Page 206 - DENG403_BRITISH_DRAMA

British Drama

Notes of Voltore’s story, and demand that Bonario and Celia be taken away and separated. They apologize
to Volpone for disturbing him, and express outrage at the “deceit” of Bonario and Celia. Mosca then
congratulates Voltore on his work. He assuages Corvino, who is still worried that Voltore will get
part of Volpone’s fortune. And he demands that Corbaccio pay Voltore. Corbaccio and Voltore
leave, and Mosca then assures Lady Politic Would-be that, due to her support today, she will in fact
be made Volpone’s principal heir.

Analysis to Scene IV-Scene VI

The Fourth Act is marked by Volpone’s near complete disappearance for the play; Mosca takes his
place as the driving force behind the plot. Though Mosca has been central throughout the entire
play, in the Fourth Act he truly becomes an independent character, arranging to have Lady Politic
Would-be testify against Celia. Volpone’s absence in the Act can be seen as a symbol of the growing
distance between him and the audience; with his attempted rape, he gives up his claim to our
sympathy, and this is symbolized by temporarily giving up his place in the play. Mosca fills the
vacuum left by Volpone’s absence; and his sidekick role is in turn taken up by Voltore. This shift in
the focus of the play emphasizes Mosca’s independence from Volpone; Mosca now can carry the
plot by himself. And this increased independence from Volpone, in terms of the ability to drive the
play forward, foreshadows the play’s next Act, where Mosca will actually try to usurp Volpone’s
role in society. Mosca and Voltore’s triumph over Celia and Bonario in The Scrutineo represents the
triumph of stagecraft over truth. We can think of the Scrutineo as the stage on which they operate.
The Scrutineo was the Venetian Senate-building; the Senate was the head governing body of the
Venetian state. As already discussed, the Venetian state was a symbol of decadence and deceit; and
the Scrutineo, as its center of power, would have had a very strong association with illusion and
deceit. Furthermore, it is easy to imagine the scene being staged in such a way that the audience in
the theatre could become part of the audience at the Scrutineo, thus making the audience direct
spectators of the drama unfolding between the characters, and turning the Scrutineo into an actual
theatre, with real patrons.

Illustrate the Mosca’s independence from Volpone and his role to carry the plot by
himself.
The way Voltore and Mosca go about creating their illusion has similarities with the way playwrights
go about creating theirs, using words and images in a dramatic manner. They do not simply tell a
lie; they tell a story. Voltore weaves a tale for the Senate full of characters one might expect to find
in a sensationalistic play; the treacherous wife (Celia), the murderous, deceitful, son (Bonario), the
innocent, betrayed husband (Corvino) and the deceived father (Corbaccio). Corvino’s frequent
interjections of salacious details about Celia—“these eyes/Have seen her glued unto that piece of
cedar/That fine well-timbered gallant” increases the dramatic tension of the scene, which culminates
in a couple of suprising “plot twists”: Lady Politic Would-be’s condemnation of Celia and Volpone’s
sudden arrival, looking ill and impotent. The objections of Bonario and Celia are incorporated into
Voltore’s narrative, much like the villain into the plot of a play; Voltore uses verbal irony, a device
Jonson loved, to ridicule Bonario’s suggestion that Volpone be tested for deceit: “Best try him, then,
with goads or burning irons;/Put him to the strappado: I have heard,/The rack hath cured the
gout.” Bonario’s comment is framed as just the type of thing a murderous, sick individual like him
would say—just the type of dialogue that he would speak. The audience of this play within the play
is composed of the four Avocatori, and their increasing anger mirrors our increasing anger; except
that we know their anger is based on false beliefs. When one judge observes that “’tis a pity two
such prodigies should live,” his statement is an example of dramatic irony. He intends to refer to
Celia and Bonario, but we know that the statement much better describes Volpone and Mosca. A

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