SPEN102

POSTGRADUATE COURSE
M.A. ENGLISH
FIRST YEAR
FIRST SEMESTER

CORE PAPER - II

DRAMA - I

INSTITUTE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION

UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS
M.A. ENGLISH CORE PAPER - II
FIRST YEAR - FIRST SEMESTER DRAMA - I

WELCOME
Warm Greetings.

It is with a great pleasure to welcome you as a student of Institute of Distance

Education, University of Madras. It is a proud moment for the Institute of Distance education
as you are entering into a cafeteria system of learning process as envisaged by the University
Grants Commission. Yes, we have framed and introduced Choice Based Credit
System(CBCS) in Semester pattern from the academic year 2018-19. You are free to
choose courses, as per the Regulations, to attain the target of total number of credits set
for each course and also each degree programme. What is a credit? To earn one credit in
a semester you have to spend 30 hours of learning process. Each course has a weightage
in terms of credits. Credits are assigned by taking into account of its level of subject content.
For instance, if one particular course or paper has 4 credits then you have to spend 120
hours of self-learning in a semester. You are advised to plan the strategy to devote hours of
self-study in the learning process. You will be assessed periodically by means of tests,
assignments and quizzes either in class room or laboratory or field work. In the case of PG
(UG), Continuous Internal Assessment for 20(25) percentage and End Semester University
Examination for 80 (75) percentage of the maximum score for a course / paper. The theory
paper in the end semester examination will bring out your various skills: namely basic
knowledge about subject, memory recall, application, analysis, comprehension and
descriptive writing. We will always have in mind while training you in conducting experiments,
analyzing the performance during laboratory work, and observing the outcomes to bring
out the truth from the experiment, and we measure these skills in the end semester
examination. You will be guided by well experienced faculty.

I invite you to join the CBCS in Semester System to gain rich knowledge leisurely at
your will and wish. Choose the right courses at right times so as to erect your flag of
success. We always encourage and enlighten to excel and empower. We are the cross
bearers to make you a torch bearer to have a bright future.

With best wishes from mind and heart,

DIRECTOR

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M.A. ENGLISH CORE PAPER - II
FIRST YEAR - FIRST SEMESTER DRAMA - I

COURSE WRITER

Dr. Usha Sadasivan, M.A. (Eng.) M.A. (MCJ) M.Phil. Ph.D.

Head, Department of English
Meenakshi College for Women
Chennai - 600 024.

COORDINATION AND EDITING

Dr. V. Meena Kumari, M.A. (Eng.) M.A. (J.M.C) M.Phil., Ph.D.,

Associate Professor, Deparment of English
Anna Adarsh College for Women,
Chennai - 600 040.

Dr. S. Thenmozhi
Associate Professor
Department of Psychology
Institute of Distance Education
University of Madras
Chepauk Chennnai - 600 005.

© UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS, CHENNAI 600 005.

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 M.A. DEGREE COURSE

ENGLISH

FIRST YEAR

FIRST SEMESTER

Core Paper - II

DRAMA - I

SYLLABUS

Objectives of the Course

The objective of this paper is to acquaint the students with the origin of drama in
Britain and the stages of its evolution in the context of theater and culture through a study
of representative texts from the Elizabethan and Jacobean Periods..

Course Outline

UNIT I

Beginnings of Drama Everyman Miracle and Morality Plays –

UNIT 2

The Senecan and Revenge Tragedy Thomas Kyd The Spanish Tragedy

UNIT 3

Elizabethan Theatre Theatres, Theatre groups,

audience, actors and conventions

UNIT 4

Tragedy and Comedy Doctor FaustusBen Jonson

Christoper Marlowe Volpone

UNIT 5
Jacobean Drama John Webster
Duchess of Malfi
(iii)
Recommended Texts: Standard editions of texts

Reference Books:

1. Bradbrook, M.C., 1955, The Growth and Structure and Elizabethan Comedy,
London.

2. Tillyard E.M.W., 1958, The Nature of Comedy & Shakespeare, London.

3. Una Ellis-Fermor, 1965, The Jacobean Drama: An Interpretation, Methuen &

Co., London.

4. John Russell Brown and Bernard Harris, eds., Elizabethan Theatre, Stratford -
upon - Avon Studies Vol9., Edward Arnold, London.

5. AllardyceNicoll, 1973, British Drama, Harrap, London.

6. Bradbrook, M.C., 1979, Themes and Conventions of Elizabethan Tragedy,Vikas

Publishing House Pvt., Ltd., (6thed) New Delhi.

7. Michael Hathaway, 1982, Elizabethan Popular Theatre : Plays in Performance,

Routledge, London.

8. Kinney, Arthur .F., 2004, A Companion to Renaissance Drama, Oxford: Blackwell

Publishing.

Website, e-learning resources

http://www.clt.astate.edu/wmarey/asste%
http://eb.com
(Encyclopaedia Britannica – restricted site)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
(qualified search results on Elizabethan Theatre, Restoration Drama, Comedy of Manners,
realism, naturalism, Abbey Theatre, Gaelic Revival, Modern Celts, Epic Theatre, Political
Theatre, Experimental Theatre, etc. and on individual authors.)
http://www.questia.com
(online library for research)

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 M.A. DEGREE COURSE

ENGLISH

FIRST YEAR

FIRST SEMESTER

Core Paper - II

DRAMA - I

SCHEME OF LESSONS

Sl.No. Title Page

1 Miracle and Morality Plays 1

2 Senecan and Revenge Tragedy 16

3 Elizabethan Theatre 41

4 Tragedy and Comedy 54

5 Jacobean Drama 105

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LESSON - 1
MIRACLE AND MORALITY PLAYS
Objectives of the course is to acquaint students with the origins of drama in Britain and
the stages of its evolution in the context of theater and culture through a study of representative
texts from the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods.

1.1 Introduction
What is a Morality Play ?

The morality play is a genre of Medieval and early Tudor theatrical entertainment. In their
own time, these plays were known as interludes, a broader term for dramas with or without
a moral. Morality plays are a type of allegory in which the protagonist is met by personifications of
various moral attributes who try to prompt him to choose a godly life over one of evil. The plays
were most popular in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. Having grown out of the
religiously based mystery plays of the Middle Ages, they represented a shift towards a more
secular base for European theatre. Hildegard von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum (English: “Order of
the Virtues”) composed c. 1151, is the earliest known morality play by more than a century, and
the only Medieval musical drama to survive with an attribution for both the text and the music.

1.2 Characteristics of morality plays

Morality plays typically contain a protagonist who represents either humanity as a whole
or a smaller social structure. Supporting characters are personifications of good and evil. This
alignment of characters provides the play’s audience with moral guidance. Morality plays are
the result of the dominant belief of the time period, that humans had a certain amount of control
over their post-death fate while they were on earth.

In Everyman, perhaps the archetypal morality play, the characters take on the common
pattern, representing broader ideas. Some of the characters in Everyman are God, Death,
Everyman, Good-Deeds, Angel, Knowledge, Beauty, Discretion, and Strength. The personified
meanings of these characters are hardly hidden. The premise of Everyman is that God, believing
that the people on earth are too focused on wealth and worldly possessions, sends Death to
Everyman to remind him of God’s power and the importance of upholding values.[3] The emphasis
put on morality, the seemingly vast difference between good and evil, and the strong presence
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of God makes Everyman one of the most concrete examples of a morality play. At the same
time, most morality plays focus more on evil, while Everyman focuses more on good, highlighting
sin in contrast

Other plays that take on the typical traits of morality plays, but are rarely given the title of
“morality play” are Hickscorner and The Second Shepherds’ Play. The characters
in Hickscorner are Pity, Perseverance, Imagination, Contemplation, Freewill, and Hickscorner.
They blatantly represent moral ideals.[5] In The Second Shepherds’ Play, the characters are
less obviously representative of good and evil, beiprimarily a trio of shepherds. But other
characters such as Mary, The Child Christ, and An Angel show a strong moral presence and the
importance of God in the play.

Check your progress

Review questions
1. Define morality play.

2. What is a miracle play ?

3. Want are the characteristics of morality plays?

1.3 Everyman as a morality play

Everyman is one of the most famous and best known examples of a medieval morality
play. It is, the morality play best known and most widely performed in modern times. Modern
scholars are fairly sure that the play we know in English is in fact a translation of the Dutch
play Elckerlijc, which was published in 1495.

Setting aside Everyman himself , the characters are one-dimensional allegorical figures
rather than representations of real people, the plot is made clear in the opening speech, and
there are no twists or unexpected turns.

There are four early sixteenth-century editions of Everyman that have survived to the
modern day. These four texts all date from the same period, somewhere between 1509 and
1531. It was not until 1901 that the revolutionary theatre director and scholar William Poel
produced what may have been one of the first ever performances of Everyman in Canterbury.
Poel, the forefather of simple text-focused stagings of classical plays, restored the play’s
reputation, and following where he had led, another production followed in 1902, which was
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reviewed by the Manchester Guardian, which praised the production’s ‘‘amazing ingenuity,
judgment and care’’. Many critics were surprised to notice that the play had real gravitas and
solemnity – and was not merely a piece with some historical interest: it could touch an audience
in the modern day. A production in New York followed in 1903. Notably, in all three of these
productions, a woman played the part of Everyman.

Everyman is now often performed and widely studied in the disciplines of English Literature
and drama.

Short Summary

Everyman recounts the life and death of Everyman, an allegorical figure who represents
all of humanity. At the beginning of the play, God orders Death to visit Everyman and to warn
him that he will be judged by God.

Everyman turns to Fellowship. His friends soon desert him, however. Everyman then
turns to Cousin and Kindred, but they, too, leave him to face death alone, without the support of
his family or his friends.

Everyman hopes that his Goods will comfort him on his journey to the afterlife. One by
one, however, his material possessions fall away, and the desperate Everyman calls on his
Good Deeds to accompany him. Weakened by Everyman’s sins, Good Deeds cannot rise out
of the dirt.

Everyman calls on Knowledge to help him. Knowledge advises him to confess his sins to
strength his Good Deeds. With the help of Beauty, Strength, Discretion, and Five Wits, Everyman
approaches the Gates of Heaven. He then learns that only his Good Deeds will come with him.
He is judged by his actions alone.

Check your progress

Review questions

1. Give some details on the origins of Everyman.

2 Give a short summary of Everyman.

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Everyman: Morality Play DetailedSummary

A prologue, read by the Messenger asks the audience to give their attention and announces
the purpose of the play, which will show us our lives as well as our deaths (“our ending”) and
how we humans are always (“all day”) transitory: changing from one state into another.

God speaks next, and immediately launches into a criticism of the way that “all creatures”
are not serving Him properly. People are living without “dread” (fear) in the world without any
thought of heaven or hell, or the judgment that will eventually come to them. “In worldly riches
is all their mind”, God says. Everyone is living purely for their own pleasure, but yet they are not
at all secure in their lives. God sees everything decaying, and getting worse “fro year to year”
(from year to year) and so has decided to have a “reckoning of every man’s person”. Are they
guilty or are they godly – should they be going to heaven or hell?

God calls in Death, his “mighty messenger”. People who love wealth and worldly goods
will be struck by Death’s dart and will be sent to dwell in hell eternally – unless, that is, “Alms be
his good friend”. “Alms” means “good deeds”, and it is an important clue even at this stage that
good deeds can save a sinner from eternal damnation.

God exits, and Death sees Everyman walking along, “finely dressed”. Death approaches
Everyman, and asks him where he is going, and whether he has forgotten his “maker” (the one
who made him). He then tells Everyman that he must take a long journey upon him, and bring
with him his “book of count” (his account book as per God’s “reckoning”, above) which contains
his good and bad deeds.

Everyman says that he is unready to make such a reckoning, and is horrified to realize
who Death is. Everyman asks Death whether he will have any company to go on the journey
from life into death. Death tells him he could have company, if anyone was brave enough to go
along with him.

Fellowship enters, sees that Everyman is looking sad, and immediately offers to help.
When Everyman tells him that he is in “great jeopardy”, Fellowship pledges not to “forsake
[Everyman] to my life’s end / in... good company”. Everyman describes the journey he is to go
on, and Fellowship tells Everyman that nothing would make him go on such a journey. Fellowship
departs from Everyman “as fast as” he can. Kindredand Cousin enter, Everyman appeals to
them for company, and they similarly desert him.
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Everyman next turns to his “Goods and richesse” to help him, but Goods only tells him
that love of Goods is opposite to love of God. Goods too forsakes Everyman and exits. Everyman
next turns to his Good Deeds, but she is too weak to accompany him. Good Deeds’
sister Knowledge accompanies Everyman to Confession, who instructs him to show penance.
Everyman scourges himself to atone for his sin. This allows Good Deeds to walk.

More friends – Discretion, Strength, Beauty and Five Wits – initially claim that they too
will accompany Everyman on his journey. Knowledge tells Everyman to go to Priesthood to
receive the holy sacrament and extreme unction. Knowledge then makes a speech about
priesthood, while Everyman exits to go and receive the sacrament. He asks each of his
companions to set their hands on the cross, and go before. One by one, Strength, Discretion,
and Knowledge promise never to part from Everyman’s side. Together, they all journey to
Everyman’s grave.

As Everyman begins to die, Beauty, Strength, Discretion and Five Wits all forsake him
one after another. Good Deeds speaks up and says that she will not forsake him. Everyman
realizes that it is time for him to be gone to make his reckoning and pay his spiritual debts. Yet,
he says, there is a lesson to be learned, and speaks the lesson of the play,

Check your progress

Review Question

1. Give a detailed summary of the play Everyman.

1.4 Everyman: Morality Play Character List

Messenger

The first character to appear. The Messenger has no role within the story of the play itself,
but simply speaks the prologue outlining what the play will be like.

God

Appears only at the very beginning of the play. Angry with the way humans are behaving
on Earth, God summons Death to visit Everyman and call him to account.
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Death

God’s “mighty messenger”, who visits Everyman at the very start of the play to inform him
that he is going to die and be judged by God.

Everyman

The representative of “every man” - of mankind in general. He dresses in fine clothes,

and seems to have had led a wild and sinful life. Throughout the course of the play, he is told
that he is going to die (and therefore be judged) and undergoes a pilgrimage in which he
absolves himself of sin, is deserted by all of his friends apart from good deeds, and dies.

Fellowship

Represents friendship. Everyman’s friend and the very first one to forsake him. Fellowship
suggests going drinking or consorting with women rather than going on a pilgrimage to death.

Kindred

A friend of Everyman’s, who deserts him along with Cousin. ‘Kindred’ means ‘of the same
family’, so when Kindred forsakes Everyman, it represents family members deserting him.

Cousin

A friend of Everyman’s, who deserts him along with Kindred. ‘Cousin’ means ‘related’, so
when Kindred forsakes Everyman, it represents family members - and perhaps close friends -
deserting him.

Goods

Goods represents objects - goods, stuff, belongings - and when Everyman’s goods forsake
him, the play is hammering home the fact that you can’t take belongings with you to the grave.

Good Deeds

Good Deeds is the only character who does not forsake Everyman - and at the end of the
play, accompanies him to his grave. Good Deeds represents Everyman’s good actions - nice
things that he does for other people.
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Knowledge

Guides Everyman from around the middle of the play, and leads him to Confession.
‘Knowledge’ is perhaps best defined as ‘acknowledgement of sin’.

Confession

Allows Everyman to confess and repent for his sins. There is some confusion in the text
about whether Confession is male or female.

Beauty

One of the second group of characters who deserts Everyman in the second half of the
play.

Strength

One of the second group of characters who deserts Everyman in the second half of the
play.

Discretion

One of the second group of characters who deserts Everyman in the second half of the
play.

Five Wits

Represents the Five Senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell. One of the second group
of characters who deserts Everyman in the second half of the play.

Angel

Appears at the very end of the play with Everyman’s Book of Reckoning to receive
Everyman’s soul.

Doctor

A generic character who only appears to speak the epilogue at the very end of the play.
His equivalent in the Dutch play Elckerlijc is simply called ‘Epilogue’.
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Glossary

Allegory a form of metaphor in which abstract ideas or principles are represented as

concrete - as characters, figures, or events. In Everyman, for example, abstract ideas like good
deeds and strength are represented as people named Good Deeds and Strength.

Almsgood deeds

Baley swhip

book of countliterally is a “book of account”: the same as a book of reckoning

book of reckoning see “reckoning”: the “book of reckoning” is the book in which, in Christian
doctrine, all a person’s sins and good deeds are recorded

cousin in medieval English, not the same as the modern version: it is a more general term
meaning “member of the same family”

dread (medieval English) fear

fain (medieval English) glad

fellowship friendship, company

for sake desert, leave behind, run away from

Job a character in the Old Testament who maintained his faith in God even when tested
with severe hardship and misfortune

Kind(in medieval English) kindred, family, blood relations

Quick(medieval English) alive

Reckoning”reckoning” means literally “counting up”, but colloquially, a “day of reckoning”

is the time when man will be judged by God, and all his actions and behaviour taken into
account

Richesse(medieval English) riches, wealth

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Sacrament. A sacrament is a manifestation of God’s presence in a concrete form - most

typically, in the way that Christians believe Jesus to be physically present in the Communion
bread and wine.

Tapsteran inn keeper, pub owner or tavern keeper

Timorousnervous, frightened, shy

Treatisea long consideration of a certain subject in depth

Unkind(medieval English) undutiful

Check your progress

Review questions
1. Who was Fellowship?

2. What is the part played by Kindred?

3. Write a few lines about Cousin?

4. Write a few lines about Knowledge?

5. Write a few lines about Five Wits ?

6. Define allegory ?

7. What is meant by sacrament ?

8. What is meant by reckoning ?

1.5 Detailed analysis of Everyman as a Morality Play.

The morality play, of which Everyman is the best extant example, and the mystery play
are the two principal kinds of medieval drama. The mystery play is a dramatic re-creation of a
story from the Bible, its aim being the elucidation of the revelation therein. The morality play, by
contrast, is an allegorical form, peopled by personified abstractions such as Beauty, Justice,
and Fortitude and types such as Everyman, Priest, and King. Here the subject matter is
admonitory, particularly concerning death. As Albert Baugh pointed out, it is difficult to discover
precise sources for the subject matter or the dramatic method. There are, however, certain
parallels with medieval sermons, which often bolstered moral exhortations with allegorical
examples. Indeed, allegory is pervasive in medieval literature, as is, for that matter, concern for
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a happy death. It is not known, however, how these evolved into the particular form of the
morality play.

Few morality plays have survived, and only Everyman remained sufficiently well regarded
in later times to be dignified with performance. One reason for the unpopularity of the genre is
the limitation of dramatic complication resulting from the static nature of the personifications.
The characters are of necessity simple, and there is no possibility of change except perhaps in
a central protagonist like Everyman. As a result, there can be little psychological insight and
little diverse movement that invigorate earlier and later drama.

The title page of Everyman announces the play as a “treatise” of “how the High Father of
Heaven sendeth death to summon every creature to come and give account of their lives in this
world”, as well as informing the reader that this treatise is “in manner of a moral play”.

The first two characters to enter are God, “in a high place” on the stage or performance
space, and a Messenger, who delivers a prologue. The Messenger’s prologue asks the audience
to give their attention and listen to the “matter” (the content) of this “moral play”. The Messenger
then announces the purpose of the play:

That of our lives and ending shows

How transitory we be all day. (l.5-6)

The play will show us our lives as well as our deaths (“our ending”) and how we humans
are always (“all day”) transitory: changing from one state into another. Clearly, from the very
beginning, the play is clear that it is to be a play about the human experience, as well as one
with an absolute focus on morals.

The Messenger continues to tell the audience that, though sin initially might seem sweet,
it will cause “the soul to weep” eventually, when you are dead and the body “lieth in clay”. He
also informs us that Fellowship, Jollity, Strength, Pleasure and Beauty will fade away from us
“as flower in May”.

God speaks next, and he immediately launches into a criticism of the way that “all creatures”
are “unkind” to him (“unkind”, in this context, means “undutiful” – not serving God properly).
People are living without “dread” (fear) in the world without any thought of heaven or hell, or the
judgment that will eventually come to them. “In worldly riches is all their mind”, God says.
People are not mindful of God’s law, or his prohibition of the seven deadly sins (and, God
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reminds us, they are “damnable” – they send you to hell).

“Every man liveth so after his own pleasure,

And yet of their life they be nothing sure” (l.40-1)

Everyone is living purely for their own pleasure, God tells the audience, but yet they are
not at all secure in their lives (“nothing sure” ). God sees everything decaying , and getting
worse “fro year to year” (from year to year) and so has decided to have a “reckoning of every
man’s person”. This “reckoning” is a counting up, an audit, of people’s souls. Are they guilty or
are they godly – should they be going to heaven or hell?

God, disappointed in humankind, calls in Death, his “mighty messenger”. Death says that
he will travel throughout the world and “cruelly outsearch both great and small”. He is going to
“beset” (perhaps meaning “attack” or “deal with”) every man who “liveth beastly” (lives in a
beastly way). People who love wealth and worldly goods will be struck by Death’s dart and will
be sent to dwell in hell eternally – unless, that is, “Alms be his good friend”. “Alms” means “good
deeds”, and it is an important clue even at this stage that good deeds can save a sinner from
eternal damnation.

God exits, and Death sees Everyman walking along. The text specifies that Everyman is
“finely dressed”. Death approaches Everyman, touches him with his dart, and asks him where
he is going, and whether he has forgotten his “maker” (the one who made him). Everyman asks
Death who he is, but Death replies that he is sent to Everyman by God. Death then tells Everyman
that he must take a long journey upon him, and bring with him his “book of count” (his account
book as per God’s “reckoning”, above) which contains his good and bad deeds. Everyman
must begin his journey towards death.

Everyman says that he is unready to make such a reckoning, and it is then that Death
reveals to Everyman who he really is. Everyman is horrified: “O Death”, he says, “thou comest
when I had thee least in mind”. Everyman then offers to give Death “a thousand pound” if he will
postpone this whole matter “till another day”. Death, though, says that he places no value on
gold, silver or riches, and asks Everyman to come with him.

Everyman pleads with Death: his book of reckoning, he says, is not ready. He begs for
“God’s mercy”, and asks Death to spare him until he has a way of sorting it out. If, he says, he
can have just twelve years, he can make his book of reckoning “so clear” that he would have no
“need to fear”. Death refuses.
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Everyman then asks Death whether he will have any company to go on the journey from
life into death. Death tells him he could have company, if anyone was brave enough to go along
with him. Death then asks Everyman if he believes that his life and his “worldly goods” are given
to him. When Everyman says he thought they were, Death tells him that they were only “lent” to
him. Everyman cannot take things with him once he has died. After refusing once more to grant
Everyman more time, Death exits.

Check your Progress

Review Questions

1. Discuss in detail Everyman as a Morality Play.

1.6 Detailed analysis of Everyman as an allegorical play

Like all forms of allegory, the method is essentially intellectual. The active involvement of
the spectator is not through emotion so much as it is in the discovery of the meanings of
characters and the significance of the configurations in which they are arranged. Allegory engages
the mind and Everyman succeeds well in representing a complex, highly specific, theological
system at the same time that it generates, by juxtaposition and order, sufficient immediacy to
give force to the moral exhortation. The structure is elegant and compact. There is no attempt
to catalog the deficiencies of Everyman’s past life; rather, the play focuses on the poignant hour
of death and implies what Everyman is and what he ought to be at that critical moment.

Because of the allegorical method, it is easy to trivialize the significance of the play by
reducing it to the identification of the personifications. To do so would be to miss the power of its
abstractions and the complex view of life that is represented. A play about the reaction to
imminent death, Everyman with its configurations of characters implies much about how life
should be lived. God initiates the action with the premise that all human beings are to be called
to give an account of their actions. As the plot develops, it would perhaps be more accurate to
refer to the central character as Anyman, but the use of the name Everyman implies that the
experience is not random, not what might happen, but paradigmatic of what will happen and
how people ought to respond.

Everyman turns to his valued, habitual companions for comfort on his difficult and
dangerous journey, but the play does not present a pageant of specific sins. Instead,
Fellowship, Kindred, and Goods are summary abstractions, which are not particular sins in
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themselves but rather examples of the distractions that divert people away from positive direction
toward God and salvation. Thus Everyman’s failures are represented not by a static series of
vices but by the vital enticements that took too much of his attention. The conception is a
Dantescan analysis of sin as a turning away from God.

In the theology of the play, salvation obviously cannot come by faith alone, since it is
imperative that Everyman be accompanied to judgment by Good-Deeds. However, Good-Deeds
is so infirm because of Everyman’s prior misdirection that a prior step is necessary: Everyman
is entrusted to Knowledge for guidance. The implication is that knowledge of the institutional
Church and its remedies is necessary for the successful living of the good life. Knowledge first
directs Everyman to Confession, one of the tangible means of repentance and regeneration.
Once Confession takes place, Good-Deeds begins to revive, as contrition and amendment free
the accumulated merits of past virtuous actions.

Knowledge also summons other attainments, which can travel at least part way with
Everyman. Beauty, Strength, Discretion, and Five Wits are all auxiliary human accomplishments
that can help and comfort human beings along their way, though none can persevere to the
final moment of judgment. As they fall away, one by one, the play presents the process of
death. Beauty is obviously the first to depart in this telescoped version of an individual’s demise.
Strength follows as life ebbs. The last of the attainments to leave is Five Wits, the sensual
means through which human beings acquire whatever understanding they gain in life.

In the end, even Knowledge, the representative of the human intellect, which builds on
sense and is a higher power than sense, cannot go the whole distance with Everyman. The
respect for Knowledge in the play’s implied theological system is enormous: Knowledge plays
the pivotal role in informing Everyman of the way to salvation. However, in the final analysis,
only Good-Deeds can descend into the grave with Everyman because it is only the efficacious
result of knowledge in right living that merits eternal reward.

An examination of the abstractions and their arrangement in Everyman reveals the complex
shape of medieval Christianity. The play suggests a means to salvation everywhere consistent
with the prescriptions of the medieval Church: There is an ultimate accountability, but human
beings have the capacity, through faith and reason, to direct themselves toward God by using
the institution of the Church, which enables them to do the good required of all.
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The play is based on the Roman Catholic premise that salvation is attained through penance
and good deeds - one must atone for one’s sins before dying in order to receive everlasting life
and enter heaven.

In the play Everyman (which obviously refers to every human) is visited by Death to take
him to heaven where he is to face judgement. Obviously, Everyman feels that he is not ready
and seeks to take with him all that he has accrued on earth to stand witness for his virtues. But
one by one, all his earthly possessions forsake him, even his kindred. He cannot take his
beauty, strength or fellowship with him. Good Deeds does not have the strength to accompany
him since he has been neglected.

When Everyman sees Confession, he agrees to take penance and punish himself with a
scourge. After doing this, he is forgiven all his sins. The result is that Good Deeds is revitalized
and strong enough to accompany him.

The moral is firstly that one cannot enter heaven with earthly goods when one dies - these
have no value and are left behind. Secondly, only the good that one does can bear witness to
one’s grace at Judgement, and thirdly, one should do penance and seek forgiveness for one’s
sins before entering the Kingdom of Heaven.

Everyman turns to his valued, habitual companions for comfort on his difficult and
dangerous journey, but the play does not present a pageant of specific sins. Instead, Fellowship,
Kindred, and Goods are summary abstractions, which are not particular sins in themselves but
rather examples of the distractions that divert people away from positive direction toward God
and salvation. Thus Everyman’s failures are represented not by a static series of vices but by
the vital enticements that took too much of his attention.

Knowledge also summons other attainments, which can travel at least part way with
Everyman. Beauty, Strength, Discretion, and Five Wits are all auxiliary human accomplishments
that can help and comfort human beings along their way, though none can persevere to the
final moment of judgment. As they fall away, one by one, the play presents the process of
death. Beauty is obviously the first to depart in this telescoped version of an individual’s demise.
Strength follows as life ebbs. The last of the attainments to leave is Five Wits, the sensual
means through which human beings acquire whatever understanding they gain in life.
 15

In the end, even Knowledge, the representative of the human intellect, which builds on
sense and is a higher power than sense, cannot go the whole distance with Everyman. The
respect for Knowledge in the play’s implied theological system is enormous: Knowledge plays
the pivotal role in informing Everyman of the way to salvation. However, in the final analysis,
only Good-Deeds can descend into the grave with Everyman because it is only the efficacious
result of knowledge in right living that merits eternal reward.

An examination of the abstractions and their arrangement in Everyman reveals the complex
shape of medieval Christianity. The play suggests a means to salvation everywhere consistent
with the prescriptions of the medieval Church: There is an ultimate accountability, but human
beings have the capacity, through faith and reason, to direct themselves toward God by using
the institution of the Church, which enables them to do the good required of all.

Check your progress

Review Question
1. Give a detailed analysis of Everyman as an allegorical play

Reference Books
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everyman_(play)

https://www.enotes.com/topics/everyman/critical-essays

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morality_playOwen, Siam, “The modern God of our

era”, Medieval Drama, English Dramatists, London: Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-45477-
4.
16

LESSON - 2
SENECAN AND REVENGE TRAGEDY
THOMAS KYD THE SPANISH TRAGEDY
Objectives of the course is to acquaint students with the origins of drama in Britain and
the stages of its evolution in the context of theater and culture through a study of representative
texts from the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods

2.1 Introduction: What is Senecan tragedy ?

Senecan tragedy refers to a set of ancient Roman tragedies. Ten of these plays exist, of
which most likely eight were written by the Stoic philosopher and politician Lucius Annaeus
Seneca. In the mid-16th century, Italian humanistsrediscovered these works, making them
models for the revival of tragedy on the Renaissance stage. The two great, but very different,
dramatic traditions of the age — French neoclassical tragedy and Elizabethan tragedy — both
drew inspiration from Seneca.

The plays of Seneca exercised great influence on medieval playwrights, who used them
as models for literary imitation.

The characteristics of the Senecan tragedy were:

1. a division into five acts with Choruses

2. a considerable retailing of ‘horrors’ and violence, usually, though not always, acted
off the stage and elaborately recounted;

3. a parallel violence of language and expression.

4. Usually, the Senecan tragedy focuses heavily on supernatural elements.

Gorboduc is a good example of a Senecan tragedy in English. The fashion, which

developed in learned rather than popular circles, was short lived, and was displaced by a more
vital and native form of tragedy. But its elements persisted in Elizabethan drama and may be
traced in such plays as Tamburlaine the Great and Titus Andronicus.

Senecan tragedy, body of nine closet dramas (i.e., plays intended to be read rather than
performed), written in blank verse by the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca in the 1st century AD.
Rediscovered by Italian humanists in the mid-16th century, they became the models for the
 17

revival of tragedy on the Renaissance stage. The two great, but very different, dramatic traditions
of the age—French Neoclassical tragedy and Elizabethan tragedy—both drew inspiration from
Seneca.

Seneca’s plays were reworkings chiefly of Euripides’ dramas and also of works
of Aeschylus and Sophocles. Probably meant to be recited at elite gatherings, they differ from
their originals in their long declamatory, narrative accounts of action, their obtrusive moralizing,
and their bombastic rhetoric. They dwell on detailed accounts of horrible deeds and contain
long reflective soliloquies. Though the gods rarely appear in these plays, ghosts and witches
abound. In an age when the Greek originals were scarcely known, Seneca’s plays were mistaken
for high Classical drama. The Renaissance scholar J.C. Scaliger (1484–1558), who knew both
Latin and Greek, preferred Seneca to Euripides.

French Neoclassical dramatic tradition, which reached its highest expression in the 17th-
century tragedies of Pierre Corneille and Jean Racine, drew on Seneca for form and grandeur
of style. These Neoclassicists adopted Seneca’s innovation of the confidant (usually a servant),
his substitution of speech for action, and his moral hairsplitting.

The Elizabethan dramatists found Seneca’s themes of bloodthirsty revenge

more congenial to English taste than they did his f orm. The first English
tragedy, Gorboduc (1561), by Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton, is a chain of slaughter
and revenge written in direct imitation of Seneca. Senecan tragedy is also evident in
Shakespeare’s Hamlet; the revenge theme, the corpse-strewn climax, and such points of stage
machinery as the ghost can all be traced back to the Senecan model.

Through plays like Hamlet and Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare portrayed the basic
characteristics of a revenge tragedy. He presented elements that are quite similar to those from
Seneca’s tragedies, establishing tragedy as a more well-knowngenre.

Check your progress

Review questions
1. What is Senecan tragedy ?

2. List the characteristics of the Senecan tragedy.

3. Write a short note on Gorboduc.

4. List some of the sources of Senecan tragedies.

18

2.2 Seneca’s Tragedies influence on Elizabethan Drama

In the sixteenth century the popularity of Seneca’s tragedies was immense. To English
dramatists, Seneca seemed to offer an admirable model. His tragedies contained abundance
of melodrama to suit the popular taste, whilst his sententious philosophy and moral maxims
appealed to the more learned, and all was arranged in a clear-cut form, of which the principle of
construction was easy to grasp.

The importance of the influence exercised by Senecan tragedy upon the development of
the Elizabethan drama is now generally admitted.

It affected both the substance and the form of the drama. The division into five acts, and
the introduction of the Chorus, as in Gorboduc, The Misfortunes of Arthur, and Catiline, may be
taken as examples of the influence of Seneca on the form of the Elizabethan drama, whilst in
regard to matter and treatment Senecan influence was yet more important.

It was seen in the treatment of the supernatural, in the selection of horrible and sensational
themes, in the tendency to insert long rhetorical and descriptive passages, in the use of
stichomythia, in the introduction of moralising common-places, and in the spirit of philosophic
fatalism.

As with Kyd, so with the other Elizabethan dramatists it is almost impossible to distinguish
how much of the debt which they undoubtedly owe to Seneca . As Cunliffe observes, the more
learned dramatists would not need the help of translations, while the less learned who were
glad of the aid afforded by Heywood and his fellow-translators, would prefer to disguise their
obligations by not quoting verbatim.

Moreover these translations afford valuable testimony as to the grammar, metre, and
vocabulary used by men of classical learning at the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign. Some of the
words employed are very curious and interesting, and the various grammatical forms deserve
careful study.

At the same time it must be admitted that the intrinsic dramatic worth of the plays is small.
The translators had before them an original which, highly as they esteemed it, was utterly
lacking in true dramatic quality, and though they felt themselves at liberty to alter and adapt it on
occasions, their alterations show that they had no perception of the essentials of great drama.
 19

Seneca’s plays are hardly drama at all in the true sense of the word. They show rhetoric,
eloquence, and a facility for epigrams, but, in the main, have little action and less development
of character. Still it cannot be denied that even Shakespeareowes a lot to the influence of
translators of Seneca.

Check your progress

Review Question

Enumerate Seneca’s Tragedies influence on Elizabethan Drama.

Sources

< http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/hamlet/senecadrama.html >.

2.3 The Spanish Tragedy :Introduction

The Spanish Tragedy, or Hieronimo is Mad Again is an Elizabethan tragedy written
by Thomas Kyd between 1582 and 1592. Highly popular and influential in its time, The Spanish
Tragedy established a new genre in English theatre, the revenge play or revenge tragedy. Its
plot contains several violent murders and includes as one of
its characters a personification of Revenge. The Spanish Tragedy was often referred to in works
by other Elizabethan playwrights, including William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Christopher
Marlowe.

Many elements of The Spanish Tragedy, such as the play-within-a-play used to trap a
murderer and a ghost intent on vengeance, appear in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Thomas Kyd is
frequently proposed as the author of the hypothetical Ur-Hamlet that may have been one of
Shakespeare’s primary sources for Hamlet.

The Spanish Tragedy begins with the ghost of Don Andrea, a Spanish nobleman killed in
a recent battle with Portugal. Accompanied by the spirit of Revenge, he tells the story of his
death; he was killed in hand-to-hand combat with the Portuguese prince Balthazar, after falling
in love with the beautiful Bel-Imperia and having a secret affair with her. When he faces the
judges who are supposed to assign him to his place in the underworld, they are unable to reach
a decision and instead send him to the palace of Pluto and Proserpine, King and Queen of the
Underworld. Proserpine decides that Revenge should accompany him back to the world of the
living, and, after passing through the gates of horn, this is where he finds himself. The spirit of
Revenge promises that by the play’s end, Don Andrea will see his revenge.
20

Check your progress

Review questions

1. Give a summary of the Spanish Tragedy

2. Write a short note on Kyd.

2.4 Important Characters in Spanish Tragedy

Hieronimo - The protagonist of the story. Hieronimo starts out as a loyal servant to the
King. He is the King’s Knight-Marshal and is in charge of organizing entertainments at royal
events. At the beginning of the play, he is a minor character, especially in relation to Lorenzo,
Balthazar, and Bel-Imperia. It is not until he discovers his son Horatio’s murdered body in the
second Act that he becomes the protagonist of the play. His character undergoes a radical shift
over the course of the play, from grieving father to Machiavellian plotter. After his son’s murder,
he constantly pushes the limits of sanity, as evidenced by his erratic speech and behavior.

Bel-Imperia

Bel-Imperia is the main female character of the story, and she has the misfortune to fall in
love with both Andrea and Horatio shortly before they die. She also has the misfortune to have
an evil brother in Lorenzo and to be the object of Balthazar’s affection, when Balthazar is the
very man who murdered her beloved Andrea and then went on to murder her beloved Horatio.
She is then forced by both her father, the Duke of Castile, and her uncle, the King of Spain—the
two most powerful men in the country—to wed this very same Balthazar.

Ghost of Andrea

A Spanish nobleman, Don Andrea has been recently killed in battle by the Portuguese
prince Balthazar. His Ghost has now returned from the underworld to witness his former lover
Bellimperia kill Balthazar.

Revenge

Sent by the Queen of Hades, Proserpine, Revenge leads the Ghost of Andrea back from
the underworld to witness (and create) havoc on earth.
 21

King of Spain

Brother to the Duke of Castile. The King desires a marriage between Balthazar and
Bellimperia, the Duke’s daughter. He plays a relatively passive role in the play, serving as a
good and just monarch-albeit one sometimes lacking in acumen.

Cyprian Duke of Castile

Father to Lorenzo and Bellimperia. Like the King, he is a just man within the constraints of
a highly patriarchal society (he will force Bellimperia into a politically desirable marriage). His
character contrasts with that of Lorenzo.

Lorenzo

The Duke’s son. Lorenzo is a man with somewhat mysterious motives, but his duplicitous
character reveals itself throughout the play. He manipulates Balthazar and Pedringano in order
to orchestrate the death of Horatio. While he clearly finds pleasure in controlling others, his
actions are end-based rather than purely driven by villainous desires.

Viceroy of Portugal

A loving father to Balthazar, the Viceroy is given to rash judgments. He first unjustly
condemns Alexandro, then justly - but harshly - dooms Villuppo. As for the marriage between
Balthazar and Bellimperia, he gives his wholehearted consent. Having discovered his son to be
alive after all, he hopes to relinquish his crown and retire to a solitary life of thanking the heavens
in prayer.

Balthazar

The Viceroy’s son arrives in Spain as a captive. He is taken by Bellimperia’s beauty, which
leads him to state that he is in love. With Lorenzo, he roams about freely and contributes to the
murder of Horatio. But unlike Lorenzo, Balthazar is a sympathetic - if - naive character.

Hieronimo

The Marshall of Spain, Hieronimo is the highest official to pronounce judgments. The law
does not grant justice for his son’s murder, however, so he takes the matter into his own hands.
It is Hieronimo who stages the play-within-a-play and is ultimately responsible for the deaths of
Lorenzo, Balthazar, and the Duke, and arguably Bellimperia. A character given to fits of madness,
he is somewhat of a mystery-much like Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
22

Isabella

Hieronimo’s wife. Like her husband, Isabella shows signs of madness and eventually
commits suicide under deranged conditions (triggered by the murder of Horatio).

Horatio

Son of Hieronimo and Isabella, Horatio returns from the battle with Portugal as captor of
Balthazar. Between him and Lorenzo, however, the true captor of Balthazar remains unclear.
He was friends with Andrea and becomes Bellimperia’s second love. Horatio is murdered under
Bellimperia’s eyes when the same lady’s servant betrays their secret rendezvous to Lorenzo.

Spanish General

The General gives a glorious but grim account of the recent battle to the King and receives
a royal chain for his accomplishments. His account of the battle, however, contradicts the later
statements of Lorenzo and Horatio-a crucial point in the play’s development.

Don Bazulto

An old man who appears along with three citizens to petition Hieronimo for justice. Like,
Hieronimo, his son has been murdered.

Portuguese Ambassador

The Ambassador serves as a crucial link between Portugal and Spain. He brings the
Viceroy the blissful news of Balthazar’s survival. It is also he who brings confirmation of the
Balthazar-Bellimperia marriage back to Spain.

Alexandro

A loyal Portuguese nobleman who is unjustly imprisoned through Villuppo’s treachery.

Villuppo

A Portuguese nobleman who betrays Alexandro out of desire for reward.

Pedringano

Bellimperia’s servant. Blinded by the desire for gold, Pedringano betrays Bellimperia and
Horatio. He also murders Balthazar’s servant Serberine at Lorenzo’s command. The latter plots
successfully to have Pedringano sent to the gallows, where the servant finds himself helpless,
without the promised royal pardon.
 23

Check your progress

Review questions

1. Write a note on the character of Hieronimo

2. Write a note on the character Horatio

3. Who betrays Bellimperia ?

4. Who is the father of Balthazar?

2.5 Summary of Act I, scene i

The play begins when the ghost of Andrea and the spirit of Revenge enter the scene.
Andrea informs the audience that during his life, he was a nobleman at the Spanish court. The
ghost then tells the story of his last days, how in the prime of his youth he won the love of the
beautiful Bel-Imperia, but was soon thereafter killed in battle between Spain and Portugal.
Andrea’s narrative then shifts to what happened after his death. He “descended straight” down
to a classically pagan underworld or Hell, where he arrived at the river of Acheron only to be
blocked passage by the ferryman Charon, because of his unperformed funeral rites. When his
friend Horatio finally performed his rites three days later, Andrea descended into the underworld
where he came to sit before three judges, Minos, Eacus and Rhadamant, who were to determine
which “field”, or area of the underworld, he should spend the rest of eternity—the field of the
lovers or of the warriors. The judges are conflicted over their placement of Andrea because of
the circumstances surrounding his death: Andrea died in war, but seems to have died for the
love of Bel-Imperia. So, Minos decides to defer the matter to Pluto, king of the underworld. On
his way to the palace of the king, Andrea came to a place with “three ways,” the right one
leading to the field of the lovers and the warriors, the left one to “deepest hell” of villains in
eternal torment, and the middle way to the Palace. Taking this middle way, he soon arrived at
the palace, where Proserpine, Pluto’s wife, took a special interest in his case and asked if she
could be his judge. After which, according to Andrea, she immediately sent him, along with the
spirit of Revenge, through the gates of horn into the world, which, according to Andrea, is the
last thing he remembers before arriving “here,” at the start of the play.

The spirit of Revenge then goes on to predict that Andrea will see his killer, Prince Balthazar
of Portugal, slain by Bel-Imperia and explains that he and Andrea will now both watch and serve
as the chorus for the tragedy that they and the audience are all about to witness.
24

2.6 Act I, scene ii

The Spanish King, a Spanish Lord General, the Duke of Castile (the King’s brother), and
Hieronimo, Knight-Marshal of Spain, return to discuss the aftermath of their battle with Portugal,
which is the same battle in which Don Andrea died. When the King asks him to give a report on
the status of the troops, the Lord General reports good news: the Spanish troops have gained
victory and with “little losse.” After congratulations from the King and Castile, the General proceeds
to give a run-down of the battle. This includes a more detailed description of Don Andrea’s
death at the hands of Balthazar, Prince of Portugal and the son of the Portuguese Viceroy
which we first heard described by Andrea himself in I.i. The General also relates the subsequent
capture of Balthazar by Horatio, Hieronimo’s son and Andrea’s friend, a capture that resulted in
the retreat of the Portuguese forces. The General informs the King that the Viceroy of Portugal
has made an offer of conditional surrender, promising to pay tribute to Spain if the Spanish
armies cease their attack. The Spanish King seems to accept this offer and asks Hieronimo to
celebrate with him the success of his son’s capture of Balthazar.

The Army returns from the battle, with Balthazar held captive between Horatio and Lorenzo,
son of the Duke of Castile and brother of Bel-Imperia. The two Spaniards hotly contest which
one should receive credit for the capture of Balthzar; Horatio, who knocked Balthazar off his
horse after battling with him, or Lorenzo, who after Balthzar was cornered persuaded him to
surrender using gentle persuasion. Hieronimo, while avowing his partiality, pleads for his son’s
case. The King ultimately takes a compromise position, giving Balthazar’s weapons and horse
to Lorenzo, while giving the ransom money Balthazar will bring from the Viceroy, as well as the
prince’s armor, to Horatio. He also deems that Balthazar will stay at Lorenzo’s estate, since the
estate of Horatio (and Hieronimo) being too small for a man of Balthazar’s stature.

Summary of Act I, scene iii

The scene is now at the Portuguese court. The Viceroy and two Spanish noblemen,
Alexandro, who is the Duke of Terceira, and Villuppo, enter, having received news of the
Portuguese defeat. The Viceroy mourns his son, believing him to be dead, and blames himself
for not having gone in Balthazar’s place. Alexandro comforts the king, assuring him that the
Spanish have probably taken Balthazar prisoner and are keeping him for ransom.

Villuppo then steps in and offers to tell the king the “real story” of what happened at the
battle. According to Villuppo, Balthazar was engaged in combat with the Lord General of Spain
 25

when Alexandro came up behind him and shot him in the back with a pistol. The story is a
complete fabrication, but the Viceroy believes it and asks Alexandro whether it was bribery or
the hope of inheriting the Portuguese crown that made him betray the prince. He then sentences
Alexandro to die the second he confirms that Balthazar is dead. After the other two characters
leave, Villuppo confesses his deception to the audience, explaining that Alexandro is his enemy
and that he hopes to gain by his death.

Check your progress

Review questions Act One

1. According to Andreas’s opening monologue, where did he go after his death?

2. Who does the underworld judges defer the task of deciding Andrea’s fate to ?

3. How did Andrea die?

4. Of the “three ways” Andre encountered in the underworld, which direction led to the
Palace?

5. Who predicts that Andrea will see Balthazar slain?

6. Top of Form

7. What country did Spain battle just before the play’s start?

8. Which character gives a detailed account of the battle to the group of Spanish
leaders?

9. Which two soldiers physically hold Balthazar captive?

10. After Balthazar’s capture, which character receives his weaponry?

11. Where does act iii take place?

12. 12 Where are Bel-Imperia and Horatio walking at the start of scene iv?

13. 13 Which character compares his love for Bel-Imperia to death by sword?

14. Where are Bel-Imperia and Horatio walking at the start of scene iv Where are Bel-
Imperia and Horatio walking at the start of scene iv Bottom of Form

2.7 Act 2, Scene 1

Lorenzo tries to comfort Balthazar with regards to Bellimperia, suggesting that in due time
she will come to like the Portuguese prince. Balthazar expresses his unconsoled spirit in a short
26

pessimistic monologue. Lorenzo assures him that they will find out the reason behind Bellimperia’s
coldness; he has already formulated a plan to uncover the truth.

Lorenzo calls Bellimperia’s servant Pedringano to the scene. Lorenzo speaks of a past
favor that he granted Pedringano: when the Duke of Castile discovered Pedringano’s role as a
go-between for Andrea and Bellimperia, Lorenzo protected the servant from the Duke’s wrath.
The same prince now promises Pedringano an additional favor of a gold chain - should he
simply speak the truth. Pedringano agrees, and Lorenzo asks him about the nature of
Bellimperia’s love since Andrea’s death. Who loves her, and who does she love? The servant
claims ignorance, but Lorenzo draws his sword in response and threatens to kill him. Pedringano
finally admits that Bellimperia loves Horatio. He has perused the love letters that she sent
Horatio. Lorenzo grants him the reward and, promising a further reward, demands to be notified
when the “lovers meet.” Balthazar thus resolves to take revenge on Horatio, despite the risks
involved:

Thus hath he ta’en my body by his force,

And now by sleight would captivate my soul:
But in his fall I’ll tempt the destinies,
And either lose my life, or win my love. (II.i.130-133)

Act 2, Scene 2

Horatio and Bellimperia enter the scene. Pedringano, pointing out the lovers for Lorenzo
and Balthazar, places the two princes in hiding. Horatio wonders why, their love now made so
clear, Bellimperia shows signs of “inward languishments.” Bellimperia responds through an
extended metaphor, comparing her heart to a sailing ship: she is still recovering from stormy
times (presumably Andrea’s death), and now seeks refuge in the port that is Horatio’s love.
Hidden above, Balthazar expresses his dismay, but Lorenzo looks on gleefully - for he already
envisions “Horatio’s fall.” The two lovers continue their dialogue and soon agree to meet in a
secluded field the very same evening. In the meantime, however, they must hide their love from
the Duke of Castile. Lorenzo concludes the scene with a promise to send “[Horatio’s] soul into
eternal night.”

Act 2, Scene 3

The King of Spain enters with the Duke of Castile and the Portuguese ambassador. The
King asks the Duke what Bellimperia thinks of Balthazar. The Duke responds that while his
 27

daughter disclaims any love for the Portuguese prince at the moment, she will in time heed his
advice - “Which is to love him, or forgo [her father’s] love.” The King thus asks the ambassador
to advise the Viceroy in favor of a marriage between Bellimperia and Balthazar. The advantages
for Portugal will be many: it will receive a generous dowry, its tribute will be released, and it will
be intimately linked to the Spanish crown. The King finally requests that the Viceroy set the
marriage date and reminds the ambassador to bring Balthazar’s ransom for Horatio. After the
ambassador leaves, the King once again turns to the Duke of Castile and presses him to
convince Bellimperia in favor of the marriage - for the good of Spain.

Act 2, Scene 4

Horatio and Bellimperia meet in the field and walk towards a bower. To guard against
anyone approaching, Bellimperia entrusts Pedringano to guard the gate, but he reveals his
treacherous intentions in an aside. The two lovers engage in amorous talk, but just as their
intimacy increases, Lorenzo and Balthazar enter the scene with Serberine and Pedringano (the
latter in disguise). The men take Bellimperia aside, hang up Horatio, and then stab him.
Bellimperia pleads for Horatio’s life and then manages to cry for help before the men take her
and leave the scene of murder.

Act 2, Scene 5

Hieronimo enters in his nightshirt, having been awaked by a woman’s cry for help. To his
dismay, he finds a hanged man - and suspects that the murderers have attempted to incriminate
him. Upon cutting the corpse down, however, he recognizes it as his son Horatio. Hieronimo
breaks down into a tormented soliloquy, apostrophizing his dead son. His wife Isabella enters
the scene and commiserates with him, whereupon Hieronimo vows to exact due revenge: his
son’s bloody handkerchief will not leave him until he kills the murderers - and neither will the
corpse be buried! The two carry off the corpse, and Hieronimo concludes the scene with a
monologue in Latin (see section “Marginalia in The Spanish Tragedy” of this ClassicNote for a
translation and brief commentary).

Check your progress

Review Questions
1. Who does Lorenzo summon to assist in consoling Balthazar?

2. Which characters are discovered to be having a secret affair in scene ii?

28

3. What time of day does Bel-Imperia tell Horatio to meet her at?

4. Which characters decide on Balthazar’s marriage to Bel-Imperia?

5. Who assists Balthazar and Lorenzo in murdering Horatio?

6. What does Hieronimo take from Horatio’s dead body?

7. Who helps Hieronimo untie and carry Horatio’s body out of the garden?

2.9 Act 2, Scene 6

The Ghost once again questions Revenge’s motives. Why has he been made to witness
men kill his friend Horatio and abuse his love Bellimperia? Revenge advises him to remain
patient, reaffirming Balthazar’s imminent downfall.

Analysis

From the opening of the second act, Lorenzo shows himself to be a scheming villain. A
man of his position wields a significant amount of power: he can easily afford to both bribe and
threaten Pedringano, and thus obtain information about Bellimperia’s most private secret. But
what could be Lorenzo’s motive in helping Balthazar? The most sympathetic reading would
suggest that he disapproves of his sister’s private affair with Horatio. Any loyal brother would be
outraged to find his sister in a secluded field, clearly engaged in an illicit relationship, yet the
unpleasant episode with Pedringano demonstrates that Lorenzo can make no such claim to
righteousness, or, for that matter, brotherly feelings. Besides, the Spanish prince attests his
loyalty to Balthazar from the very opening lines of the scene, and the audience has no reason
to believe that he is lying. So perhaps it is simply a matter of rivalry and jealousy. In the previous
act, after all, even the sovereign King hesitated between Lorenzo and Horatio’s respective
claims to glory.

Whatever his motives, Lorenzo serves as a lens through which Balthazar and Pedringano
pass to focus on Horatio’s death. Love becomes hate: Lorenzo’s love for Balthazar, Balthazar’s
love for Bellimperia, and Pedringano’s love for gold are all channeled into Balthazar’s desire for
revenge. The Portuguese prince may, incidentally, be the least culpable of the three conspirators.
In contrast with Lorenzo’s vileness, Balthazar’s earnest monologue at the end of the first scene
speaks to his genuine and sincere character. He has indeed found both his body and soul
captured by Horatio, so a desire for personal revenge may only be natural - just as natural, in
 29

any case, as Bellimperia’s desire to take revenge on Balthazar. In both cases love has been
transformed into hate.

The resulting murder of Horatio is criminal and cruel. The murder scene undoubtedly
marks the climax of the sub-plot surrounding Horatio, and it consequently sets Hieronimo’s
quest for revenge in motion. Quartos published in and after 1615 feature a woodcut of the
murder scene with Horatio hanging in a tree. In all its appearances of injustice, however, it is not
clear whether the law would condemn the murder very harshly. Horatio and Bellimperia are,
after all, carrying out their affair in hiding from the law (the Duke and the King). To illustrate the
point with an extreme example: where does justice stand when a murder kills another murderer?
Later in the play, Hieronimo will be forced to negotiate between juridical and personal justice.

Meanwhile, the consequences of the murder are upheld by the King of Spain in a twist of
dramatic irony. Bellimperia will be forced to marry none other than Balthazar, whether she likes
it or not. Conversely, the preceding murder scene becomes even more excessive and pointless.
The arranged marriage will return to Balthazar both his soul (Bellimperia) and his body (he will
rise to rule over Horatio through his heir). The Portuguese prince thus retrospectively loses his
motives for revenge. Behind all such confusion, Revenge’s massive scheme begins to show its
destructive contours.

Even as the plot takes quick dramatic turns, the staging details should not be overlooked.
Objects take on particular significance as things thrown against the mind (etymologically ob +
jectum = “thrown against”). To both Balthazar and Horatio, Bellimperia’s dropped glove in the
first act becomes an extension of her hand, and thus a metonym for her favor. Similarly in the
second act, Horatio’s handkerchief becomes in Hieronimo’s mind a projection of his son’s
presence, or a metonymy for the unburied corpse. Full of blood and sweat, it is as if Horatio
continues to circulate in the play - and he indeed does, as the audience will later see.

Through the emphasis on select objects, Kyd evokes the poetics of stage-space. The
audience notices that Lorenzo and Balthazar hide above in the second scene of the act. From
the heights, the two men both envision Horatio’s “fall.” When they actually murder Horatio,
however, they hang him up; it is Hieronimo who actually takes the body down. In a literal sense,
then, neither Lorenzo nor Balthazar have yet to see “Horatio’s fall.” This will come later in the
play, with dire consequences. In the meantime, the attention to space and height will be taken
up again when the curtains are lifted for the third act.
30

Check your progress

Review questions

1. What does Pedringano think is inside of the page’s box?

2. Which character tells Hieronimo that Pedringano was ordered by a superior to murder
Horatio?

3. Who does Isabella discuss medicine with at the Knight-Marshal’s house?

4. Where does Isabella imagine her son to be to calm her down ?

5. After the death of Horatio, who is Andrea upset with?

2.10 Act 3, Scene 1

In Portugal, the Viceroy laments his fate - thrown from the heights of glory to the depths
of despair, and by hate deprived of a son! A nobleman remarks that he never would have
suspected hate in Alexandro’s heart. The “countenance” of words, it seems, cannot be
trusted. Villuppo continues to incriminate Alexandro but the Viceroy cuts him off in anger - the
traitor shall be summoned and condemned to death.

Alexandro enters with a nobleman who encourages him to “hope the best.” In front of the
Viceroy, Alexandro insists on his innocence in vain. His body is bound to a stake, and preparations
are made to burn him alive. Now turning to Villuppo, Alexandro declares that his “guiltless death
will be aveng’d.” At this point the Ambassador arrives with news from Spain: Balthazar is alive
and well. The Viceroy, reading through the letters from Spain, immediately sets Alexandro free
and demands to know Villuppo’s motives for betrayal. The latter submits himself humbly to the
Viceroy, expressing remorse for his shameless desire “for reward and hope to be preferr’d.”
The Viceroy sends Villuppo away, brushing aside Alexandro’s movement to entreat for mercy.
All exit to settle matters with Spain and commemorate Alexandro’s loyalty.

Act 3, Scene 2

Hieronimo enters the scene, still bemoaning his son’s death in a series of apostrophes.
He cries to the heavens for justice in form of revenge and continues his monologue until a letter
suddenly falls from the sky. The letter is from Bellimperia - written in blood for want of ink - and
informs Hieronimo that Balthazar and Lorenzoconspired together the kill his son. Hieronimo
suspects a trap, and thus warily sets out to confirm Bellimperia’s accusations.
 31

Pedringano enters, followed by Lorenzo. The prince explains that Bellimperia has been
confined by the Duke for “some disgrace.” He offers to hear Hieronimo’s request in place of
Bellimperia, but Hieronimo declines and leaves the scene. Suspecting Serberine of revealing
the truth about Horatio’s murder, Lorenzo gives Pedringano gold and sends him to kill Serberine
the very same night. Lorenzo then reveals his dual manipulation: he will send guards on patrol
to capture Pedringano in the act of murdering Serberine, thus ridding himself of future risks. As
he puts it: “better it’s that base companions die, / Than by their life to hazard our good haps.”

Check your progress

Review Questions

Act 3, scene i–scene ii

1. Who is meant to be burned at the stake before being released by the Viceroy?

2. Which character is condemned to death by the King for falsely accusing Alexandro?

3. How does Hieronimo mourn the death of his son?

4. What is Hieronimo suspicious of trusting, as he does not know where it came from?

5. Where does Lorenzo tell Pedringano and Serberine to meet him?

2.11 Act 3, Scene 3

Pedringano enters with a pistol in his hand. He expresses his qualms about the prospect
of shooting Serberine but is comforted by the thought of his reward. Also reassuring is the belief
that, should he be captured, Lorenzo will protect him. Three guards arrive in the meantime,
wondering why they have been commanded to watch such a secluded place. Serberine comes
on scene, and Pedringano shoots him almost immediately. The guards in turn capture Pedringano
and take him to see Hieronimo.

Act 3, Scene 4

The following morning, Lorenzo confesses his fears to Balthazar: he believes that their
crime has been betrayed to Hieronimo. A page enters to announce that Serberine has been
killed by Pedringano. Balthazar is outraged, and Lorenzo advises him to take due vengeance
by complaining to the King of Spain. Balthazar rushes off to see the trials. Alone on stage,
Lorenzo gloats over his ability to manipulate the Portuguese prince: “I lay the plot: he prosecutes
the point; / I set the trap: he breaks the worthless twigs.” A messenger arrives with a request for
32

help from Pedringano, who has been imprisoned. In response Lorenzo sends his page bearing
a box and a message: the box contains Lorenzo’s signed pardon, which Pedringano shall open
only at the very last moment. Alone once again, Lorenzo ponders the course of his fortune. He
dares not speak out loud, however, for fear of “unfriendly ears.”

Act 3, Scene 5
On the way to find Pedringano in prison, the page is overcome with curiosity and opens
the box - only to find nothing inside. He realizes that Lorenzo intends to trick Pedringano. For
fear of being hanged himself, however, the page cannot act on his sympathy.

REVIEW QUESTIONS
1) What weapon does Pedringano bring to St. Luigi’s park?

2) Who brings the news of Serberine’s death to Lorenzo and Balthazar?

3) According to Lorenzo, what is in the box he gives to the page?

4) According to the page, who committed the murder of Serberine?

5) In scene v, which character speaks directly to the audience?

2.12 Act 3, Scene 6

Hieronimo remarks on the irony of his profession as Marshall: why should “neither gods
nor men be just” to he who judges other men justly? Officers enter with Pedringano, letter in
hand, followed by Lorenzo’s page. After a series of exchanges, highly impudent on Pedringano’s
part (he believes the page to carry a royal pardon), Pedringano is taken away by the hangman.
Hieronimo expresses outrage over Pedringano’s audacity as a convicted murderer, whereupon
he suddenly remembers his dead son and exits the scene.

Act 3, Scene 7

Hieronimo is once again alone, deploring the weight of his sufferance. His “tortured soul”
has so far has been unable to reach the “empyreal heights” of justice and revenge. The hangman
enters frantically with a letter in hand, claiming that they should not have killed Pedringano.
Hieronimo sends him away with a promise to protect him from harm and opens the letter:
Pedringano has written his final words to Lorenzo, threatening to reveal the truth before he is
hanged. From the letter, Hieronimo deduces that it was Lorenzo and Balthazar who murdered
 33

his son. He now realizes the truth behind Bellimperia’s letter and resolves to demand justice in
front of the King.

Act 3, Scene 8

In Hieronimo’s home, Isabella ”runs lunatic” despite the maid’s best efforts to comfort
her. It seems that Horatio’s death, combined with the mystery of his murderers, has forced her
tormented soul into a frenzy.

Act 3, Scene 9

Bellimperia sits at a window, bemoaning her powerless situation in captivity. She

apostrophizes Hieronimo and Andrea before resolving to wait patiently for her release. The
custodian Christophil enters to fetch her.

Act 3, Scene 10

Lorenzo enters with Balthazar and confirms Pedringano’s death with his page. Deeming
the affair to have “o’erblown,” Lorenzo decides to set his sister free. He advises Balthazar to
“deal cunningly” with Bellimperia just as she arrives, full of fury and contempt. Lorenzo claims
that he merely “sought to save [her] honour and [his] own” through his actions; having come to
Hieronimo’s estate with Balthazar to settle some official matters, he found Bellimperia with
Horatio. Upon recalling her “old disgrace” with Andrea and the Duke’s consequent wrath, he
saw it best to dispose with Horatio and hide his sister away for some time. Bellimperia seems
unconvinced, but the dialogue is diverted towards an increasingly cryptic exchange concerning
Balthazar, Bellimperia, and their relation to love and fear.

Act 3, Scene 11

Two Portuguese men enter in search of the Duke of Castile. Hieronimo points out the
correct house for them, whereupon it becomes clear that the two men are actually looking
for Lorenzo. Hieronimo suddenly embarks on a rant about finding “Despair and Death” on the
left-hand path, at the end of which the men will find Lorenzo in a hellish scene. The two men
leave the scene, deeming Hieronimo either a “passing lunatic” or one who has lost his wits in
old age.

REVIEW QUESTIONS
34

1. Which character brings Bel-Imperia away from the window, so as to keep her from
being seen?

2. Which of Bel-Imperia’s suitors does Lorenzo most approve of?

3. What language does Bel-Imperia rebuke Lorenzo and Balthazar in?

4. What does Lorenzo do for Balthazar after Bel-Imperia departs?

5. What do the two traveling Portuguese men ask Hieronimo for?

2.13 Act 3, Scene 12

Hieronimo enters with dagger and halter in hand. He contemplates committing suicide,
but decides against it - after all, “Who would revenge Horatio’s murder then?” He throws away
the dagger and halter, then picks them up again before the King arrives.

The King and the Portuguese ambassador arrive with the Duke and Lorenzo. Hieronimo
cries “Justice, O justice to Hieronimo,” but the King does not quite hear him and Lorenzo sends
him away. Meanwhile, the ambassador brings good news from Portugal: the Viceroy has
consented to the marriage between Balthazar and Bellimperia. He has moreover decided to
relinquish the throne to his son, effectively making Bellimperia a queen. As the Spanish King
and Duke express their joy, the ambassador mentions that he has also brought Balthazar’s
ransom.

Upon hearing his son’s name, Hieronimo once again cries for the King’s attention: “Justice,
O, justice, justice, gentle king!” Lorenzo attempts to keep him away, but in vain. Hieronimo
exclaims wildly, “Give me my son!” and begins to dig with his dagger, announcing his resignation
from the position of Marshall. The King demands for Hieronimo to be restrained, but the latter
quickly takes his leave. Lorenzo suggests that Hieronimo has gone mad and that his office
should be taken away. The King decides to proceed more prudently, and in the meantime sends
Hieronimo the ransom due to his son.

1. What are the tools Hieronimo enters this scene most commonly used for?

2. Which of the following characters does the King of Spain not arrive with?

3. Where is the wedding between Bel-Imperia and Balthazar supposed to be held?

4. What is the Viceroy going to do as soon as the wedding rites are performed?
 35

5. Which character brings up the ransom for Horatio and drives Hieronimo into a fit?

2.14 Act 3, Scene 13

Hieronimo enters with a book in hand and delivers a speech that begins “Vindictamihi”
(“Revenge is due to me”)! Since heaven revenges every ill, Hieronimo declares, he must serve
the will of heaven. He has failed to find official redress for his son’s murder, and therefore must
revenge Horatio’s death with his own devices. To do this he will first dissemble quiet and
ignorance, thus buying time until he knows “when, where, and how” to take revenge.

A servant brings news of several petitioners who have come to see Hieronimo. Three
citizens each voice their complaints and hand in their legal papers. Hieronimo then notices Don
Bazulto the senex (Latin for “old man”), who alone stands aside mute. Hieronimo inquires after
the senex’s suite and in response receives a document titled “The humble supplication Of Don
Bazulto for his murder’d son.” The title triggers a reaction in Hieronimo: reminded painfully of
Horatio’s death, he identifies intimately with the old man. Hieronimo takes out his handkerchief
for the old man to wipe his eyes, but stops mid-action when he realizes its former owner. Now
entirely unsettled, Hieronimo gives the senex his handkerchief as well as his purse.

As if he has forgotten his office as Marshall, Hieronimo delivers an ecstatic monologue

about paternal love and the necessity for revenge - even if it entails descending into hell. The
rhapsody culminates in Hieronimo tearing the petition papers in an uncanny imitation of tearing
apart the limbs of his son’s murderers. He leaves the scene, followed by the petitioners, then
reappears moments later. One of the petitioners cries that his lease worth ten pounds has been
torn up, to which Hieronimo responds that he “gave it never a wound.” Indeed caught in a
strange rapture, he addresses the senex first as his son, then as a Fury who summons him to
the underworld. Hieronimo finally sees the senex as “the lively image of [his] grief” and takes
him away to see Isabel.

Act 3, scene xiii Quick Quiz

1. How does Hieronimo plan on acting towards Lorenzo in the days leading up to his
murder?

2. How many petitioners show up pleading at Hieronimo’s door?

3. What is the fourth petitioner, the old man, pleading on behalf of?
36

4. Who does Hieronimo want to bring the old man to?

2.15 Act 3, Scene 14

The Spanish King welcomes the Portuguese Viceroy with the announcement that Balthazar
is betrothed to Bellamira. Will Portugal accept the marriage, scheduled to take place the following
day? The Viceroy responds positively and gives up his crown on the spot: he would now like to
live a solitary and religious life, ever thankful that his son is alive and well. All except the Duke
and Lorenzo exit to celebrate. The Duke turns somewhat bashfully to his son and asks about
his relationship to the Marshall: “It is suspected, and reported too, / That thou, Lorenzo,
wrong’stHieronimo.” Given Hieronimo’s importance to the King and the court in general, it would
be highly undesirable for the King to hear him speak negatively of Lorenzo. Lorenzo denies any
wrongdoing, despite his father’s suspicion, and maintains that Hieronimo is “distract[ed] in mind”
and simply mistaken. The Duke summons Hieronimo to settle the matter.

Balthazar and Bellimperia, meanwhile, are engaged in conversation. Just as the lady
prudently expresses her newfound love for the prince, her father arrives. The Duke says that he
has forgiven her for the affair with Andrea. Hieronimo now appears, and the Duke confronts him
gently about the rumors concerning Lorenzo. Hieronimo denies vehemently any wrongdoing on
Lorenzo’s part, so all parties are happy and reconciled - at least on the surface.

Act 3, Scene 15

Revenge has fallen asleep, and the Ghost wakens him in alarm - it appears that Hieronimo
has befriended Lorenzo! Revenge assures him that Hieronimo has not forgotten his son and
stages a dumb show for his sake. The Ghost does not understand the show. Revenge explains
that it represented Hymen, the god of marriage, blowing out the nuptial torches and covering
them with blood.

Check your progress

Review Questions
1. Which character talks to Lorenzo about his interfering in both Bel-Imperia’s and
Hieronimo’s lives?

2. Who does Castile summon just before Balthazar and Bel-Imperia enter the Spanish
court?

3. Who does Hieronimo embrace without really wanting to?

 37

4. According to Andrea, what has Revenge been doing for most of the third act?

2.16 ACT IV scenes 1-5

Act 4, Scene 1

Bellimperia berates Hieronimo for his inaction thus far: why has he neglected to avenge
his son’s murder? Hieronimo excuses himself, stating that he was previously unsure as to
whether Bellimperia’s letter contained the truth. For him, Bellimperia’s desire for revenge now
represents a sign from heaven: “all the saints do sit soliciting / For vengeance on those cursed
murderers.” He declares his resolve to exact revenge, and Bellimperia agrees to help him carry
out his plot.

Balthazar and Lorenzo arrive, asking Hieronimo to provide the night’s entertainment for
the King. The Marshall readily agrees. A play that he wrote in his youth shall be performed - by
none other than the two men, Hieronimo himself, and Bellimperia. The plot involves a knight
and his wife Perseda, the Turkish emperor Soliman, and one of his Bashaws. Hoping to arrange
a marriage between Soliman and Perseda, the Bashaw kills the knight. In retribution, Perseda
kills Soliman and then commits suicide. Hieronimo will play the Bashaw, Balthazar will be Soliman,
Lorenzo will act the knight, and Bellimperia, naturally, will play Perseda.

Balthazar calls for a comedy instead, but Hieronimo rejects the suggestion. He moreover
stipulates that each character should speak in a different language. The play will thus be
performed in Latin, Greek, Italian, and French. Balthazar once again objects, stating that such
a mixture would only result in confusion. To this, Hieronimo promises that he will deliver an
oration - and reveal a surprise - that will resolve everything in the last scene.

Act 4, Scene 2

Isabella stands at Horatio’s deathplace, weapon in hand. Seeing that “neither piety nor
pity moves / The king to justice or compassion,” she vows to avenge herself on the very spot
where her son was murdered. She cuts down the arbor where Horatio was /’/hanged and delivers
a soliloquy, cursing the garden and apostrophizing Hieronimo before stabbing herself.

Act 4, Scene 3
38

Hieronimo enters with the Duke of Castile, who surveys Hieronimo’s earnest preparations
for the evening. Upon Hieronimo’s request, the Duke agrees to give the king a copy of the play,
as well as toss Hieronimo the key to the gallery once the royal train has entered. Balthazar
passes through briefly to help with the setup.

Act 4, Scene 4

The King arrives with the Viceroy and the Duke of Castile. The King hands the Viceroy a
copy of the play, translated into English for easier understanding. The play is performed as
previously summarized by Hieronimo. Hieronimo’s character stabs Balthazar’s, after which
Bellimperia’s character stabs Lorenzo’s and herself. The play ends to the enthusiastic applause
of the King and the Viceroy. Hieronimo then delivers the final speech: while the play may have
seemed “fabulously counterfeit,” he explains, it was in fact a very real spectacle. Hieronimo
reveals Horatio’s corpse on stage (presumably by lifting the curtains, of which he previously
spoke) and declaims his accomplished revenge scheme, as well as his motives therein. Finally,
“Hieronimo / Author and actor in this tragedy” runs to hang himself.

The King and the Viceroy break the locked doors and rush to detain Hieronimo. Along
with the Duke of Castile, they demand to know Hieronimo’s motives for orchestrating the murders.
Hieronimo says in few words that he sought revenge for his son, then refuses to speak any
more on the subject. The King calls for torturers, but Hieronimo bites out his tongue. The King
and the Duke insist that he can still write. Hieronimo gestures for a knife to mend his pen, with
he uses to stab both the Duke and himself. The King and the Viceroy exit in mourning.

Act 4, Scene 5

The Ghost declares his desires satisfied. He arranges with Revenge to have Bellimperia
and Horatio treated well; in contrast, Lorenzo, Balthazar, Serberine, and Pedringano will be
sent to the worst parts of hell. The two return to the underworld with Revenge’s last words:

Then haste we down to meet thy friends and foes:

To place thy friends in ease, the rest in woes;
For here though death hath end their misery,
I’ll there begin their endless tragedy. (IV.v.45-48)

REVIEW QUESTIONS
 39

1. What do Lorenzo and Balthazar ask Hieronimo to do at the imminent wedding?

2. Where does Hieronimo’s tragedy take places?

3. Who helps Hieronimo build the stage for the tragedy?

4. What is the name of Balthazar’s character?

5. In Hieronimo’s tragedy, which two characters mutually confess their love?

6. What does Hieronimo do to avoid telling the King and Viceroy who helped him?

7. By Andrea’s count, how many deaths occurred over the course of the play?

8. Where does Andrea think the heroes of the story will spend the rest of eternity?

9. In the pits of hell, whose neck will Balthazar be hung from?

Essay questions
1. Discuss the importance of kingship in The Spanish Tragedy.

2. Discuss the representation of the supernatural in the play.

3. Pick one soliloquy in Acts I, II or III, and analyze the way in which Kyd creates
ambiguity as to the characters’ motivation.

4. Discuss the role of the Chorus (the Ghost and Revenge) in the play.

5. Why does Hieronimo delay taking his revenge for so long?

6. What does the sub-plot that occurs in Portugal (i.e. Villuppo’s treachery and its
resolution) add to the play?

7. Hieronimo demands justice for Horatio’s murder. Has justice been served at the
end of the play?

8. Discuss the different modes of suicide in the play. Why do Isabelle, Hieronimo, and
Bellimperia kill themselves

9. Consider the portrait of madness in the play. What are its symptoms?

10. Discuss the significance of the play-within-play in the fourth act. Why does Hieronimo
insist on showing Horatio’s corpse on stage?

Sources
40

https://www.gradesaver.com/the-spanish-tragedy/study-guide/essay-questions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spanish_Tragedy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senecan_tragedy

From The Elizabethan Translations of Seneca’s Tragedies. E. M. Spearing.

Cambridge: W. Hefper& Sons.
 41

LESSON - 3
ELIZABETHAN THEATER THEATRES THEATRE
GROUPS AUDIENCE ACTORS AND CONVENTIONS
Objectives of the course is to acquaint students with the origins of drama in Britain and
the stages of its evolution .

3.1 Introduction: What is Elizabethan theatre ?

Elizabethan drama was the dominant art form that flourished during and a little after the
reign of Elizabeth I, who was Queen of England from 1558 to 1603. Before, drama consisted of
simple morality plays and interludes, which were skits performed at the banquets of the Queen’s
father Henry VIII or at public schools at Eton. The Elizabethan era saw the birth of plays that
were far more morally complex, vital and diverse.

As with the interludes, the earliest Elizabethan plays were put on for university students.
They were modelled after the comedies of the Roman playwrights Plautus and Terence and the
tragedies of Seneca.

In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, English theater blossomed in London.
Elizabethan theater – or more properly, English Renaissance theatre – flourished between the
years of 1562 and 1642. This is the time when William Shakespeare was writing and performing,
along with other legendary playwrights of the era.

The era of early modern theater begins with “Gorboduc,” a play about civil war and
succession to the throne of a kingdom. “Gorboduc”, which was written by both Thomas Norton
and Thomas Sackville, is significant for being the first dramatic work to be written in blank
verse. Blank verse is metric poetry that uses unrhymed iambic pentameter. An iamb is a chunk
of a line that contains an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. There are five of
them in each line of iambic pentameter blank verse.

Within the early modern era when drama flourished, there are three periods named after
each of the monarchs at the time. Elizabethan Theater only spans, properly, from 1562 to 1603.
Jacobean Theater runs from 1603 to 1625. And Caroline Theater extends from 1625 to 1642.
42

The English Renaissance theatrical era came to an end in 1642, with the Puritanical
parliament banned the performance of plays. During the interregnum, or this period between
kings, public theater was not allowed by law. When Charles II returned to the throne, theater
flourished in a new era dubbed the Restoration.

Venues: Inns and Theaters

The first plays of this era were not performed in permanent theaters – there were none at
that time. Instead, shows were put on in the courtyards of inns by traveling troupes of actors. A
permanent theater, The Red Lion, opened in 1567. It was on the outskirts of the city of London,
and only hosted troupes of actors as they were passing through. Unfortunately, it did not succeed
due to its remote location. It took until 1576 and the establishment of The Theatre in Shoreditch
for the building boom to blossom. The Theatre would host a company of actors on a more
permanent basis, as they performed different shows in repertory in the same location. Other
theaters soon followed, such as The Rose, The Swan, The Fortune, The Red Bull, and most
famously, The Globe. All were located outside the city limits due to laws that restricted
congregations and establishments like theaters in order to prevent the spread of the plague.

All the theaters had certain attributes in common. They were three stories tall and tended
to be roughly circular. These buildings had an open space in the center, and the stage extended
out into this area. Thus, three sides of the stage were open to view by the audience, and only
the rear was used for entrances and exits. There were no roofs and plays were performed
during the day so lights were not needed. The first theater with a roof was the Blackfriars
Theatre. As such, it was among the first theaters to use artificial lighting during productions.
These many different theaters offered thousands of Londoners each day the opportunity to see
plays for sometimes as little as a penny.

Staging Shows

Each theater housed a troupe of performers. These actors performed different plays in
repertory – that is, they performed a different show they knew each night. They seldom even
performed the same show twice in one week.

As a result, costumes – although they were beautifully made – were not specific to the
show. They tended to be fine contemporary clothing and were worn for all the different plays the
company performed.
 43

The roles of women were instead played by the men – especially young boys who could
more readily look like maidens.

The End of an Era

In 1642, Civil War came to England. Royalists, who were loyal to the monarchy, included
the theatrical establishment. Although acting troupes played to thousands of commoners every
year, they also played private shows to the aristocracy and depended upon their patronage.
The opposing forces, the religious Puritans, not only opposed the religious oppression of the
monarchy but also the sinful indulgences it enjoyed, such as the theater.

In September 1642, the Parliament, now in control of the Puritans, passed a law banning
the performance of plays. There was no specific date or time limit mentioned to the end of this
supposedly temporary measure.

The Legacy

As previously mentioned, theater returned to England when the monarchy was restored.
A new generation of playwrights explored their world and expressed it on stage during the
period of the Restoration.

Check your progress

Review Questions
Write an essay on the Elizabethan theatre.

Reference

https://blog.udemy.com/elizabethan-theater/

3.2 How did Theatre and Playhouses flourish?

THE theatre as a public amusement was an innovation in the social life of the Elizabethans,
and it immediately took the general fancy. Like that of Greece or Spain, it developed with amazing
rapidity. London’s first theater was built when Shakespeare was about twelve years old; and the
swhole system of the Elizabethan theatrical world came into being during his lifetime. The great
popularity of plays of all sorts led to the building of playhouses both public and private, to the
organization of innumerable companies of players both amateur and professional, and to
countless difficulties connected with the authorship and licensing of plays. Companies of actors
44

were kept at the big baronial estates of Lord Oxford, Lord Buckingham and others. Many strolling
troupes went about the country playing wherever they could find welcome. They commonly
consisted of three, or at most four men and a boy, the latter to take the women’s parts. They
gave their plays in pageants, in the open squares of the town, in the halls of noblemen and
other gentry, or in the courtyards of inns.

Elizabeth granted the first royal patent to the Servants of the Earl of Leicester in 1574.
These “Servants” were James Burbage and four partners; and they were empowered to play
“comedies, tragedies, interludes, stage-plays and other such-like” in London and in all other
towns and boroughs in the realm of England; except that no representation could be given
during the time for Common Prayer, or during a time of “great and common Plague in our said
city of London.” Under Elizabeth political and religious subjects were forbidden on the stage.

Playhouses. the number of playhouses steadily increased. Besides the three already
mentioned, there were in Southwark the Hope, the Rose, the Swan, and Newington Butts, on
whose stage The Jew of Malta, the first Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, and Tamburlaine had
their premieres. At the Red Bull some of John Heywood’s plays appeared. Most famous of all
were the Globe, built in 1598 by Richard Burbage, and the Fortune, built in 1599. The Globe
was hexagonal without, circular within, a roof extending over the stage only. The audience
stood in the yard, or pit, or sat in the boxes built around the walls. Sometimes the young gallants
sat on the stage. The first Globe was burned in 1613 and rebuilt by King James and some of his
noblemen. It was this theater which, in the latter part of their career, was used by Shakespeare
and Burbage in summer. In winter they used the Blackfriars in the city. At the end of the reign of
Elizabeth there were eleven theaters in London, including public and private houses. Various
members of the royal family were the ostenstible patrons of the new companies. The boys of
the choirs and Church schools were trained in acting; and sometimes they did better than their
elders.

The first Elizabethan playhouse was an open air theatre built in 1567 by James Burbage
called “The Theatre”. After it’s success other playhouses were built : in 1577 “The Courtain”, in
1587 “The Rose”, and in 1595 “The Swan”.

In 1599 the Lord Chamberlain’s Man rebuilt “The Globe” which became the most important
centre of performances.. Performances took place during the afternoon and were acted only
by man and boys. The audiences were made by all sorts of people, reach and poor who had
 45

stand on the ground, theatres were designed as large wooden structures, circular or octagonal
in shape, with three tiers of galleries surrounding a yard open to the sky.

The First Playhouses and First Playwrights

In 1576, James Burbage, an actor and theatre-builder, built the first successful English
playhouse in London on land he had leased in Shoreditch. It was simply called The Theatre and
was supported by young playwrights from Cambridge and Oxford Universities. These young
men became known as the University Wits and included Thomas Kyd, Robert Green, John
Lyly, Thomas Nash and George Peele. The play The Spanish Tragedy, written by Kyd, was the
template for the gory “tragedy of blood,” plays that became wildly popular. Another theatre
called The Curtain had to be built to accommodate the overflow audiences. The technical name
for such as theatre was an easer.

Burbage also had a house in Blackfriars which had a roof. Because of this, it was used for
plays during the winter. Burbage’s son Richard was an even more famous actor and performed
just about every major role in William Shakespeare’s plays. He was lauded for his roles in the
tragedies. The only thing that stopped the plays was the plague, and the theatres were dark
from June, 1592 to April, 1594.

The Audience and Actors

Elizabethan theatre itself was notoriously raucous. People, most of whom stood throughout
the play, talked back to the actors as if they were real people. Hints of this can be discerned
even in Shakespeare’s plays. It is true that adolescent boy actors played female roles, and the
performances were held in the afternoon because there was no artificial light. There was also
no scenery to speak of, and the costumes let the audience know the social status of the
characters. Because sumptuary laws restricted what a person could wear according to their
class, actors were licensed to wear clothing above their station.

Shakespeare

More and more theatres grew up around London and eventually attracted Shakespeare,
who wrote some of the greatest plays in world literature. His plays continue to cast a shadow
over all other plays of the era and quite possibly all other plays that came after his.

But Shakespeare was not the first great playwright of the Elizabethan age. That would be
Christopher Marlowe. Many scholars believe that Marlowe might have rivalled Shakespeare
46

had he not been murdered when he was 29 years old in a fight over a tavern bill in 1593. He was
the first to change the conventions of the early Elizabethan plays with his tales of overreachers
like the title character of Tamburlaine the Great, Dr. Faustus and Barabas in The Jew of Malta,
men whose will to power provided the engines for the plays. Marlowe used blank, or unrhymed
verse in a new, dynamic way that changed the very psychology of dramaturgy.

In the meantime, Peele and Lyly were writing light comedies and fantasies such
as Endymion. These plays were performed at court, which were not only patrons but protected
the companies from the wrath of the Puritans, who found theatre sinful. One of the companies
who performed at court, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, had Shakespeare as a member.This
company became the King’s Men under the patronage of James I.
 47

The Globe Theatre

The Globe Theatre in London , where William Shakespeare’s most famous plays premiered;
Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, and Twelfth Night, was built in 1599 in Southwark on the
south bank of London’s River Thames by Richard Burbage. It was co-owned by Shakespeare,
with a share of 12.5%. The Globe was a large, open-aired, three-tiered theater made out of
timber taken from the Theatre-– a former theatre owned by Richard Burbage’s father.

The Globe Theatre burned to the ground on June 29, 1613, during a performance of
Shakespeare’s last history play Henry VIII: Or, All is True, when a special effect, a cannon set
light to the thatched roof and the fire quickly spread. The Globe was rebuilt in 1614.

The Puritan reaction against the stage was such that the players had to set up theatres
outside the London city limits on the south side of the Thames, but attending plays remained
popular among non-Puritans. The most famous of these theatres, which became the Lord
Chamberlain’s Men home, was the Globe Theatre. It was established in 1599 and was actually
a new iteration of The Theatre, which Richard Burbage and his brother Cuthbert had moved
and reassembled. In between the closing of The Theatre and the opening of The Globe, the
Chamberlain’s Men performed at The Curtain.

The Globe premiered some of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, including Hamlet, Othello,
Macbeth and King Lear. It’s very design influenced the design of other theatres, but unfortunately
The Globe was destroyed in a fire during a performance of Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, which
was his final play and of such inferior quality that some scholars don’t believe it was written by
him at all. The Globe was rebuilt in 1614 and remained standing until 1644 when it was demolished
to make room for housing.

It might not be a coincidence that Shakespeare began to contribute in earnest to

Elizabethan dramaturgy around 1588, when he was 24, though he’d arrived in London from his
home in Stratford on Avon around 1585 to seek work as an actor. As a playwright, he gave
Marlowe’s blank verse more range, flexibility and subtlety. He responded to the patriotic mood
of the country with his History plays. Besides these plays, of course, were his magnificent
comedies and tragedies.
48

Late Elizabethan Drama

Ben Jonson was a friend of Shakespeare and considered his chief rival after the death of
Marlowe. However, Jonson followed the strict classical form that was a hallmark of ancient
Latin drama. His plays include Vulpine, or the Fox and The Alchemist. Other dramatists of the
late Elizabethan period, which continued after her death, included John Webster, Francis
Beaumont and John Fletcher. Richard Burbage also acted in the plays of Jonson, Beaumont
and Fletcher as well as Shakespeare.

By 1600, three years before Elizabeth died, the robustness of Elizabethan drama began
to fade. After Shakespeare’s retirement after 1612 and his death in 1616, Elizabethan drama
was no more.

Check your progress

Review Questions
1. Write in detail about the Globe Theatre.

2. Describe in detail about Elizabethan Drama

3. Who were the First Playhouses and First Playwrights?

4. How did Theatre and Playhouses flourish?

Reference

https://englishhistory.net/shakespeare/elizabethan-theatre/

3.3 Elizabethan Theatre Conventions

What are theatre conventions?

Dramatic conventions are the specific actions and techniques the actor, writer or director
has employed to create a desired dramatic effect/style.

A dramatic convention is a set of rules which both the audience and actors are familiar
with and which act as a useful way of quickly signifying the nature of the action or of a character.

Conventions” can be broadly thought of as the tacit expectations of the audience. For
example, character types are expected to behave a certain way; many beliefs, references and
jokes are understood without having to be explicitly explained.
 49

List the theatre conventions prevalent in Elizabethan Drama .

Soliloquy

A soliloquy occurs when a character speaks alone on the stage; an aside, when not spoken
directly to another character, occurs when a character speaks his or her thoughts out loud, but
is unheard by any of the other characters. Soliloquies and asides are used to inform the audience
of the character’s actual thoughts, which may deliberately be kept hidden from those around
him or her. They may also be used to comment on the action, again for the audience’s benefit.

The dramatists used many figures of speech, indeed too numerous to describe here: one
particularly common one, worth keeping an eye out for, is apostrophe, in which a character
directly addresses a person who is not present, a thing, or an abstract idea, such as Reason or
Honor – such abstract ideals being often personified.

Hamlet’s “To be or not to be…” is literature’s most famous soliloquy. This popular
Elizabethan convention is a literary or dramatic technique in which a single character talks
aloud inner thoughts to him or herself, but not within earshot of another character. Typically, a
soliloquy is lengthy with a dramatic tone.

Aside

The aside existed in Shakespeare’s times, but happily continued into the melodramas of
the 19th century many years later. An aside is a convention that usually involves one character
addressing the audience “on the side”, offering them valuable information in relation to the plot
or characters that only the audience is privy to. The audience now feels empowered, knowing
more about the events on stage than most of the characters do.

Boys Performing Female Roles

Acting in Elizabeth’s England was frowned upon my many in society as a profession

unsuitable for women, as it was rough and rowdy instead of genteel. As a result, women were
not legally permitted to act on the English stage until King Charles II was crowned in the year
1660 .Shakespeare and his contemporaries therefore had no choice but to cast young boys in
the roles of women, while the men played all the male roles on stage.
50

Masque

Existing before Elizabethan England and also outliving it, the masque was normally
performed indoors at the King or Queen’s court. Spoken in verse, a masque involved beautiful
costumes and an intellectual element appropriate for the mostly educated upper class. Masques
were allegorical stories about an event or person involving singing, acting and dancing.
Characters wore elaborate masks to hide their faces.

Eavesdropping

Eavesdropping was a dramatic technique that sat neatly between a soliloquy and an
aside. Certain characters would strategically overhear others on stage, informing both themselves
and the audience of the details, while the characters being overheard had no idea what was
happening. This convention opened up opportunities for the playwright in the evolving plot.

Presentational Acting Style

It is generally agreed by scholars Elizabethan acting was largely presentational in style.

Plays were more overtly a “performance” with clues the actors were aware of the presence of
an audience instead of completely ignoring them as part of their art. Movements and gestures
were more stylised and dramatic than one might ordinarily expect in a modern naturalistic or
realistic drama, speech patterns were heightened for dramatic effect, and the use of conventions
such as the aside, prologue, epilogue and word puns directly connected characters to the
audience watching.

Dialogue

Elizabethan plays commonly consisted of dialogue that was poetic, dramatic and
heightened beyond that of the vernacular of the day. While often the lower class characters’
speech was somewhat colloquial (prose), upper class characters spoke stylised, rhythmic speech
patterns (verse). Shakespeare took great care in composing dialogue that was sometimes
blank (unrhymed), but at other times rhyming (couplets) and often using five stressed syllables
in a line of dialogue (iambic pentameter).

Play Within A Play

This Elizabethan convention was a playwriting technique used by Shakespeare and others
that involved the staging of a play inside the play itself. It was not a flimsy convention, but rather
one that was used judiciously and with purpose. One of the most famous examples of this
 51

convention occurs in Hamlet, when the title character is convinced his uncle Claudius murdered
his father for the throne. So Hamlet organises an out-of-town troupe of performers to attend
one evening and perform a play before King Claudius that involves the same plot line as the
events in the larger play (murder of a King), but in a different setting … all to let Claudius know
Hamlet is on to him!

Stagecraft

In terms of stagecraft, Elizabethan dramas used elaborate costumes, yet quite the opposite
for scenery. Acting spaces were largely empty (bare stage) with isolated set pieces representing
many of the same and minimal use of props (a single tree equalled a forest, a throne for a
King’s palace). This explains the use of rich dialogue full of imagery, as there was no set on
stage to designate the scene’s location. However, Elizabethan costumes were often rich and
colorful, with a character’s status in society being denoted by their costume, alone. There were
no stage lights of any kind, with plays strictly performed during daylight hours. A simple balcony
at the rear of the stage could be used for scenes involving fantastical beings, Gods or Heaven,
while a trap door in the stage floor could also be used to drop characters into Hell or raise
characters up from beneath. Entrances and exits were at two doors at the rear

Students today should be familiar with minimal use of props from high school or university
theatre classes and plays, so prop acquisition or construction with a modern Elizabethan play is
easy. If not in a serious scene, the convention of eavesdropping can be hammed up for comic
effect with the audience and even spoken verse does not have to be taken too seriously in a
modern setting involving students. The Elizabethan convention of word puns can be hilariously
witty if used wisely with contemporary references.

Disguises, Duels, and Infidelity

The Elizabethan stage had a platform which was located higher than stage level at the
back of the stage – the “balcony”, if you will. Actors could appear and speak from the balcony.
In the context of the play, the balcony could serve as an upper floor from which characters could
see, often secretly, what was happening on a lower floor; an upper window, from which a character
could see “outside”, which would be represented by the actors at stage-level; and quite frequently,
battlements or city-walls, from which citizens or soldiers could look out upon an army, perhaps
one engaged in a siege.
52

Characters often would wear disguises to affect some plan or another. Although the
audience could easily see through them, disguises were absolutely impenetrable to other
characters, unless it suited the author to have it be otherwise to further the plot. This convention
went so far as to allow a disguised husband to make love to his spouse without her knowing
who he was.

Similarly, if a character wants to spy on another, it is assumed that he or she can do so

easily, without being discovered, by simply stepping behind a piece of furniture, for example.
Additionally, persons being spied on will often helpfully express their thoughts aloud to themselves,
to the great benefit of those watching them.

Speaking of disguises, characters often hide themselves in the disguises of the opposite
sex. There is obvious irony here, as quite frequently our young boy actors will find themselves
playing female characters, who, for various reasons, are compelled to disguise themselves as
boys.

Oaths and vows Any oath or vow made directly to Heaven or God was seen as inviolable.
A character’s willingness to break a vow, or to tempt another to break a vow, was a good
measure of the moral code of the character.

A particularly important vow was the contract for marriage. When a man and woman
swore to marry each other, especially in front of witnesses, their vows were considered
unseverable, with serious repercussions returning on those who flippantly broke them. Indeed,
such promises were legally enforceable.

Respectable adults kept a continuous and close watch on their reputations. Men would
not stand for any insult, explicit or implied; to be accused of cowardice was especially
shameful. Duels might result from an exchange of words.

Check your progress

Review Questions
1. What are theatre conventions?

2. Write a note on Soliloquy

3. Write a note on Aside

4. Write a note on Boys Performing Female Roles

 53

5. Write a note on Masque

6. Write a note on Eavesdropping

7. Write a note on Dialogue

8. Write a note on Play Within A Play

9. Write a note on Stagecraft

10. Write a note on Disguises, Duels, and Infidelity

11. Write a note on Oaths and vows.

Essay Question
1. Write a detailed essay on the threatre conventions prevalent during Elizabethan
times.

2. How did theatre conventions help the dramatists to give more effective drama?

Reference
http://elizabethandrama.org/primers/conventions-of-elizabethan-drama/ http://
www.thedramateacher.com/elizabethan-theatre-conventions/
54

LESSON - 4
TRAGEDY AND COMEDY
Objectives of the course - to acquaint students with the origins of drama in Britain and the
stages of its evolution in the context of theater and culture through a study of representative
texts from the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods

4.1 Introduction
1. What is drama ?

2 About Christopher Marlowe ?

1. What is drama

Drama is a word of Greek origin meaning “action” and referring to a performance on the
stage in which actors act out the events and characters of a story. A dramatic work is usually
called a play, but if you want to specify what type of drama it is, you can call it a comedy, a.
tragedy, a farce or tragicomedy or other names.

Types of Drama

Dramatic performances are generally classified into specific categories according to the
mood, tone, and actions depicted in the plot. Some popular types of drama include:

· Comedy: Lighter in tone, comedies are intended to make the audience laugh and
usually come to a happy ending. Comedies place offbeat characters in unusual
situations causing them to do and say funny things. Comedy can also be sarcastic
in nature, poking fun at serious topics. There are also several sub-genres of comedy,
including romantic comedy, sentimental comedy, a comedy of manners, and tragic
comedy—plays in which the characters take on tragedy with humor in bringing
serious situations to happy endings.

· Tragedy: Based on darker themes, tragedies portray serious subjects like death,
disaster, and human suffering in a dignified and thought-provoking way. Rarely
enjoying happy endings, characters in tragedies, like Shakespeare’s Hamlet, are
often burdened by tragic character flaws that ultimately lead to their demise.
 55

Tragedy is the major form of drama besides comedy. It can be defined as a play in which
“the hero and his world begin in a condition of harmony which disintegrates, leaving him, by the
end of the play, in a state of isolation” (Scholes and Klaus).

Tragedy before Marlow

Swinburne’s remarks about Marlowe , “Before him there was neither genuine blank verse
nor a genuine tragedy in our language. After his arrival the way was paved for Shakespeare.”
With the advent of Marlowe, Miracle and Morality plays vanished. He brought Drama out of the
old rut of street presentation and made it a perfect art and a thing of beauty. After the Reformation,
the Mystery and Morality plays were disliked by the public at large until the advent of University
Wits the greatest of whom was Marlowe.

It was in the fifteenth century that tragedy came to English dramatic field. This was due to
the Revival of Learning in Europe commonly referred to as the Renaissance and the translation
of great Italian tragedies. Italian Renaissance exercised a vital influence on the development of
English Drama.

Marlow’s Great Tragic Heroes: The first great thing done by Marlowe was to break
away from the medieval conception of Tragedy. The Medieval Drama was a game of the princes
and imperial classes – the kings and Queens and their rise and fall.

But it was left to Marlowe to evolve and create the real tragic hero. All of his tragic heroes
are of humble parentage, Tamburlaine, Barabas in the Jew of Malta and Faustus, but they are
endowed with great tragic and heroic qualities. His tragedy is a tragedy of one man – his rise
and fall, his fate and actions and finally his death for his own failings and incapacities. All the
other characters fade into insignificance besides the towering personality and the glory and
grandeur of the tragic hero.

Working of a passion: We have previously studied that Marlowe’s heroes are dominated
by the inordinate desires and passions. These passions take the form of wealth, spirit of learning,
high power. Through these, Marlowe imparts vehemence, fire and force in the drama himself
was the product of Renaissance.

The Inner Conflict: Another great achievement of Marlowe was to introduce the element
of conflict in the tragic hero especially in Dr. Faustus and Edward II. The conflict may be on the
physical or spiritual plane. The tragic end they meet is caused by the tragic flaw in their
56

personalities and they achieve this end through their actions. This is the greatest contribution of
Marlowe to the English Drama.

Moral Conception: It was Marlowe who first discarded the medieval conception of tragedy
as it was distinctly a moral one. In old Morality Plays, the purpose was to simply inculcate a
moral lesson by showing the fall of the hero. There is no such thing in Marlovian plays. The
main interest centers on the sky-touching personality of the heroes with their tremendous efforts
to attain the limit and their rise and fall in their struggle.

Blank Verse: Another great achievement of Marlowe was to introduce a new type of
blank verse in his tragedies. A new spirit of poetry was breathed into the artificial and monotonous
verse of the old days. In fact, the whole of Elizabethan Drama was enliven by a new poetic
grandeur.

Seriousness and Concentration: Another notable characteristic of Marlowe’s work is

seriousness and concentration on the theme and there is complete lack of humor. According to
many critics, the clownish scenes and the other absurdities were interpolated by the later authors.
There are also no women characters in Marlowe’s works, this is also a typical quality of his.

2. About Christopher Marlowe

Born in Canterbury, England, in 1564.While Christopher Marlowe’s literary career lasted

less than six years, and his life only 29 years, his achievements, most notably the play The
Tragicall History of Doctor Faustus, ensured his lasting legacy.

About Doctor Faustus

Marlowe’s most famous play is The Tragicall History of Doctor Faustus, but, as is the
case with most of his plays, it has survived only in a corrupt form, and when Marlowe actually
wrote it has been a topic of debate.Based on the German Faustbuch, Doctor Faustus is
acknowledged as the first dramatized version of the Faust legend, in which a man sells his soul
to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. While versions of story began appearing as
early as the 4th century, Marlowe deviates significantly by having his hero unable to repent and
have his contract annulled at the end of the play. He is warned to do so throughout by yet
another Marlowe variation of the retelling—a Good Angel—but Faustus ignores the angel’s
advice continually.
 57

In the end, Faustus finally seems to repent for his deeds, but it is either too late or just
simply irrelevant, as Mephistopheles collects his soul, and it is clear that Faustus exits to hell
with

Early Writing Career

After 1587, Christopher Marlowe was in London, writing for the theater and probably also
engaging himself occasionally in government service. What is thought to be his first play, Dido,
Queen of Carthage, was not published until 1594, but it is generally thought to have been
written while he was still a student at Cambridge. According to records, the play was performed
by the Children of the Chapel, a company of boy actors, between 1587 and 1593.

Marlowe’s second play was the two-part Tamburlaine the Great (c. 1587; published 1590).
This was Marlowe’s first play to be performed on the regular stage in London and is among the
first English plays in blank verse. It is considered the beginning of the mature phase of the
Elizabethan theater and was the last of Marlowe’s plays to be published before his untimely
death.There is disagreement among Marlowe scholars regarding the order in which the plays
subsequent to Tamburlaine were written.

Some contend that Doctor Faustus quickly followed Tamburlaine, and that Marlowe then
turned to writing Edward the Second, The Massacre at Paris, and finally The Jew of Malta.
According to the Marlowe Society’s chronology, the order was thus: The Jew of Malta, Doctor
Faustus, Edward the Second and The Massacre at Paris, with Doctor Faustus being performed
first (1604) and The Jew of Malta last (1633).

What is not disputed is that he wrote only these four plays after Tamburlaine, from c.
1589 to 1592, and that they cemented his legacy and proved vastly influential.

4.2 Plot of Dr. Faustus

Plot Overview

Doctor Faustus, a well-respected German scholar, grows dissatisfied with the limits of
traditional forms of knowledge—logic, medicine, law, and religion—and decides that he wants
to learn to practice magic. His friends Valdes and Cornelius instruct him in the black arts, and
he begins his new career as a magician by summoning up Mephistopheles, a devil. Despite
Mephistopheles’s warnings about the horrors of hell, Faustus tells the devil to return to his
58

master, Lucifer, with an offer of Faustus’s soul in exchange for twenty-four years of service from
Mephistopheles. Meanwhile, Wagner, Faustus’s servant, has picked up some magical ability
and uses it to press a clown named Robin into his service.

Mephistopheles returns to Faustus with word that Lucifer has accepted Faustus’s offer.
Faustus experiences some misgivings and wonders if he should repent and save his soul; in
the end, though, he agrees to the deal, signing it with his blood. As soon as he does so, the
words “Homo fuge,” Latin for “O man, fly,” appear branded on his arm. Faustus again has
second thoughts, but Mephistopheles bestows rich gifts on him and gives him a book of spells
to learn. Later, Mephistopheles answers all of his questions about the nature of the world,
refusing to answer only when Faustus asks him who made the universe. This refusal prompts
yet another bout of misgivings in Faustus, but Mephistopheles and Lucifer bring in personifications
of the Seven Deadly Sins to prance about in front of Faustus, and he is impressed enough to
quiet his doubts.

Armed with his new powers and attended by Mephistopheles, Faustus begins to travel.
He goes to the pope’s court in Rome, makes himself invisible, and plays a series of tricks. He
disrupts the pope’s banquet by stealing food and boxing the pope’s ears. Following this incident,
he travels through the courts of Europe, with his fame spreading as he goes. Eventually, he is
invited to the court of the German emperor, Charles V (the enemy of the pope), who asks
Faustus to allow him to see Alexander the Great, the famed fourth-century b.c. Macedonian
king and conqueror. Faustus conjures up an image of Alexander, and Charles is suitably
impressed. A knight scoffs at Faustus’s powers, and Faustus chastises him by making antlers
sprout from his head. Furious, the knight vows revenge.

Meanwhile, Robin, Wagner’s clown, has picked up some magic on his own, and with his
fellow stablehand, Rafe, he undergoes a number of comic misadventures. At one point, he
manages to summon Mephistopheles, who threatens to turn Robin and Rafe into animals (or
perhaps even does transform them; the text isn’t clear) to punish them for their foolishness.

Faustus then goes on with his travels, playing a trick on a horse-courser along the way.
Faustus sells him a horse that turns into a heap of straw when ridden into a river. Eventually,
Faustus is invited to the court of the Duke of Vanholt, where he performs various feats. The
horse-courser shows up there, along with Robin, a man named Dick , and various others who
have fallen victim to Faustus’s trickery. But Faustus casts spells on them and sends them on
their way, to the amusement of the duke and duchess.
 59

As the twenty-four years of his deal with Lucifer come to a close, Faustus begins to dread
his impending death. He has Mephistopheles call up Helen of Troy, the famous beauty from the
ancient world, and uses her presence to impress a group of scholars. An old man urges Faustus
to repent, but Faustus drives him away. Faustus summons Helen again and exclaims rapturously
about her beauty. But time is growing short. Faustus tells the scholars about his pact, and they
are horror-stricken and resolve to pray for him. On the final night before the expiration of the
twenty-four years, Faustus is overcome by fear and remorse. He begs for mercy, but it is too
late. At midnight, a host of devils appears and carries his soul off to hell. In the morning, the
scholars find Faustus’s limbs and decide to hold a funeral for him.

Check your progress

Review questions

1. How does Faustus begin his new career as a magician?

2. What does Faustus do first with his new powers?

3. Faustus sells the horse-courser a horse: what does it turn into when ridden into a
river?

4. Who does Faustus summon towards the end of his twenty-four-year deal?

4.3 Summary: Prologue

The Chorus, a single actor, enters and introduces the plot of the play. It will involve neither
love nor war, he tells us, but instead will trace the “form of Faustus’ fortunes” (Prologue.8). The
Chorus chronicles how Faustus was born to lowly parents in the small town of Rhode, how he
came to the town of Wittenberg to live with his kinsmen, and how he was educated at Wittenberg,
a famous German university. After earning the title of doctor of divinity, Faustus became famous
for his ability to discuss theological matters. The Chorus adds that Faustus is “swollen with
cunning” and has begun to practice necromancy, or black magic (Prologue.20). The Prologue
concludes by stating that Faustus is seated in his study.

Analysis: Prologue

The Chorus’s introduction to the play links Doctor Faustus to the tradition of Greek tragedy,
in which a chorus traditionally comments on the action. Although we tend to think of a chorus as
a group of people or singers, it can also be composed of only one character. Here, the Chorus
60

not only gives us background information about Faustus’s life and education but also explicitly
tells us that his swelling pride will lead to his downfall. The story that we are about to see is
compared to the Greek myth of Icarus, a boy whose father, Daedalus, gave him wings made
out of feathers and beeswax. Icarus did not heed his father’s warning and flew too close the
sun, causing his wings to melt and sending him plunging to his death. In the same way, the
Chorus tells us, Faustus will “mount above his reach” and suffer the consequences (Prologue.21).

The way that the Chorus introduces Faustus, the play’s protagonist, is significant, since it
reflects a commitment to Renaissance values. The European Renaissance of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries witnessed a rebirth of interest in classical learning and inaugurated a new
emphasis on the individual in painting and literature. In the medieval era that preceded the
Renaissance, the focus of scholarship was on God and theology; in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries, the focus turned toward the study of humankind and the natural world, culminating in
the birth of modern science in the work of men like Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton.

The Prologue locates its drama squarely in the Renaissance world, where humanistic
values hold sway. Classical and medieval literature typically focuses on the lives of the great
and famous—saints or kings or ancient heroes. But this play, the Chorus insists, will focus not
on ancient battles between Rome and Carthage, or on the “courts of kings” or the “pomp of
proud audacious deeds” (Prologue.4–5). Instead, we are to witness the life of an ordinary man,
born to humble parents. The message is clear: in the new world of the Renaissance, an ordinary
man like Faustus, a common-born scholar, is as important as any king or warrior, and his story
is just as worthy of being told.

Check Your Progress

Review Questions

1. How many people make up the chorus?

2. Where was Faustus born?

3. Who did Faustus initially live with in Wittenberg?

4. According to the chorus, who is “swollen with cunning”?

5. Which area of scholarship does Faustus not discuss in his soliloquy?

6. Who visits Faustus while he is waiting for his friends to arrive?

7. What does the Good Angel encourage Faustus to read?

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8. Over which country does Faustus imagine himself as King?

9. Who lists several texts to help Faustus study magic?

4.4 Scenes 1 to 4
Summary: Scene 1

In a long soliloquy, Faustus reflects on the most rewarding type of scholarship. He first
considers logic, quoting the Greek philosopher Aristotle, but notes that disputing well seems to
be the only goal of logic, and, since Faustus’s debating skills are already good, logic is not
scholarly enough for him. He considers medicine, quoting the Greek physician Galen, and
decides that medicine, with its possibility of achieving miraculous cures, is the most fruitful
pursuit—yet he notes that he has achieved great renown as a doctor already and that this fame
has not brought him satisfaction. He considers law, quoting the Byzantine emperor Justinian,
but dismisses law as too petty, dealing with trivial matters rather than larger ones. Divinity, the
study of religion and theology, seems to offer wider vistas, but he quotes from St. Jerome’s
Bible that all men sin and finds the Bible’s assertion that “[t]he reward of sin is death” an
unacceptable doctrine. He then dismisses religion and fixes his mind on magic, which, when
properly pursued, he believes will make him “a mighty god” (1.62).

Wagner, Faustus’s servant, enters as his master finishes speaking. Faustus asks Wagner
to bring Valdes and Cornelius, Faustus’s friends, to help him learn the art of magic. While they
are on their way, a good angel and an evil angel visit Faustus. The good angel urges him to set
aside his book of magic and read the Scriptures instead; the evil angel encourages him to go
forward in his pursuit of the black arts. After they vanish, it is clear that Faustus is going to heed
the evil spirit, since he exults at the great powers that the magical arts will bring him. Faustus
imagines sending spirits to the end of the world to fetch him jewels and delicacies, having them
teach him secret knowledge, and using magic to make himself king of all Germany.

Valdes and Cornelius appear, and Faustus greets them, declaring that he has set aside
all other forms of learning in favor of magic. They agree to teach Faustus the principles of the
dark arts and describe the wondrous powers that will be his if he remains committed during his
quest to learn magic. Cornelius tells him that “[t]he miracles that magic will perform / Will make
thee vow to study nothing else” (1.136–137). Valdes lists a number of texts that Faustus should
read, and the two friends promise to help him become better at magic than even they are.
Faustus invites them to dine with him, and they exit.
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Scenes 2–4
Summary: Scene 2

Two scholars come to see Faustus. Wagner makes jokes at their expense and then tells
them that Faustus is meeting with Valdes and Cornelius. Aware that Valdes and Cornelius are
infamous for their involvement in the black arts, the scholars leave with heavy hearts, fearing
that Faustus may also be falling into “that damned art” as well (2.29).

Summary: Scene 3

That night, Faustus stands in a magical circle marked with various signs and words, and
he chants in Latin. Four devils and Lucifer, the ruler of hell, watch him from the shadows.
Faustus renounces heaven and God, swears allegiance to hell, and demands that
Mephistopheles rise to serve him. The devil Mephistopheles then appears before Faustus, who
commands him to depart and return dressed as a Franciscan friar, since “[t]hat holy shape
becomes a devil best” (3.26). Mephistopheles vanishes, and Faustus remarks on his obedience.
Mephistopheles then reappears, dressed as a monk, and asks Faustus what he desires. Faustus
demands his obedience, but Mephistopheles says that he is Lucifer’s servant and can obey
only Lucifer. He adds that he came because he heard Faustus deny obedience to God and
hoped to capture his soul.

Faustus quizzes Mephistopheles about Lucifer and hell and learns that Lucifer and all his
devils were once angels who rebelled against God and have been damned to hell forever.
Faustus points out that Mephistopheles is not in hell now but on earth; Mephistopheles insists,
however, that he and his fellow demons are always in hell, even when they are on earth, because
being deprived of the presence of God, which they once enjoyed, is hell enough. Faustus
dismisses this sentiment as a lack of fortitude on Mephistopheles’s part and then declares that
he will offer his soul to Lucifer in return for twenty-four years of Mephistopheles’s service.
Mephistopheles agrees to take this offer to his master and departs. Left alone, Faustus remarks
that if he had “as many souls as there be stars,” he would offer them all to hell in return for the
kind of power that Mephistopheles offers him (3.102). He eagerly awaits Mephistopheles’s
return.

Summary: Scene 4

Wagner converses with a clown and tries to persuade him to become his servant for
seven years. The clown is poor, and Wagner jokes that he would probably sell his soul to the
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devil for a shoulder of mutton; the clown answers that it would have to be well-seasoned mutton.
After first agreeing to be Wagner’s servant, however, the clown abruptly changes his mind.
Wagner threatens to cast a spell on him, and he then conjures up two devils, who he says will
carry the clown away to hell unless he becomes Wagner’s servant. Seeing the devils, the clown
becomes terrified and agrees to Wagner’s demands. After Wagner dismisses the devils, the
clown asks his new master if he can learn to conjure as well, and Wagner promises to teach
him how to turn himself into any kind of animal—but he insists on being called “Master Wagner.”

Check Your Progress

Review Questions

1. In Scene Two, who does Wagner make fun of?

2. What does Faustus order Mephistopheles to wear?

3. What does Mephistopheles say he hopes to do to Faustus?

4. According to Mephistopheles, what did Lucifer and the devils used to be?

5. What food does Wagner say the clown would probably sell his soul for?

6. What does the Good Angel urge Faustus to think about?

7. According to Mephistopheles, why does Lucifer want Faustus’s soul?

8. What happens when Faustus tries to use his blood to write the deed?

9. What does the inscription that appears on Faustus’s arm (“Homo fuge”) mean?

10. According to Mephistopheles, where is Hell located?

2.5 Scenes 5 and 6

Scenes 5–6

Faustus begins to waver in his conviction to sell his soul. The good angel tells him to
abandon his plan and “think of heaven, and heavenly things,” but he dismisses the good angel’s
words, saying that God does not love him (5.20). The good and evil angels make another
appearance, with the good one again urging Faustus to think of heaven, but the evil angel
convinces him that the wealth he can gain through his deal with the devil is worth the cost.
Faustus then calls back Mephistopheles, who tells him that Lucifer has accepted his offer of his
soul in exchange for twenty-four years of service. Faustus asks Mephistopheles why Lucifer
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wants his soul, and Mephistopheles, tells him that Lucifer seeks to enlarge his kingdom and
make humans suffer even as he suffers.

Faustus decides to make the bargain, and he stabs his arm in order to write the deed in
blood. However, when he tries to write the deed his blood congeals, making writing impossible.
Mephistopheles goes to fetch fire in order to loosen the blood, and, while he is gone, Faustus
endures another bout of indecision, as he wonders if his own blood is attempting to warn him
not to sell his soul. When Mephistopheles returns, Faustus signs the deed and then discovers
an inscription on his arm that reads “Homo fuge,” Latin for “O man, fly” (5.77). While Faustus
wonders where he should fly Mephistopheles presents a group of devils, who cover Faustus
with crowns and rich garments. Faustus puts aside his doubts. He hands over the deed, which
promises his body and soul to Lucifer in exchange for twenty-four years of constant service
from Mephistopheles.

After he turns in the deed, Faustus asks his new servant where hell is located, and
Mephistopheles says that it has no exact location but exists everywhere. He continues explaining,
saying that hell is everywhere that the damned are cut off from God eternally. Faustus remarks
that he thinks hell is a myth. At Faustus’s request for a wife, Mephistopheles offers Faustus a
she-devil, but Faustus refuses. Mephistopheles then gives him a book of magic spells and tells
him to read it carefully.

Faustus once again wavers and leans toward repentance as he contemplates the wonders
of heaven from which he has cut himself off. The good and evil angels appear again, and
Faustus realizes that “[m]y heart’s so hardened I cannot repent!” (5.196). He then begins to ask
Mephistopheles questions about the planets and the heavens. Mephistopheles answers all his
queries willingly, until Faustus asks who made the world. Mephistopheles refuses to reply because
the answer is “against our kingdom”; when Faustus presses him, Mephistopheles departs angrily
(5.247). Faustus then turns his mind to God, and again he wonders if it is too late for him to
repent. The good and evil angels enter once more, and the good angel says it is never too late
for Faustus to repent. Faustus begins to appeal to Christ for mercy, but then Lucifer, Belzebub
(another devil), and Mephistopheles enter. They tell Faustus to stop thinking of God and then
present a show of the Seven Deadly Sins. Each sin—Pride, Covetousness, Envy, Wrath, Gluttony,
Sloth, and finally Lechery—appears before Faustus and makes a brief speech. The sight of the
sins delights Faustus’s soul, and he asks to see hell. Lucifer promises to take him there that
night. For the meantime he gives Faustus a book that teaches him how to change his shape.
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Summary: Scene 6

Meanwhile, Robin, a stablehand, has found one of Faustus’s conjuring books, and he is
trying to learn the spells. He calls in an innkeeper named Rafe, and the two go to a bar together,
where Robin promises to conjure up any kind of wine that Rafe desires.

Analysis: Scenes 5–6

Even as he seals the bargain that promises his soul to hell, Faustus is repeatedly filled
with misgivings, which are bluntly symbolized in the verbal duels between the good and evil
angels. His body seems to rebel against the choices that he has made—his blood congeals, for
example, preventing him from signing the compact, and a written warning telling him to fly away
appears on his arm. Sometimes Faustus seems to understand the gravity of what he is doing:
when Lucifer, Belzebub, and Mephistopheles appear to him, for example, he becomes suddenly
afraid and exclaims, “O Faustus, they are come to fetch thy soul!” (5.264). Despite this awareness,
however, Faustus is unable to commit to good.

Check Your Progress

Review Questions

1. What does the Good Angel urge Faustus to think about?

2. According to Mephistopheles, why does Lucifer want Faustus’s soul?

3. What happens when Faustus tries to use his blood to write the deed?

4. What does the inscription that appears on Faustus’s arm (“Homo fuge”) mean?

5. According to Mephistopheles, where is Hell located?

2.6 Chorus 2 , Scenes 7 and 8

Summary: Chorus 2

Wagner takes the stage and describes how Faustus traveled through the heavens on a
chariot pulled by dragons in order to learn the secrets of astronomy. Wagner tells us that Faustus
is now traveling to measure the coasts and kingdoms of the world and that his travels will take
him to Rome.
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Summary: Scene 7

Faustus appears, recounting to Mephistopheles his travels throughout Europe—first from

Germany to France and then on to Italy. He asks Mephistopheles if they have arrived in Rome,
whose monuments he greatly desires to see, and Mephistopheles replies that they are in the
pope’s privy chamber. It is a day of feasting in Rome, to celebrate the pope’s victories, and
Faustus and Mephistopheles agree to use their powers to play tricks on the pope.

As Faustus and Mephistopheles watch, the pope comes in with his attendants and a
prisoner, Bruno, who had attempted to become pope with the backing of the German emperor.
While the pope declares that he will depose the emperor and forces Bruno to swear allegiance
to him, Faustus and Mephistopheles disguise themselves as cardinals and come before the
pope. The pope gives Bruno to them, telling them to carry him off to prison; instead, they give
him a fast horse and send him back to Germany.

Later, the pope confronts the two cardinals whom Faustus and Mephistopheles have
impersonated. When the cardinals say that they never were given custody of Bruno, the pope
sends them to the dungeon. Faustus and Mephistopheles, both invisible, watch the proceedings
and chuckle. The pope and his attendants then sit down to dinner. During the meal, Faustus
and Mephistopheles make themselves invisible and curse noisily and then snatch dishes and
food as they are passed around the table. The churchmen suspect that there is some ghost in
the room, and the pope begins to cross himself, much to the dismay of Faustus and
Mephistopheles. Faustus boxes the pope’s ear, and the pope and all his attendants run away. A
group of friars enters, and they sing a dirge damning the unknown spirit that has disrupted the
meal. Mephistopheles and Faustus beat the friars, fling fireworks among them, and flee.

Summary: Scene 8

Robin the ostler, or stablehand, and his friend Rafe have stolen a cup from a tavern. They
are pursued by a vintner (or wine-maker), who demands that they return the cup. They claim
not to have it, and then Robin conjures up Mephistopheles, which makes the vintner flee.
Mephistopheles is not pleased to have been summoned for a prank, and he threatens to turn
the two into an ape and a dog. The two friends treat what they have done as a joke, and
Mephistopheles leaves in a fury, saying that he will go to join Faustus in Turkey.

The scenes in Rome are preceded by Wagner’s account, in the second chorus, of how
Faustus traveled through the heavens studying astronomy. This feat is easily the most impressive
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that Faustus performs in the entire play, since his magical abilities seem more and more like
cheap conjured tricks as the play progresses. Meanwhile, his interests also diminish in importance
from astronomy, the study of the heavens, to cosmography, the study of the earth. He even
begins to meddle in political matters in the assistance he gives Bruno (in the B text only). By the
end of the play, his chief interests are playing practical jokes and producing impressive illusions
for nobles—a far cry from the ambitious pursuits that he outlines in scene 1.

Check Your Progress

Review Questions
1. What pulled the chariot that took Faustus through the heavens?

2. Who was attempting to become pope with the backing of the German emperor?

3. What do Faustus and Mephistopheles do during the pope’s dinner?

4. What have Robin and Rafe stolen from a tavern?

4.7 Summary of Chorus 3, Scene 9

Summary: Chorus 3

The Chorus enters to inform us that Faustus has returned home to Germany and developed
his fame by explaining what he learned during the course of his journey. The German emperor,
Charles V, has heard of Faustus and invited him to his palace, where we next encounter him.

Summary: Scene 9

At the court of the emperor, two gentlemen, Martino and Frederick, discuss the imminent
arrival of Bruno and Faustus. Martino remarks that Faustus has promised to conjure up Alexander
the Great, the famous conqueror. The two of them wake another gentleman, Benvolio, and tell
him to come down and see the new arrivals, but Benvolio declares that he would rather watch
the action from his window, because he has a hangover.

Faustus comes before the emperor, who thanks him for having freed Bruno from the
clutches of the pope. Faustus acknowledges the gratitude and then says that he stands ready
to fulfill any wish that the emperor might have. Benvolio, watching from above, remarks to
himself that Faustus looks nothing like what he would expect a conjurer to look like.
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The emperor tells Faustus that he would like to see Alexander the Great and his lover.
Faustus tells him that he cannot produce their actual bodies but can create spirits resembling
them. A knight present in the court (Benvolio in the B text) is skeptical, and asserts that it is as
untrue that Faustus can perform this feat as that the goddess Diana has transformed the knight
into a stag.

Before the eyes of the court, Faustus creates a vision of Alexander embracing his lover
(in the B text, Alexander’s great rival, the Persian king Darius, also appears; Alexander defeats
Darius and then, along with his lover, salutes the emperor). Faustus conjures a pair of antlers
onto the head of the knight (again, Benvolio in the B text). The knight pleads for mercy, and the
emperor entreats Faustus to remove the horns. Faustus complies, warning Benvolio to have
more respect for scholars in the future.

With his friends Martino and Frederick and a group of soldiers, Benvolio plots an attack
against Faustus. His friends try to dissuade him, but he is so furious at the damage done to his
reputation that he will not listen to reason. They resolve to ambush Faustus as he leaves the
court of the emperor and to take the treasures that the emperor has given Faustus. Frederick
goes out with the soldiers to scout and returns with word that Faustus is coming toward them
and that he is alone. When Faustus enters, Benvolio stabs him and cuts off his head. He and
his friends rejoice, and they plan the further indignities that they will visit on Faustus’s corpse.
But then Faustus rises with his head restored. Faustus tells them that they are fools, since his
life belongs to Mephistopheles and cannot be taken by anyone else. He summons
Mephistopheles, who arrives with a group of lesser devils, and orders the devils to carry his
attackers off to hell. Then, reconsidering, he orders them instead to punish Benvolio and his
friends by dragging them through thorns and hurling them off of cliffs, so that the world will see
what happens to people who attack Faustus. As the men and devils leave, the soldiers come in,
and Faustus summons up another clutch of demons to drive them off.

Check Your Progress

Review Questions

1. During the chorus, who do we learn has invited Faustus to his palace?

2. Who declares he will watch the action from a window because he is hungover?

3. What does Faustus conjure onto the head of the Knight/Benvolio?

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4. After being “murdered” by Benvolio, what punishment does Faustus give his
attackers?

4.8 Scene 10 and Scene 11

Summary: Scene 10 and Scene 11

Faustus, meanwhile, meets a horse-courser and sells him his horse. Faustus gives the
horse-courser a good price but warns him not to ride the horse into the water. Faustus begins
to reflect on the pending expiration of his contract with Lucifer and falls asleep. The horse-
courser reappears, sopping wet, complaining that when he rode his horse into a stream it
turned into a heap of straw. He decides to get his money back and tries to wake Faustus by
hollering in his ear. He then pulls on Faustus’s leg when Faustus will not wake. The leg breaks
off, and Faustus wakes up, screaming bloody murder. The horse-courser takes the leg and
runs off. Meanwhile, Faustus’s leg is immediately restored, and he laughs at the joke that he
has played. Wagner then enters and tells Faustus that the Duke of Vanholt has summoned him.
Faustus agrees to go, and they depart together.

Robin and Rafe have stopped for a drink in a tavern. They listen as a carter, or wagon-
driver, and the horse-courser discuss Faustus. The carter explains that Faustus stopped him
on the road and asked to buy some hay to eat. The carter agreed to sell him all he could eat for
three farthings, and Faustus proceeded to eat the entire wagonload of hay. The horse-courser
tells his own story, adding that he took Faustus’s leg as revenge and that he is keeping it at his
home. Robin declares that he intends to seek out Faustus, but only after he has a few more
drinks.

Summary: Scene 11

At the court of the Duke of Vanholt, Faustus’s skill at conjuring up beautiful illusions wins
the duke’s favor. Faustus comments that the duchess has not seemed to enjoy the show and
asks her what she would like. She tells him she would like a dish of ripe grapes, and Faustus
has Mephistopheles bring her some grapes. (In the B text of Doctor Faustus, Robin, Dick, the
carter, the horse-courser, and the hostess from the tavern burst in at this moment. They confront
Faustus, and the horse-courser begins making jokes about what he assumes is Faustus’s
wooden leg. Faustus then shows them his leg, which is whole and healthy, and they are amazed.
Each then launches into a complaint about Faustus’s treatment of him, but Faustus uses magical
70

charms to make them silent, and they depart.) The duke and duchess are much pleased with
Faustus’s display, and they promise to reward Faustus greatly.

Check Your Progress

Review Questions

1. What does the horse-courser do first to try and wake Faustus?

2. What does the horse-courser run away with?

3. At the court of the Duke of Vanholt, what does the duchess request from Faustus.

4. What does Faustus do to the crowd that bursts into the court?

4.9 Summary chorus 4 Epilogue scene 12 ,13

Chorus 4–EpilogueSummary: Chorus 4

Wagner announces that Faustus must be about to die because he has given Wagner all
of his wealth. But he remains unsure, since Faustus is not acting like a dying man—rather, he
is out carousing with scholars.

Summary: Scene 12

Faustus enters with some of the scholars. One of them asks Faustus if he can produce
Helen of Greece (also known as Helen of Troy), who they have decided was “the admirablest
lady / that ever lived” (12.3–4). Faustus agrees to produce her, and gives the order to
Mephistopheles: immediately, Helen herself crosses the stage, to the delight of the scholars.

The scholars leave, and an old man enters and tries to persuade Faustus to repent.
Faustus becomes distraught, and Mephistopheles hands him a dagger. However, the old man
persuades him to appeal to God for mercy, saying, “I see an angel hovers o’er thy head / And
with a vial full of precious grace / Offers to pour the same into thy soul!” (12.44–46). Once the
old man leaves, Mephistopheles threatens to shred Faustus to pieces if he does not reconfirm
his vow to Lucifer. Faustus complies, sealing his vow by once again stabbing his arm and
inscribing it in blood. He asks Mephistopheles to punish the old man for trying to dissuade him
from continuing in Lucifer’s service; Mephistopheles says that he cannot touch the old man’s
soul but that he will scourge his body. Faustus then asks Mephistopheles to let him see Helen
again. Helen enters, and Faustus makes a great speech about her beauty and kisses her.
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Summary: Scene 13

The final night of Faustus’s life has come, and he tells the scholars of the deal he has
made with Lucifer. They are horrified and ask what they can do to save him, but he tells them
that there is nothing to be done. Reluctantly, they leave to pray for Faustus. A vision of hell
opens before Faustus’s horrified eyes as the clock strikes eleven. The last hour passes by
quickly, and Faustus exhorts the clocks to slow and time to stop, so that he might live a little
longer and have a chance to repent. He then begs God to reduce his time in hell to a thousand
years or a hundred thousand years, so long as he is eventually saved. He wishes that he were
a beast and would simply cease to exist when he dies instead of face damnation. He curses his
parents and himself, and the clock strikes midnight. Devils enter and carry Faustus away as he
screams, “Ugly hell gape not! Come not, Lucifer! / I’ll burn my books—ah, Mephistopheles!”

About Chorus 4–Epilogue

The final scenes contain some of the most noteworthy speeches in the play, especially
Faustus’s speech to Helen and his final soliloquy. His address to Helen begins with the famous
line “Was this the face that launched a thousand ships,” referring to the Trojan War, which was
fought over Helen, and goes on to list all the great things that Faustus would do to win her love
(12.81). He compares himself to the heroes of Greek mythology, who went to war for her hand,
and he ends with a lengthy praise of her beauty. In its flowery language and emotional power,
the speech marks a return to the eloquence that marks Faustus’s words in earlier scenes,
before his language and behavior become mediocre and petty. Having squandered his powers
in pranks and childish entertainments, Faustus regains his eloquence and tragic grandeur in
the final scene, as his doom approaches. Still, asimpressive as this speech is, Faustus maintains
the same blind spots that lead him down his dark road in the first place. Earlier, he seeks
transcendence through magic instead of religion. Now, he seeks it through sex and female
beauty, as he asks Helen to make him “immortal” by kissing him (12.83). Moreover, it is not
even clear that Helen is real, since Faustus’s earlier conjuring of historical figures evokes only
illusions and not physical beings. If Helen too is just an illusion, then Faustus is wasting his last
hours dallying with a fantasy image, an apt symbol for his entire life.
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Check Your Progress

Review Questions

1. In the chorus, what has Faustus given to Wagner?

2. Who asks Faustus to make Helen of Troy appear?

3. In Scene 12, who tries to persuade Faustus to repent?

4. In Scene 13, as the clock strikes eleven, what does Faustus see?

5. What does Faustus wish he was, so that upon death he would simply cease to be?

4.10 Characterization in Dr. Faustus

Character List

Faustus - The protagonist. Faustus is a brilliant sixteenth-century scholar from Wittenberg,

Germany, whose ambition for knowledge, wealth, and worldly might makes him willing to pay
the ultimate price—his soul—to Lucifer in exchange for supernatural powers. Faustus’s initial
tragic grandeur is diminished by the fact that he never seems completely sure of the decision to
forfeit his soul and constantly wavers about whether or not to repent. His ambition is admirable
and initially awesome, yet he ultimately lacks a certain inner strength. He is unable to embrace
his dark path wholeheartedly but is also unwilling to admit his mistake.

Mephistopheles - A devil whom Faustus summons with his initial magical experiments.
Mephistopheles’s motivations are ambiguous: on the one hand, his oft-expressed goal is to
catch Faustus’s soul and carry it off to hell; on the other hand, he actively attempts to dissuade
Faustus from making a deal with Lucifer by warning him about the horrors of hell. Mephistopheles
is ultimately as tragic a figure as Faustus, with his moving, regretful accounts of what the devils
have lost in their eternal separation from God and his repeated reflections on the pain that
comes with damnation.

Chorus - A character who stands outside the story, providing narration and commentary.
The Chorus was customary in Greek tragedy.

Old Man - An enigmatic figure who appears in the final scene. The old man urges
Faustus to repent and to ask God for mercy. He seems to replace the good and evil angels,
who, in the first scene, try to influence Faustus’s behavior.
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Good Angel - A spirit that urges Faustus to repent for his pact with Lucifer and return to
God. Along with the old man and the bad angel, the good angel represents, in many ways,
Faustus’s conscience and divided will between good and evil.

Evil Angel - A spirit that serves as the counterpart to the good angel and provides Faustus
with reasons not to repent for sins against God. The evil angel represents the evil half of Faustus’s
conscience.

Lucifer - The prince of devils, the ruler of hell, and Mephistopheles’s master.

Wagner - Faustus’s servant. Wagner uses his master’s books to learn how to summon
devils and work magic.

Clown - A clown who becomes Wagner’s servant. The clown’s antics provide comic
relief; he is a ridiculous character, and his absurd behavior initially contrasts with Faustus’s
grandeur. As the play goes on, though, Faustus’s behavior comes to resemble that of the
clown.

Robin - An ostler, or innkeeper, who, like the clown, provides a comic contrast to Faustus.
Robin and his friend Rafe learn some basic conjuring, demonstrating that even the least scholarly
can possess skill in magic. Marlowe includes Robin and Rafe to illustrate Faustus’s degradation
as he submits to simple trickery such as theirs.

Rafe - An ostler, and a friend of Robin. Rafe appears as Dick (Robin’s friend and a
clown) in B-text editions of Doctor Faustus.

Valdes And Cornelius - Two friends of Faustus, both magicians, who teach him the art
of black magic.

Horse-Courser - A horse-trader who buys a horse from Faustus, which vanishes after
the horse-courser rides it into the water, leading him to seek revenge.

The Scholars - Faustus’s colleagues at the University of Wittenberg. Loyal to Faustus,

the scholars appear at the beginning and end of the play to express dismay at the turn Faustus’s
studies have taken, to marvel at his achievements, and then to hear his agonized confession of
his pact with Lucifer.
74

The Pope - The head of the Roman Catholic Church and a powerful political figure in the
Europe of Faustus’s day. The pope serves as both a source of amusement for the play’s
Protestant audience and a symbol of the religious faith that Faustus has rejected.

Emperor Charles V - The most powerful monarch in Europe, whose court Faustus visits.

Knight - A German nobleman at the emperor’s court. The knight is skeptical of Faustus’s
power, and Faustus makes antlers sprout from his head to teach him a lesson. The knight is
further developed and known as Benvolio in B-text versions of Doctor Faustus; Benvolio seeks
revenge on Faustus and plans to murder him.

Bruno - A candidate for the papacy, supported by the emperor. Bruno is captured by the
pope and freed by Faustus. Bruno appears only in B-text versions of Doctor Faustus.

Duke Of Vanholt - A German nobleman whom Faustus visits.

Martino And Frederick - Friends of Benvolio who reluctantly join his attempt to kill
Faustus. Martino and Frederick appear only in B-text versions of Doctor Faustus.

Suggested Essay Topics

1. How does Faustus use the magical gifts that he receives? How are the uses to which
he puts his powers significant? What do they suggest about his character or about the nature of
unlimited power?

2. What is the role of the comic characters—Robin, Rafe, the horse-courser, and the
clown, for example? How does Marlowe use them to illuminate Faustus’s decline?

3. When does Faustus have misgivings about his pact with Lucifer? What makes him
desire to repent? Why do you think he fails to repent?

4. Is God present in the play? If so, where? If not, what does God’s absence suggest?

5. Discuss the role of Faustus’s soliloquies—particularly his speeches about the different
kinds of knowledge in scene 1 and his long soliloquies in scene 12—in shaping our understanding
of his character.

6. Is Faustus misled by the devils, or is he willfully blind to the reality of his situation?
 75

References
https://www.gradesaver.com/dr-faustus/study-guide/summary

Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. ”The Cambridge Guide to Theatre.” Cambridge University
Press.ISBN 0-521-43437-8.

Carlson, Marvin. 1993. ”Theories of the Theatre: A Historical and Critical Survey from the
Greeks to the Present.” Cornell University Press

Worthen, W.B. ”The Wadsworth Anthology of Drama.” Heinle & Heinle, 1999. ISBN-13:
978-0495903239

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drama

http://www.mgtundoedu.altervista.org/what_is_drama.htm

VOLPONE
Introduction

About the AUTHOR

Ben Jonson’s life started out dramatic and difficult. When Jonson was born in 1572, his
father, a clergyman from London, had already died. As a youth, Jonson studied at the Westminster
School under William Camden, where he grew to love classical learning. After leaving the
Westminster School he was forced to become a bricklayer, which he left in favor of joining the
army. Back in London after his service, his early career as a dramatist was chaotic: he went to
jail for writing a controversial play, and after his release, he killed another actor in a duel.
Jonson was a controversial figure, and he heavily satirized English society while slowly climbing
the social ranks. Though he continued to have qualms with English authority, he gained
prominence in court by writing masques and successful plays, until he was given a yearly
pension from King James I, establishing him as England’s unofficial Poet Laureate. Jonson
was friends with William Shakespeare, and it’s Jonson who famously wrote that Shakespeare
was “for all time.” Towards the end of his life, Jonson served as a mentor to a group of younger
poets (such as Thomas Carew and Robert Herrick) called the “Sons of Ben.” Jonson continued
writing until his death in 1637.
76

About the play -Volpone

Volpone (Italian for “sly fox”) is a comedy play by English playwright Ben Jonson first
produced in 1605–1606, drawing on elements of city comedy and beast fable. A
merciless satire of greed and lust, it remains Jonson’s most-performed play, and it is ranked
among the finest Jacobean era comedies.

The play is dedicated to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, both of which had
recently awarded Jonson honorary doctorates at the time of the play’s writing. He briefly discusses
the moral intentions of the play and its debt to classical drama. In the Argument, Jonson provides
a brief summary of the play’s plot in the form of an acrostic on Volpone’s name. The prologue
then introduces the play to the viewing audience, informing them that “with a little luck,” it will be
a hit; Jonson ends by promising that the audience’s cheeks will turn red from laughter after
viewing his work.

Jonson’s work is based on a popular beast fable of the fox that feigned death, but its
complexity can be fully explained only by reference to the Roman institution of legacy hunting
and such diverse works as Aesop’s Fables, the Bible, and Desiderius Erasmus’s Mori
encomium (1511; The Praise of Folly, 1549). The comedy can also be seen as a morality play
within its beast-fable guise. Volpone, like the fox pretending to be dead, traps unwary birds of
prey, who are, of course, greedy men hoping to benefit from his death. Jonson’s theme and real
concern is the unnaturalness of sin. His strong moral intent is driven home by a constant reference
to the beast fable in the speeches of Volpone and Mosca.

The dramatist’s artistic purpose, as the play’s prologue confirms, is to entertain and
enlighten the audience while observing the unities of time, place, and action. Strictly speaking,
however, Jonson violates his own artistic rules. The action all takes place in Venice within the
course of a single day, but classical symmetry is destroyed by the inclusion of a subplot involving
Sir Politic Would-be and his fellow Englishman, Peregrine.

The setting of the play, Venice, was probably chosen by Jonson for its reputation as a city
full of carnival-like attractions, much like Jonson’s own London. Volpone’s household includes
abnormal human pets, and at one point he disguises himself as a mountebank or quack to
catch a glimpse of Celia. It is a Venice teeming with Renaissance life, zestful and curious, a
magnet for English travelers such as Peregrine and the Would-bes.
 77

The atmosphere is right for the deceit and trickery practiced by Volpone and Mosca on
the callous, hypocritical legacy hunters. Volpone is, of course, no less perverse than his victims.
In fact, his opening salutation to his gold, which he venerates as a saint, grotesquely distorts
normal human values. As long as his victims are greedy fools, however, Volpone’s ingenuity
makes him more rogue than villain. Only when Bonario and Celia become enmeshed in his
intrigue does he grow ripe for the comic unmasking that marks the play’s grim finale.

Volpone works through an admirable use of sustained dramatic irony, which is a powerful
theatrical device. The audience, recognizing the deceptions practiced by Volpone and Mosca,
delights in their clever manipulation of their victims. The irony leads to some hilarious moments,
as, for example, when Mosca prompts Corvino to vilify Volpone to his face after convincing him
that the fox is nearly in a coma, or the scene in which Mosca must yell at the deaf and feeble
Corbaccio to get him to understand anything at all.

Threaded through the play, the farcical subplot of Sir Politic and Peregrine offers a
humorous counterpoint to the fierce, unrelenting satire on compulsive greed in the main plot. In
Sir Pol, Jonson pokes fun at harmless fanatics who find conspiracy afoot everywhere. Among
other fantastic disclosures, Sir Pol tells Peregrine that he knows how to sell Venice to the Turks.
After Peregrine becomes convinced that Sir Politic is actually a pimp for his wife, Lady Pol, he
decides to get revenge on him. In the disguise of a merchant, he leads Sir Pol to believe that
Peregrine is really a Venetian secret agent who now plans to arrest him. He then helps Sir Pol
hide inside a ridiculous contraption made of a tortoise shell before revealing his true self and
mocking the silly knight.

Sir Pol’s asinine delusions and his fanciful “projects” are in the tradition of burlesque and
mimicry, appropriate to the parrot, his beast-fable counterpart. Lady Pol, in the fortune hunt, is
more directly related to the main plot, but she, too, is a mimic, aping the dress and manners of
Venice and trying the Italian seduction game as if it were a mere extension of Venetian fashions.
The topicality of the Sir Politic plot makes it easy to overlook its important function in the play. It
contrasts English folly with Italian vice and adds texture and density to the whole. It also clarifies
the relationship between vice and folly, showing how each is a species of the unnatural, which
is, after all, Jonson’s central, unifying theme.
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Summary

Corvino enters as Mosca attends to Volpone, who is pretending to be deathly ill. Mosca
greets Corvino, and he says that Volpone is as good as dead and that he recognizes no one.
Corvino says that he brought Volpone a pearl, at which point Mosca says Volpone might be just
aware enough to recognize Corvino. Mosca inquires about the quality of the pearl, when Volpone
whispers Corvino’s name. Corvino steps forward and hands Volpone the pearl, which he says is
24 carats (very large).

No work is more firmly bound to Jonson’s name than his great satirical verse
comedy Volpone. It achieves the mastery of purpose claimed by the playwright and reflects his
devotion to classical theories.

The play’s predication is, however, quite simple. Volpone and his servant Mosca pretend
that Volpone is dying and encourage Venetian fortune hunters to vie for Volpone’s favor in
hopes of being named his heir. All visit Volpone, prompted by Mosca to bring gifts to convince
Volpone of their kind concern for his health. Volpone is, of course, perfectly well, but he and
Mosca put on such a good act that the legacy hunters are completely fooled. The greedy
victims include Corbaccio, an old, deaf miser; Voltore, a conniving lawyer; Corvino, a rich
merchant who jealously guards his young, attractive wife, Celia; and Lady Would-be, the wife of
a ridiculous English knight.

Complications arise when Mosca convinces Corbaccio to claim that he is drawing up a

new will disinheriting his son, Bonario, and naming Volpone his heir. After Corbaccio agrees,
Mosca taunts Bonario and challenges him to go to Volpone’s house to overhear Corbaccio
confirm the fact. Meanwhile, Volpone, who has been scheming to seduce Corvino’s wife, has
Mosca talk the foolish merchant into leaving Celia alone with Volpone, who then attempts to
force himself on her. Bonario catches him in the act, rescues Celia, and denounces Volpone
and Mosca.

Fearful that the game is ended, Volpone throws himself down in despair, but Mosca devises
a new scheme to escape trouble. He convinces Corbaccio that his son is out to kill him, tells the
suspicious Voltore that Bonario has made Celia swear that Volpone had raped her, and gets
Corvino to denounce Celia as a lewd woman. Celia and Bonario, totally innocent, are brought to
court, and through the testimony of the legacy hunters and Voltore’s cunning, are found guilty in
an obvious travesty of justice.
 79

The pair of tricksters then go too far. Determined to vex the fools further, they spread the
news that Volpone has died. Each would-be heir then comes to Volpone’s house to claim the
magnifico’s legacy, only to be told that Mosca is the heir. Mosca knows that Volpone himself is
now vulnerable and quickly makes plans to cheat him.

Seeking revenge on Mosca, the would-be heirs return to the court to claim that Bonario
and Celia have been falsely charged and that Mosca has practiced criminal deceptions. Mosca
is called to court, and when he refuses to confirm that Volpone is actually alive, he impels
Volpone, disguised as an officer of the court, to reveal himself rather than be tricked. At last
discovering the truth, the judges sentence both the tricksters and the fools to appropriate but
very harsh, uncomic punishments. Mosca is to be whipped and sent to the galleys. Volpone, his
wealth confiscated and given to a hospital for incurables, is to be imprisoned until he does in
fact become sick and lame.

4.2 Volpone The Argument

This section, the opening to the play, is a very general plot summary of the play given in
a clever acrostic, where the first letter of each of the seven lines in the section spells out the
play’s title, V O L P O N E. The acrostic explains that Volponeis wealthy and childless, and that
he pretends to be sick and has offered to name several people as inheritors of his wealth. His
parasite (Mosca), meaning his servant or hanger-on, fools all the people hoping to inherit
Volpone’s wealth, and weaves cross-plots which are all eventually exposed. The characters of
the play try new tricks to save themselves and have some success, but in trying to take advantage
of each other, everyone winds up betrayed and ruined.

The Prologue

The Prologue is delivered by an undesignated speaker, who opens with the hope that
luck and wit will make the play a hit, and that the play will fit the fashionable tastes of audiences.
The speaker then explains the aim of the playwright has been to “mix profit with your pleasure,”
meaning to write a play that amuses and pleases the audience while also teaching it a meaningful
lesson.

The Prologue is delivered by an undesignated speaker, who opens with the hope that
luck and wit will make the play a hit, and that the play will fit the fashionable tastes of audiences.
The speaker then explains the aim of the playwright has been to “mix profit with your pleasure,”
80

meaning to write a play that amuses and pleases the audience while also teaching it a meaningful
lesson.

After outlining the play’s goal of teaching a moral lesson, the speaker responds to
supposedly envious critics of the playwright who have said things like “all he writes is railing”
(meaning that all Jonson writes are personal insults) or ridiculed him for taking so long to
produce plays.

The actor delivering the Prologue continues Jonson’s response to other playwrights, saying
that this play (Volpone) was written singlehandedly by Jonson in only five weeks. The speaker
assures that the play’s content is excellent, giving numerous examples of bad things not included
in the play, including broken eggs or “quaking custards.” The speaker claims that Jonson doesn’t
use tricks or tired jokes to fill gaps in his writing, and that he doesn’t plagiarize.

Instead, Jonson makes jokes that fit within his story, and he presents “quick comedy” that
will please the best of critics. He observes all the rules of time, place, and character consistency,
and he has used almost every last drop of his wit in preparing the play. The playwright hopes
that the audience’s cheeks will be so red with laughter by the end of the play that they look fresh
and red even a week later.

Volpone Act 1
Summary Act 1 scene 1

In Volpone’s home in Venice, Italy, the wealthy Volpone greets the day and his gold, and
he instructs his hanger-on, Mosca, to reveal his treasure. Volpone then begins an ode to money,
which he calls “the world’s soul” and his own soul. He says that he’s gladder to see his gold than
the earth is glad to see the sun, and he goes on to say that his gold outshines the sun like a
flame at night or the first light during creation. He calls gold the “son of Sol” that is brighter than
its father, and he says he wants to kiss and adore every piece of “sacred treasure in this
blessèd room.”

Volpone continues, saying that the poets were right to call the best age in history the
“golden age,” since gold is the best thing in the world, surpassing joy. Gold is so beautiful and
loved, he says, that when gold became Venus’s (the Goddess of love’s) aura, it functionally
surrounded her with twenty thousand cupids.
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Still speaking to his “dear saint,” Volponesays that riches are the silent god that gives
men the ability to speak, that can do nothing and yet makes men do everything. Gold is the
price of souls. Hell, if you add gold to it, is worth the same as heaven. Gold is “virtue, fame,
honor,” and everything in the world. Whoever has gold is made noble, valiant, honest, and wise
by default.

Mosca cuts off Volpone by agreeing, and he says that riches are better than wisdom.
Volpone agrees, but says that he gives more glory to the unconventional method he uses to
gain wealth than to the fact that he has so much money. He doesn’t use any trade or risky
commerce, he doesn’t farm, he doesn’t raise animals, and he doesn’t have any mills to produce
commodities. He’s not an artisan, nor a merchant risking money on ships that might sink in the
ocean. He doesn’t use banks or lend money at interest.

Mosca continues, saying that Volponealso doesn’t take the wealth of other heirs, like
many do, by tearing fathers away from families, since Volpone’s sweet nature prevents him
from doing so. The other reason he doesn’t is because Volpone doesn’t want widows or orphans
crying all around his property. Mosca says Volpone isn’t like a greedy farmer who harvests corn
but eats bad weeds to hoard his keep, or like a merchant who fills his ship with expensive wines
but only drinks cheap dregs. He won’t stay in bad conditions to save money. Rather, Volpone
knows how to spend his money, giving some to Mosca, some to a dwarf, a hermaphrodite, and
a eunuch, and spending on everything that allows him to live in comfort and in pleasure.

Volpone pays Mosca and says that Mosca is right in everything he says. Those who call
Mosca a parasite, Volpone says, are just jealous. Volpone then instructs Mosca to bring in the
dwarf, the eunuch, and the fool and Mosca exits to get them. Alone on stage, Volpone asks
what he should do other than indulge his desires and live with all the delights that his fortune
demands. He has no wife, no parents, and no children or friends to whom he could give his
wealth when he dies. Since the money will go to whomever Volpone names heir, men flatter him
and petition him, and women and men of all ages bring him presents and money, hoping that
when he dies (which they believe will be soon), they’ll gain everything back and more by inheriting
his fortune.

The greediest of these suitors try to out-do one another, competing in gifts and undermining
each other, all the while trying to seem like they love Volpone. Volpone endures all of this,
toying with their hope of inheriting his money so that he can profit from them. He continues to
82

take more and more from them, all the while leading them on and convincing them that they will
be named his heir.

Act I, scene ii
Summary

Nano (a dwarf), Castrone (a eunuch), and Androgyno enter. They are here to entertain
Volpone, with Nano leading the way. In a pleasant little fable, Nano relates that the soul now in
Androgyno’s body originated in the soul of Pythagoras. Mosca admits that he, in fact, wrote the
entertainment, after Volpone says he was pleased with it. Nano then sings a song praising
Fools, such as himself, who make their living by entertaining at the tables of the rich. A knock is
heard at the door; Mosca says that it is Signior Voltore, a lawyer and one of Volpone’s would-be
“heirs.” Mosca goes to see him into the house and comes back to announce that he has brought
a huge piece of gold plate with him as a gift. Volpone is excited; his con is working, and he
quickly prepares to put on the act of being sick, by getting into his night-clothes and dropping
ointment in his eyes. He notes that he has been fooling these would-be heirs for three years,
with various faked symptoms such as palsy (tremors), gout (joint- aches), coughs, apoplexy
(breathing problems) and catarrhs (vomit).

Act I, scene iii

Voltore the lawyer—whose name means “vulture” in Italian—enters with Mosca, and Mosca
assures him that he will be Volpone’s heir. Voltore asks after Volpone’s health, and Volpone
thanks him for both his kindness and his gift of a large piece of gold plate. The magnifico then
informs the lawyer that his health is failing, and he expects to die soon. Voltore asks Mosca
three times whether he is Volpone’s heir before he is finally satisfied with Mosca’s answer, at
which point he rejoices. He asks why he is so lucky, and Mosca explains that it is partly due to
the fact that Volpone has always had an admiration for lawyers and the way they can argue
either side of a case at a moment’s notice. He then begs Voltore not to forget him when the
lawyer inherits Volpone’s money and becomes rich. Voltore leaves happy, with a kiss for Mosca,
at which point Volpone jumps out of bed and congratulates his parasite on a job well done. But
the game quickly starts again, as another would-be heir arrives, identified only as “the raven.”

Act I, scene iv

“The raven” turns out to be Corbaccio (whose name means “raven” in Italian), an elderly
man, who, according to Mosca, is in much worse health himself than Volpone pretends to be.
 83

Corbaccio offers to give Volpone a drug, but Mosca refuses out of fear that the drug may be
Corbaccio’s way of speeding up the dying process (in other words, some form of poison).
Mosca excuses his refusal by saying that Volpone simply does not trust the medical profession
in general, to which Corbaccio agrees. Corbaccio then inquires after Mosca’s health; as Mosca
lists off the ever-worsening symptoms, Corbaccio marks his approval of each one, except when
he mishears one of Mosca’s replies and gets worried that Volpone might be improving. But
Mosca assures him that Volpone is, in fact, getting worse and is in fact nearly dead. This cheers
up Corbaccio greatly, who remarks that Volpone is even sicker than he is and that he is certain
to outlive; he remarks that it makes him feel twenty years younger. Corbaccio expresses curiosity
about Volpone’s will, but Mosca replies it has not yet been written. The old man asks what
Voltore was up to at Volpone’s house; when Mosca answers truthfully—that he gave Volpone a
piece of gold plate in the hopes of being written into his will—Corbaccio presents a bag of
cecchines (Venetian coins) intended for Volpone. Mosca then explain how Corbaccio can be
certain of being Volpone’s heir; by leaving the bag of cecchines, but also by writing Volpone
as his sole heir. Mosca says that when Volpone then writes his own will, his sense of gratitude
will compel him to make Corbaccio his sole heir. Corbaccio soon leaves, and Volpone mocks
him afterward mercilessly for trying to inherit money from a sick, dying man when he, himself,
is on the brink of death.

Act I, scene v

Summary

The final would-be heir now appears. He is a merchant named Corvino, and his names
mean “crow” in Italian. He brings a pearl as his gift; Mosca then lets him know that Volpone has
been saying his name constantly, though he is so ill he can barely recognize anyone and is
unable to say anything else. Corvino hands over the pearl, and Mosca then informs him he took
it upon himself to write up a will, interpreting Volpone’s cries of “Corvino” as indicating the Fox’s
desire to have Corvino be his heir. Corvino hugs and thanks Mosca for his help, then asks
whether or not Volpone saw them celebrating. Mosca assures him Volpone is blind. Corvino is
worried that the sick man might hear them talking this way, but Mosca assures him he is dead
by hurling abuse in his ear; he then asks Corvino to join in, which the merchant does gladly. But
when Mosca suggests that Corvino suffocate Volpone, Corvino backs off and begs Mosca not
to use violence. Corvino then leaves, and pledges to share everything with Mosca when he
inherits Volpone’s fortune, but Mosca notes that one thing Corvino will not share: his wife.
When Corvino is gone, another caller arrives: it is Lady Politic Would-be, the wife of the English
84

knight Sir Politic Would-be, but Volpone does not want to talk-or do anything else-with her, so
she is not let in. Mosca explains that Lady Politic’s reputation for promiscuity is overblown,
unlike Corvino’s wife, she is not beautiful enough to be promiscuous. According to Mosca,
Corvino’s wife is perhaps the most beautiful woman in all of Italy. Volpone is inflamed by Mosca’s
description, and vows to see her. Mosca explains that she is never let out of the house by the
insanely jealous Corvino, and is kept guarded by ten spies. Volpone nevertheless is resolved to
see her, so he decides to go in disguise-but not too well disguised, since this might be his first
introduction to the beautiful Celia.

4.3 Act II, scene i

Summary

The scene is the public square outside Corvino’s home, slightly later in the day. Sir Politic
Would-be, the English knight residing in Venice, and Peregrine, an English traveler who has
just arrived in Venice, are strolling together. Sir Politic explains that is was his wife’s wish that
the two should go to Venice, for she desired to pick up some of the local culture. He asks
Peregrine (whose name derives from the word peregrination, or wandering travel) for news
from the home country, and says that he has heard many strange things from England; for
example, a raven has been building a nest in one of the king’ ships. Having decided that Sir
Politic will believe anything anyone tells him, as his name indicates, Peregrine proceeds to let
him tell some more improbable stories for his and the audience’s amusement, including the one
about Mas’ Stone, the supposed drunken illiterate who Politic is convinced was a dangerous
spy. According to Politic, Stone had secret messages smuggled out of the Netherlands in
cabbages. To see just how much Politic will pretend to know, Peregrine mentions a race of spy
baboons living near to China. Politic, of course, says he has heard of them, and calls them “the
Mameluchi”, another name for the Mamelukes (who were actually an Egyptian dynasty that had
nothing to do with either China or baboons). Peregrine says, sarcastically, that he is fortunate to
have run into Sir Politic, because he has only read books about Italy, and needs some advice
on how to negotiate his way through Venetian life. Sir Politic seems to be agreeing when Peregrine
interrupts him, asking him to identify the people entering the square.

Act II, scene iii

Mosca and Nano enter the square, disguised; they serve as the advance scout party for
Volpone. They establish themselves beneath the window of Corvino’s house. Sir Politic identifies
 85

the oncoming crowd as the surrounding party for a mountebank, a Renaissance Italy version of
the nineteenth century American medicine-show men, hucksters who sold fake potions to cure
all and any ailments; they would “mount a bank” (embankment) in order to speak to the public.
He then informs Peregrine that, contrary to popular belief, the Italian mountebanks are not all
liars, but are in fact very learned men and excellent physicians. Volpone enters, followed by a
crowd. Disguised as Scoto Mantua, Italian mountebank extraordinaire, he takes his place
underneath Corvino’s window with Mosca and Nano (who mounts on his shoulders) and engages
on a long history of Scoto’s fictional life, detailing the difficulties he has faced thanks to the
rumor-mongering of Alessandro Buttone, a fellow mountebank, who has spread the vicious lie
that Scoto was imprisoned for poisoning the cook of Archbishop Bembo, as well as the extreme
popularity of the new potion he is selling. He of course lists the numerous illnesses the potion is
supposed to cure, sings a wonderful song about its medicinal qualities, discusses how cheap
his potion is, sings another song, before trying to convince everyone that they should buy it,
immediately, at a special discount price of six pence. He then asks everyone to toss him their
handkerchiefs so that he can rub some of his oil on them. The lovely Celia, watching above,
tosses down her handkerchief, and Scoto/Volpone engages on a long tribute to her beauty,
grace, and elegance.

Act II, scene iv

Volpone returns to his home, moaning about how beautiful Celia is, and how sick he is
with love for her. Mosca listens to him and promises that he will make Celia Volpone’s lover, if
only he has enough patience. Volpone is pleased by Mosca’s determination; he then asks him
whether or not he was good in his performance as Scoto. Mosca assures him the entire audience
was fooled.

Act II, scene v

The scene is within Corvino’s house. Corvino berates Celia for tossing her handkerchief
to Scoto Mantua. He feels he has been made a fool of in public and accuses his wife of harboring
a desire to be unfaithful to him and of making excuses in order to meet with her paramours. She
begs him not to be jealous and protests that she never makes such excuses, that she hardly
even leaves the house, even to go to Church—but this is not enough for Corvino. From now on,
he says, she will never be allowed out of the house, never allowed to go within two or three feet
of a window, and forced to do everything backward—dress backward, talk backward, walk
backward. If she fails to obey, he threatens that he will dissect her in public as an example of a
woman without virtue.
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Act II, scene vi

Mosca arrives at Corvino’s house, and Corvino assumes he brings good news: news of
Volpone’s death. But Corvino says that, on the contrary, Volpone has recovered—thanks to the
medicinal oil of Scoto Mantua. Corvino is frustrated. Not only that, adds Mosca, but he has now
been charged by the doctors with the task of finding a woman to sleep with Volpone in order to
further aid his recovery. Corvino suggests a courtesan (prostitute), but Mosca rejects the idea;
prostitutes are too sly, too experienced, and they might trick both of them out of any inheritance.
Rather, he suggests that a woman of virtue is required, someone whom Corvino can command.
Volpone’s parasite further mentions that one of the doctors offered his own daughter. Boldened
by this, Corvino decides that Celia will sleep with Volpone and declares this to Mosca. Mosca
congratulates Corvino on ensuring that he will be named heir.

Act II, scene vii

After Mosca leaves, Corvino finds his wife crying. He consoles her, telling her that he is
not jealous and was never jealous. Jealousy is unprofitable, he says, and he promises that she
will find just how un-jealous he is at Volpone’s house, cryptically alluding to his decision to
prostitute her.

4.4 Act iii

Act III, scene i i

The scene is Volpone’s house. This scene consists entirely of a soliloquy by Mosca. He
enters, and expresses fear at his growing narcissism. This increasing self-love is the result of
the successful way he is helping Volpone conduct his con-game. He then discusses what it is to
be a “parasite,” presenting it as an “art” in which most of the world, in fact, takes part: “All the
world is little else, in nature, / But parasites or sub-parasites.”

Act III, scene ii

Corbaccio’s son Bonario, enters. Mosca begs to talk to him, but he scorns him, deriding
him for being a parasite. Mosca pleads with him not to be so harsh and asks for his pity. Bonario
responds to Mosca’s plea. But then Mosca informs Bonario that his father has disinherited him.
The son does not believe it at first, but Mosca asks him to follow his lead. He promises to let
Bonario see his father Corbaccio in the act of disinheriting him. They exit the stage together.
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Act III, scene iii

Volpone, his dwarf, his eunuch, and his hermaphrodite enter. Volpone notes that Mosca
is late in returning home. To quell his boredom, he asks Nano to entertain him, which he does
by discoursing on how fools create more laughter with their faces than with their brains (their
wit). A knock is heard at the door; Volpone assumes it must be Mosca. Nano goes out to see
who it is, and returns to announce that it is a “beauteous madam.” Volpone realizes that it is
Lady Politic Would-be. He reluctantly tells Nano to let her in.

Act III, scene iv

Lady Politic Would-be enters into an anteroom with Nano and asks him to tell Volpone
she has arrived. She fusses over her own appearance, noting her dress does not show her
neck enough but that she is still dressed well. She berates Volpone’s servant women for not
dressing appropriately and not making themselves up in an appropriate way. Finally, she begins
to speak to Volpone. Volpone informs her that he had a strange dream the previous night, that
a “strange fury” entered his house and tore his roof off with her voice. She ignores the obvious
reference to herself and begins a (very one-sided) conversation, advising Volpone on what
medicines he should take to cure his bad dream, discussing the various Italian poets and their
relative strengths and weaknesses, before giving a brief lecture on the value of philosophy
when dealing with mental disturbances. By the end of the scene, Volpone is begging to be
rescued.

Act III, scene v

Volpone’s prayers to be rescued from Lady Politic are answered when Mosca finally returns.
Volpone demands that he find a way to get rid of Lady Politic. Mosca quickly decides to tell Lady
Politic that he recently saw Sir Politic rowing upon the waters of Venice in a gondola with a
courtesan. Sir Politic was actually conversing with Peregrine, the young English traveler, but
Lady Politic believes Mosca completely and runs off to search for her husband with the dwarf.
Mosca then informs Volpone that Corbaccio is about to arrive, so as to make Volpone his heir;
Volpone thanks Mosca for his help and lies down to rest.

Act III, scene vi

Mosca and Bonario enter. Mosca tells Bonario to hide so that he can watch his father
disinherit his son and make Volpone his heir. Bonario agrees but, after Mosca leaves, says that
he still can’t believe that what Mosca says is true.
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Act III.vii

Mosca, Corvino, and Celia enter. Mosca tells Bonario that Corbaccio will soon arrive.
Celia begs not to be forced to sleep with Volpone. Corvino tells her that his decision is final, and
that he does not want any protest in terms of “honour”; “honour”, according to Corvino, does not
exist in reality, and the loss of it cannot harm anyone. Mosca informs Volpone that the pair has
arrived; Volpone professes himself past the point of no return but thanks Corvino greatly, implying
that Corvino will be his heir. Celia begs a final time to be spared having to sleep with Volpone,
but Corvino insists, and threatens to drag her through the streets and—ironically—proclaim her
a whore if she does not comply. The act, he says, is not important, since Volpone is old, and will
not take much advantage of her; in any case and it will benefit him greatly in financial terms. As
soon as Volpone and Celia are alone, Volpone leaps off of his bed, and begins his seduction.
He tells Celia that she is heavenly to him, and that he is a far more worthy lover than is Corvino.
He details all the sensuous pleasures she will have if she becomes his lover. But Celia is
unmoved; she refuses his advances, asking him to stop, offering to never speak of what
happened. Volpone is enraged by her refusal, and tells her that if she won’t make love to him
willingly, then he will take her by force. She cries out to God; Volpone tells her she does it in
vain, but just at that moment, Bonario jumps out from behind his hiding place and rescues
Celia, spiriting her away. Volpone laments that his con has been exposed.

Act III, scene viii

Mosca enters, bleeding from a sword-wound that Bonario has given him on his way out.
Volpone is concerned by the injury, but when Mosca blames himself for the disaster of Celia’s
escape and Bonario’s discovery of Volpone’s deceit, Volpone readily agrees. They briefly consider
what they are going to do, with Mosca suggesting suicide. Then they hear a knock at the door;
it is Corbaccio.

Act III, scene ix

Corbaccio enters, with Voltore following right behind. Mosca tells Corbaccio that his son
was searching to kill him, in revenge for his disinheritance. Corbaccio accepts the lie readily
and agrees to make Volpone his heir, asking Voltore if Volpone is going to die anytime soon so
that he can inherit his money. Hearing this, Voltore becomes angry and accuses Mosca of
double-dealing; who is going to be the heir, he demands, Voltore or Corbaccio? Mosca professes
his loyalty to Voltore and then recounts the events that have just happened with a deceitful spin.
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Mosca tells Voltore that he had brought Bonario in to watch his father sign away his inheritance
to Volpone, in the hopes that the enraged Bonario would kill his treacherous father, thus leaving
the path open for Voltore to inherit the magnifico’s wealth. But, lies Mosca, Bonario grew impatient
waiting for his father, thus kidnapped Celia and made her “cry rape,” in order to frame Volpone
and thus make it impossible for him to inherit. Voltore, ever the lawyer, immediately takes
Mosca’s side, seeing the threat to his own interests (if Volpone is convicted he will not be able
to inherit anything, or pass on an inheritance), and he immediately demands that Mosca fetch
Corvino and bring him to the Scrutineo.

4.5 ACT IV
Act IV, scene i

Sir Politic and Peregrine are walking along a canal, and Politic undertakes to teach
Peregrine a thing or two about life in Venice. His two main points are that one should never tell
the truth to strangers, and that one should always have proper table manners, which Politic
then goes on to explain in full. Contradicting his first bit of advice, Politic then tells Peregrine
about several moneymaking schemes he has in the works. To begin with, he plans to supply the
State of Venice with red herrings, bought at a discount rate from a cheese vendor in another
Italian state. He also has a plan to convince the Council of Venice to outlaw all timber-boxes
small enough to fit into a pocket (in case a disaffected person might hide gunpowder in his or
her tinderbox), and then supply the larger tinderboxes himself. His last great idea is a “plague-
test,” to be administered on ships arriving from the Middle East and other plague-infected areas
so that they might not have to undergo the usual fifty or sixty days of quarantine. The plan
involves blowing air through a ship from one side, while at the same time exposing the crew to
thirty livres worth of onions cut in half from the other side; if the onion changes, color, then the
crew has the plague. Politic then make an off-handed comment about how he could, if he
wanted to, sell the entire state of Venice to the Turk. Just so Peregrine will know everything
about his personal life, Politic lets him read his diary, which includes every single detail of
Politic’s day, including his decision to urinate at St. Mark’s cathedral.

Act IV, scene ii

Lady Politic, Nano, and some serving women enter, looking for her husband. Sir Politic’s
wife complains that his unfaithfulness is ruining her complexion. They suddenly see Politic and
Peregrine together. They meet, and Sir Politic introduces Peregrine to Lady Politic. But Lady
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Politic assumes that Peregrine must be the prostitute of whom Mosca was speaking, disguised
as a man. She rails against her husband for his unfaithfulness, while he reacts with complete
and utter incomprehension. Peregrine asks Lady Politic to forgive him for offending her, though
he has no idea how he has. When he begins complimenting Lady Politic’s beauty, she reacts
with suppressed outrage.

Act IV, scene iii

Mosca enters and finds Lady Politic incensed over her husband’s infidelity. She explains
to him that she has found the prostitute he mentioned in Act III, and points out Peregrine.
Mosca then explains that she is mistaken. The real prostitute (according to him) is currently at
the Scrutineo (he is referring to Celia). Lady Politic then apologizes in a very sexually suggestive
way. Peregrine is now incensed, for he thinks that Sir Politic is trying to prostitute him to Lady
Politic, and vows that he will get revenge.

Act IV, scene iv

The scene is now set at the Scrutineo, the law courts of the Venetian state. Voltore,
Corbaccio, Corvino, and Mosca enter. They are about to appear before the Scrutineo to answer
the accusations of Bonario and Celia. Voltore is the one who will present the case, since he is
a lawyer; Bonario expresses concern to Mosca that Voltore will now become co-heir because of
this service to Volpone, but Mosca assures him there is nothing to worry about. He also worries
that his reputation will be ruined in front of the Scrutineo (presumably because of his decision to
prostitute his wife). Mosca assures him that he has given Voltore a story to tell about the incident
that will save Corvino’s reputation. Mosca also lets Voltore know that he has another witness to
appear if necessary, but he doesn’t say who it is.

Act IV, scene v

The four Avocatori (who serve as judges in the Venetian state) enter, along with Bonario,
Celia, a Notario (Notary) and some Commandadori (guards). The Avocatori discuss how they
have never heard anything as “monstrous” as the story Celia and Bonario have just told them:
that Corvino agreed to prostitute his wife to Volpone in the hopes that Volpone would make him
heir, that Volpone tried to rape Celia and that Corbaccio disinherited his son Bonario. They
demand to know where Volpone is: Mosca replies that he is too ill to come, but the Avocatori
insist that he come anyway and send some of the Commandadori to fetch him. Voltore then
begins to speak to the Scrutineo. He tells a very different story from that told by Celia and
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Bonario. He claims that Celia and Bonario are lovers; that Bonario went to Volpone’s house with
the intent to murder Corbaccio for disinheriting him, but finding him absent, decided to attack
Volpone instead; and that Celia’s cries of rape were part of an attempt to frame Volpone devised
by her and Bonario, in order to prevent Volpone from collecting his inheritance. Voltore then
produces the “proofs” of his story. These consist in the testimony of Corbaccio and Corvino,
who corroborate the story, with Corvino adding that he has seen Bonario and Celia making love
with his own eyes, and that he has their love-letters in his possession (which in reality are
forged). Mosca further adds that he was wounded while defending his master. Celia faints;
Corvino accuses her of acting. The Avocatori begin to express doubts about Celia and Bonario’s
story. Then Mosca informs the court of his “surprise witness”; she is a “lady”, who saw Celia in
a gondola with her “knight”. He leaves to fetch her, as the Avocatori express their shock at the
turn of events.

Act IV, scene vi

Mosca enters with his surprise witness, who is, of course, Lady Politic Would-be. She
corroborates Mosca’s claim, hurling abuse at Celia. She then apologizes profusely to the judges
for disgracing the court; the judges attempt to assure her she has not, but can’t get a word in
edgewise. Voltore then produces his final “proof”. Volpone enters, looking old and crippled;
Voltore ironically comments that they can now see Celia and Bonario’s rapist and criminal.
Bonario suggests that Volpone is faking (which he is), and should be “tested”, which Voltore
takes to mean “tortured”; Voltore ironically suggests that torture might cure Volpone’s illness.
The Avocatori are convinced of Voltore’s story, and demand that Bonario and Celia be taken
away and separated. They apologize to Volpone for disturbing him, and express outrage at the
“deceit” of Bonario and Celia. Mosca then congratulates Voltore on his work. He assuages
Corvino, who is still worried that Voltore will get part of Volpone’s fortune. And he demands that
Corbaccio pay Voltore. Corbaccio and Voltore leave, and Mosca then assures Lady Politic
Would-be that, due to her support today, she will in fact be made Volpone’s principal heir.

4.6 ACT V
Act V, scene i

Volpone returns home after the drama at the Scrutineo, tired. He declares that he has
grown tired of his con and wishes it were over. Pretending to be sick in public has made some
of the symptoms he has been falsely presenting, such as cramps and palsy (tremors), feel all
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too real. The thought that he might actually be getting sick depressed and frightens him; to
banish it he takes two strong drinks and calls Mosca.

Act V, scene ii

Volpone calls Mosca and informs him that he wants to be over with the con. They discuss
how well the entire con went off and congratulate themselves on being so erudite, so brave,
and so clever. Mosca advises that Volpone should stop his life of trickery here, for he will never
outdo himself. Volpone seems to agree, and the begin discussing the matter of payment to
Voltore for his services, something that Mosca insists on. But Volpone suddenly decides to
carry out one final joke on the legacy hunters. He calls in Castrone and Nano, and tells them to
run through the streets, informing everyone that Volpone is dead. He then tells Mosca to wear
his clothes and to pretend that Volpone has named him the heir to the estate when the legacy
hunters arrive, using an authentic will naming Mosca as heir. Mosca remarks on how distraught
all four of the people involved in the deceit at the Scrutineo—Voltore, Corbaccio, Corvino, and
Lady Politic—will be when they come to believe that Mosca has been chosen over them. Soon,
Voltore arrives, and Volpone hides behind a curtain.

Act V, scene iii

Voltore enters to find Mosca making an inventory. Thinking that the property is now his,
he praises Mosca’s hard work. He takes the will in order to read it. Corbaccio, clearly near
death, is carried in by his servants. Corvino soon after enters, and soon Lady Politic Would-be
enters too. All the while, Mosca continues to take an inventory of Volpone’s property. All four
characters then read the will; they understandably react with shock, and demand an explanation.
Mosca replies to each of them in turn, reminding them in a short speech of the lies and other
immoral acts each of them committed. Lady Politic apparently offered to provide Mosca with
sexual favours in return for Volpone’s estate. Corvino, of course, unjustly declared his wife an
adulterer and himself a cuckold; Corbaccio disinherited his son. For Voltore, Mosca is somewhat
sympathetic; he expresses sincere regret that Voltore will not be made heir. After Mosca is
finished to talking to a character, that character leaves. After Voltore leaves, Mosca and Volpone
are again alone, and Volpone congratulates Mosca on a job well done. Volpone wants to gloat
directly in the faces of the four dupes, so Mosca suggests that he disguise himself as a
commandadore (a sergeant or guard), and approach them on the street. Volpone congratulates
Mosca on his excellent idea.
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Act V, scene iv

Peregrine enters, in disguise as a merchant. He is accompanied by three other merchants.

They rehearse a scheme in which Peregrine has hatched to get his revenge on Sir Politic;
Peregrine reminds everyone that his only aim is to frighten Sir Pol, not to injure him. The
merchants hide, and Peregrine puts his plot into motion. Peregrine asks Sir Pol’s serving-
woman to tell the knight that “a merchant, upon urgent business.” When Sir Pol comes out of
his study, where he has been working on a letter of apology to his wife, Peregrine’s disguise is
successful; Sir Pol does not know he is talking to Peregrine. So Peregrine/the Merchant tells Sir
Politic that the young man Sir Pol was speaking to earlier that day (that is, Peregrine) has told
the State of Venice that Sir Pol wishes to sell Venice to the Turks. Sir Pol believes Peregrine
immediately, and becomes terrified. After all, he did tell Peregrine he could sell Venice to the
Turks; of course, he had been joking, but now it seems that Peregrine has understood things in
a very wrong, and dangerous, way. Of course, Peregrine has told no such thing to anyone; but
when the merchants knock on the door, Peregrine/the merchant tells Sir Pol it is the officers of
the state come to arrest him.

Sir Pol decides, at Peregrine’s suggestion, that he will hide in a wine cask made of tortoise-
shell; he quickly does so and asks Peregrine to tell his servant that his papers should be burnt.
When the merchants come in, they walk around the room; Peregrine “informs” them that he is
a merchant, come to look upon a tortoise (actually Sir Pol hidden in a wine cask). The merchants
express awe at the tortoise, and Peregrine/the Merchant tells them that the tortoise is strong
enough for them to jump on. So they do. They then ask if the tortoise can move, and Peregrine
informs them yes. So the tortoise does, and they remark that the tortoise has garters and
gloves on. Pulling off the tortoise shell, they reveal Sir Politic. After laughing at his expense,
Peregrine claims that he and Sir Politic are even, and apologizes for the burning of the knight’s
papers that resulted from the joke. The merchants and Peregrine all leave Sir Politic to wallow
in his own humiliation and self-pity. The abused Englishman asks his servant where Lady Politic
is; she tells him that she has decided that she wishes to return home, for her health. Sir Politic
whole-heartedly concurs with his wife’s plans..

Act V, scene v

The scene is now Volpone’s house. Mosca and Volpone enter; Mosca is dressed as
a clarissimo, or great nobleman, and Volpone wears a commandadore’s (sergeant’s) uniform.
They briefly discuss Volpone’s plan to blatantly mock those he has duped. He leaves, and
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Mosca makes some cryptic comments to the effect that Volpone won’t be regaining his own
identity before he comes to terms with Mosca. He gives Nano, Castrone and Androgyno some
money before telling them to find new work. Mosca again cryptically comments that he will
either “gain” by Volpone, or “bury him” (V.v.14).

Scene vi

The scene has now moved to a street, where Corvino and Corbaccio are disguised.
Volpone enters in disguise. He begins asking the two what they have inherited from the dead
magnifico, Volpone; they react to his questions with predictable annoyance. Volpone annoys
them further by reminding them of what they did in their failed attempts to gain Volpone’s
inheritance; how Corbaccio signed his own son out of his will, and how Corvino prostituted his
wife. They leave, and Volpone goes on to his next victim.

Scene vii

Voltore enters, walking down the street, completely disbelieving that he has lost the
inheritance to Mosca, a parasite. Volpone comes up to him, and begins asking about one of his
own properties, a small “bawdy-house” (V.vii.12) (equivalent to a seedy night-club or whorehouse).
He implies that since Voltore is the old magnifico’s heir, he is the one to talk to about purchasing
this property and perhaps renovating it; it is, after all, nothing at all to someone of Voltore’s
newfound wealth and stature. Volpone’s irony drives Voltore to frustration, and he leaves. Volpone
returns to Corbaccio and Corvino.

Scene viii

Corbaccio and Corvino enter, and watch Mosca pass by in his fine robes. They are
infuriated, and even more so when Volpone arrives to continue taunting them. He now inquires
whether the rumours about the parasite are true; knowing that they are, he proceeds to admonish
Corbaccio and Corvino for having so handily been defeated by Mosca, and having lost their
dignity in the process. Corvino then challenges Volpone to a fight, but Volpone wisely backs off.

V.ix

Voltore makes a cryptic threat to Mosca: though he is in summer now, his “winter shall
come on” (V.ix.1). Mosca tells Voltore not to speak foolishly. Volpone then arrives, and hoping to
taunt Voltore further, asks him if he wants Volpone to beat Mosca, to avenge the terrible disgrace
Voltore now suffers for being gulled by a parasite. Further adding insult to injury, he demands to
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know whether or not Mosca’s inheritance is in fact a joke. After all, Volpone implies, a lawyer
couldn’t have been outsmarted by a parasite. Voltore leaves, tormented and humiliated.

Act V, Scene x

The scene now shifts to the Scrutineo. The four judges, the notary, the guards, Bonario,
Celia, Corvino and Corbaccio enter; we are witnessing the sentencing hearing for Bonario and
Celia. As the judges prepare to declare the sentecne, Voltore and Volpone enter, Voltore driven
to distraction by Volpone’s teasing. He demands forgiveness from the judges, and from the
“innocents” Bonario and Celia. He then begins to confess to the deceit that he and Mosca
engineered earlier that day. Corvino interrupts him, asking the judges to ignore Voltore, claiming
that the lawyer acts out of pure jealousy over the fact that Mosca has inherited Volpone’s
fortune, now that Volpone is dead. Volpone’s “death” takes the judges by surprise. Voltore
insists that he is telling the truth, and hands over what seems to be a handwritten confession to
the judges. The judges decide to send for Mosca, but cautiously, since they now believe that he
may be Volpone’s heir, and to insult would be a grave offence.

Act V Scene xi

Volpone paces to and fro on the street. He realizes that his gloating has resulted in
Voltore’s confession. He curses himself for his “wantonness” (V.xi.4), his obsessive need to
seek pleasure in everything, and hopes aloud that Mosca will help him out of this mess. He runs
into Nano, Androgyno and Castrone, who tell him that Mosca told them to go play outside, and
took the keys to the estate. Volpone begins to realize that Mosca may be looking to keep the
estate for himself, and again curses his foolishness; he decides that he must try to must give
Voltore “new hopes” (V.xi.21), in other words convince the lawyer that he could still inherit the
estate, because Volpone is still alive.

V.xii

Back at the Scrutineo, the judges are thoroughly confused. Voltore and Celia maintain
that Voltore is telling the truth, while Corvino continues to insist that Voltore is possessed by a
demon. Volpone, still in diguise, enters, and informs the judges that the parasite (Mosca) will
soon arrive, before turning to whisper in Voltore’s ear. He tells Voltore that Mosca has
informed him (the guard Volpone pretends to be) that Volpone still lives, and that the faked
death was a test to determine Voltore’s resolve; Voltore realizes with chagrin that he has failed.
But Volpone suggests that if Voltore corroborates Corvino’s contention that he is possessed by
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falling to the ground and writhing on the floor, he may yet prove his loyalty; Voltore complies
immediately. Volpone tells everyone to stand back, and ask them if they see the demon flying
out of Voltore’s mouth (there is, of course, no demon; it is another one of Volpone’s tricks).
Voltore then asks “Where am I?” (V.xii.34), and claims that, though his confession is written in
his handwriting, the contents of it are false. According to Voltore post-collapse, Mosca is just as
innocent as Volpone- who, the lawyer goes on to assert, is not dead. Everything seems to be
going well for Volpone, until Mosca enters. For Mosca refuses to corroborate Voltore’s claim
that Volpone is alive. According to Mosca, the funeral preparations are underway as he speaks.
Volpone is shocked. Mosca offers to help Volpone for half his fortune; Volpone says that he
would rather “be hanged” (V.xii.63) than cut this deal. Volpone, still in disguise, asserts to the
court that Volpone is alive, while under his breath acquiescing to Mosca’s demand for half; but
now Mosca will not accept even this offer. When Volpone insists that he is not dead, in direct
contradiction of Mosca, he is taken away to be whipped for his insolence. Realizing that with a
legal will in place, there is nothing else for him to do, Volpone reveals himself to the Senate. The
judges realize that they have been deceived, and order Bonario and Celia to be let go. They
condemn Mosca to life as a galley-slave for impersonating a nobleman of Venice, and send
Volpone to prison. Voltore is disbarred, Corbaccio stripped of all his property (which is handed
over to Bonario), and Corvino sentenced to public humiliation: he will be rowed through the
canals of Venice, wearing donkey’s ears. The scene ends with a polite request to the audience
to show their appreciation for the play through their applause.

https://www.sparknotes.com/drama/volpone/section18/

4.7 Characters
Volpone

Volpone , the Fox, a Venetian magnifico. Delighting in foxlike trickery, Volpone scorns the
easy gain of cheating widows and orphans and the hard gain of labor. He chooses for his
victims Venice’s leading crooked advocate, its most greedy and dishonest merchant, and its
most hardened miser. The joy of the chase of gold and jewels belonging to others is keener to
him than the possession. He also delights in acting, both onstage and off. To fool others with
disguises, makeup, and changes of voice is a passion with him. His three weaknesses are
excessive trust of his unreliable parasite Mosca, his ungovernable desire for Corvino’s virtuous
wife Celia, and his overconfidence in his ability to deceive. When defeated, however, he shows
a humorous and sporting self-knowledge and resignation to his punishment.
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Volpone is the play’s central figure. He is an old, rich, childless Italian gentleman with no
heir his fortune, and he values wealth above all else. His name means sly fox, which is a perfect
allegory for his character, since he spends the entire play joyfully deceiving Voltore, Corbaccio,
and Corvino into believing that each one will be the sole heir to his fortune, all the while becoming
wealthier through them. He is extremely greedy, and he takes immense pleasure in fooling the
other Italian men. While Volpone’s pursuits begin as comedic and light-hearted, they eventually
progress to the extreme when Volpone attempts to rape Corvino’s wife, Celia. Though he makes
fun of the others for their excessive greed, and though he gets away with many of his tricks,
Volpone ultimately proves insatiably greedy for pleasure and trickery. Instead of quitting while
he is ahead, Volpone fakes his death, creating a chaos in which he is ultimately discovered,
stripped of his wealth, and effectively sentenced to execution.

Mosca

Mosca , the Gadfly, Volpone’s malicious and witty parasite. Acting as the chief instrument
of Volpone’s trickery and the frequent instigator of additional pranks, he keeps the plot moving.
Under cover of tormenting Volpone’s victims, he often engages in annoying Volpone himself,
almost always with impunity. His tantalizing of Volpone with sensuous descriptions of Celia sets
in train the events that finally destroy both his master and himself. A master improviser of deceit
and pranks, he becomes in love with his dear self, underestimates his master, and falls victim
to his own overconfidence and greed. He whines and curses as he is dragged away to
punishment.

Mosca name means fly, and like a fly, Mosca buzzes around whispering in the ears of all
the other characters in the play. He is Volpone’s parasite, meaning hanger-on, and he makes
his living by doing Volpone’s bidding. Mosca writes and stages a small play within the play, and
through that play he orchestrates Volpone’s elaborate ruses, showing his masterful usage of
language and acute improvisational skills. He is praised for his “quick fiction,” which can be
drawn in parallel with the playwright’s “quick comedy,” referred to in the Prologue. Mosca, thus,
can be seen as an analogue for Jonson himself. Mosca takes joy in working for Volpone, but
he’s treacherous above all: he easily convinces Voltore, Corbaccio, and Corvino that he is on
each of their sides (when he’s really on Volpone’s side alone), and then, when he spies an
opportunity to trick even Volpone, he takes it. During Volpone’s faked death, Mosca assumes
the role as his heir, inverts the social structure by acting above his rank, and he ultimately
causes all of the ruses to unravel in an attempt to win part of Volpone’s fortune for himself.
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Corbaccio

Corbaccio’s name means “raven.” Another bird of prey figure, he is a doddering old man
who, like Voltore and Corvino, hopes to be named Volpone’s heir. Corbaccio doesn’t hear well,
and he is old and infirm, so his hope is only to live longer than Volpone. Whenever he receives
news of Volpone’s (false) illness, Corbaccio openly expresses joy, even saying that hearing that
Volpone is dying fills him with youth and energy. Part of Corbaccio’s desire for wealth seems
altruistic, as he wants to leave his own fortune to his son Bonario. However, Mosca is easily
able to manipulate Corbaccio into disinheriting Bonario. While Corbaccio initially does this in
the hope of increasing the wealth he’ll eventually leave to his son, Corbaccio ultimately becomes
corrupted and caught up in Mosca’s schemes, and the court forcibly transfers all of Corbaccio’s
assets to Bonario.

Bonario

Corbaccio’s son. Bonario’s name comes from the Italian word for “good,” and he represents
goodness in the play. He is a valiant, morally righteous figure who maintains family values
despite being disinherited by his father. Though Mosca attempts to manipulate him, Bonario is
able to resist this manipulation more so than other characters in the play, and he courageously
rescues Celia from Volpone’s attempted rape. In court, he refuses to lie, and he claims that
truth will be his only testimony.

Corvino

Corvino, whose name means “crow,” is the final ‘bird’ hoping to inherit Volpone’s wealth.
He is a merchant, and he is both greedy and controlling to an extreme. He’s cruel to his wife Celia,
whom he confines to their home, and he is so jealous of other men looking at her that he tries
to prevent her from getting too close to the windows. However, his financial greed proves more
powerful than his jealousy and desire for control; having heard that doctors have prescribed a
night with a woman as the only cure for Volpone’s illness, Corvino tries to force Celia to sleep
with Volpone in order to secure his place as Volpone’s heir. By the end of the play, Corvino is
willing to pretend that Celia cheated on him, preferring to be publicly recognized as a cuckold
than to admit that he tried to force his wife into infidelity to obtain someone else’s wealth.

Voltore

Voltore means “vulture,” and, true to his name, Voltore is one of the Italian men lurking
around Volpone’s deathbed hoping to inherit his wealth. He is a well-spoken lawyer,
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and Mosca praises him disingenuously for his ability to speak so well and argue any side of a
case. Later in the play, when Volpone is accused of raping Celia, Voltore uses his masterful
language skills to convince the court (the Avocatori) that Volpone seem innocent. Voltore seems
go back and forth between being ruled by a conscience and by his greed. When he believes
that Volpone is dead and Mosca has been named the heir, he recants his testimony before the
Avocatori out of guilt. But when Voltore learns that he still might inherit Volpone’s fortune, he
pretends to be possessed by the devil to argue that his original false testimony was true. The
play emphasizes the importance of language, which might be the reason (in addition to his
flashes of moral integrity) that Voltore’s punishment at the play’s end is less severe than the
punishments of other characters.

Celia

Celia is Corvino’s wife and her name means “heaven.” She is innocent, good, and religious,
and she’s faithful to Corvino despite his suspicious. When Volpone tries to rape her she resists,
and in court she constantly appeals to heaven to expose Volpone. She represents the
Renaissance ideal of a woman: chaste, silent, and obedient. At the play’s end, she is freed from
her marriage to Corvino by court order, but not necessarily permitted to remarry.

Sir Politic Would-be is an English knight, but he only gained his knighthood at a time
when the English throne sold knighthoods out to make money. As an English traveler in Venice,
he has been warned by travel guides to avoid being corrupted by the loose Italian morals.
Politic means “worldly-wise,” and Sir Politic attempts to seem so. However, he is a comic figure
because he is extremely gullible, and he tries so hard to give the appearance of being
knowledgeable that he agrees to ridiculous fictions and fabricates absurd economic enterprises.
Much of the play’s subplot is at his expense.

Lady Would-be

Lady Would-be is Sir Politic’s wife. In contrast to Celia, who is confined to her home,
Lady Would-be is given a lot of freedom, roaming Venice freely. Lady Would-be also contrasts
with the Renaissance ideal of a woman, since she is extremely talkative and well educated. She
is skilled with language and makes constant literary references, but most of the men in the play
(in particular Volpone) find her exceptionally annoying. She constantly chides her staff for not
doing a good enough job.
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Peregrine

Peregrine’s name means “traveler,” and he is another English traveler abroad, a

counterpoint to Sir Politic Would-be. Sir Politic offers to help Peregrine learn the ways of Venice
and avoid corruption, and Peregrine agrees in order to spend time with Sir Politic (whom he
considers to be a ridiculous figure) for his own amusement. When Lady Would-be mistakes
Peregrine for a prostitute, Peregrine believes he has fallen for a prank of Sir Politic’s, and he
immediately designs his own prank in revenge.

Detailed analysis of Plot of Volpone

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, part lackey—enter the shrine where Volpone keeps his gold. Volpone has amassed
his fortune, we learn, through dishonest means: he is a con artist. And we also learn that he
likes to use his money extravagantly.

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. Furthermore, he is believed to
very ill, so each of the legacy hunters lavishes gifts on him, in the hope that Volpone, out of
gratitude, will make him his heir. The legacy hunters do not know that Volpone is actually in
excellent health and merely faking illness for the purpose of collecting all those impressive “get-
well” gifts.

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 boon to Volpone, since Corbaccio, in all likelihood, will die long before Volpone does. After
each hunter leaves, Volpone and Mosca laugh at each’s gullibility. After Corvino’s departure
Lady Politic Would-be, 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 vows to use disguise to get around these barriers.
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The second act portrays a time just a short while later that day, and we meet Sir Politic
Would-be, Lady Politic’s husband, who is conversing with Peregrine, an young English traveler
who has just landed in Venice. Sir Politic takes a liking to the young boy and vows to teach him
a thing or two about Venice and Venetians; Peregrine, too, enjoys the company of Sir Politic,
but only because he is hilariously gullible and vain. The two are walking in the public square in
front of Corvino’s house and are interrupted by the arrival of “Scoto Mantua,” actually Volpone
in diguise as an Italian mountebank, or medicine-show man. Scoto engages in a long and
colorful speech, hawking his new “oil”, which is touted as a cure-all for disease and suffering. 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 flies into a jealous rage, scattering the crows in the
square. Volpone goes home and complains to Mosca that he is sick with lust for Celia, and
Mosca vows to deliver her to Volpone. Meanwhile, Corvino berates his wife for tossing her
handkerchief, since he interprets it as a sign of her unfaithfulness, and he threatens to murder
her and her family as a result. He decrees that, as punishment, she will now no longer be
allowed to go to Church, she cannot stand near windows (as she did when watching Volpone),
and, most bizarrely, she must do everything backwards from now on–she must even walk and
speak backwards. Mosca then arrives, implying to Corvino that if he lets Celia sleep with Volpone
(as a “restorative” for Volpone’s failing health), then Volpone will choose him as his heir. Suddenly,
Corvino’s jealousy disappears, and he consents to the offer.

The third act begins with a soliloquy from Mosca, indicating that he is growing increasingly
conscious of his power and his independence from Volpone. Mosca then runs into Bonario,
Corbaccio’s son, and informs the young man of his father’s plans to disinherit him. He has
Bonario come back to Volpone’s house with him, in order to watch Corbaccio sign the documents
(hoping that Bonario might kill Corbaccio then and there out of rage, thus allowing Volpone to
gain his inheritance early). Meanwhile Lady Politic again arrives at Volpone’s residence, indicating
that it is now mid-morning, approaching noon. This time, Volpone lets her in, but he soon
regrets it, for he is exasperated by her talkativeness. Mosca rescues Volpone by telling the
Lady that Sir Politic has been seen in a gondola with a courtesan (a high-class prostitute).
Volpone then prepares for his seduction of Celia, while Mosca hides Bonario in a corner of the
bedroom, in anticipation of Corbaccio’s arrival. But Celia and Corvino arrive first—Celia complains
bitterly about being forced to be unfaithful, while Corvino tells her to be quiet and do her job.
When Celia and Volpone are alone together, Volpone greatly surprises Celia by leaping out of
bed. Celia had expected and old, infirm man, but what she gets instead is a lothario who attempts
to seduce her with a passionate speech. Always the good Christian, Celia refuses Volpone’s
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advances, at which point Volpone says that he will rape her. But Bonario, who has been witnessing
the scene from his hiding place the entire time, rescues Celia. Bonario wounds Mosca on his
way out. Corbaccio finally arrives, too late, as does Voltore. Mosca plots, with Voltore’s assistance,
how to get Volpone out of this mess.

A short while later, in the early afternoon, Peregrine and Sir Politic are still talking. Sir
Politic gives the young traveler some advice on living in Venice and describes several schemes
he has under consideration for making a great deal of money. They are soon interrupted by
Lady Politic, who is convinced that Peregrine is the prostitute Mosca told her about—admittedly,
in disguise. But Mosca arrives and tells Lady Politic that she is mistaken; the courtesan he
referred to is now in front of the Senate (in other words, Celia). Lady Politic believes him and
ends by giving Peregrine a seductive goodbye with a coy suggestion that they see each other
again. Peregrine is incensed at her behavior and vows revenge on Sir Politic because of it. The
scene switches to the Scrutineo, the Venetian Senate building, where Celia and Bonario have
informed the judges of Venice about Volpone’s deceit, Volpone’s attempt to rape Celia,
Corbaccio’s disinheritance of his son, and Corvino’s decision to prostitute his wife. But the
defendants make a very good case for themselves, led by their lawyer, Voltore. Voltore portrays
Bonario and Celia as lovers, Corvino as an innocent jilted husband, and Corbaccio as a wounded
father nearly killed by his evil son. The judge are swayed when Lady Politic comes in and (set
up perfectly by Mosca) identifies Celia as the seducer of her husband Sir Politic. Further, they
are convinced when Volpone enters the courtroom, again acting ill. The judges order that Celia
and Bonario be arrested and separated.

In the final act, Volpone returns home tired and worried that he is actually growing ill, for
he is now feeling some of the symptoms he has been faking. To dispel his fears, he decides to
engage in one final prank on the legacy hunters. He spreads a rumor that he has died and then
tells Mosca to pretend that he has been made his master’s heir. The plan goes off perfectly, and
all three legacy hunters are fooled. Volpone then disguises himself as a Venetian guard, so that
he can gloat in each legacy hunter’s face over their humiliation, without being recognized. But
Mosca lets the audience know that Volpone is dead in the eyes of the world and that Mosca will
not let him “return to the world of the living” unless Volpone pays up, giving Mosca a share of his
wealth.

Meanwhile, Peregrine is in disguise himself, playing his own prank on Sir Politic. Peregrine
presents himself as a merchant to the knight and informs Politic that word has gotten out of his
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plan to sell Venice to the Turks. Politic, who once mentioned the idea in jest, is terrified. When
three merchants who are in collusion with Peregrine knock on the door, Politic jumps into a
tortoise-shell wine case to save himself. Peregrine informs the merchants when they enter that
he is looking at a valuable tortoise. The merchants decide to jump on the tortoise and demand
that it crawls along the floor. They remark loudly upon its leg-garters and fine hand-gloves,
before turning it over to reveal Sir Politic. Peregrine and the merchants go off, laughing at their
prank, and Sir Politic moans about how much he agrees with his wife’s desire to leave Venice
and go back to England.

Meanwhile, Volpone gloats in front of each legacy hunter, deriding them for having lost
Volpone’s inheritance to a parasite such as Mosca, and he successfully avoids recognition. But
his plan backfires nonetheless. Voltore, driven to such a state of distraction by Volpone’s teasing,
decides to recant his testimony in front of the Senate, implicating both himself but more importantly
Mosca as a criminal. Corvino accuses him of being a sore loser, upset that Mosca has inherited
Volpone’s estate upon his death, and the news of this death surprises the Senators greatly.
Volpone nearly recovers from his blunder by telling Voltore, in the middle of the Senate
proceeding, that “Volpone” is still alive. Mosca pretends to faint and claims to the Senate that he
does not know where he is, how he got there, and that he must have been possessed by a
demon during the last few minutes when he was speaking to them. He also informs the Senators
that Volpone is not dead, contradicting Corvino. All seems good for Volpone until Mosca returns,
and, instead of confirming Voltore’s claim that Volpone is alive, Mosca denies it. Mosca, after
all, has a will, written by Volpone and in his signaure, stating that he is Volpone’s heir. now that
Volpone is believed to be dead, Mosca legally owns Volpone’s property, and Mosca tells Volpone
that he is not going to give it back by telling the truth. Realizing that he has been betrayed,
Volpone decides that rather than let Mosca inherit his wealth, he will turn them both in. Volpone
takes off his disguise and finally reveals the truth about the events of the past day. Volpone
ends up being sent to prison, while Mosca is consigned to a slave galley. Voltore is disbarred,
Corbaccio is stripped of his property (which is given to his son Bonario), and Corvino is publicly
humiliated, forced to wear donkey’s ears while being rowed around the canals of Venice. At the
end, there is a small note from the playwright to the audience, simply asking them to applaud if
they enjoyed the play they just saw.
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Check your progress

Review Questions

1. Comment on the names given to the dramatis personae in Volpone.

2. How would you compare Volpone and Mosca from Ben Jonson’s Volpone?

3. Compare and contrast female character representation in Volpone and Duchess of

Malfi.

4. In his comic drama Volpone, does Ben Jonson subscribe to the humanistic ideal? .

5. What vision of morality and justice does Ben Jonson’s Volpone present ?

6. In Volpone, how is the theme of metamorphosis related to Volpone and other

characters?

7. How is Mosca presented as a parasitic figure in Volpone?

8. “Ben Jonson’s Volpone as a novel of avarise and greed”-Analyse this comment.

9. How would you describe the theme of avarice in Volpone by Ben Johnson?

10. What is the theme of Volpone?

11. What are the duties of a poet according to Ben Jonson’s Epistle?

12. Talk about how Ben Jonson does not follow the rules of Jacobean dramaturgy in
Volpone.

13. What is the function of the Epistle in Ben Jonson’s Volpone?

14. Is Volpone an animal fable?

15. How does the subplot of Volpone develop the thematic elements of the main plot?

16. What are the main characteristics of a comedy of humours in Volpone?

17. What is the purpose of the subplot involving Sir Pol, Lady Pol, and Peregrine?

18. What is the role of Nano, Castrone, and Androgyno?

19. Does this play have a positive, ethical message?

References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volpone

Ben Jonson’s Volpone

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LESSON - 5
JACOBEAN DRAMA
Objectives of the course is to acquaint students with the origins of drama in Britain and
the stages of its evolution in the context of theater and culture through a study of representative
texts from the Jacobean period.

5.1 Introduction About John Webster

Everyone knows William Shakespeare, but Shakespeare was just one of many great
writers working during the English Renaissance, a period of great art and literature lasting
from the late 15th to the early 17th century. Many of the best writers of the periods were, like
Shakespeare, playwrights who wrote their work to be performed. And one of the best, and most
notorious, of Shakespeare’s contemporaries was John Webster, famous playwright of the
English Renaissance.

Born in 1580, Webster was younger than Shakespeare and came to prominence in the
final years of Shakespeare’s career. Webster’s plays are known for spectacular and disturbing
depictions of violence.

About the play

The Duchess of Malfi (originally published as The Tragedy of the Dutchesse of Malfy)
is a macabre, tragic play written by the English dramatist John Webster in 1612–13. It was first
performed privately at the Blackfriars Theatre, then later to a larger audience at The Globe, in
1613–14.

Published in 1623, the play is loosely based on events that occurred between about 1508
and 1513. The Duchess was Giovanna d’Aragona, Duchess of Amalfi (d. 1511), whose father,
Enrico d’Aragona, Marquis of Gerace, was an illegitimate son of Ferdinand I of Naples. As in
the play, she secretly married Antonio Beccadelli di Bologna after the death of her first
husband Alfonso I Piccolomini, Duke of Amalfi.

The play begins as a love story, with a Duchess who marries beneath her class, and ends
as a nightmarish tragedy as her two brothers undertake their revenge, destroying themselves
in the process. Jacobean drama continued the trend of stage violence and horror set by
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Elizabethan tragedy, under the influence of Seneca. The complexity of some of the play’s
characters, particularly Bosola and the Duchess, and Webster’s poetic language, ensure that The
Duchess of Malfi is considered among the greatest tragedies of English renaissance drama.

Sources of the play

Webster’s principal source was in William Painter’s The Palace of Pleasure (1567), which
was a translation of François de Bellef orest’s French adaptation of Matteo
Bandello’s Novelle (1554). Bandello had known Antonio Beccadelli di Bologna in Milan before
his assassination. He recounted the story of Antonio’s secret marriage to Giovanna after death
of her first husband, stating that it brought down the wrath of her two brothers, one of whom, Luigi
d’Aragona, was a powerful cardinal under Pope Julius II. Bandello says that the brothers arranged
the kidnapping of the Duchess, her maid, and two of her three children by Antonio, all of whom
were then murdered. Antonio, unaware of their fate, escaped to Milan with his oldest son,
where he was later assassinated by a gang led by one Daniele Bozzolo.

Webster’s play follows this story fairly faithfully, but departs from the source material by
depicting Bozzolo as a conflicted figure who repents, kills Antonio by mistake, then turns on the
brothers killing them both. In fact the brothers were never accused of the crime in their lifetimes
and died of natural causes.

The Duchess as a Senecan Tragedy

The Duchess of Malfi, like most of Webster’s work, is a part of the genre of drama known
as ‘Senecan tragedy,’ named for the Roman playwright Seneca, who is credited with inventing
the form. While typical tragedies, such as Oedipus Rex or King Lear feature a great man who
is destroyed by a fatal flaw in his character, Senecan tragedy is marked by a love of bloody,
spectacular violence and a focus on revenge. Revenge runs throughout The Duchess of Malfi.
The Cardinal and Ferdinand first exact revenge on the Duchess for disobeying them and then
Bosola vows to take revenge on them in turn.

The Duchess of Malfi is best known for its spectacular and disturbing violence. While
violence was a common part of plays in the English Renaissance, Webster’s are remarkable
for the inventive and grotesque ways in which that violence is depicted. This includes scenes of
dark humor, such as when Ferdinand convinces the Duchess that Antonio is dead by giving
what he says his Antonio’s severed hand, but is actually a wax figure. It also includes scenes
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offensive to the sensibilities of the time, such as the Cardinal using a poisoned Bible to murder
his mistress

Check your progress

Review Questions

1. Give a short note on Webster

2. What are the sources of the Duchess of Malfi ?

3. Write briefly on The Duchess as a Senecan Tragedy

5.2 Act 1
Scene 1—The Duchess’s palace in Malfi: Antonio and Delio are discussing the former’s
return from France, and discussing how the French king runs his court, comparing it to an
easily poisoned fountain. They are interrupted by the entry of Bosola and the Cardinal. Antonio
and Delio hold their conversation, stepping to the background to watch as Bosola angrily tries
to gain the Cardinal’s pardon, speaking of the time he has spent in the galleys in penal servitude,
and in the service of the Cardinal. Bosola declares that he is surely done with service, but the
Cardinal is not interested in Bosola’s new merit and takes his leave. Bosola compares himself
to Tantalus, never able to acquire the thing he most desires, like an injured soldier who can only
depend on his crutches for support of any kind. When he leaves, Antonio and Delio comment
on his past offense, and how he will surely come to no good if he is kept in neglect. Ferdinand
comes into the palace, talking to his courtiers about a tournament that Antonio has just won.
When the Cardinal, Duchess, and Cariola enter to speak with Ferdinand, Antonio and Delio
have a moment to themselves to discuss the Cardinal’s character; he is found to be a very
dishonest, disagreeable person, as is his brother, Ferdinand. Only their sister, the Duchess,
earns the approval of everyone, a very pleasant and gracious woman. After the two gentlemen
leave, Ferdinand petitions his sister to make Bosola the manager of her horses; when everyone
else leaves, Ferdinand and the Cardinal reveal that it is because Bosola is to spy on their sister.
When Bosola is brought in and made aware of this plan, he at first refuses, but ultimately is
given no choice. The Cardinal and Ferdinand then turn their attention to their sister, urging her
not to marry again, now that she is a widow, going so far as to threaten her with death, in
Ferdinand’s case. She refuses to be bullied, and once her brothers are out of sight, she proposes
to Antonio by giving him her wedding ring. Having Cariola, the Duchess’s maid, as their witness,
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this private ceremony is legally binding and the Duchess and Antonio become husband and
wife.

Questions to check your progress

1 Where has Antonio been at the beginning of the play? How does he like the Court
there ?

2 What does Antonio think of Bosola?

3 What is Bosola asking the Cardinal for ? How does Bosola describe the Cardinal
and Ferdinand to Antonio and Delio ?

4 How do Delio and Antonio describe Bosola after Bosola leaves ?

5 What sort of person/ruler is Ferdinand?

6 Who is Castruccio, and what do we learn about his wife ?

7 How does Antonio describe the Cardinal, Ferdinand, and the Duchess for Delio ?

8 What does Ferdinand ask his sister the Duchess to do ?

9 What happens when Bosola talks with Ferdinand ? What does Bosola agree to do?
10 What reasons does Ferdinand give for not wanting his sister to marry again ? 11
What sort of person does Bosola seem to be? 12 Does he match the descriptions
we have had of him and what we have seen of him before?

5.3 ACT 2
Scene 1—The Duchess’s palace in Malfi, nine months later: Bosola and Castruchio enter,
Bosola criticizing his companion’s appearance, and telling him that he would make a ridiculous
judge. When an old woman intrudes on their conversation, Bosola’s insults turn on her, calling
her hideous to the point that no amount of make-up would help. He also accuses her of being
too like a witch; the old lady and Castruchio leave Bosola alone to muse on the mysterious way
the Duchess is acting of late. He believes she is pregnant (no one but Delio and Cariola know
that the Duchess and Antonio are married), and aims to prove it by using apricots both to spark
her pregnant appetite and to induce labor, as apricots were believed to do. The Duchess, when
she enters, accepts the fruit from Bosola, and quickly starts going into labor. She then retires to
her chamber claiming to be ill, with a worried Antonio following in her wake.
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Scene 2—Same place and time as the previous scene: Bosola, alone, realizes that the
Duchess is indeed pregnant. After accosting the hapless old lady again, he watches as Antonio
and the servants in a commotion about a Swiss mercenary who had invaded the Duchess’s
room, and the loss of several jewels and gold utensils. Even with all the uproar, Antonio is not
distracted from his wife’s “illness”; she is actually in labor. Cariola, the lady’s maid, enters with
good news once Antonio is alone—he is the father of a son.

Scene 3—Same place and time as the previous scene: Bosola re-enters the now empty
room, having heard a woman (the Duchess) shriek. Antonio discovers him and questions his
purpose in being there, since everyone had been commanded to keep to their rooms. Antonio
tells him to stay away from the Duchess since he doesn’t trust Bosola. In Antonio’s agitation, he
accidentally drops a horoscope for his son’s birth, which Bosola retrieves. He realizes what it
means, and resolves to send it to the Duchess’s brothers with Castruccio.

Scene 4—The Cardinal’s rooms: The Cardinal and his mistress, Julia, are discussing
their rendezvous when a messenger calls the Cardinal away with an important message. Delio
enters to find Julia alone. He was once a suitor of hers and offers her money. Julia leaves to
meet her husband, Castruccio, and Delio fears that her husband’s arrival means Antonio’s
secret marriage is about to be revealed.

Scene 5—Rome, in Ferdinand’s private apartments: An enraged Ferdinand, with the letter
from Bosola, and his brother the Cardinal, meet to discuss what they think is an awful treachery
by their sister. Ferdinand is angry to the point of shouting about his sister’s “whorish” behavior
(he knows of the child, but not of the marriage), and the Cardinal struggles to control his brother’s
temperamental outburst. Ferdinand resolves to discover the man his sister is seeing, threatening
all and sundry.

Check your progress.

Review questions

1. What is Bosola’s attitude toward women ?

2. What does he tell Castruccio and the Old Lady ?

3. What does Bosola suspect and what is his plan ?

4. What happens when the Duchess enters ?

5. How does Delio tell Antonio to handle the problem ?

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6. Why does Antonio order all the officers locked in their chambers ?

7. What mistake does Antonio make and what does Bosola learn from it ?

8. Does Bosola know who the father is?

9. What news does Castruccio bring, and what does Delio fear ?

10. What is Ferdinand’s response to the news ?

5.4 ACT 3
Scene 1—The Duchess’s palace in Malfi, after some time has passed: Antonio greets the
returning Delio, who has come from Rome with Ferdinand. Antonio reveals that the Duchess
has had two more children in the time Delio was gone. Antonio fears the wrath of the recently
arrived Ferdinand, and Delio tells him the ordinary people think the Duchess is a whore. While
they talk, the Duchess and Ferdinand enter. He tells her that he has found a husband for her,
the Count Malateste. She disregards this, as she is already married to Antonio. When left
alone, Ferdinand consults with Bosola to discover the father of the three seemingly illegitimate
children; Bosola has acquired a skeleton key to the Duchess’s room, which Ferdinand takes,
telling him to guess what will happen next.

Scene 2—The Duchess’s bedchamber: Antonio comes up to the Duchess’s bedroom to

spend the night, and they banter back and forth about the point of lovers just sleeping together.
Antonio and Cariola leave to allow the Duchess to complete her night-time preparations, but
she is not alone; Ferdinand sneaks in and startles her. He gives her a knife, intending her to kill
herself, and his fury increases when she tells him she is married without his knowledge. Ferdinand
leaves, declaring he will never see her again. He exits just in time, for Antonio bursts in brandishing
a pistol, but the Duchess forces him to leave again when Bosola knocks at the door. Bosola
informs the Duchess that Ferdinand has left for Rome again, and she tells him that Ferdinand’s
bills of exchange will no longer work, since Antonio has been false with her accounts. This is, of
course, a trick to get Antonio out of Malfi; she calls Antonio back in (once Bosola exits) to tell
him to flee to Ancona, where she will send him all her treasure and valuables. The couple puts
on a show argument for the benefit of the returning Bosola and officers, where she criticises his
faulty record keeping and banishes him. Bosola does not believe the Duchess was justified in
banishing Antonio, and tells her that Antonio is a good, honest man. This speech prompts the
Duchess to confide the secret marriage to Bosola. He is then left on stage to lament his role as
a spy, for now he must reveal all to Ferdinand.
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Scene 3—A room in a palace at Rome: The Cardinal, Ferdinand, Malateste, Pescara,
Silvio and Delio are discussing the new fortifications that are being made in Naples. Ferdinand
and his men, leaving the Cardinal and Malateste to speak privately, are very harsh in their
critique of Malateste, considering him too cowardly to fight in an upcoming battle. Bosola,
meanwhile, interrupts the Cardinal’s private conference with news of his sister. The Cardinal
leaves to petition for her and her family’s exile from Ancona, while Bosola goes to tell the
Duchess’s first child (from her first husband) what has happened with his mother. Ferdinand
goes to find Antonio.

Scene 4—The shrine of Our Lady of Loreto, Italy, in the Ancona province: Two pilgrims
are visiting the shrine in Ancona, and witness the Cardinal being symbolically prepared for war.
The Cardinal then proceeds to take the Duchess’s wedding ring, banish her, Antonio, and their
children, while the pilgrims muse over the reason for what they have just seen.

Scene 5—Near Loreto: The newly banished family, and the maid Coriola, enter Loreto.
Shortly after their arrival, Bosola comes and presents the Duchess with a letter from Ferdinand,
which indirectly states that Ferdinand wants Antonio dead. Antonio tells Bosola that he will not
go to Ferdinand, and the Duchess urges him to take the oldest child and go to Milan to find
safety, which he promptly does. Bosola and masked guards then take the Duchess and her
remaining children captive, on the orders of her brothers.

Check your progress

Review Questions

1. Who are the two people who have come to Amalfi ?

2. How many children do the Duchess and Antonio now have ?

3. Why has Ferdinand come to the Duchess’s court ?

4. Why does the Duchess think everything is all right ?

5. What does Bosola report to Ferdinand ?

6. What does Ferdinand think of sorcery and potions?

7. What are Antonio, Cariola, and the Duchess joking about at the beginning of the
scene ?

8. What joke to Antonio and Cariola decide to play on the Duchess ?

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9. What happens when Bosola enters ?

10. What plan does the Duchess have ?

11. What are the Duchess and Antonio doing when Bosola returns ?

12. What happens when the Duchess talks to Bosola ?

13. what does Ferdinand do when he learns about Antonio ?

14. How do Ferdinand and the Cardinal respond to the news ?

15. What ceremony at the Shrine of Our Lady of Loreto do we witness ?

16. What do we learn from the pilgrims ?

17. What has happened to the Duchess and Antonio ?

18. What request does Bosola bring from Ferdinand and how is it answered ?

19. Who arrives after Antonio and his son leave ?

5.5 ACT 4
Scene 1—A prison (or the Duchess’s lodgings serving as a prison) near Loreto: Ferdinand
comes in with Bosola, who is describing to him how the Duchess is dealing with her imprisonment.
It seems she is not affected to Ferdinand’s satisfaction, and he leaves angrily. Bosola greets
the Duchess, telling her that her brother wishes to speak with her, but will not do so where he
can see her. She agrees to meet with her brother in the darkness. Once the lights are out,
Ferdinand returns. He presents her with a dead man’s hand, leading her to believe that it is
Antonio’s, with her wedding ring on it. He then exits, leaving Bosola to show the Duchess lifelike
figures of her husband and children, made to appear as though her family was dead. The
Duchess believes them to be the genuine articles, and resolves to die—her despair is so deep
it affects Bosola. When she leaves, Ferdinand re-enters; Bosola pleads with him to send his
sister to a convent, refusing to be a part of the plot any more. Ferdinand is beyond reason at
this point, and tells Bosola to go to Milan to find the real Antonio.

Scene 2—Same place and time as the previous scene: The Duchess and her maid,
Cariola, come back, distracted by the noises being made by a group of madmen (Ferdinand
brought them in to terrorise her). A servant tells her that they were brought for sport, and lets in
several of the madmen. Bosola, too, sneaks in with them, disguised as an old man, and tells the
Duchess that he is there to make her tomb. When she tries to pull rank on him, executioners
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with cords and a coffin come in. Cariola is removed from the room, leaving Bosola and the
executioners with the Duchess. The Duchess makes a brave show, telling the executioners to
“pull, and pull strongly”, welcoming her strangulation. Cariola is brought back, and after struggling
fiercely, she too is strangled. Ferdinand comes to view the scene, and is also shown the bodies
of his sister’s children, who were murdered as well. Ferdinand reveals that he and the Duchess
were twins, and that he had hoped, if she had remained a widow, to inherit all her wealth.
Bosola, sensing that Ferdinand is ready to turn on him next, demands payment for his atrocities.
Ferdinand, distracted, leaves him alone with the bodies. Astonishingly, the Duchess is not dead.
A shocked Bosola has no time to call for medicine; he manages to tell the Duchess that Antonio
is not really dead; that the figures she saw were fake, before she finally dies. Bosola, remorseful
at last, takes her body to the care of some good women, planning to leave immediately thereafter
for Milan.

Check your progress

Review Questions

1. How does Bosola describe the Duchess in imprisonment to Ferdinand and how
does he respond ?

2. What does Bosola tell the Duchess ?

3. How will Ferdinand keep his earlier promise?

4. What does Ferdinand give the Duchess in the dark?

5. What is changing in Bosola ?

6. Where is Antonio and what will Bosola’s next task be ?

7. How is the Duchess responding to the noise of the madmen ?

8. What disguise does Bosola use when he returns?

9. What is the tone of the Duchess’s great line “I am Duchess of Malfi still” ?

10. What does Bosola say his profession is ?

11. What present does she receive from her brothers ?

12. How does the Duchess face death?

13. Does Cariola face death as well as the Duchess does ?

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14 . What are Ferdinand’s and Bosola’s responses to the deaths?

15. How does Ferdinand treat Bosola? What will Bosola’s reward be?

2.6 ACT 5
Scene 1—Outside Ferdinand and the Cardinal’s palace in Milan: Antonio returns to see if
he can reconcile with Ferdinand and the Cardinal, but Delio is dubious as to the wisdom of this.
Delio asks Pescara, a marquis, to give him possession of Antonio’s estate for safekeeping, but
Pescara denies him. Julia presents Pescara with a letter from the Cardinal, which states that
she should receive Antonio’s property, and which Pescara grants to her. When Delio confronts
him about this, Pescara says that he would not give an innocent man a property that was taken
from someone by such vile means (the Cardinal took the property for himself once Antonio was
banished), for it will now become an appropriate place for the Cardinal’s mistress. This statement
impresses the hidden Antonio. When Pescara leaves to visit an ill Ferdinand, Antonio decides
to pay a night-time visit to the Cardinal.

Scene 2—Inside the same palace: Pescara, come to visit Ferdinand, is discussing his
condition with the doctor, who believes Ferdinand may have lycanthropia: a condition whereby
he believes he is a wolf. The doctor thinks there is a chance of a relapse, in which case Ferdinand’s
diseased behaviour would return; namely, digging up dead bodies at night. Pescara and the
doctor make way for the mad Ferdinand, who attacks his own shadow. The Cardinal, who has
entered with Ferdinand, manages to catch Bosola, who has been watching Ferdinand’s ravings.
The Cardinal assigns Bosola to seek out Antonio (by following Delio) and then slay him. After
the Cardinal leaves, Bosola does not even make it to the door before he is stopped by Julia,
who is brandishing a pistol. She accuses him of having given her a love potion, and threatens
to kill him to end her love. Bosola manages to disarm her and convince her to gather intelligence
for him about the Cardinal. Bosola then hides while Julia uses all of her persuasive powers to
get the Cardinal to reveal his part in the death of his sister and her children. The Cardinal then
makes Julia swear to keep silent, forcing her to kiss the poisoned cover of a bible, causing her
to die almost instantly. Bosola comes out of hiding to confront the Cardinal, although he declares
that he still intends to kill Antonio. Giving him a master key, the Cardinal takes his leave. However,
once he is alone, Bosola swears to protect Antonio, and goes off to bury Julia’s body.

Scene 3—A courtyard outside the same palace: Delio and Antonio are near the Duchess’s
tomb; as they talk, an echo from the tomb mirrors their conversation. Delio leaves to find Antonio’s
eldest son, and Antonio leaves to escape the distressing echo of his wife’s resting place.
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Scene 4—The Cardinal’s apartments in Milan: The Cardinal enters, trying to dissuade
Pescara, Malateste, Roderigo and Grisolan from staying to keep watch over Ferdinand. He
goes so far as to say that he might feign mad fits to test their obedience; if they come to help,
they will be in trouble. They unwillingly exit, and Bosola enters to find the Cardinal planning to
have him killed. Antonio, unaware of Bosola, sneaks in while it is dark, planning to seek audience
with the Cardinal. Not realising who has entered, Bosola attacks Antonio; he is horrified to see
his mistake. He manages to relate the death of the Duchess and children to the dying Antonio,
who is glad to be dying in sadness, now that life is pointless for him. Bosola then leaves to bring
down the Cardinal.

Scene 5—The same apartments, near Julia’s lodging: The Cardinal, unaware of what
has just happened, is reading a book when Bosola enter with a servant, who is bearing Antonio’s
body. He threatens the Cardinal, who calls for help. Help is not forthcoming, for the gentlemen
from the beginning of the previous scene, while they can hear him calling, have no desire to go
to his aid (because of his previous order to not at any cost try to help Ferdinand). Bosola kills
the servant of the Cardinal first, and then stabs the Cardinal. Ferdinand bursts in, also attacking
his brother; in the fight, he accidentally wounds Bosola. Bosola kills Ferdinand, and is left with
the dying Cardinal. The gentlemen who heard the cries now enter the room to witness the
deaths of the Cardinal and Bosola. Delio enters too late with Antonio’s eldest son, and laments
the unfortunate events that have passed.

Check your Progress

Review Questions
1. What is Antonio hoping for ?

2. What does Delio report is going on?

3. What does Delio request from the Marquis of Pescara and how successful is he?

4. What does Antonio plan to do ?

5. What is Ferdinand suffering from ? What has caused his madness?

6. How does the Cardinal explain his brother’s madness ?

7. How does the Cardinal treat Bosola ?

8. Who is Julia and how does she respond to Bosola ?

9. What does Julia accuse Bosola of ? What does Bosola ask her to find out?
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10. How does the Cardinal feel about Julia ?

11. What does Bosola agree to do for the Cardinal ?

12. When and how will they get rid of Julia’s body ?

13. What warning does Delio give Antonio ?

14. What instructions does the Cardinal give to his guests ?

15. What happens when Antonio enters ? Whom does Bosola think it is?

16 . What do the guests do when the Cardinal calls for help ?

5.7 Detailed Summary The Duchess of Malfi

The Duchess of Malfi takes place in Italy, mostly at the Duchess’s palace in Malfi, in the
sixteenth century. The Duchess is a young widow whose two brothers, Ferdinandand the
Cardinal, are visiting her from Rome at the play’s start. Antonio, the manager of her household,
has just returned from France. Before leaving the Duchess, Ferdinand engages Bosola,
previously used by the Cardinal as a hit man, to ostensibly manage the Duchess’s horses, but
in reality to spy on her for the brothers so they can be sure she remains chaste and does not
remarry. Bosola is reluctant, but eventually agrees.

Before they return to Rome, Ferdinand and the Cardinal lecture the Duchess about the
impropriety of remarriage. She insists that she has no plans for remarriage, and shows some
irritation at their attempts to control her. However, as soon as they leave, she sets in motion a
plan to propose to Antonio with the help of her maid, Cariola. Antonio and the Duchess marry,
and the Duchess reassures Antonio that they will find a way to appease her brothers.

Act Two is set about nine months later. The Duchess is pregnant and Bosola, suspecting
her condition, hatches a plan to prove it to himself by giving her apricots, thought to induce
labor. She accepts them, and immediately becomes ill, rushing off to her bedroom. Antonio
and Delio discuss how to keep her labor secret.

Bosola now assumes his belief is correct, but finds further definitive proof through a
horoscope Antonio wrote for the infant. With the information confirmed, Bosola he writes a
letter to the Duchess’s brothers to tell them the news. The brothers are both incensed, but the
Cardinal maintains a cool calm, whereas Ferdinand grows erratically angry. Neither of them
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realizes that she is married, and hence assume the baby is a bastard. Ferdinand says he won’t
take any action until he knows who the baby’s father is.

Act Three begins about two years later, with Delio’s return to the Duchess’s palace. Antonio
and the Duchess have had two more children in the meantime. Ferdinand has recently arrived,
and both Antonio and Delio suspect that he knows about the Duchess’s children. Ferdinand
surprises the Duchess in her bedroom, and when she tells him that she is married, he tells her
she should never reveal to him the name of her lover lest terrible violence then be unleashed on
all of them. He further banishes her forever from his sight.

The Duchess, who wishes to protect Antonio by removing him from Malfi, falsely claims
he has stolen from her and hence has him banished to Ancona. Once he has left, Bosola
defends his virtue to the Duchess so emphatically that she admits the secret of their marriage.
Bosola pretends to support her, and she sends him after Antonio with money and news that she
will soon follow him. In Ancona a few days later, the Cardinal catches up to them and banishes
the Duchess and her family from there.

On their way out of town, Bosola brings her an ostensibly forgiving but actually threatening
letter from Ferdinand, and so the Duchess, fearing an ambush, tells Antonio to separate from
her with their oldest son. Immediately after they part, Bosola and a group of soldiers take the
Duchess and her two remaining children captive and bring them back to her palace.

In Act Four, Bosola tells Ferdinand that the Duchess is bearing her imprisonment nobly,
which angers him. In an effort to make her insane with despair, he presents her with wax
corpses of her family to convince her they have died. Though Bosola pleas with Ferdinand to
cease his torture, he won’t listen, and instead sends a group of madmen to torment her. Bosola
returns, disguised as a tomb-maker, and prepares the Duchess for her impending death.
Executioners follow with a cord to strangle her, but the Duchess remains steadfastly calm and
courageous, at peace with the idea of rejoining her family, who she still believes are dead. They
strangle her.

Bosola next orders her children and Cariola killed. Cariola pleads for her life, to no avail.
When Ferdinand confronts the Duchess’s body, he is suddenly overtaken with remorse and
angry at Bosola for following his orders. He not only betrays Bosola by refusing the latter a
promised reward, but also shows signs of insanity before he exits. The Duchess shows a final
sign of life, and before she truly dies, Bosola tells her that Antonio is still alive. Bosola shows
genuine sadness when she dies.
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In Act Five, Antonio, ignorant of his wife and children’s deaths, plans to beg the Cardinal
that night for a reconciliation. Ferdinand has now completely lost his mind and is afflicted with
lycanthropia, or the belief that he is a wolf.

Bosola arrives and the Cardinal pretends that he has no idea about the Duchess’s death.
He offers Bosola a great reward for the murder of Antonio, an offer Bosola accepts even though
he is plotting revenge. Julia, the Cardinal’s mistress, approaches Bosola, declaring her love for
him, and Bosola uses her to get the Cardinal to admit his involvement in the Duchess’s murder.

After the Cardinal kills Julia, Bosola reveals he has overheard the secret and demands
his reward killing the Duchess. The Cardinal, once again, promises it will come after he has
killed Antonio and helped him get rid of Julia’s body. Bosola pretends to agree, but tells the
audience that he will find Antonio to either protect him or help him get his vengeance against
the Cardinal and Ferdinand.

The Cardinal tells his courtiers to stay away no matter what they hear from him or Ferdinand,
ostensibly because Ferdinand’s madness gets worse when people are around, but actually
because he wants privacy with which to dispose of Julia’s body. Bosola, waiting outside the
Cardinal’s room, accidentally kills Antonio, who has come to see the Cardinal. Distraught, he
goes into the Cardinal’s room and attacks him.

Because of the Cardinal’s warning, his courtiers at first ignore his cries for help. Ferdinand
joins the fray and stabs both the Cardinal and Bosola. Bosola kills Ferdinand. The courtiers
finally enter in time to see the Cardinal and Bosola die, but not before the latter has confessed
the particulars of the situation. Delio enters with Antonio and the Duchess’s oldest son, who is
the sole survivor of the family. Delio and the courtiers promise to raise the boy as a legacy to his
parents, which gives the play a final glimmer of hope.

5.8 The Duchess of Malfi List of Characters

Bosola

Bosola is the tool through which the Cardinal and Ferdinand perpetrate most of their evil
in The Duchess of Malfi. He is hired by Ferdinand to spy on the Duchess, for whom he serves
as manager of her horses. He is an enigmatic figure, willing to murder for hire without hesitation,
while initially reluctant to the commit to the seemingly less extreme vice of spying.
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As his deeds lead to worse and worse consequences—the banishment of the Duchess
and her family, the murder of the Duchess and her children, Antonio’s accidental death—he
shows more and more remorse for his actions. It is only when Ferdinand and the Cardinal
refuse to reward him for all he has done, though, that he stops blindly following their orders, and
avenges the Duchess and Antonio by murdering the Cardinal and Ferdinand.

Bosola is a complicated character in a play where most characters are obviously good or
evil. His actions have dire consequences for the Duchess and her family, but unlike the Cardinal
and Ferdinand, he shows reluctance to carry out these actions, and as he is essentially the only
character who addresses the audience directly, we get a great sense of his internal struggle.
This struggle is further represented in his complicated motivations, which veer from a seeming
desire to do right by others to unfiltered self-interest. He is thus the character who represents
the battle ground for the fight between good and evil, and though evil largely wins, he does
manage in the end to eliminate all of the evil characters and pave the way so that the Duchess’s
surviving son can possibly grow up in a better world.

The Duchess

At the opening of the play, the Duchess of Malfi, sister to the Cardinal and twin sister to
Ferdinand, has just been widowed in her youth. Though she promises her domineering brothers
that she won’t remarry, she almost immediately proposes to Antonio, a decision that ultimately
leads to the destruction of her entire family, save their oldest son. The Duchess is strong-willed,
brave, passionate, proud, and a loving wife and mother. In the opening of the play, Antonio
speaks of her incredible virtue, and though she marries him against custom and her brothers’
wishes, her goodness and vitality stand in stark contrast to her brothers’ evil.

Ferdinand

The Duke of Calabria and the Duchess’s twin brother, Ferdinand boasts an impressive
collection of vices: he has a terrible temper, is greedy, is lustful, and has an unhealthy obsession
with his sister. He is powerful and corrupt, but as his anger over the Duchess’s actions grows,
he becomes more and more deranged. Once Bosola has, under his orders, killed the Duchess
and two of her children, he immediately feels deep regret and then loses his mind completely.
In the play, Ferdinand is often associated with fire imagery, and represents violent, choleric evil.
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The Cardinal

The Duchess and Ferdinand’s older brother, the Cardinal of Aragon represents cold and
calculated evil in contrast to his hot-tempered brother. He is a Machiavellian character, using
the power of his position to torture and counter the Duchess. Ultimately, though, he loses his
ability to control events, a situation Bosola exploits to kill him.

Antonio

Antonio Bologna is the steward of the Duchess’s household. She falls in love with him
and they secretly wed, managing to keep this hidden from her brothers and Bosola. Antonio is
an honest man, a good horseman, a good judge of character, and a loving husband and father,
but he is also passive and largely ineffectual in a crisis, ultimately unable to protect his family
from harm. He is also rather unremarkable when compared to the impressive Duchess.

Delio

Delio is Antonio’s friend and the only one besides Cariola who is initially trusted with the
secret of the Duchess’s marriage to Antonio. He remains a faithful friend to the family through
the end of the play. He also has a history with Julia, which he’d like to continue.

Cariola

Cariola is the Duchess’s maid and confidant. She is the witness to the Duchess’s marriage
to Antonio, and thus the first to know about it. She keeps the secret faithfully, and in the end is
killed by Bosola for doing so.

Julia

Julia is the Cardinal’s mistress and Castruccio’s wife. She is also wooed by Delio and
later falls in love with Bosola. Bosola uses her as an unwitting tool to force a confession for the
Duchess’s death from the Cardinal, after which the Cardinal poisons her.

The Children

The Duchess and Antonio’s three children never speak in the play, but are on stage in
multiple scenes. The two youngest are viciously murdered by Bosola’s men, while the oldest, in
spite of his dire horoscope, is the only member of the family to survive, and symbolizes a
hopeful future at the play’s end.
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Count Malateste

Malateste is known for presenting himself as a soldier but avoiding any battles, and thus
is scorned as a coward. Ferdinand recommends him to the Duchess as a suitable husband, but
she scorns the idea.

Marquis of Pescara

The Marquis of Pescara is a soldier, and the only courtier save Antonio and Delio who
acts with any real honor. When Bosola attacks the Cardinal, he is the only lord to answer the
cries for help, even at risk of being mocked for it.

Castruccio

Castruccio is a courtier under Ferdinand, and Julia’s older husband. He represents the
cuckolded fool.

Silvio

Silvio is a courtier under Ferdinand.

Roderigo

Roderigo is a courtier under Ferdinand.

Grisolan

Grisolan is a courtier under Ferdinand.

Old Lady

The Old Lady, a midwife, is ridiculed by Bosola at length for wearing makeup to try to
cover what he perceives as her hideousness.

Doctor

The Doctor diagnoses and tries to treat Ferdinand’s lycanthropia. His primary method of
treatment is to make Ferdinand frightened of him.

Two Pilgrims

As the Cardinal enacts the ceremony that results in the Duchess’s exile from Ancona, the
two pilgrims watch the ceremony and provide commentary.
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Mad Astrologer

Sent to the Duchess during her imprisonment, the Mad Astrologer lost his mind when
they day he had predicted for the apocalypse came and went without incident.

Mad Doctor

Sent to the Duchess during her imprisonment, the Mad Doctor lost his mind due to jealousy.

Mad Priest

The Mad Priest is sent to the Duchess during her imprisonment to try to drive her crazy.

Mad Lawyer

The Mad Lawyer is sent to the Duchess during her imprisonment to try to drive her crazy.

Short Summary

Set in the Italian city of Malfi, the play tells the story of the Duchess, a young widow who
falls in love with the lower-class Antonio. The Duchess’ evil brothers, Duke Ferdinand and the
Cardinal, don’t really approve of the Duchess marrying Antonio. However, the Duchess and
Antonio marry in secret and have three children before being found out.

The Duchess and Antonio attempt to run away and Antonio and their eldest child manage
to escape. However, the Duchess is betrayed by her servant Bosola, who was secretly working
for Ferdinand, and the Duchess and her two younger children are executed. The injustice of
this turns Bosola against the Cardinal and Ferdinand and he swears to exact revenge for the
Duchess.

The play ends in an escalating chain of violence, as first the Cardinal confesses his role
in the murders to his mistress and then murders her. Bosola then mistakenly kills a returning
Antonio, thinking him to be the Cardinal. Bosola eventually succeeds in killing the Cardinal and
then he and Ferdinand kill each other in a brawl. The play ends with Antonio and the Duchess’
eldest son taking his place as heir to Malfi.
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Review Questions
Essay Questions
1. Discuss the line “Ambition, madam, is a great man’s madness.”

2. Describe the murder scene in the play “Duchess of Malfi.”

3. Comment on the title of the play The Duchess of Malfi.

4. In Act 3, Scene 5, Bosola visits the Duchess with a mask on.

5. What is the symbolization of this ?

6. Is The Duchess of Malfi a revenge tragedy?

7. What is the nature of power centered in men like Cardinal and Ferdinand?

8. What is the role of Bosola in The Duchess of Malfi?

9. Analyse the significance of the story that the Duchess tells at the end of Act III
scene 5.

10. What is the historical significance of John Webster’s play The Duchess of Malfi?

11. What are some important themes (besides death and good vs. evil) in John Webster’s
play

12. Discuss The Duchess of Malfi in relation to the revenge play tradition.

13. Elaborate on the theme of madness in The Duchess of Malfi?

14. What was the significance of Bosola giving the Duchess the apricots?

15. Elaborate the treatment of woman in the play

16. Write a detailed analysis of Delio’s closing speech.

17. Compare and contrast the Duchess’s death with those of her husband and brothers.

18. Explain how the symbols of light and dark are used in the play.

19. What is the importance of justice in the play?

20. Who is the most courageous character in the play?

Reference
https://www.gradesaver.com/the-duchess-of-malfi/study-guide/summary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Duchess_of_Malfi
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MODEL QUESTION PAPER

DRAMA - I

CORE PAPER - II
Time : 3 hours Marks : 75

Section A

Answer any 10 (10 x 2 = 20 marks)

1. What is a Morality Play ?

2. Characteristics of morality plays
3. Define allegory.
4. What is meant by sacrament?
5. What is Senecan tragedy ?
6. Write a short note on Kyd.
7. Who was Bel-Imperia
8. Write a note on Delios character.
9. What weapon does Pedringano bring to St. Luigi's Park?
10. Write a brief note on Gorbodue.
11. Write a note on playhouse.
12. What is an aside?

Section B

Answer any 5 in 250 words (5 x 5 = 25 marks)

13. Enumerate Seneca's Tragedies influence on Elizabethan Drama.

14. What are the characteristics of the Senecan tragedy ?

15. Give a summary of the Spanish Tragedy.

16. Give some details on the origins of Everyman

17. Describe the murder scene in the play Duchess of Malfi.

18. Elaborate on the theme of madness in the play Duchess of Malfi.

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Section C

Answer any 3 in 500 words (3 x 10 = 30 marks)

19. Give a detailed summary of the play Everyman.

20. Is the Duchess of Malfi a Revenge play ?

21. Characteristics of Senecan tragedy.

22. Describe in detail about the Elizabethan theatre.

23. Give a detailed analysis of the plot of Volpone.