Volpone and The Alchemist
Ben Jonson
- 256 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Volpone and The Alchemist
Ben Jonson
About This Book
Much-studied and frequently performed, these comedies by the great Elizabethan playwright Ben Jonson satirize the greed, mendacity, gullibility, and pretension of seventeenth-century London society. Both plays abound in colorful characters, ingenious plotting, biting wit, and sharp insight into human nature.
In Volpone (1605), a crafty rich man attempts to augment his wealth by feigning a mortal illness. His wealthy neighbors, spying the opportunity for an inheritance, vie with each other in courting the "dying" man's favor. The Alchemist (1610) comprises a likewise avaricious cast, headed by a butler and prostitute who join forces with a swindler claiming to possess the philosopher's stone. The trio hosts a parade of eager victims whose hypocrisy and greed place them on a moral footing similar to that of the tricksters. Both plays offer sparkling examples of their author's novel approach to satire and his distinctive blend of savagery, humor, moralism, and a powerful sense of the absurd.
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The Alchemist
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
FACE, the House-keeper.
DOL COMMON, their colleague.
DAPPER, a [Lawyerâs] clerk.
DRUGGER, a Tobacco-man.
LOVEWIT, Master of the House.
[SIR] EPICURE MAMMON, a Knight.
[PERTINAX] SURLY, a Gamester.
TRIBULATION [WHOLESOME], a Pastor of Amsterdam.
ANANIAS, a Deacon there.
KASTRILL, the angry boy.
DAME PLIANT, his sister, a Widow.
Neighbours.
Officers, Mutes.
TO THE READER
ARGUMENT
H is house in town, and left one servant there.
E ase him corrupted, and gave means to know
A Cheater and his punk;197 who now brought low,
L eaving their narrow practice, were become
C ozâners198 at large; and only wanting some
H ouse to set up, and with him they here contract,
E ach for a share, and all begin to act.
M uch company they draw, and much abuse,
I n casting figures, telling fortunes, news,
S elling of flies,199 flat bawdry, with the stone,200
T ill it, and they, and all in fume201 are gone.
PROLOGUE
We wish away, both for your sakes and ours,
Judging spectators; and desire in place,
To thâ author justice, to ourselves but grace.
Our scene is London, âcause we would make known,
No countryâs mirth is better than our own.
No clime breeds better matter for your whore,
Bawd, squire, impostor, many persons more,
Whose manners, now callâd humours, feed the stage;
And which have still been subject for the rage
Or spleen of comic writers. Though this pen
Did never aim to grieve, but better men;
Howeâer the age he lives in doth endure
The vices that she breeds, above their cure.
But when the wholesome remedies are sweet,
And, in their working gain and profit meet,
He hopes to find no spirit so much diseasâd,
But will with such fair correctives be pleasâd.
For here he doth not fear who can apply.
If there be any that will sit so nigh
Unto the stream, to look what it doth run,
They shall find things, theyâd think, or wish, were done;
They are so natural follies, but so shown,
As even the doers may see, and yet not own.