Page 192 - DENG403_BRITISH_DRAMA

British Drama

Notes remarks that Volpone is even sicker than he is and that he is certain to outlive; he remarks that it
makes him feel twenty years younger. Corbaccio expresses curiosity about Volpone’s will, but Mosca
replies it has not yet been written. The old man asks what Voltore was up to at Volpone’s house;
when Mosca answers truthfully—that he gave Volpone a piece of gold plate in the hopes of being
written into his will—Corbaccio presents a bag of cecchines (Venetian coins) intended for Volpone.
Mosca then explain how Corbaccio can be certain of being Volpone’s heir; by leaving the bag of
cecchines, but also by writing Volpone as his sole heir. Mosca says that when Volpone then writes
his own will, his sense of gratitude will compel him to make Corbaccio his sole heir. Corbaccio soon
leaves, and Volpone mocks him afterward mercilessly for trying to inherit money from a sick, dying
man when he, himself, is on the brink of death.
Analysis of Scene III and IV

Through the device of Volpone’s con, Jonson makes his satiric commentary on greed, using dramatic
irony, situational irony, verbal irony, and repetition. Dramatic irony is a literary device often used
in tragedies; a central character behaves in a certain way in ignorance of key facts about a situation;
we, however, know the behavior is incorrect and feel tension because of our inability to stop it. But
as Jonson demonstrates, dramatic irony can also be an effective tool for satire and comedy. Each
“legacy hunter” is pursuing what, in the world of seventeenth-century Venice, was a sound business
strategy: find a dying magnifico and ingratiate yourself with him, using expensive gifts (gifts that
would be yours again when you inherited his estate anyways). As Mosca points out to Volpone
before Voltore’s entrance, “if you died today, What large return would come of all his ventures.” It
is sound strategy, if Volpone is really ill. But since Volpone is not ill (and since we know this) the
behavior of each character seems ridiculous. Like the thief who is the victim of thieving, each character
attempts to deceive themselves into money, by pretending they care about Volpone’s health, but
they are instead deceived out of their own. And we know they are all lying, because though each
character reiterates the same well wishes, they also celebrate being named his heir or, like Corbaccio,
express approval over his long list of worsening “symptoms.” It is clear that their concern is not
that Volpone gets better, but that he gets worse; and what is amusing is that their hypocrisy is being
exposed by someone even more adept at lying than they are.
Volpone and Mosca are conscious, too, of the “moral” aspect of their game; and they emerge, by
contrast to the three legacy hunters, as eminently likable. They are no worse than the legacy hunters;
if Volpone is deceitful and immoral in his pursuit of personal gratification, then no less so are they;
and if Mosca is servile and obsequious toward Volpone, well, they are too. And Volpone and Mosca
are better, in that their motivations are purer; not money for money’s sake, but money for the sake
of pleasure, or for the sake of the pleasure of getting it-they both enjoy their machinations immensely.
The repetition of would-be heirs, from different walks of life (lawyer, merchant, and nobleman),
indicate that greed is a characteristic of the society as whole; again, Volpone is valorized because he
is the only honest about his greed. Volpone and Mosca are also both conscious of the various ironies
of the game, and comment upon them. Volpone remarks on the situational irony of Corbaccio’s
attempt to become his heir when Corbaccio is in fact the one who is near death. And Mosca’s speech
to Voltore about how much Volpone admires the “legal profession” is an example of verbal irony,
in that Mosca gives a speech in praise of lawyers which actually insults them, as the things Volpone
supposedly “admires” are essentially the ability to deceive and equivocate; it is also dramatic irony
because Voltore doesn’t know that Volpone is a deceiver himself and therefore would probably
admire this deceitfulness. This consciousness draws us closer to Volpone and Mosca, because we
share it too; it makes us their co-conspirators, as does the frequent use of asides, or comments made
directly to the audience, which set-up a conspiring atmosphere between the characters and the
play’s spectators. Volpone and Mosca play the role of a “fool”, by Nano’s definition, well. They too,
make a living from their wit, and their way with words. They also possess an outsider’s viewpoint
on society; the knowledge that Volpone is not, in fact, ill, separates both them and us from Corvino,
Corbaccio, and Voltore. And, like the fool, they do not harm the people they mock; the three
prospective heirs are not made impoverished by their deceit, and no innocents are hurt.

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