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Major Plays
Every Man in His Humor is not Jonson's greatest but
probably his most influential play. It was first acted by the Lord
Chamberlain's Men in 1598, and was entered in the Stationers' Register on
August 4, 1600. It was printed in 1601. In this version, the scene was in
Florence and the leading characters had Italian names. Later Jonson
carefully revised it in the 1616 folio. The scene was moved to London, the
characters were given English names and were more individualized. The
expression in general was much changed.
For Jonson, this probably violated the principle of
politeness because it was not fit to such a gathering. Jonson invented the
plot by himself. He drew hints from Chapman's An Humorous Day's Mirth
(1599). From Plautine comedy he got the suggestion that a pair of elderly
persons were cheated and outwitted by a pair of clever, young men. He kept
the unity of tone, and the unities of time, place, and action.
Perhaps Jonson was influenced by the success of Shakespeare's
Julius Caesar. Or maybe because the public warmly welcomed the
political tragedy about the conspiracy and trial of Essex, Jonson turned
from the Comic Muse to a writer of Roman tragedy. Sejanus was
performed by the King’s Men at the Globe before the end of 1603. And
Shakespeare was among the actors. In November 2, 1604, the play was entered
in the Stationers' Register, and published in 1605. Jonson said in his
address that someone else wrote some passages in the first version of the
play. Later Jonson rewrote the play, so we had no idea which passages were
written by others, and by whom. Chapman might probably was the one.
Volpone was finished in five weeks early in 1606.
It was performed by the King's Men at the Globe in the summer and autumn of
1606 at both universities. It was published in 1607/8. The play is not
confined only to follies, as were the earlier comedies, but includes crimes.
As Coleridge remarks, "there is no goodness of heart in any of the prominent
characters." However, Jonson was popular again because of Volpone.
Before that, he was less favored because the audience poorly received
Sejanus. The latter play had taught him the necessity of a closely-knit
plot and the value of Roman history as a source. Legacy-hunting was frequent
in Roman literature. Jonson was impressed because he could make good use of
the cheating and fraud.
The Alchemist was Jonson's most popular and most
perfect play. It was entered in the Stationers' Register on October 3, 1610,
and published in 1612. It was written during the plague season of 1610 for
performance before Londoners who, like Lovewit, would return to their homes
after all danger of infection had passed. The practice of alchemy was as
common at that time as it had been in the Middle Ages. The exposures of
cheating were so frequent in life as well as in literature that it has been
impossible to find any source for this aspect of the play. From Plautus'
Mostellaria he may have got the quarrel scene at the opening of the play and
the idea of the unexpected return of the owner of a house in which bad men
are carrying on their practices. He may have taken certain little
suggestions from Plautus' Pœnulus and Erasmus' dialogue on the alchemist.
Professor Child's suggestion of Giordano Bruno's Il Candelaio (1582) as a
source has not won general acceptance. The creation of the play shows the
ability of the master. All the unities are strictly observed. The action
takes place in a single day at a house in the Black friars district of
London. While the three secret plans are different, each is a unit in
itself. They are prompted by similar motives, are presented by one comic
tone, and are related to the general plan. Worries about the outcome of the
play increase all the time until the very end of the play.
Volpone takes place in seventeenth-century Venice, over the course of one
day. The play opens at the house of Volpone, a Venetian nobleman. He and his
“parasite” Mosca—part slave, part servant—enter the place where Volpone
keeps his gold. Volpone has his fortune, we learn, through dishonest means:
he is a fake artist. And we also learn that he likes to use his money
without consideration.
Soon, we see Volpone’s latest con in action. For the last three years, he
has been attracting the interest of three legacy hunters: Voltore, a lawyer;
Corbaccio, an old gentleman; and Corvino, a merchant—individuals interested
in inheriting his estate after he dies. Volpone is known to be rich, and he
is also known to be childless, have no natural heirs.
In the first act, each legacy hunter arrives to present a gift to Volpone,
except for Corbaccio, who offers only a worthless (and probably poisoned)
vial of medicine. But Corbaccio agrees to return later in the day to make
Volpone his heir, so that Volpone will return the favor. This act is a gift
to Volpone, since Corbaccio, will die long before Volpone does. After each
hunter leaves, Volpone and Mosca laugh at each other. The wife of an English
knight living in Venice, arrives at the house but is told to come back three
hours later. And Volpone decides that he will try to get a close look at
Corvino's wife, Celia, who Mosca describes as one of the most beautiful
women in all of Italy. She is kept under lock and key by her husband, who
has ten guards on her at all times, but Volpone desires to meet her.
The second act portrays Sir Politic and Peregrine are walking in the public
square in front of Corvino's house and are interrupted by the arrival of "Scoto
Mantua," actually Volpone in disguise as an Italian medicine-show man. Scoto
engages in a long and colorful speech. At the end of the speech, he asks the
crows to toss him their handkerchiefs, and Celia complies. Corvino arrives,
just as she does this, and Corvino is jealous and angry. Volpone goes home
and says it is sick for him to have interests in Celia, and Mosca promises
to deliver her to Volpone. Corvino scolds his wife being a whore. At the
time Mosca then arrives, telling Corvino that if he lets Celia sleep with
Volpone, then Volpone will choose him as his heir. Suddenly, Corvino's
jealousy disappears, and he says yes to the offer.
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