Plot Summary: Volpone, by Ben Jonson Essay

Ben Johnson was an Elizabethan English poet, dramatist and actor. A peer of William Shakespeare, Johnson was born in 1572 and died 65 years recentr. He was a man of extraordinary literary talents and notwithstanding the fact that he didnt go to university he was acknowledged as one of the most learned hands of his day. He was friends with many of the former(a) well known Elizabethan writers like Bacon, Shakespeare and Donne in fact, Shakespeare even acted in the 1616 production of Johnsons play Every Man in His surliness. Johnson is best known for his poems and satirical plays, of which the 1606 Volpone is considered to be one of his best examples it is a comedy/satire about avarice and lustThe play micturates rear over 24 hours in seventeenth-century Venice, and opens at the home of a overlord from the city Volpone (the fox). Seemingly, this nobleman is actually a con creative person who has gained his impressive wealth by means of deception and other dishonest ways. As th e play starts, Volpone is with his servant Mosca entering the shrine where Volpone keeps all his wealth and treasures.The reviewer learns that Volpone is about to deceive yet more people as he tries to trick his alleged friends Voltore (the vulture), Corbaccio (the raven) and Corvino (the crow) into believing that severally is Volpones heir and that he is actually on his shoemakers lastbed. What these three men do not know is that Volpone is in perfect health and deceit his illness to receive pricy get well gifts from these probability hunters.Mosca, Volpones parasite tells each of the men individually that they are heir to Volpones fortune so that they will return with yet more gifts. Voltore, who is a lawyer by trade, offers the decease man a gift an expensive platter, the old gentleman. Corbaccio is talked into disinheriting his son Bonario by Volpone and Mosca in favour of Volpone Corbaccio thinking that Volpone is dying is not concerned about this. This leaves the third man Corvino, a penny-pinch merchant with a beautiful young wife, Celia, whom he guards closely nonetheless despite him being such a jealous husband his voracity lead him to proffer Celia to Volpone to take to his bed and to be a nourish to him as he lies dying.When Volpone attempts to force himself on Corvinos young wife, he is interrupted by the appearance of Corbaccios son, Bonario. Celia and Bonario, but the three fortune hunters (scared of Volpone losing his wealth which they each think will soon be theirs take out counter-charges against the young couple of adultery and fornication.Volpone loves the chaos that he has caused and so decides to make more sport for himself by staging his own death and leaving everything to Mosca, just so that he is able to witness the havoc that will occur. Mosca, however, as he prepares for a large and expensive funeral for his late employer, has less and less to do with Volpone. Mosca also is suddenly elevated from his minuscule position to a man of wealth, an eligible bachelorAs Volpone watches the changes in his old servant, he decides to come clean and expose his own evil as well as that of everyone else in the matter servant. When the truth is learned, the decide take away all of Volpones wealth and give it to pilot ladder the lawyer Voltore is barred from court, all of Corbaccios fortune is given to his son, Corvino is paraded through Venice and derided, Celia is returned to her family taking with her three times the amount of dowry that she took to her husband and Mosca is sentenced to a life in the galleys for masquerading as a man of substance.