Ben Jonson's "Volpone"

The month is almost over and I've only posted one legitimate entry. Where did all the time go?

As you know every month I write about at least one non-Shakespearean play. I had just finished reading "Volpone," by Ben Jonson, Shakespeare's contemporary and the author of such works as "The Alchemist" and "Barthlowmew Fair," neither of which I have read and only learned about from Wikipedia. If I know anything about Jonson, it is that he wrote his plays for publication rather than for performance, which is pretty much the opposite of what makes drama good, in my book, anyway. The anthology from which I read "Volpone" calls him--not one of the greatest, but--the greatest comedy playwright of his time. Perhaps they forgot about Shakespeare.

It would be unfair to compare every playwright from this period to Shakespeare, especially if the comparison is made by me, who considers Shakespeare--not one of the greatest, but--the greatest writer of all time. So I won't; instead I want to compare Jonson to Molière, whose masterpiece "Tartuffe" I enjoyed not too long ago. I find that the format of Jonson's comedy is very much similar to that of Molière's--there are lots of characters whose lives and personal affairs happen to be intertwined with each others'; the difference is that Molière's humor is much wittier, and behind the hilarious story there is actually great intelligence hidden underneath. "Volpone," a morality play, is rather overt in the way it presents its lesson and therefore making it heavy-handed and unimpressive.

"Volpone" or "The Fox," is a story about a wealthy man who pretends to be terminally ill in order to lure his friends to visit him and shower him with presents, hoping that once he dies they will inherit his fortunes. His servant Mosca spends most of the play running around helping his master deceive these men. Will Volpone get caught? Will he be punished for his deception? Read and find out.

As a Shakespeare and Renaissance reader, I am not unfamiliar with the five-act format. However, "Volpone" lacks the beautiful and intelligent language necessary to carry its lengthy speeches and dialogues. The writing is bland and boring. It has many characters, most of whom underdeveloped, making them easily forgettable.

Perhaps it would be more pleasurable to see this play performed as opposed to reading it; I can see how talented comedy actors can make these characters and scenarios interesting. As a reading material, however, very little joy derives from it. The moral of the story--lie and you'll get caught--is so simple it makes me wonder why anybody would go out of their way to write a five-act play just to prove it. I know, it's the style of the time, but still--am I wrong to expect a little more intelligence from this?

As a rival, Jonson's got nothing on Shakespeare. So stay tuned for my entry on Shakespeare's "Henry IV Part II" hopefully sometime before the month ends.