Page 200 - DENG403_BRITISH_DRAMA

British Drama

Notes his bad dream, discussing the various Italian poets and their relative strengths and weaknesses,
before giving a brief lecture on the value of philosophy when dealing with mental disturbances. By
the end of the scene, Volpone is begging to be rescued.

16.4.5 Scene V

Volpone’s prayers to be rescued from Lady Politic are answered when Mosca finally returns. Volpone
demands that he find a way to get rid of Lady Politic. Mosca quickly decides to tell Lady Politic that
he recently saw Sir Politic rowing upon the waters of Venice in a gondola with a courtesan. Sir
Politic was actually conversing with Peregrine, the young English traveler, but Lady Politic believes
Mosca completely and runs off to search for her husband with the dwarf. Mosca then informs Volpone
that Corbaccio is about to arrive, so as to make Volpone his heir; Volpone thanks Mosca for his help
and lies down to rest.

Analysis to Scenes III to V
Lady Politic Would-be was identified by her husband, Sir Politic, as the reason the couple came to
Venice in the first place, and she serves as his female counterpart in her vanity, continuously minding
her appearance and her clothes. She has a bad “reputation.” She is the female example of why
English people should never go to Italy unprepared, and the moral decadence they can fall into
once they reach there. She also embodies the dangers of becoming too engrossed in Italian culture;
“I have read them all”, she says, after listing off seven Italian poets after Volpone mentions a poet
who lived in Plato’s time and said that the highest grace of women is silence (quoting the poet
Sophocles, who lived in Ancient Greece, like Plato, not Renaissance Italy). She discusses the poet
Aretine openly, who is well known for his erotic and obscene poems. To Volpone and the Elizabethan
audience, she has obviously missed the benefit of poetry, which is to learn handy maxims such as
that woman should be quiet.

English people should never go to Italy unprepared, illustrate this statement in context
to Lady Politic.

The idea of satirizing a woman for talking too much and fussing over her appearance are considered
are fairly tired clichés and are also sexist. After all, Volpone and Mosca talk a great deal, and no one
thinks they should be quiet. There is no threat to Volpone’s reputation because of his desire to sleep
with Celia. But though it perpetuates some negative stereotypes about women, the conversation’s
comedy is also based on a trait she shares in common with her husband; she desires to be seen as
knowledgeable, to fit in and impress others, and like with her husband, this desire backfires
completely. Both because of the fact she talks so much that those around her feel exhausted,
intimidated and painfully bored; also because of her obliviousness to those feelings of scorn and
contempt and to the fact that she knows much less than she says.

Example: Her mistake in not realizing that Plato lived nearly two thousand years before any
of the poets she names; her inability to pick up on the fact that Volpone’s praising of Sophocles’
quote is a hint that she should be silent herself; or her failure to realize that when Volpone talks
about his “dream” of having his house torn apart by a “strange fury”, that he is referring to her. The
tone of the scene is farcical-like a farce, it is dominated by extreme, exaggerated, over-the-top behavior
from the characters for humorous effect. The extremely light-hearted tone of this scene contrasts
with the seriousness of the next few scenes, emphasizing the upcoming shift in tone toward
seriousness.

194 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY