Volpone by Ben Jonson

1. VOLPONE
BEN JONSON

2. BEN JONSON
• Name : Benjamin Jonson
• Birth Date : June 11th, 1572
• Place of Birth : London, England
• Occupation : Playwright, Actor and Poet
• Famous Works : Every Man in His Humour, Volpone,
The Alchemist, The Coronation Triumph, To Celia
• Death Date : August 6th, 1637
• Place of Death : London, England

3. • Ben Jonson was a poet, essayist and playwright His father
died shortly before his birth and his mother remarried a
bricklayer.
• He went to St Martin´s school and westminster school, he
came under the influence of the classical scholar William
Comden. He served in the military at Flandres, before
working as an actor Sometime between 1592 and 1595 he
got married with Anne Lewis.

4. • Days after the first performance of Every Man In His Humour,
Jonson killed an actor Gabriel Spencer in a duel. He was in
prison few weeks but he recieved a benefit of the clergy.
• Jonson produced popular masques (works combining drama,
song and spectacle)

5. His most famous plays
• Volpone
• The Alchemist
• Epicoene or The silent woman
• Bartholomew Fair
• The devil is an ass

7. INTRODUCTION
• Volpone was first performed at the Globe Theater in
the spring of 1606.
• Its audiences include some aristocrats, prosperous
citizens, lower-class groundlings and some learned
people at Oxford and Cambridge, to whom Jonson
dedicated the printed edition of Volpone.
• The play, set in Venice is about Volpone (which
means fox in Italian), a rich man, who makes his
money by pretending to be a dying man with no family
with a large inheritance.

8. It could be read as:
- a moral exemplum
- a beast fable (a beast fable is a short tale in which the
principle actors are animals. Jonson’s characters are
people, but they have the characteristics of animals, as
their names reveal)
- a satire ( on English life in General)
- a humour play
- a tragedy

9. Characters
• Volpone (the Fox) - a greedy, childless Venetian
nobleman
• Mosca (the Fly) – his servant
• Voltore (the Vulture) – a lawyer
• Corbaccio (the Raven) – an avaricious old miser
• Bonario – Corbaccio's son
• Corvino (the Carrion Crow) – a merchant
• Celia – Corvino's wife
• Sir Politic Would-Be – a ridiculous Englishman
• Lady Politic Would-Be – an English lady, Sir Politic's
wife

10. SUMMARY
• Volpone is a Venetian gentleman who pretends to be on his deathbed,
after a long illness, in order to dupe Voltore, Corbaccio, and Corvino,
three men who aspire to inherit his fortune. In their turns, each man
arrives to Volpone’s house bearing a luxurious gift, intent upon having
his name inscribed to the will of Volpone, as his heir. Mosca, Volpone’s
parasite servant, encourages each man, Voltore, Corbaccio, and
Corvino, to believe that he has been named heir to Volpone’s fortune; in
the course of which, Mosca persuades Corbaccio to disinherit his own
son in favour of Volpone.
• To Volpone, Mosca mentions that Corvino has a beautiful wife, Celia.
Disguised as Scoto the Mountebank, Volpone goes to see Celia.
Corvino drives away Scoto (Volpone), who then becomes insistent that
he must possess Celia as his own. Mosca deceives Corvino into
believing that the moribund Volpone requires sexual congress with a
young woman in order to revive and rise from his deathbed. The
cupidity of Corvino leads him to offer Celia, his wife, in order to please
Volpone’s voluptuousness, and so become his heir.

11. • Just before Corvino and Celia are due to arrive for her sexual congress
with Volpone, Corbaccio’s son, Bonario, arrives to catch his father in the
act of disinheriting him. Mosca guides Corbaccio to a sideroom, and
Volpone and Celia are left alone. Upon failing to seduce Celia with
fantastic promises of luxury and wealth, Volpone attempts to rape her.
Bonario comes forward to rescue Celia. In the ensuing trial at court, the
truth of the matter is well-buried by Voltore, using his prowess as a
lawyer to convince the Avocatori, with false evidence given by Mosca,
Volpone and the other dupes.
• There are episodes involving the English travellers Sir and Lady Politic
Would-Be and Peregrine. Sir Politic constantly talks of plots and his
outlandish business plans, while Lady Would-Be annoys Volpone with
her ceaseless talking. Mosca co-ordinates a mix-up between them
which leaves Peregrine, a more sophisticated traveller, feeling offended.
He humiliates Sir Politick by telling him he is to be arrested for sedition,
and making him hide inside a giant tortoise shell.

12. • Volpone insists on disguising himself, and having it
announced that he has died and willed his wealth to
Mosca, which enrages the would-be heirs, Voltore,
Corbaccio, and Corvino, and everyone returns to
court to dispute the will of Volpone, who becomes
entangled in the circumstances of the plots that he
and Mosca devised.
• Despite Volpone’s pleas, Mosca refuses to relinquish
his new role as a rich man; Volpone reveals himself,
and his deceits, in order to topple the rich Mosca; in
the event, Voltore, Corbaccio, and Corvino finally are
punished.