Ben Johnson's Volpone , and the Gunpowder Treason part one

                                           Volpone ( first performed  1606 ) 

Have been reading'Ben Jonson,Volpone and the Gunpowder Plot' by Richard Dutton (Cambridge University Press, 2008). In some respects, such a study is a paradox :Volpone's greatest strength is that it is basically a fable that exposes greed and folly, therefore has a timeless appeal . I am not necessarily convinced that 'Volpone' is directly connected to the Gunpowder Treason. But a valuable work nevertheless.

                 

               ' Volpone'  Illustration by Aubrey Beardsley,1898. Courtesy Wikipedia Netherlands, 

Ben Jonson was quite a personality.  A scholar, a builder's apprentice, a soldier, actor, playwright, poet. An Anglican who became a Catholic for a number of years, then changed his mind. He killed at least two other men, one who was  fellow actor Gabriel Spencer in 1598. Jonson was nearly executed as a result, but plead benefit of clergy and got away with just having his left thumb branded. He was jailed twice due to the contents of his plays  ( 1597 and 1605),  but also wrote  masques for the  Court of King James and Queen Anna, going on to become one of the most important poets and playwrights of his age.  Jonson even walked from London to Edinburgh in 1618. RIGG, MACDONALD

Ben Jonson's 'Volpone', written in some 30 days at the end of 1605/start of 1606, is his most studied and performed play. Its first performance would have been in the  middle of March 1606. Is also one of the major comedies from the early 17th century. Set in Venice, Volpone ('cunning Fox') schemes and plots to increase his considerable wealth, working with his equally crafty servant Mosca ('The Fly'). Volpone pretends to be so sick that he is hovering near death's door. Three equally greedy individuals Voltore ( 'Vulture' -who is a lawyer) , Corbaccio ( 'Raven' -an old gentleman) and finally Corvino   ( 'Crow' -a merchant) visit Volpone, taking  it in  turns to bring expensive gifts, like a twisted parody of the Three Wise Men of the Bible.

All are  hoping that Volpone will be so touched by their kindness that he will make them a major beneficiary of his will. Mosca plays the would be beneficiaries against each other, implying that they each have some unique chance of inheriting Volpone's wealth.

Volpone treats his treasure like holy relics and gloats at how wealthy he is.  Act 1 Scene 1 opens with him stating

"Good morning to the day, and next my gold;
Open the shrine, that I may see my saint.
Haile the worlds soule, and mine. More glad then is 
The teeming earth, to see the long's for Sunne."

Volpone is  supposedly unmarried, initially claims to have no children. Transpires later that he has three illegitimate offspring,  Nano ( a dwarf) and Astrogeno (a hermaphrodite) and Castrone  (a eunuch) . Volpone is also capable of convincing disguises, most notably appearing as a mountebank selling false medicines to get near to the house of a woman he is attracted to. 

The three would-be beneficiaries stumble into the depth of depravity to gain Volpone's favour. Corvino  even attempts to force his wife Cecilia  to sleep with Volpone to gain the lion's share of the inheritance. Corbaccio is persuaded to  disinherit his son in favour of Volpone. Cecilia is rescued from having to be intimate with Volpone by Corbaccio's son. 

And everything comes crashing down,  Mosca and Volpone themselves become  increasingly desperate as they face being exposed and scheme against each other.  Volpone, Mosca, and the three hopeful inheritors face the condemnation of the City authorities. Their antics  are finally revealed, and all  are subject to humiliation and punishment. Mosca is to be whipped and ordered to serve in the galleys for the rest of his life. The Court's verdict on Volpone

...".is that thy substance all be straight confiscate
To the hospitall, of the Incurabali 

And, since the most was gottten by imposture,

By faining lame, gout, palsey, and such diseases,

Thou are to lie in prison, crampt with irons,

Till thou bee'st sicke, and lame indeed. "

The sense of irony is marvellous. The poor souls who really are afflicted by  incurable conditions can gain from Volpone's seized wealth, whilst he will be slowly lamed by leg irons and whatever disease that emerges in prison. 

Whether one agrees or disagrees with St Paul's maxim 'For the love of money is the root of all evil' ( 1 Timothy, 6 10), nearly everyone enjoys a drama where charmless greedy people fail. Especially when they are trying to obtain even more wealth .  Whilst no text is created in a vacuum and must to some degree soak up influences of the era of its creation, anchoring 'Volpone' to the historical events that dominated 1606 may detract from its universal appeal. 

There are a couple of interesting minor characters , Lord and Lady  Politic Would-Be, who are visiting from England, and encounter Peregrine, a gentleman traveller. The names raise a smile, and almost predicts Thackery. Lady Would-Be is introduced to Volpone whilst he is feigning sickness, and drives him mad with her incessant advice on what medicines he should be taking. Then tries to discuss Italian literature with him. There are allusions to plots back home when Lord Would-Be meets another Englishman in Venice, Peregrine. Yet the intrigues discussed seem more like curiosities, along with a whale appearing in the Thames. It is even possible to perform 'Volpone' whilst cutting these characters out altogether. 

Professor Dutton makes some interesting observations concerning England's view of Venice. ( Seems very unlikely that Jonson visited Italy).  Other plays with a Venetian connection include  Shakespeare's 'Merchant of Venice' and 'Othello' , but also John Webster's 'The White Devil' opens in the city. Jacobean drama specialist Gamini Salgado suggested that the Jacobean dramatists view of Italy was more akin to the 15th century, than early 17th century reality. Yet Professor Dutton presents  Venice as having a contemporary appeal to Jonson. As well as permitting more licentious behaviour, there was less censorship imposed by the authorities. Of course Venice was also associated with trade, banking and the pursuit of wealth. DUTTON

  

        'Juno showering Venice with Gifts' Paulo Veronese (1528-1588) , courtesy Wikipedia Commons. 

Richard Dutton's work is quite academic and sometimes draws on obscure texts such as John Day's 'Isle of the Gull's , along with writings by Pythagoras, He also makes a valiant attempt to drawn in Edmund Spenser's ' Mother Hubbard', sources which are not easily accessible, even now in the digital age.  

There is a possibility that 'Volpone' is an attack on Robert Cecil the Secretary of State who is said to have exposed the Gunpowder Treason, the Fox himself being modelled on Cecil.  Yet as we shall in the second half of this piece, Cecil and Jonson appeared to have reached an accord by the time Volpone was being written. The book raises some interesting points concerning the relationship between writers and whoever was commissioning their work, noting the tensions that could emerge. Being a playwright was a very new occupation and not financially secure, therefore reliant on the wealth and goodwill of others. 

One contention with the Volpone/Cecil model  is that Volpone worships money, and nothing else besides. Cecil certainly collected titles and mansions, but he was capable of serving both Queen Elizabeth and later James I, in an almost grovelling manner. He was and still is better known as the 'beagle' rather than the 'fox'. Moreover, Cecil followed-or perhaps genuinely believed- that he followed the best interests of  the Anglican Church and England itself. This is not how Volpone operates As  he confesses in Act 1, scene 1 

...."Yet I glory
More in the cunning purchase of my wealth
Than in the glad possession, since I gain
No Common way; I use no trade, no venture:
I wound no earth with ploughshares, fat no beasts, 
To feed the shambles; have no mills 
for iron ". 

Volpone  thus serves nobody but himself, and desires the most wealth for the least effort. Unlike Cecil, Volpone will not be a beast of burden. Cecil seemed to relish titles, but also political power. Volpone does not give any impression of wanting responsibility or holding positions of authority. Certainly Jonson's recent biographer Ian Donaldson is not so convinced by an explicit connection being made. DONALDSON

We shall explore Jonson's role in the Gunpowder Treason and his complex authorities in the next post. 

To be continued. 

Links

Ben Jonson's Volpone, adapted by Martin Foreman  Accessed on 10th April 2022 via Youtube  . Has changed the gender of two leading characters and modernised the text somewhat. 

Volpone or the Fox Lopez Community Theatre 2013 Accessed via  Vimeo on 10th April  2022

Books 

'Ben Jonson -A Life' Ian Donaldson, Oxford University Press, 2012

'Ben Jonson, Volpone and the Gunpowder Plot' , Richard Dutton, Cambridge University Press, 2008

'Ben Jonson A Literary Life , W.David Kay, Macmillan, 1995 

'Ben Jonson A Life' , David Rigg, Havard University Press, 1989

'The Broadview Anthology of British Literature- The Renaissance and Early Seventeenth Century'. Broadview Press, 2006, 

Other Blogs  by Michael Bully (Updated 8th October 2024)

Bleak Chesney Wold  19th Century History and Literature blog 

World war 2 Poetry   In the process of being revived, last post was May 2024.

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Thank you to all visitors to the Blog from around the world. Hope that you can all  stay safe and well during these turbulent times. 

Michael Bully

Brighton 

11th April 2022.