Discuss Volpone as a comedy of humour.

A Comedy of Humours refers to a kind of drama which pictures man as

dominated by one marked characteristic of some kind of whim. It was first
introduced in Gammer Gurton’s Needle and Ralph Roister Doister and Ben
Johnson popularised it in England. The characters in Volpone are square
measure stereotypes. They represent a personality sort instead of a
flesh-and-blood. There are some characters in this play that have physical
abnormalities like Nano, Castrone and Androgyno and nonetheless they’re not
as out of balance as Volpone, Mosca, Voltore, Corvino, Corbaccio, etc.

“Humour”, in the days of Renaissance, was a physiological term for the

four primary fluids of human body: blood (sanguinary), phlegm, choler
(yellow bile), melancholy(black bile). The mixture of these humours was
believed to determine a man’s physical condition as well as his temperament.
For example, dominance of blood makes human sanguine – optimistic,
happy, generous; phlegm makes human phlegmatic – cowardly, pale;
choler makes choleric- hot-tempered, impatient, vindictive; black bile
makes pensive, sentimental, melancholic. In Ben Jonson’s comedies, each
person is regarded as motivated by a predominant humour, or eccentricity of
disposition

Significance of Naming of the characters:

In the darkly comic play by Ben Jonson - “Volpone”, it can be seen that the
naming of characters plays a significant part. The names of the three "suitors"
are given to indicate the way that they are beasts who hope to prey off the
corpse of Volpone. There is the crow, the raven and the vulture, each of whom
hope to inherit the sick Volpone's wealth when he dies. Their greed is
emphasised through their name. Volpone is likewise defined by his greed, but
also by his intelligence in seeking to outwit those who try to trick him. His
name is fox which is excellent in defining his character. This is not restricted
to merely the evil characters. Bonario literally means "good man," and it can
be seen from his bombastic speech and actions that this characteristic is
what defines him.
Volpone’s humour or dominant fluid is blood making him sanguine and
optimistic. He thinks that the three legacy hunters will give him free gifts if he
continues to fake his sickness till they inherit his property. At the very
beginning of the play, he worships gold as his god. Volpone's worshipping of
gold suggests that he is utterly consumed by greed.
Good morning to the day; and next, my gold:
Open the shrine, that I may see my Saint.
Besides greed, he moves on to blasphemy calling his gold a saint. He earns
his wealth by duping the legacy hunters and wants to have sex with beautiful
Celia. He also derives pleasure by tormenting the legacy hunters.

The most important development of characterization is the character of Mosca

whose dominant fluid is blood. Because by the third act of the play Mosca
grows more and more confident and optimistic that he will be the one to inherit
the property of Volpone.
Success hath made me wanton. I could skip
Out of my skin, now, like a subtle snake,
I am so limber. O! your parasite
Is a most precious thing, dropt from above,
Such humour also gives rise to Mosca to plot against certain characters. He
is not only a greedy character but also shows Machiavellian skills such as
the ability to manipulate and trick people. It is shown in the play where he
plots against Corbaccio by telling his son Bonario that his father is going to
disinherit him. He even further manipulates the Lady Politic that her husband
is seen with a prostitute in Gondola. At the end of the play he appears in his
true colours when he tries his best to cheat his master. Thus, he is also
mentally imbalanced.

The character of Corvino has a dominant bodily fluid of choler (yellow

bile)or ill tempered, impatient. He shows the traits of anger out of jealousy at
his wife. When he sees Celia throwing her handkerchief at the hawker and
accuses her of unfaithfulness.
Death of mine honour, with the city's fool!
A juggling, tooth-drawing, prating mountebank
His dominant bodily fluid becomes unstable in a sense that a bad-tempered
man becomes calm when he lets his wife sleep with Volpone after the deal
given by Mosca that he will inherit Volpone’s property. He also denounces his
wife as a whore and says that he has seen his wife with his own eyes in the
act of sexual intercourse with Bonario. Corvino’s calmness and compliance
after hearing the offer establishes his character as the most depraved in the
play who is also greedy and materialistic.

The humours of Sir Politic Would-be and his wife are not inborn but
acquired. The humour of Sir Politic is the pretentious possession of great
political skill and statesmanship. In addition to his political humour, he also
suffers from the humour of a stereotypical traveller, who took note of every
trivial activity during his visit abroad. Lady Politic Would-be is a medley of
many affected humours. She pretends to possess infinite knowledge of
various academic disciplines. Her theory of obsession and possession is a
crude travesty of Platonic thinking. She is also very greedy. To acquire
Volpone's wealth, she is ready to offer her body.

The predominant humour in Volpone is avarice, which afflicts all the legacy
hunters - Voltore, Corbaccio and Corvino. Voltore brings a costly antique
gold plate as a gift to please Volpone. He is so obsessed with money that he
can plead against his Maker if he were paid a fee of six sols more. He often
addresses the judges as "honoured fathers", "your fatherhood", "your
virtues" etc. to gain the sympathy of the judges. Corbaccio, the oldest of
the legacy hunters, agrees to disinherit his own son, Bonario, in order to
inherit Volpone's wealth. Even he refuses to acknowledge Bonario as his son
and calls him "swine, goat, wolf, parricide."

In the play, Volpone, Mosca, Corvino, Corbaccio, Voltore, Sir Politic Would-be
and his wife, all of them do have imbalance in their characters, and this
imbalance makes the play a comedy. This is how comedy of humour
constructs the plays characters and their follies based on their disposition of
bodily fluids and the reaction when it is imbalanced. Each character is peculiar
and singular in his/her own way. Here Jonson shows that the mental
imbalance is more dangerous than physical imbalance as he shows that, the
characters - Nano, Castrone and Androgyno - being physically abnormal, are
better creatures than the earlier ones.

Ben Jonson as a dramatist of comedy of humours always exposes the

bitter reality of the human follies at the end and leaves his play by giving
justice. Volpone was sent to prison and Mosca to slave galley whereas
Corvino was shamed publicly for making his wife turn a prostitute.The
characters in Volpone are stereotypes. All of the characters are imbalanced as
well, so their humours' are out of balance and they thus act in comical ways.
Thus, Volnone is a comedy of humour.

How does the writer satire the contemporary English society in

Volpone?
Ben Jonson's(1572-1637) play "Volpone, or The Fox" is a remarkable
example of social satire in English literature. First performed in 1605, this
Jacobean comedy reflects the social and moral values of its time. It employs
biting satire to critique the prevailing societal norms, human vices, and
corruption. Jonson's Volpone with its sharp wit and keen observations holds a
mirror of the society of his era and offers a scathing commentary on the lust
for wealth and the moral decay that accompanies it. Money-obsessed
society, Greed, lusty desire, women's love of fashion, unethical ways of
professions, and superstitious people are the problems of contemporary
English society.

Money-obsessed Society: In Volpone Jonson satirises the contemporary

money-obsessed society. Almost all the characters in the play are greedy. It
is embodied by Volpone, Mosca, and all the "clients." At the very beginning of
the play, Volpone worships gold as his god. The worshipping of gold was
practised in England though not in its crude form;
Good morning to the day; and next, my gold:
Open the shrine, that I may see my Saint.
Besides greed, he moves on to blasphemy calling his gold a saint. He
believes everything can be purchased in exchange for money. This belief is
obvious in his attempt to seduce Celia by tempting her with his fabulous
wealth.

In one sense, Ben Jonson’s satire of commerce is purely comedic and

ridiculous. Sir Politic Would-Be plans numerous far-fetched entrepreneurial
schemes with the hope of becoming rich, all the while being ridiculed by
Peregrine. But the play also gives a more serious satire in the main plot, in
which money is depicted as dangerous and corrupting.

Greed and Corruption: Venice and Italy in general had a reputation for
commerce but was stereotypically known for greed and corruption, both
moral and political. The Italian men in the play are all corrupted by avarice
meaning greed or excessive desire. According to Jonson, desire itself is not
inherently evil rather it’s avarice becomes morally corrupting. Voltore,
Corbaccio, and Corvino are obsessed with becoming Volpone’s heir
because they hope to inherit his fortune. Their greed is so strong that they
have no regard for Volpone’s life. Voltore, the lawyer, commits perjury and
helps Mosca to deceive the court. Corbaccio is ready to disinherit his own
son to inherit Volpone's wealth. The third suitor, Corvino, turns out to be the
most depraved character in the play. He is prepared to prostitute his own
wife to secure his position as Volpone's heir. To him commercial benefit is
greater than honour,
"Honour? Tut, a breath;
There's no such thing in nature."

Jonson also explores the contemporary gender roles in marriage by

depicting two examples of marriages, one an extreme depiction of an Italian
marriage and the other a comedic English relationship. The Italian
marriage is between Celia and Corvino. Though Celia is virtuous, she is kept
under Corvino’s cruel control. Corvino keeps her indoors almost at all times.
Once he sees Celia throwing her handkerchief at the hawker and accuses her
of unfaithfulness.
Death of mine honour, with the city's fool!
A juggling, tooth-drawing, prating mountebank.
and then he forbids her from even going too close to the window.
On the other hand, Lady Would-Be, the second woman in the play, is the
opposite of Celia. Lady Would-Be is more independent than Celia, which
reinforces the stereotype that married English women were given more
freedom than married Italian women. Lady Would-Be is able to wander
Venice on her own, and she is seen without her husband just as often as with
him.

In Volpone Jonson satirises the contemporary superstitions and beliefs in

quackery and wonder-cures. Before Sir Politic steps out of his house in the
morning, he is careful to throw three beans over the threshold.
Mountebanks are held in high esteem by people like Sir Politic, but they
were also by the nobility and even the royalty. Queen Elizabeth I, for
example, patronised many quacks.

Jonson also satirises women's love of fashion in the play through the
character of Lady Would-be. She imitates fashions, especially those of the
Venetian prostitutes. She not only makes Freudian slips of her tongue but
even makes overtures to Volpone.

Jonson also attacks the lawyers' profession. Mosca tells Voltore that
Volpone has always admired the noble profession of the lawyers because they
can speak in favour of any case, even on the both sides of the same question.
They can make a case very complicated and also can solve the complexity.
They can even offer equivocal(ambiguous) advice. They can give advice for
the case or against it, just to get the money. Voltore is a lawyer. He tries to be
the heir of Volpone by bringing gifts. He supports Volpone illegally in the court
against Bonario. Volpone tries to rape Celia but by Mosca's conspiracy,
Bonario goes there. He has been convicted as Celia's rapist in court by
Voltore's unethical way of profession. Thus, he satirises lawyers.

He also satirises physicians for unethical ways of the profession in the play.
They charge high fees for visiting. He argues that they experiment on patients
and even the law not only supports them but gives great reward. Mosca states
when Corbaccio brought opiates for inducing volpone's sleep from his own
doctor: He has no faith in physic: he does think
Most of your doctors are the greater danger,
And worse disease, to escape.
I often have
Heard him protest, that your physician
Should never be his heir.

The play highlights the power of language and rhetoric in achieving one's
goals. The play begins with the “Argument” and the “Prologue,” both of
which stress the playwright’s mastery of language. Within the play, the skill
that separates Volpone and Mosca from the other characters is a brilliant
ability to use and manipulate language. Volpone even praises Mosca for his
“quick fiction,” when he tries to gull Volpone himself, “Ay, quick, and
cozen(trick) me of all.”

The play also emphasises the importance of language in the court scenes,
in which language is equivalent with truth. Mosca praises the lawyer,
Voltore, at the beginning of the play for his ability to instantly argue on either
side of a case.
I oft have heard him say, how he admired
Men of your large profession, that could speak
To every cause, and things mere contraries.
The legal system thus reinforces what Jonson shows in the Argument and
Prologue and Mosca throughout the play that language is power.

"Volpone" is a quintessential example of social satire. It lampoons the society

of its time, particularly its obsession with wealth, the legal system, and
moral decay. Jonson employs all the satirical elements, like irony, caricature,
and wit, all aimed at exposing the follies and foibles of the Jacobean era. The
play delves into fundamental aspects of human nature, such as ambition,
jealousy, and the desire for status and wealth.
Justify Volpone as a beast fable.

In Volpone, Jonson explores aspects of human nature by comparing

characters to animals. With beastly behaviours, men pervert their essential
nature. They become the animalized characters and turn into half-man and
half-brute creatures. “As men, they duplicate the habits of beasts; as
beasts, they brutishly travesty humanity”. From the ancient animal fable to
animalized figures in Volpone, we witness the power of animal images on
characterization. Under the beastly masks, characters in Volpone present the
diverse features of a fox, a fly, birds of prey, a falcon, and parrots. The animal
images with different features help to characterise and categorise different
human characters.

Volpone is the play’s central figure. His name means sly fox, which is a
perfect allegory for his character, since he spends the entire play joyfully
deceiving Voltore, Corbaccio, and Corvino into believing that each one will be
the sole heir to his fortune, all the while becoming wealthier through them. In
the beast fable, cunning is the most vivid feature for a fox. And the
animalized figure, Volpone, represents this characteristic from his superb
disguise skill. Though Volpone’s pursuits begin as comedic, they eventually
progress to the extreme when Volpone attempts to rape Corvino’s wife,
Celia.

As Volpone’s parasite, Mosca is a special kind of ‘fly’, or “a demonic food

polluter”. Mosca like a fly buzzes around whispering in the ears of all the
other characters in the play. He is Volpone’s parasite, meaning hanger-on,
and he makes his living by doing Volpone’s bidding. Just like the traditional
stage parasites, Mosca knows how to depend on others for financial gains.
Parasitic avarice is the most distinguishable feature of the fly Mosca.

Voltore is a ravenous bird called a vulture, or “a greedy cormorant(a large

diving bird with a long neck, long hooked bill, short legs, and mainly dark plumage. It typically breeds
on coastal cliffs.)”, which is applied metaphorically both to legacy-hunters and
lawyers. With the acute smell, a vulture is always the first one to arrive.
Likewise Voltore is a legacy-hunter and a lawyer and the first one to arrive
bearing gifts for the supposedly dying Volpone hoping to inherit his wealth.
Throughout the play, acuteness is Voltore’s most remarkable feature. He is a
well-spoken lawyer, and Mosca praises him disingenuously(falsely, insincere)
for his ability to speak so well and argue any side of a case.
I oft have heard him say, how he admired
Men of your large profession, that could speak
To every cause, and things mere contraries.

Corbaccio is a “filthy great raven” and also the name of a worm breeding
in horses. The Bible gives instances of ravens neglecting their young ones,
if they did not resemble it, who therefore have to rely on heaven. Similarly, the
animalized character Corbaccio also shows mercilessness when he tries to
disinherit his own son, Bonario, who is so different from his father.

In the sub-plot, the next legacy hunters Sir and Lady Politic Would-be derive
their names from parrots. Lady Politic Would-be is a chattering parrot, which is
well-known for its colourful fur in fable stories. Just like a parrot’s beak,
which is noted for its redness, her nose is red too. The parrot Lady Politic
Would-be represents the vanity feature by overemphasising on her
make-up. Her imitation of the Venetian fashion also fits with her name and
character. Similarly Like a parrot, Sir Politic has no imagination, but he has a
capacity to imitate others.

As for Peregrine, he is a falcon or a haggard hawk that is used in hunting.

Hawks are sacred to Apollo because they “strike ignorance” and “make
fools their quarry”. In the fable tradition, a falcon could be a
complementary extreme to a tortoise. And Peregrine shows vulture-like
over-hastiness in an attempt to strike and expose Sir Pol in the play. Sir Politic
becomes a turtle when he hides himself in the tortoise-shell. Peregrine, like
a hawk, will take the tortoise high in the sky and then throw it on the earth to
break the shell.

Literary devices: The literary devices of the beast fables are satire, allegory,
wit and humour, and dramatic irony. All the devices are prolific in the play
"Volpone". All the characters are allegorical. Sir Politic Would-be is a
symbolic one to attack the high English officials. Volpone's worship of gold
at the very outset of the play is the allegory of religious satire.
"Good morning to the day; and next, my gold:
Open the shrine, that I may see my Saint."
In case of dramatic irony, "Volpone" is starkly similar to Shakespeare's
"Hamlet". Therefore, "Volpone" is a perfect beast fable from the perspective of
literary devices.

Morality: Morality is the predominant purpose of the beast fables. The moral
of the play lies in the trial. All the evildoers who are like beasts are punished
according to their nature of crimes. Volpone is crippled with iron chains in
prison. All his property is given to the hospital and is kept in prison until he
becomes sick. Mosca is beaten by a whip and then sent as a galley slave.
Corbaccio is sent to a monastery where he would learn how to die well and
his son Bonario inherits his property. Voltore is suspended from his profession
and banished from Venice. Corvino must pay three times more money to
Celia which he had taken as dowry. All the wrongdoers are given exemplary
punishments. So, the moral of the story is "Grasp all lose all".

In conclusion, the great satirist and reformer Ben Johnson criticised human
beings for amendment. He is not sympathetic at all in his censure, but his
rebuke is remedial. He attacks greed, hypocrisy, treachery, flattery, lust and
so on by dint of the beast fable technique.

Short Q-1; Comment on the opening scene of Volpone. Or, How

does Volpone commit mortal sin by worshipping his gold?
Volpone'.
The opening scene of 'Volpone' begins with Volpone's worshipping of gold.
The opening scene gives an indication that the play deals with the sin of
avarice. If we judge from a religious and moral point of view, we will notice that
Volpone has committed more than one sin by worship and eulogising gold.

He compares his gold to a saint. Comparing gold to a saint is an act of

blasphemy. He violates the first of the ten commandments of the Bible by
regarding gold as a God “Thou shall worship no gods before me”. In order
to describe the brightness of his gold Volpone makes rference to the first day
of creation. When he says that ‘gold mak’st man do all things’, he is
essentially attributing the divine quality of omnipotence to gold. To him gold
is an all powerful God. Volpone has violated the teaching of the Bible that men
should abstain themselves from worshipping no God but Him.

His worshipping of gold makes the fact clear that he has an insatiable thirst for
gold. Later on we see that he makes gold by duping others and getting
everybody involved in the legacy hunting competition. He has committed the
sin of greed and cheating others. Cheating others is a crime.

Gold provokes men to do and undo all things. Gold gives Volpone power,
honour and fame. Therefore, he has committed the sin of pride as well.

Again, he compares the glitters of gold with the brilliance of the Roman
goddess of Venus. Volpone even goes so far as to call gold the "dumb god
that giv'st all men tongues”. But his religious allusions are not monotheistic
but polytheistic. Thus, he has deviated from the Christian monotheistic
belief. He has committed the sin of polytheism.

Volpone is morally corrupt, psychologically cracked and spiritually

bankrupt. He has misguided man's purposes on the earth. He has misled
everybody by getting them involved in the competition of hunting for gold and
wealth. He becomes the priest of the shrine of his shelf of gold and the gold
itself is the god. He has committed many of the deadly carnal sins by
worshipping gold.

2; How do the evil doers get their punishment at the end play
'Volpone'?
In the prologue of 'Volpone' Jonson has clarified his stand of providing mirth
and message to his audience through this play. Jonson aims to combine
instruction and entertainment in Volpone. His aim yields in allotting
punishment to the evil. Volpone, Mosca, Corbaccio, Corvino, Lady Would Be
and Voltore are evils by nature. They are greedy and selfish people. They
have taken part in outwitting each other in the competition of legacy Punting.
Volpone and Mosca dupe the legacy hunters. On the other hand Volpone and
Mosca try to dupe each other. Because of their greed for wealth two innocent
people Bonario and Celia have suffered humiliation and imprisonment.

Finally, Volpone fell into the well which he dug for others. When the
villainous plots of Mosca and Volpone were exposed to the court, the court
punished them all. The court punished Mosca, the chief agent of all the
mischievous activities to be whipped and to be kept as slave in the galley
permanently. The court confiscated Volpone's wealth to be donated to the
hospitals of the incurable. He was ordered to be chained and imprisoned
for life long. Voltore was from the guild of lawyers so he was punished for
destroying the image of the legal profession. He was banished from Venice.

Corbaccio's properties were given to his son Bonario and he was sent to the
monastery of the Holy spirit. He had to stay there until he died. Corvino
would be rowed around Venice by wearing a cap and long ears of an ass
to expose his crime. He would have to stand at the pillory, a place where
criminals are exhibited. He was also ordered to give the dowry thrice the
amount taken from his wife Celia during the marriage ceremony. The court
ordered Bonario and Celia to be released. Celia was sent to her father's
house.

Thus, all evil doers got their dues for their crimes they committed at the end of
the play. The court called upon everybody to learn a lesson from the play. The
good must win over the evil. The evil must be punished.

3; How does Volpone earn money and gold? [N.U. 2015, '18] Or,
How does Volpone extract more and more gifts from the legacy
hunters?
Cunning Volpone applies a tricky technique to earn money and gold. Volpone
does not have any heir. He does not earn money by doing any traditional job.
He has land properties but he does not cultivate them to earn his livelihood.
He has not invested money in any business or in any industry to multiply
his profits. He does not have any merchant-ship engaged in export-import
business through sea routes. He does not lend money on interest.
Nevertheless he earns money.

Discarding all these traditional ways of earning money, he has adopted a very
subtle, intriguing way to extract money from the legacy hunters. Volpone does
not have any legal or biological descendants. He lies down on his bed and
pretends to be sick and dying. Intrigued by Mosca, people bring him money,
gold and other valuable gifts with the prospect of inheriting his properties after
he dies. Thus, he has invented a very tricky method to exploit people. Mosca
holds hope forth to them that their presents will come back to them worth ten
times. Greedy people compete with each other in presenting Volpone gifts.

Volpone and Mosca entice them to bring more gifts. They assure each legacy
hunters privately that it is he whom Volpone is going to nominate the heir.
They keep the greedy legacy hunters waiting to grasp the bait. They come to
present Volpone more and more gifts. Volpone exploits them until they hunt.
When they come to bite the bait Volpone takes the bait away like a
suspended cherry in the game of cherry biting competition. He plays with
the fish. He infuses hope in them and the very next one, frustrates them by
mollifying their hopes. Thus, Volpone dupes the legacy hunters by extruding
money and gold from them.