decide to 9ump on the tortoise and demand that it crawls along the floor! 6hey remark loudly upon its leg-garters and fine hand-glo#es, before turning it o#er to re#eal Sir ?olitic! ?eregrine and the merchants go off, laughing at their prank, and Sir ?olitic moans about how much he agrees with his wife,s desire to lea#e @enice and go back to England! Ceanwhile, @olpone gloats in front of each legacy hunter, deriding them for ha#ing lost @olpone,s inheritance to a parasite such as Cosca, and he successfully a#oids recognition! But his plan backfires nonetheless! @oltore, dri#en to such a state of distraction by @olpone,s teasing, decides to recant his testimony in front of the Senate, implicating both himself but more

importantly Cosca as a criminal! /or#ino accuses him of being a sore loser, upset that Cosca has inherited @olpone,s estate upon his death, and the news of this death surprises the Senators greatly! @olpone nearly reco#ers from his blunder by telling @oltore, in the middle of the Senate proceeding, that "@olpone" is still ali#e! Cosca pretends to faint and claims to the Senate that he does not know where he is, how he got there, and that he must ha#e been possessed by a demon during the last few minutes when he was speaking to them! &e also informs the Senators that @olpone is not dead, contradicting /or#ino! 0ll seems good for @olpone until Cosca returns, and, instead of confirming @oltore,s claim that @olpone is ali#e, Cosca denies it! Cosca, after all, has a will, written by @olpone and in his signaure, stating that he is @olpone,s heir! now that @olpone is belie#ed to be dead, Cosca legally owns @olpone,s property, and Cosca tells @olpone that he is not going to gi#e it back by telling the truth! 7ealizing that he has been betrayed, @olpone decides that rather than let Cosca inherit his wealth, he will turn them both in! @olpone takes off his disguise and finally re#eals the truth about the e#ents of the past day! @olpone ends up being sent to prison, while Cosca is consigned to a sla#e galley! @oltore is disbarred, /orbaccio is stripped of his property +which is gi#en to his son Bonario-, and /or#ino is publicly humiliated, forced to wear donkey,s ears while being rowed around the canals of @enice! 0t the end, there is a small note from the playwright to the audience, simply asking them to applaud if they en9oyed the play they 9ust saw!

Character List
Volpone - 6he protagonist of the play! @olpone,s name means "6he Do*" in Italian! &e is lustful, lecherous, and greedy for pleasure! &e is also energetic and has an unusual gift for rhetoric, mi*ing the sacred and the profane to enunciate a passionate commitment to self-gratification! &e worships his money, all of which he has acBuired through cons, such as the one he now plays on @oltore, /orbaccio, and /or#ino! @olpone has no children, but he has something of a familyA his parasite, Cosca, his dwarf, :ano, his eunuch, /astrone, and his hermaphrodite, 0ndrogyno! Cosca is his only true confidante, and he begins to lust fe#erishly after /elia upon first setting eyes on her! Mosca - Cosca is @olpone,s parasite, a combination of his sla#e, his ser#ant, his lackey, and his surrogate child! 6hough initially +and for most of the play- he beha#es in a ser#ile manner towards @olpone, Cosca conceals a growing independence he gains as a result of the incredible resourcefulness he shows in aiding and abetting @olpone,s confidence game! Cosca,s growing confidence, and awareness that the others in the play are 9ust as much "parasites" as he8in that they too would rather li#e off the wealth of others than do honest work8e#entually bring him into conflict with @olpone, a conflict that destroys them both! Celia - 6he #oice of goodness and religiosity in the play, /elia is the wife of /or#ino, who is e*tremely beautiful, enough to dri#e both @olpone and /or#ino to distraction! She is absolutely committed to her husband, e#en though he treats her horribly, and has a faith in >od and sense of honor, traits which seem to be lacking in both /or#ino and @olpone! 6hese traits guide her toward self- restraint and self-denial! &er self-restraint makes her a foil for @olpone, who suffers a complete absence of that Buality! Voltore - "ne of the three legacy hunters or carrion-birds8the legacy hunters continually circle around @olpone, gi#ing him gifts in the hope that he will choose them as his heir! @oltore is a lawyer by profession, and, as a result, he is adept in the use of words and, by implication, adept in deceit, something he pro#es during the course of the play! &e is also something of a social climber, conscious of his position in his society and resentful at being o#ertaken by others on the way up! Corvino - 0n e*tremely #icious and dishonorable character, /or#ino is /elia,s 9ealous husband! &e freBuently threatens to do disgusting acts of physical #iolence to her and her family in order to gain control o#er her! Fet he is more concerned with financial gain than with her faithfulness, seeing her, in essence, as a piece of property! /or#ino is another one of the "carrionbirds" circling @olpone! Corbaccio - 6he third "carrion-bird" circling @olpone, /orbaccio is actually e*tremely old and ill himself and is much more likely to die before @olpone e#en has a chance to beBueath him his wealth! &e has a hearing problem and betrays no sign of concern for @olpone, delighting openly in +fake- reports of @olpone,s worsening symptoms! Bonario - 6he son of /orbaccio! Bonario is an upright youth who remains loyal to his father e#en when his father per9ures against him in court! &e heroically rescues /elia from @olpone and represents bra#ery and honor, Bualities which the other characters seem to lack!

Sir Politic Would-be - 0n English knight who resides in @enice! Sir ?olitic represents the danger of moral corruption that English tra#elers face when they go abroad to the continent, especially to Italy! &e occupies the central role in the subplot, which centers on the relationship between himself and ?eregrine, another English tra#eler much less gullible than the good knight! Sir ?olitic is also imaginati#e, coming up with ideas for moneymaking schemes such as using onions to detect the plague, as well as the idea of making a detailed note of e#ery single action he performs in his diary, including his urinations! Lady Politic Would-be - 6he %ady ?olitic Would-be is portrayed as a would-be courtesan! She was the impetus for the Would-bes mo#e to @enice, because of her desire to learn the ways of the sophisticated @enetians! She is #ery well read and #ery inclined to let anyone know this, or anything else about her! She is e*tremely #ain! Peregrine - ?eregrine is a young English tra#eler who meets and befriends Sir ?olitic Would- be upon arri#ing in @enice! ?eregrine is amused by the gullible Would-be, but is also easily offended, as demonstrated by his ad#erse reaction to %ady ?olitic Would-be,s suggesti#e comments! ano - :ano, as his named in Italian indicates +" nano" means "dwarf"-, is a dwarf! &e is also @olpone,s fool, or 9ester, keeping @olpone amused with songs and 9okes written by Cosca! Castrone - 6he only notable fact about /astrone is that his name means eunuch +" castrone" means "eunuch" in Italian-! 6here is not much else to say about /astrone, as he has no speaking lines whatsoe#er! !ndrogyno - "Androgyno" means "hermaphrodite" in Italian, and as in the case of :ano and /astrone, the name rings true! 0ndrogyno apparently possesses the soul of ?ythagoras, according to :ano, which has been in gradual decline e#er since it left the ancient mathematician,s body!

!nalysis o" Ma#or Characters

Volpone 6he play,s title character is its protagonist, though an inconsistent one &e disappears in 0ct I@, seemingly replaced by Cosca, and is first an instrument and then a #ictim of onson,s satire of money-obsessed society! &e is an instrument of it because it is through his ingenuity and cle#erness that @oltore, /orbaccio, and /or#ino are duped and he seems to share in onson,s satiric interpretation of the e#ents, obser#ing in I!# "What a rare punishment G Is a#arice to itself!" But the satire e#entually turns back on him, when he becomes a #ictim of Cosca,s "Do*-trap!" 6he reason he is ensnared by Cosca is that he cannot resist one final gloat at his dupes, obli#ious to the fact that in doing so, he hands o#er his entire estate to Cosca! 6his lack of rational forethought and commitment to his own sensual impulses, is characteristic of @olpone! &e en9oys entertainment, banBuets, feasts, and lo#e- making! &e hates ha#ing to make money through honest labour or cold, heartless banking, but he lo#es making it in cle#er, deceitful ways, especially as a means toward food and lo#emaking! &e is a creature of passion, an imaginati#e hedonist continually looking to find and attain new forms of pleasure, whate#er the conseBuences may be! 6his dynamic in his character shapes our reaction to him throughout the play! 0t times, this hedonism seems fun, engaging, entertaining, and e#en morally #aluable, such as when he is engaged in the con on his fortune hunters! But his attempted seduction of /elia re#eals a darker side to his hedonism when it becomes an attempted rape! 6he incident makes him, in the moral uni#erse of the play, a worthy target for satire, which is what he becomes in 0ct @, when because of his lack of restraint he ends up on his way to prison, the most unpleasurable situation imaginable! Mosca In a play that re#ol#es around disguises, Cosca is the ultimate master of disguise! &e is the person who continually e*ecutes @olpone,s ideas and the one who comes up with the necessary lie whene#er needed! 6he lie could be made in order to sa#e @olpone from the charges laid against him by Bonario and /elia or to con#ince /or#ino to let his wife sleep with the Do*8 either way Cosca seems to ha#e no scruples about deceit! But his most important deception is the one he effects on @olpone and the audience, hiding his true nature and intentions from both the Do* and us! In the opening acts, Cosca appears to be e*actly what he is described asA a clinging, ser#ile parasite, who only e*ists for @olpone and through @olpone! In other words, he e*ists to ser#e @olpone, and all that @olpone wants he wants! 6his impression is reinforced by se#eral cringing speeches that he gi#es, all in praise of @olpone! But in 0ct 6hree, we ha#e the beginning of what seems an assertion of self-identity by Cosca, when he begins to grow confident in his abilities! But then this confidence again is left un#oiced, and Cosca seems to

go back to being @olpone,s faithful ser#ant, helping him get out of the troublesome situation with Bonario and /elia! But it turns out that Cosca,s aid in this situation may ha#e been moti#ated as much by personal interest as it was by a desire to aid @olpone, for when he is presented with an opportunity to seize @olpone,s wealth, he takes it! Cosca himself is possessed by greed, and he attempts to mo#e out of his role as parasite8a harmless fly, circling around a great beast8to the role of great beast himself! But his attempt fails, as @olpone e*poses them both! 0n interesting Buestion is what significance his failure has in the conte*t of the play and whether it is 9ust punishment for his greed, his deceit, or his attempt to usurp the powers and pri#ileges of the nobility and mo#e abo#e his social class! Celia While @olpone says "yes" to e#ery single pleasure he can find8and pursues those pleasures #igorously8/elia is defined by her self-denial! 6his makes her a perfect foil for @olpone, since her self-restraint e*poses his complete lack thereof, no more clearly than in @olpone,s attempted seduction of her! 6he turning point of the play comes when she says "no" to @olpone,s ad#ances, thus denying him the lasci#ious pleasures he describes in his seduction speech! /elia seems willing to do anything to a#oid dishonor, and this makes her character flat and predictable, too ready to sacrifice herself to be belie#able! &er willingness to sub9ect herself to /or#ino,s harsh dictates and abuse may make her seem more weak than strong! But she has an inner moral sense, +e#en if it is dictated by se#enteenth-century con#entions on femininity- indicated by the fact that she refuses @olpone against her husband,s e*press wishes! 6he fact that onson sides with her can be seen in his decision to put one of the strongest statements of the play,s thesis in her mouthA "Whither, whither G Is shame fled human breastsH Is that, which e#er was a cause for life , G:ow placed beneath the basest circumstanceH G 0nd modesty an e*ile made, for moneyH" onson again chooses a name with symbolic meaning for /eliaA it deri#es from the %atin word caelum, meaning "sky" or "hea#en"! Voltore @oltore is, like all the legacy hunters, named after a carrion-bird! In the case of @oltore, that bird is the #ulture< for /or#ino, it is the crow, and for /orbaccio, the ra#en! @oltore is the most pleasant of all the legacy hunters, for he is the least crass and the least obsessed with seeing @olpone die! &is preferential status shows in Cosca,s special regard for himA Cosca tries to make sure that @oltore gets enough payment for his ser#ices at the Scrutineo in 0ct I@! But @oltore comes to regret his actions at the Scrutineo! "f course, this regret only comes after he has been denied his inheritance, and it seems to stem directly from his resentment at Cosca,s leapfrogging o#er him on the social ladder! 0nd when @olpone whispers to him that he might still get his inheritance, he stops confessing his lies to the Scrutineo and pretends that he was "possessed" by an e#il demon! 6he #erbal irony is that @oltore, in that statement and action, re#eals his greed!

$he%es& Moti"s& and Sy%bols

$he%es Greed Volpone,s satire is directed against "a#arice," which can be thought of as greed that e*tends not 9ust to money but also to all ob9ects of human desire! 6he play,s main thesis is stated by @olpone himself, "What a rare punishment G Is a#arice to itself!" 6he punishment8and the central irony of the play8is that while greed dri#es the search for money, power, and respect, it ends up making e#eryone in the play look foolish, contemptible, and poorer, both spiritually and financially! 0 similar idea is stated by both /elia, when she asks in III!#ii, "Whither IwhereJ is shame fled human breastsH" and by the 9udge at the end of the play in his plea that the audience should "learn" from the play what happens to those who succumb to greed, emphasizing that the play,s stance on greed is a didactic one, intended to teach the audience what greed,s real conseBuences are! @olpone himself starts out as an instrument of this lesson8he dupes the /or#ino, /orbaccio and @oltore into parting with their goods in the hope of inheriting his8but ends up an ob9ect of the lesson as well, for succumbing to his greedy want for sensual pleasure! The Power of Stagecraft 6here is a dichotomy in the play, ne#er entirely resol#ed, between the de#ices of stagecraft and the con#eyance of moral truth! In other words, there is a tension between the play itself +a play which, onson hopes, will be of moral #alue to those

who see it- and what goes on in the play, in which the de#ices of stagecraft that are in#ol#ed in the play,s actual production are a source of deceit, confusion, and moral corruption! In other words, @olpone does not merely lie, nor he does not merely decei#e< he makes an entire production out of his game, using a special eye ointment to simulate an eye infection, creating a character +the sick @olpone- using wardrobe, make-up, and props! &e too seems to share the intention to e*pose moral folly, with the playwright, onson< but this is in the end seen to be another illusion! %ikewise, Cosca and @oltore put on a production to con#ince the 9udges of their innocence! 6hey use rhetoric and poetry to tell a story, complete with a shocking "surprise witness" and the graphic use of imagery +the appearance of "impotent" @olpone-! 6he play thus e*poses us to many different forms of theatrical illusion as methods of lying, perhaps in the hope of allowing us to better discern which forms of theater are sensationalistic, unhelpful, and inaccurate in their portrayal of reality! Parasitism "E#eryone,s a parasite" to paraphrase Cosca +III!i-, and o#er the course of the play he is pro#ed right, in the sense that e#eryone tries to li#e off of the wealth or li#elihood of others, without doing any "honest toil" of their own! /or#ino, /orbaccio and @oltore all try to inherit a fortune from a dying man< and @olpone himself has built his fortune on cons such as the one he is playing now! ?arasitism, thus portrayed, is not a form of laziness or desperation, but a form of superiority! 6he parasite li#es by his wits, and feeds off of others, by skillfully manipulating their credulity and goodwill! Moti"s The Sacred and the Profane @olpone, both in his initial speech in 0ct I and in his seduction speech of 0ct III, mi*es religious language and profane sub9ect matter to a startling poetic effect! In 0ct I the sub9ect of his worship is money< in 0ct III it is /elia, or perhaps her body, that inspires prayer-like language! 0s a foil against this, /elia pleads for a distinction to be restored between the "base" and the "noble," +in other words, between the profane8that which is firmly rooted in our animal natures, and the sacred8that which is di#ine about humans! 6hrough their respecti#e fates, the play seems to endorse /elia,s position, though onson in#ests @olpone,s speeches with a great deal of poetic energy and rhetorical ornamentation that make his position attracti#e and rich, which is again, another source of tension in the play! Disguise, Deception, and Truth onson creates a comple* relationship among disguise, deception, and truth in the play! $isguise sometimes ser#es simply to conceal, as it does when ?eregrine dupes Sir ?olitic Would-be! But sometimes it re#eals inner truths that a person,s normal attire may conceal! @olpone, for e*ample, publicly re#eals more of his "true self" +his #ital, healthy self- when he dresses as Scoto Cantua< and Scoto,s speeches seem to be filled with authorial comment from onson himself! Durthermore, disguise is seen to e*ert a certain force and power all of its own< by assuming one, people run the risk of changing their identity, of being unable to escape the disguise! 6his is certainly the case for Cosca and @olpone in 0ct @, whose "disguised" identities almost supersede their actual ones! "Gulling" >ulling means "making someone into a fool!" 6he Buestion that the play teaches us to ask is who is being made a fool by whomH! @olpone plays sick to make the legacy-hunters fools, but Cosca plays the "Dool" +the harmless assistant and entertainer- in order to make @olpone into a fool! 6o make someone else into a fool is both the primary method characters ha#e for asserting power o#er one another and the primary way onson brings across his moral messageA the characters in the play who are made into fools8/orbaccio, /or#ino, @oltore, @olpone8are the characters whose morality we are supposed to criticize! Sy%bols Venice 0s the seat of greed, corruption, and decadence, at least according to the pre#ailing pre9udices, @enice was the beneficiary of years of stereotype in English drama! Italians in general were seen as sensuous, decadent beings, thanks to their

e*tremely sophisticated culture, history of Cachia#ellian politicians +%orenzo de Cedici, /esare Borgia, Cachia#elli himselfand beautiful +and often erotic- lo#e poetry! 6hough not things considered particularly awful today, this type of decadence made English people wary of being infected with immorality, and @enetians were seen as the worst of the bunch! 6he direct influence of the "power of @enice" to corrupt can best be seen in the Sir ?olitic Would-be subplot, where the English knight Sir ?olitic "goes @enetian" and becomes a lying would-be thief! But the @enetian setting probably made the story more belie#able for most English audiences, signifying the fascination of the play with disguise and deceit, though also, perhaps against onson,s intentions, distancing them from the play,s moral message, by placing the greed in a historic far away place traditionally associated with greed, instead of right in the heart of %ondon! Animalia 6here is a "fable" running throughout the play, through the associations the characters, names create with animals! It is #ery simple and tells the tale of a cunning "Do*" + Volpone in Italian-, circled by a mischie#ous "Dly" + Mosca in Italian-, who helps the Do* trick se#eral carrion-birds8a #ulture +Voltore-, a crow +Corvino- and a ra#en +Corbaccio- into losing their feathers +their wealth-! 6he animal imagery emphasizes the theme of "parasitism" in the play, where one life form feeds off of another! 0nd it should also be remembered that fables are tales with simple moral messages, told for a didactic purpose! 6hough much more comple*, Volpone, at its heart shares the same purpose, making the use of "fable-like" symbolism appropriate and helpful in understanding the meaning of the play!

'ey (acts
()LL $*$L+ K Volpone, or the o!" A Comedy !)$,O- K Ben onson $.P+ O( WO-' K ?lay /+ -+ K /omedy +with tragic undertonesL! /)!/+ K English

K Debruary and Carch '(;(< %ondon, England K '(;2, in Buarto form P)BL*S,+- K William Stansby !--!$O- K 6he play has no narrator CL*M!1 K 0ct @, scene *ii, when @olpone re#eals himself to the 0#ocatori P-O$!/O *S$ K @olpone +though he disappears in 0ct I@S+$$* / 2$*M+3 K 6he time of the play,s writing, '(;( S+$$* / 2PL!C+3 K @enice, Italy PO* $ O( V*+W K :o narrator, no point of #iew (!LL* / !C$*O K Scene @!*iiA the 9udges sentence @olpone, /or#ino, /orbaccio, and @oltore to #arious punishments! (O-+S,!0OW* / K Cosca,s soliloBuy in III!i $O + K Satirical, ironic in the main plot< in the subplot, #arying between satirical and farcical $,+M+S K >reed< the power of stagecraft< parasitism MO$*(S K $isguise, deception and reality< "gulling"< the sacred and the profane S.MBOLS K @enice< animalia
$*M+ ! 0 PL!C+ W-*$$+ 0!$+ O( (*-S$ P)BL*C!$*O