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

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

The Epistle-Act IChapter Summaries & Analyses

The Epistle Summary

The Epistle is a prose introduction in which Ben Jonson dedicates the play to Cambridge and Oxford Universities and argues about the original purpose of poetry. He derides poets of his day who do not write to instruct their audiences on virtuous living, but who instead give poetry a bad reputation by writing only the “filth of the time” (79). Jonson criticizes those who devalue true poets and their works out of maliciousness. He defends his plays from false interpretations and accusations of immorality, and he defends his use of satire to explore the vices of society. Jonson concludes by discussing Volpone itself, which he wrote with the intention of virtuous instruction, and he trusts critics will understand his honorable purpose. Jonson hopes plays like Volpone will remedy poetry’s bad reputation.

The Argument and The Prologue Summary

The Argument is an acrostic poem where the lines spell out “Volpone.” The Argument reveals the basic plot of the play, describing how the rich Volpone and his sidekick Mosca hatch several plots to deceive potential heirs, resulting in catastrophe for all.

The Prologue, delivered by an unnamed speaker, presents Jonson’s desire for the play to both entertain and teach the audience something valuable. The speaker responds to and refutes criticism of the playwright and his creative process. Unlike the inferior drama of the day, Volpone offers wit and plots that are as unique as they are funny. The speaker decrees the audience will enjoy the play so much that they will laugh about it for a week.

Act I, Scene 1 Summary

In the early morning, Volpone, a rich Venetian gentleman, and Mosca, his parasitic underling, enter Volpone’s room. Mosca unveils Volpone’s hoard of riches. Volpone muses on his gold, revering its power. For Volpone, gold brings endless happiness and can instill merits onto anything. Mosca interjects, adding that gold is even greater than wisdom.

Although Volpone loves his gold, he loves the way he acquired it even more because he didn’t have to learn a trade or art. Volpone obtains much of his wealth from people who want to be put in his will. Volpone has no familial heir, so suitors bring him gifts and money in hopes of a large inheritance when Volpone dies. Mosca praises his master and lauds Volpone’s free use of his riches. Unlike others who live frugally to maintain their wealth, Volpone lives in comfort. Volpone gives Mosca a coin for his speech and sends him to fetch his fools.

Act I, Scene 2 Summary

Mosca returns with Nano (a dwarf), Androgino (an intersex person), and Castrone (a eunuch), who entertain Volpone with a comedic play Mosca wrote. Nano pretends the soul of Greek mathematician Pythagoras lives in Androgino’s body. Nano recounts some famous Greeks the soul lived in before residing in Pythagoras, as well as the variety of people it landed in after. Nano questions Androgino about the soul’s recent movements. Androgino declares that the soul’s favorite body is its current one because it enjoys being a fool. Nano and Castrone perform a song celebrating the fool’s honored position.

The lawyer Voltore’s sudden knock cuts the entertainment short. Volpone sends the fools away as he and Mosca prepare to deceive the visitor. Volpone disguises himself as a sickly old man while Mosca greets Voltore. Mosca returns and reports on Voltore’s gift: an inscribed plate. Mosca laughs at the lawyer, who he imagines must be greedily thinking about what his life as Volpone’s heir will be like. With some final touches to the disguise, Mosca fetches Voltore, and Volpone begins to feign illness.

Act I, Scene 3 Summary

Mosca enters with Voltore, who gives Volpone a gift as expected. Mosca praises Voltore for always being Volpone’s first visitor, which his master appreciates. Volpone pretends to be blind and deaf from old age, but he thanks Voltore and tells the lawyer to visit more frequently. Mosca lies that Volpone chose Voltore as his sole heir because he admires the lawyer’s language skills. Mosca asks Voltore to hire him as a servant when Volpone dies, since Mosca works only in Voltore’s interest. Another visitor knocks, and Mosca asks Voltore to leave. Volpone rises from his false stupor to praise Mosca, but soon returns to his deception for his next client.

Act I, Scene 4 Summary

Mosca welcomes Corbaccio, a very old gentleman. Mosca invents symptoms of Volpone’s decreasing health, to which Corbaccio responds enthusiastically. Corbaccio offers medicine, but Mosca claims Volpone distrusts physicians. Corbaccio presents a pouch of gold coins instead, which Mosca thinks will revive his master better. Mosca assures Corbaccio that the gift is generous enough to secure his position as the heir. Mosca further spins the plot, beseeching Corbaccio to write a will of his own that would make Volpone his heir. Corbaccio’s willingness to disinherit his virtuous son, Bonario, will endear Volpone even more to his cause. Corbaccio hesitates, but, believing he will outlive Volpone, he agrees to the plot.

Without fear of Corbaccio overhearing him, Mosca derides the gullible man. When Corbaccio exits, Volpone leaps up, unable to contain his laughter. Volpone ridicules old men like Corbaccio whose greed makes them forget their own ailments. The next suitor, Corvino, knocks at the door, and Volpone returns to his sickbed. Mosca touches up Volpone’s disguise.

Act I, Scene 5 Summary

Corvino, a merchant, enters the room with a gift of a pearl and diamond. Mosca greets him happily, telling Corvino to rejoice. Volpone pretends to be deaf and repeatedly calls out Corvino’s name. Mosca reveals that his master bequeathed the whole estate to Corvino. Mosca took Volpone’s calling of Corvino’s name as a sign he wanted to make him heir, and he helped draw up the will. Corvino embraces Mosca in happiness.

To prove Volpone’s deafness, Mosca shouts into Volpone’s ear. He mocks the man’s appearance, wishing a quick death upon him. He invites Corvino to join him, and the merchant adds a few insults of his own. Mosca moves to suffocate Volpone, but Corvino stops him, asking him to wait until he leaves the room.

Volpone again celebrates Mosca’s intellect, and he looks over his new gifts. A squire brings a message from Lady Would-Be, the wife of the English knight Sir Politic Would-Be, about visiting Volpone, which Volpone dismisses. Mosca contrasts Lady Would-Be with Corvino’s wife Celia, the fairest lady in Venice. Volpone grows curious about Celia and decides to see her for himself, but Corvino keeps her under strict supervision. Volpone and Mosca determine to disguise themselves to go see the lady.

The Epistle-Act I Analysis

The first Act introduces the play’s main characters, Volpone and Mosca, and the power dynamics of their relationship. Volpone is gentleman of high social standing who delights in hedonistic pleasures. Unlike misers who preserve their wealth by refusing to spend it, Volpone freely uses his money to live comfortably, which he expresses when he says, “What should I do / But cocker up my genius and live free / To all delights my fortune calls me to?” (1.1.70-71). Conversely, Mosca is a man of low social standing who relies on Volpone for his livelihood. Mosca uses flattery to stay in Volpone’s good graces, and his subservient position means he must go along with Volpone’s schemes. Mosca’s willingness to go above and beyond in the schemes shocks Volpone, but Mosca proclaims, “I but do as I am taught; / Follow your grave instructions; give ’em words; / Pour oil into their ears, and send them hence” (1.4.139-141). This statement reveals that despite doing Volpone’s bidding out of necessity, Mosca also revels in the deceit he performs.

Act I reveals that Mosca has more freedom of movement than his master, a major point of tension that grows as their relationship progresses. Volpone relies on the gulling scheme as his main form of income, but the success of the scheme depends on the upkeep of his reputation as an invalid. As such, he remains mostly confined to his house and to his sickbed. Mosca, on the other hand, brings guests in and out of the room, flatters them, lies to them, makes up quick excuses, and even adds new intrigues into the plot. Volpone’s self-imposed restriction as an invalid begins to pose problems at the end of Act I, Scene 5. His desire to see Celia requires a disguise that gives him the freedom to visit her house and the ability to “Maintain mine own shape still the same” (1.5.130). As the scheme develops and Volpone becomes less able to move freely outside the house, his dependence on Mosca grows, leading to Mosca’s near complete independent control of the plotting.

Jonson mocks the major secondary characters, the suitors, using humor and dramatic irony. Each suitor’s visit lasts the length of a scene and follows a similar structure, but Jonson keeps his audience entertained by altering Mosca’s approach for each suitor. With Voltore, Mosca uses tongue-in-cheek humor to praise the lawyer’s language skills. Mosca implies a connection between the lawyer and his own position as a “parasite” when he says, “I oft have heard him say how he admired / Men of your large profession, that could speak / To every cause, and things of mere contraries / Till they were hoarse again” (1.3.52-55). Mosca mocks the man for the ethical flexibility stereotypically associated with his profession, but Voltore understands the comment as a compliment. For Corbaccio, Jonson employs physical comedy to amplify the gentleman’s old age. Corbaccio’s misunderstandings with Mosca ironically emphasize the old man’s delusion that he will “hop / Over his grave” (1.4.4-5) and get Volpone’s fortune before he himself dies. With Corvino, Mosca toys with the man’s insecurities about how others perceive him. When Corvino believes Volpone can’t hear him—and thus his words can’t be used against him—Mosca goads Corvino into insulting Volpone. With each visit, the audience knows Mosca and Volpone are putting on an act, which enhances the suitors’ absurdity and makes them appear just as insincere as the con artists. The Corrupting Power of Greed prevents the men from thinking clearly, and they fail to comprehend Mosca’s jokes at their expense.

These scenes with the suitors also establish another key theme, The Moral Impact of Performance. Volpone’s house is like a theatre where Volpone and Mosca put on their seditious comedy. As in a play, Volpone and Mosca’s use costumes, like a “gown […] furs and night-caps” (1.2.84-85), and ointments to make Volpone’s fake ailments more convincing. Volpone also exaggerates his coughing, blindness, and deafness to perform being diseased. Disguises like these are a recurring motif in the play, used by characters for deception. Volpone and Mosca’s crude theatre also relates to Jonson’s argument about poetry in his Epistle. Like Jonson’s contemporaries, Volpone and Mosca use their drama for wicked purposes.

Gold becomes a major symbol both of value and of corruption in the play. Volpone’s hoard of gold contains this dual significance as it both signifies the greatness of his wealth and the extent of his trickery. Volpone describes his gold using spiritual metaphors that Early Modern audiences would have considered blasphemous. Volpone opens the play by commanding Mosca to “Open the shrine that I may see my saint” (1.1.2). Volpone’s comparison of his gold to the shrine of a saint illuminates his idolatrous worship of this earthly pleasure over worship of God. When Corbaccio later offers a pouch of gold as a gift, he imbues the item with revitalizing powers. Mosca calls gold a “sacred medicine,” again emphasizing the corrupted piety he and Volpone have toward gold.

Jonson employs metonymy to help the audience understand his characters and their actions. As the suitors begin to arrive in Act I, Scene 2, Volpone declares, “Vulture, kite, / Raven, and gor-crow, all my birds of prey / That think me turning carcass, now they come” (1.2.89-91). This list of birds stands in for the names of the suitors and describes how they flock to the dying Volpone in hopes of conquest. Throughout the play, Jonson develops this motif of animal allusions to elaborate on the characters’ cunning actions.