Volpone; Or, the Fox

Ben Jonson's savage masterpiece plays like a revenge comedy on human nature itself. Volpone, a wealthy Venetian libertine, lies in bed feigning his final illness while a parade of greedy suitors arrives bearing gifts and flattery, each desperate to be named heir to his fortune. With his cunning servant Mosca as orchestrator, Volpone extracts ever-more-outlandish offerings from lawyers, merchants, and nobles, revelling in their humiliation and desperation. But the web of deception grows tangled, and when the fox is finally unmasked, Jonson delivers a conclusion as merciless as it is entertaining. Written in blistering blank verse, this 1607 comedy refuses to look away from the ugly truth that money makes monsters of ordinary people. It endures because Jonson's wit cuts both ways: he despises his characters' greed, but delights in their elaborate foolishness. For readers who enjoy theatre that entertains while it excoriates, that finds comedy in corruption and justice in exposure.