Volpone

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1606

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Summary

Background

Act Summaries & Analyses

The Epistle-Act I

Act II

Act III

Act IV

Act V

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Act IIIChapter Summaries & Analyses

Act III, Scene 1 Summary

After leaving Corvino’s house, Mosca delivers a soliloquy, taking pride in his talent for deception. He believes everyone is a parasite, but some, like him, are better at the role than others. Unlike those who use flattery just to find a meal, his skill is like an art form that lets him adapt to any scenario. His talent for being a parasite is innate, but practicing only makes him better.

Act III, Scene 2 Summary

Mosca meets Bonario, Corbaccio’s son. Bonario greets Mosca with disdain. Mosca defends himself, asserting that Bonario’s hostility is unfair toward someone so poor. He weeps and lies that he doesn’t revel in being deceptive. Bonario believes Mosca’s passion and apologizes. Mosca reveals that Corbaccio is about to disinherit Bonario, but Bonario is skeptical. Mosca persuades him to follow to Volpone’s house where Bonario will overhear the deed being done. If it turns out not to be true, Bonario can kill Mosca for his fault.

Act III, Scene 3 Summary

Back at his house, Volpone anxiously waits for Mosca to bring Celia. He asks his fools to entertain him to keep his mind preoccupied. Nano, Androgino, and Castrone begin the amusement of debating who is Volpone’s favorite fool. Lady Would-Be knocks at the door, cutting the entertainment short. The interruption upsets Volpone, and he worries that Lady Would-Be’s visit will sour Celia’s arrival. Volpone puts on his sickly disguise and sends the fools away.

Act III, Scene 4 Summary

Nano brings Lady Would-Be into the house. Lady Would-Be checks her appearance and, unsatisfied with her hair, calls for her ladies to fix it. Lady Would-Be berates her servants for not styling her properly. After all her instruction in fashion and manners, she is angry the ladies would let her look so unkempt.

Lady Would-Be sends the women away and approaches Volpone. Volpone slyly mocks her and reports on a troubling dream he had about a storm destroying his house. Not catching his meaning, Lady Would-Be describes a dream of her own, and Volpone curses himself for introducing the topic. He complains about his symptoms, and Lady Would-Be launches into a recipe for a tincture. To himself, Volpone jokes that her endless chattering will cause him to come down with a real illness.

Lady Would-Be discusses her belief that women should be as educated as men, although she holds fashion as a woman’s chief concern. Volpone quips that poets think a woman’s greatest virtue is silence. Prompted by the new topic, Lady Would-Be lists all the poets she has read from across Europe. Volpone tries to stay silent to dissuade further discussion. Lady Would-Be compares Volpone to an acquaintance who she would help to fall asleep through talking, and she promises to do the same for Volpone. Volpone silently cries out for help.

Act III, Scene 5 Summary

Mosca enters the room, and Volpone pleads with him to make Lady Would-Be go away. He doesn’t care if Lady Would-Be brought him a gift; her exit would be the best gift of all. Mosca fabricates a story that Sir Politic is out with a sex worker, and he entreats the lady to see for herself. Taking the bait, Lady Would-Be leaves. Mosca updates Volpone about the scheme, reporting that everything is going according to plan. Volpone feels reinvigorated at the thought of continuing his scam.

Act III, Scene 6 Summary

Mosca secretly brings Bonario into Volpone’s house and conceals him so he can overhear his father disinheriting him. Someone knocks, and Mosca believes it is Corbaccio, so he leaves Bonario alone.

Act III, Scene 7 Summary

To Mosca’s surprise, Corvino enters with Celia. Mosca repositions Bonario so he won’t see this part of the scheme. In the meantime, Corvino reveals to Celia the true intention of their visit and her job to sleep with Volpone. Celia thinks Corvino is still trying to test her faithfulness and wishes he would lock her in their house instead. Corvino assures her that the act is a kind of charity, but Celia believes God will see her infidelity as a sin.

Mosca enthusiastically presents Corvino and Celia to Volpone. Volpone thanks Corvino, but he lies that he is too frail for action. Corvino insists Volpone can still be cured, and he drags the resisting Celia forward. Corvino threatens Celia with violence for her disobedience and tries to bribe her with the promise of riches. Celia, however, stands firm. Mosca suggests that Celia is embarrassed to sleep with Volpone while Corvino watches, so the two men exit, leaving Celia alone with Volpone.

Volpone jumps up and discards his sickly disguise. He mocks Corvino and declares his own true love for Celia. He assures Celia she needn’t worry about his illness—all was fake, and he is as lusty as ever. Volpone launches into a song about how they should make the most of their short time together. Celia cries out in shock. Changing tactics, Volpone unveils his gold and tries to entice Celia. Celia again rejects these proposals. She begs Volpone to disfigure her, since her beauty is causing so much dishonor. Frustrated, Volpone tries to force himself on Celia. Bonario leaps out of his hiding place—having returned during Volpone’s speeches—and stops him. Bonario takes Celia away, and Volpone curses his foiled plan.

Act III, Scene 8 Summary

Mosca re-enters, now bleeding from a wound Bonario inflicted on him. Volpone whines that everything is Mosca’s fault, and Mosca offers to make things better. Someone knocks, and Volpone fears it is officers sent to arrest him. Mosca sees that the visitor is Corbaccio, and Volpone returns to his disguise.

Act III, Scene 9 Summary

Corbaccio greets Mosca, noting his bleeding wound. Mosca lies that Bonario learned of his disinheritance, arrived to Volpone’s house in a violent fury, and swore he would kill his father. Corbaccio believes him and affirms that he is right to disinherit the boy. Corbaccio asks about Volpone’s health and is displeased with his apparent recovery. Mosca refuses Corbaccio’s suggestion to poison his master.

Meanwhile. Voltore enters unseen and overhears Mosca’s promises to Corbaccio. Voltore calls Mosca out on his double-crossing, but Mosca quickly spins a new tale. He reveals that the plan involving Corbaccio’s will was meant to secure a doubled fortune for Voltore. Bonario was supposed to kill his father for disinheriting him, and Corbaccio’s estate would lawfully fall to Volpone, who would then bequeath it to Voltore along with his own. However, Corvino and Celia visited at an inopportune time. Mosca lies that Bonario’s impatience compelled him to seize Celia and force her to accuse Volpone of rape. The man left to report his father, Volpone, and Voltore to the Senate, so they now must challenge Bonario in court. Voltore sends Mosca to find Corvino and leaves with Corbaccio. Mosca asks Volpone to pray for their success.

Act III Analysis

In this act, Volpone and Mosca experience the first complications in their scheme, and the deceptions they employ to correct these complications create new conflicts. With each new lie, the plot to scam the gullible men out of some gifts snowballs out of control, leading to the threat of being exposed in court. Mosca demonstrates his quick thinking when he concocts the false story to explain his wound to Corbaccio and, not 30 lines later, comes up with a contradictory lie to appease Voltore, who overheard Mosca’s conversation with the gentleman. These minor conflicts and the new tales Mosca spins to overcome them raise the tension of the action and increase the complexity of Mosca and Volpone’s position.

Up until Act 3, Volpone and Mosca’s ruse isn’t totally unlawful. Volpone receives gifts under false pretenses, but they don’t force the suitors to hand over these presents. When Volpone tries to rape Celia in Act III, Scene 7, the scheme suddenly turns criminal, and Volpone and Mosca sense the potential consequences of their error. Volpone demonstrates this anxiety when he mistakes Corbaccio’s knocking for officers come to arrest him: “I hear some footing—officers, the Saffi, / Come to apprehend us! I do feel the brand / Hissing already at my forehead” (3.8.16-18). This new conflict introduces the theme of Seeking Justice in a Corrupt Society. Bonario expresses his intention to take Volpone and his conspirators to court, a public arena, and the play creates anticipation for how Volpone and Mosca will evade the legal system.

Mosca opens Act III with a soliloquy that illuminates his character development. He expresses his belief in his superiority to other people despite his lowly birth when he declares, “Your parasite / Is a most precious thing, dropped from above, / Not bred ’mongst the clods and clot-polls, here on earth” (3.1.7-9). He emphasizes this belief when he claims his skill for adaptability is natural and he “toils not to learn it” (3.1.31) like others must. The play’s action also reflects his growing self-importance. Mosca regards his scheming as both an innate talent and an art form, and he sees himself as an artist who performs his elaborate deceptions for their own aesthetic value rather than for material reward. Mosca sets up several elements of the scheme independent of Volpone, like convincing Corvino to bring Celia to the house and persuading Bonario to hide in wait for his father. However, Mosca’s invincibility cracks when his plan backfires and Bonario unintentionally witnesses Volpone’s crime. Volpone blames Mosca for the blunder, which creates tension in their relationship.

Act III introduces Lady Would-Be, who Jonson alluded to since Act I, Scene 5. Jonson reintroduces Volpone’s disdain for Lady Would-Be in Act III, Scene 3 when Volpone again expresses his aversion to her visits: “Lord, how it threats me, what I am to suffer!” (3.3.32). This repeated dread creates suspense for the lady’s arrival. Lady Would-Be’s major scene is Act III, Scene 4, which portrays her as a vain, talkative woman like her husband. Lady Would-Be tries to demonstrate her knowledge when she alludes to her literary education: “Which o’ your poets? Petrarch? Or Tasso? Or Dante? / Guarini? Ariosto? Aretine? / Cieco d’Adria? I have read them all” (3.4.79-81). Volpone, however, does not see her as his equal, and he describes her trivial chatter as “[a]nother flood of words! A very torrent!” (3.4.64). Jonson satirizes Lady Would-Be’s ridiculousness in the opposite way he satirized her husband: Instead of Volpone egging her on to reveal her absurd views, Volpone actively tries to stop Lady Would-Be, and her ignorance of his exasperation renders her ridiculous.

By the end of Act III, Jonson establishes Celia and Bonario as the virtuous foils to the other characters in the play. Their righteous convictions and refusal to play along with the schemes contrast greatly with the rest of the characters, who are defined primarily by their vices and their susceptibility to The Corrupting Power of Greed. Celia, as an embodiment of piety, staunchly refuses to commit adultery with Volpone because she knows it is a mortal sin. Corvino demonstrates his corruption when he twists the sin into an act of charity: “But here, ’tis contrary, / A pious work, mere charity, for physic” (3.7.65-66). Bonario is also a symbolic character, representing justice. Bonario does not take Mosca’s words at face value, but he does agree to witness proof of Mosca’s tale for himself, like an impartial judge. His skepticism draws him back from the gallery to his original hiding spot, where he swoops in to stop Volpone’s crime. These actions contrast with the other suitors, who readily believe Mosca’s false stories and cover up Volpone’s crime. From the end of Act III onward, Jonson pairs Celia and Bonario together, and the two come to represent both justice and injustice.