Page 198 - DENG403_BRITISH_DRAMA

British Drama

Notes terms, it is that of a sociopath who feels his power threatened; Corvino lashes out in a sadistic and
brutal manner in order to maintain control.
So this scene serves to link Corvino’s materialistic values to grotesque, unnatural and violent sexual
obsession. But more than that, it also shows the fundamental hypocrisy of those values, through
irony. When Mosca tests which impulse is stronger in Corvino—his sexual jealousy or his desire for
material possession—he quickly discovers that it is the latter. To lose Celia to a lover would send
Corvino into a murderous rage, and he condemns her for her perceived infidelity using moral
concepts such as “justice”; but to use her in order to gain Volpone’s fortune is “nothing.” The justice
of the situation is determined, it seems, by whether or not Corvino makes a profit, not on any moral
issue, and the virtue of his wife for a vast amount of fortune is a more than equitable trade. Corvino’s
reversal is an example of situational irony, which reveals Corvino’s talk of justice to be hypocritical,
a means of exercising power over people, like Celia, who care about such things.

16.4 Act III

16.4.1 Scene I

The scene is Volpone’s house. This scene consists entirely of a soliloquy by Mosca. He enters, and
expresses fear at his growing narcissism. This increasing self-love is the result of the successful way
he is helping Volpone conduct his con-game. He then discusses what it is to be a “parasite,” presenting
it as an “art” in which most of the world, in fact, takes part: “All the world is little else, in nature,/
But parasites or sub-parasites.”

16.4.2 Scene II

Corbaccio’s son Bonario, enters. Mosca begs to talk to him, but he scorns him, deriding him for
being a parasite. Mosca pleads with him not to be so harsh and asks for his pity. Bonario responds
to Mosca’s plea. But then Mosca informs Bonario that his father has disinherited him. The son does
not believe it at first, but Mosca asks him to follow his lead. He promises to let Bonario see his father
Corbaccio in the act of disinheriting him. They exit the stage together.

Analysis to Scenes I and II

Mosca opens the act with a soliloquy. The soliloquy is an opportunity for villains to speak their
plans and heroes to voice their doubts, and it gives the playwright an opportunity for characterization,
defining the character’s motivations, problems, and quirks. In the case of Mosca, this soliloquy is
especially important in terms of characterization. This is the first time in the play we see Mosca
without Volpone, and most of the things Mosca has said up to this point have been clever lies told
in order to benefit his master. Mosca has remained a very shadowy, elusive character. Jonson does
use the speech for this purpose, but he does it obliquely. And initially he uses the speech to
foreshadow later developments in the play. Mosca is growing increasingly independent in the play;
we just saw him arrange Volpone’s seduction of Celia by himself, and now we have him alone, on
stage. Jonson hints that this increasing independence will be a problem for Volpone. “I fear” are the
first words of the Act, and he worries that he is growing too strong, too confident, too in love with
himself: “I could skip/Out of my skin now, like a subtle snake,/I am so limber.”

The snake, a symbol of temptation, signals danger; and the imagery of transformation,
of slipping out of one’s skin, indicates that Mosca is becoming less satisfied with his identity
as a lackey to Volpone.

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