Volpone

“VOLPONE. Thou art virtue, fame,

Honor, and all things else! Who can get thee

He shall be noble, valiant, honest, wise—

MOSCA. And what he will, sir. Riches are in fortune

A greater good than wisdom is in nature.”

Volpone personifies his gold (“Thou”) and addresses it directly in his first soliloquy, and Mosca chimes in with observations that align with his master’s beliefs. Volpone and Mosca’s twisted idolization of gold makes them believe that riches imbue their owner with virtues that would normally be obtained through performing good deeds or expanding one’s knowledge. Gold is a major symbol in the play, representing The Corrupting Power of Greed.

“VOLPONE. Now, my feigned cough, my phthisic and my gout,

My apoplexy, palsy and catarrhs,

Help with your forced functions this my posture,

Wherein, this three year, I have milked their hopes.

He comes, I hear him—uh! uh! uh! uh! Oh—”

After putting on his sickly disguise, Volpone performs illness with the intention of gulling his suitors into believing he is close to death. Volpone exaggerates and verbalizes his “feigned cough” at the end of this passage when he hears his first suitor, Voltore, whom he has been scamming with this ruse for three years. Volpone and Mosca use elements of stagecraft to improve their deceptions, and throughout the play, Volpone’s house acts as a theatre for their deceits.

“VOLPONE. Nay, here was one,

Is now gone home, that wishes to live longer!

Feels not his gout nor palsy, feigns himself

Younger by scores of years, flatters his age

With confident belying, hopes he may

With charms, like Aeson, have his youth restored.”

This passage is an example of Volpone’s true thoughts about his suitors, which he speaks after they leave his house. Volpone ridicules Corbaccio’s greed that deludes him into thinking he will outlive Volpone. Volpone’s allusion to the Greek myth of Aeson at once expands his description of Corbaccio and exposes his extensive learning. Aeson was the father of the hero Jason, who died and came back to life as a young man through magic “charms.” Corbaccio is analogous to Aeson as he is the father of the valiant Bonario, who hopes Volpone’s real charms—his gold—will restore his youth.

“VOLPONE. I will go see her, through but her window.

MOSCA. In some disguise then.

VOLPONE. That is true. I must

Maintain mine own shape still the same; we’ll think.”

Mosca describes the beauty of Corvino’s wife Celia to his master, and here Volpone determines that he will see her for himself, which is the first major moment of escalation in his scheme. Volpone, however, has been pretending to be too ill to leave his house for so long that he now can’t freely leave the house without a total disguise to cover him. This lack of mobility creates tension in the play, as Volpone grows more and more reliant on Mosca’s freedom of movement, and Mosca’s growing independence in the schemes starts to cut Volpone out from key decision-making.

“PEREGRINE. Yes, and your lion’s whelping, in the Tower.

SIR POLITIC. Another whelp!

PEREGRINE. Another, sir.

SIR POLITIC. Now, heaven!

What prodigies are these? The fires at Berwick!

And the new star! These are things concurring strange!

And full of omen!”

This back-and-forth exemplifies the foil personalities of the two characters who make up the action of the subplot: Where Peregrine is reserved, Sir Politic is outlandish and excitable. Peregrine curtly offers or confirms news from England, which Sir Politic superstitiously twists to suggest that these occurrences are bad omens for the country. The various pieces of news mentioned all relate to real life events of Jonson’s time, but Sir Politic’s attribution of conspiracy to these innocuous events serves to mock the knight.

“VOLPONE. But were they gulled

With a belief that I was Scoto?

MOSCA. Sir,

Scoto himself could hardly have distinguished.”

This is the first instance in which Volpone exposes his vulnerability. Despite his enjoyment of his trickery, Volpone secretly worries that his disguises aren’t enough to conceal him thoroughly, and he consistently asks Mosca for reassurance of their success. This anxiety about being exposed is Volpone’s major weakness, since he has been keeping up his scheme for so long and desires to keep it going.

“CORVINO. No? Not to seek and entertain a parlay

With a known knave? Before a multitude?

You were an actor, with your handkerchief!

Which he, most sweetly, kissed in the receipt,

And might no doubt return it, with a letter,

And point to the place where you might meet.”

Corvino addresses his wife, Celia, after she threw down her handkerchief to a mountebank (the disguised Volpone), disobeying his rules about her seclusion. This passage exemplifies Corvino’s quick jealousy, as he immediately and elaborately imagines that her action has the sinister intention of setting up an affair with the “knave.” His concern that this was performed “before a multitude” reveals his other fear of ruining his reputation.

“MOSCA. Almost

All the wise world is little else in nature

But parasites and sub-parasites.”

This quotation comes from Mosca’s major soliloquy in the play, wherein he lauds his role as a parasite, which allows him to live off Volpone’s wealth. He recognizes that his position is not unique, despite the other characters treating him as inferior. Most other people use other people for their own gain, like the suitors who also seek Volpone’s fortune.

“MOSCA. But your fine, elegant rascal, that can rise

And stoop (almost together) like an arrow;

Shoot through the air, as numbly as a star;

Turn short, as doth a swallow; and be here,

And there, and here, and yonder, all at once;

Present to any humor, all occasion;

And change a visor swifter than a thought!

This is the creature that had the art born in him.”

Later in Mosca’s soliloquy, he praises his skill for trickery. One of Mosca’s defining character traits is his adaptability, which he compares to the precise and swift maneuvers of arrows, shooting stars, and swallows. Mosca’s assertion that he can change himself to fit any situation is reflected in his actions throughout the play, as he can maintain old tales, concoct new lies at will, and remain undetected.

“VOLPONE. But when these practitioners come to the last decoction, blow, blow, puff, puff, and all flies in fumo. Ha, ha, ha. Poor wretches! I rather pity their folly and indiscretion than their loss of time and money; for those may be recovered by industry, but to be a fool born is a disease incurable.”

Volpone speaks this passage during his speech as a mountebank, while trying to persuade his audience to purchase his magical elixir of life. Volpone demonstrates his linguistic talents by utilizing rhetorical devices, like here when he develops a dichotomy between himself and other fraudulent mountebanks to make himself appear more authentic. Volpone mocks others for their lack of success in their science, which is no fault of their learning but a fault of their inherently foolish nature. Volpone implies, through his denigration of these men, that he isn’t like them and is therefore trustworthy.

“VOLPONE. I dreamt

That a strange fury entered now my house,

And with the dreadful tempest of her breath,

Did clave my roof asunder.

LADY WOULD-BE. Believe me, and I

Had the most fearful dream, could I remember’t—

VOLPONE. [aside] Out of my fate; I ha’ given her the occasion

How to torment me.”

Lady Would-Be is Volpone’s fourth suitor, whom Jonson uses for comedy and satire. The play mocks Lady Would-Be’s shallow talkativeness, placing it in opposition to the eloquence and linguistic skill of characters like Volpone, Mosca, and Voltore. In this scene, Volpone makes several asides commenting on Lady Would-Be’s ignorance of this ridiculous quality of hers, and these asides reveal how deeply her chatter annoys him.

“MOSCA. Death on me! You are come too soon, what meant you?

Did I not say I would send?

CORVINO. Yes, but I feared

You might forget it, and then prevent us.

MOSCA. [aside] Prevent? Did e’er a man hate so much for his horns?”

Corvino and Celia’s early arrival to Volpone’s house is the first setback in Mosca’s thus-far successful scheming. Corvino’s action forces Mosca to move the concealed Bonario, whom he hid with the intention that he would overhear his father disinherit him. This catalyzes a sequence of errors, like Bonario—still at Volpone’s house—witnessing Volpone’s crime against Celia. Mosca’s aside also illuminates the extent of Corvino’s greed, as his enthusiasm to have Celia sleep with Volpone on the chance it will secure Corvino’s inheritance makes him appear perverse.

“CELIA. Good sir, these things might move a mind affected

With such delights; but I, whose innocence

Is all I can think wealth, or worth th’enjoying,

And which once lost, I have naught to lose beyond it,

Cannot be taken with these sensual baits.”

Celia is a symbolic character, and her entreaty here to Volpone exhibits her status as a representation of piety and as a foil to the vices of the other characters. Prior to this passage, Volpone attempted to woo Celia with promises of great riches and exotic foods—all things he personally enjoys and assumes other people seek. Celia, however, values her “innocence” above any earthly pleasure as it is irreplaceable once lost, which to her proves its value over anything Volpone could offer.

“BONARIO. Free the forced lady, or thou diest, imposter.

But that I am loath to snatch thy punishment

Out of the hand of justice, thou shoudst yet

Be made the timely sacrifice of vengeance

Before this altar, and this dross, thy idol.”

Bonario is also a symbolic character who acts as a representative of justice. Here Bonario addresses Volpone when he stops the old man from forcing himself on Celia. Bonario would kill Volpone for his crime in front of his “altar” of riches, but he doesn’t want to overstep the jurisdiction of criminal justice. The play establishes distinctions between interpersonal justice and public justice, and here Bonario identifies that Volpone’s crime is so great that it needs to be officially punished.

“MOSCA. My wound,

May’t please your wisdoms, speaks for me, received

In aid of my good patron, when he missed [Points at Bonario]

His sought-for-father, when that well-taught dame

Had her cue given to cry out rape.

BONARIO. O, most laid impudence! Fathers—

3RD AVVOCATO. Sir, be silent.

You had you hearing free, so must they theirs.”

Jonson employs dramatic irony as a major tool throughout the play, like in this scene where the audience knows of Bonario’s innocence. For the audience, Bonario’s attempted interjection into Mosca’s lie is just, but the Avvocati, who must remain impartial, have to entertain Mosca’s side of the story out of fairness. To them, Bonario’s frequent interjections appear rude, and Mosca and Voltore are able to twist Bonario’s attempted valiant action into proof of his guilt for their own gain.

“1ST AVVOCATO. What witnesses have you,

To make good your report?

BONARIO. Our consciences.

CELIA. And heaven, that never fails the innocent.

4TH AVVOCATIO. These are no testimonies.

BONARIO. Not in your courts,

Where multitude and clamor overcomes.”

Unlike private justice, which the characters dish out primarily based on strong emotions, the Avvocati of the Venetian Senate require convincing proofs before making their decisions. Voltore and the suitors—although their testimony is false—all corroborate the same details and offer physical proof of their argument. Celia and Bonario, on the other hand, only have themselves and their faith in God’s omniscience, which is not enough for the Avvocati. Bonario recognizes that the court has been co-opted by wickedness, which threatens their integrity.

“MOSCA. We must here be fixed;

Here we must rest; this is our masterpiece.

We cannot think to go beyond this.”

After Mosca, Volpone, and the suitors successfully trick the court into convicting Celia and Bonario instead of themselves, Mosca tries to persuade Volpone to stop their scheme, since nothing could be any more pleasurable than this stunt. Mosca’s use of “masterpiece” furthers his connection with drama and theatricality, here constructing him as a playwright as well as an actor.

“MOSCA. What do you mean, sir?

VOLPONE. O,

I shall have instantly my vulture, crow,

Raven, come flying hither on the news

To peck for carrion, my she-wolf and all,

Greedy, and full of expectation—

MOSCA. And then to have it ravished from their mouths?”

Despite Mosca’s desire to stop the scheme, Volpone isn’t satisfied yet, and he wants to continue to trick his suitors. Volpone uses metonymy to refer to the suitors, substituting their names with the translations of their names, which are all different kinds of birds. Volpone refers to the suitors this way throughout the play, drawing connections between their actions and the stereotypical actions of birds of prey, who circle dying animals much as the suitors circle Volpone, waiting for him to die.

“MOSCA. Good faith, I am grieved for you,

That any chance of mine should thus defeat

Your (I must needs say) most deserving travails.”

Mosca enjoys his deception of the suitors, and prior to his passage, he gleefully ridiculed the greedy men and lady to their faces. However, since the court scenes, Mosca had a slight change of heart toward Voltore, who played a major role in overturning the case against Volpone. Mosca truly feels bad for gulling the man, but this guilt is not strong enough to stop him from continuing his scheming.

“SIR POLITIC. O, I shall be the fable of all feasts

The freight of the gazette, ship-boys’ tale;

And, which is worse, even talk for ordinaries.”

Peregrine successfully plays his revenge trick on Sir Politic, and the outcome, expressed here by the victim, is humiliation. Sir Politic tried to evade a phony arrest with the absurdly constructed costume of a human-sized tortoise. Sir Politic only realizes the outrageousness of his disguise after Peregrine and his hired men laugh at him openly. Sir Politic is deeply concerned with his outward reputation of importance, so his biggest fear comes true when he thinks he will be mocked by “ordinaries.”

“MOSCA. Since he will needs be dead afore his time,

I’ll bury him, or gain by him. I’m his heir,

And so will keep me, till he shares the least.

To cozen him of all were but a cheat

Well placed; no man would construe it a sin.”

Mosca’s growing ego and belief in his immunity—alongside his growing annoyance with Volpone’s endless whims—compel him to finally use his skills of deception against his patron. Since Volpone wanted to pretend to be dead, Mosca now holds all the power in the scheme, as Volpone must now depend on Mosca’s loyalty even more to keep up his ruse. Mosca, however, uses this new power to try to extract a fortune for himself so he can begin to act autonomously.

“VOLPONE. To make a snare for mine own neck! And run

My head into it willfully! With laughter!

When I had newly ’scaped, was free and clear!

Out of mere wantonness! O, the dull devil

Was in this brain of mine when I devised it.”

Volpone expresses his frustrations with himself after his amusing plan to torment his suitors backfires. Volpone provoked Voltore’s guilty conscience too far, and the man confessed to the court that his testimony was a lie. Volpone identifies his desire for amusement as the “dull devil” that led him down this road to demise, which could have been avoided if he had quit when Mosca told him to.

“BONARIO. Heaven could no longer let such gross crimes be hid.

2ND AVVOCATO. If this be held the highway to riches,

May I be poor.

3RD AVVOCATO. This’s not the gain, but torment.

1ST AVVOCATO. These possess wealth, as sick men possess fevers,

Which trulier may be said to possess them.”

Despite all the constructed confusion in the court, the truth of Volpone and Mosca’s plotting eventually comes out. Bonario attributes this revelation to divine justice, believing that God would not let innocents like him and Celia be punished for the crimes of others. The Avvocati’s comments further this line by describing the scale of the sins committed, likening the men’s greed to a disease of the soul.