Volpone

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1606

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Act Summaries & Analyses

The Epistle-Act I

Act II

Act III

Act IV

Act V

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Act IVChapter Summaries & Analyses

Act IV, Scene 1 Summary

On the streets of Venice, Sir Politic offers Peregrine travel advice. Peregrine shouldn’t trust anyone because people love to play tricks. Sir Politic explains how to get along with Venetians, who have very specific social rules. Sir Politic boasts that he could pass for Venetian because he knows all their customs.

Sir Politic also brags that he could make anyone rich because of his lucrative business ideas. Peregrine laughs to himself and bets that Sir Politic will share the secret ideas without provocation. As anticipated, Sir Politic reveals his enterprises, which range from selling imported fish to proposals for larger tinderboxes. He also plans to develop rapid plague detection infrastructure using onions, and if that doesn’t work, he might sell Venice to its enemies, the Ottoman Empire.

Peregrine sees that Sir Politic carries around a diary. He reads a sample entry full of mundane details about Sir Politic’s days, which Sir Politic finds important to record.

Act IV, Scene 2 Summary

Nearby, Lady Would-Be, her ladies, and Nano spot Sir Politic with Peregrine, and Lady Would-Be mistakenly believes Peregrine is the sex worker Mosca mentioned earlier. Sir Politic cheerfully introduces Peregrine to his wife, but she interrupts him, calling Sir Politic an embarrassment to his knighthood. She insults Peregrine and accosts her husband for gallivanting around the city with an intersex person. Peregrine and Sir Politic react with confusion, and Sir Politic, trusting his wife, leaves to protect his honor. Peregrine tries to leave, but Lady Would-Be stops him and rips his shirt, hoping to reveal his disguise. Peregrine laughs at the woman’s foolish display and mocks her appearance.

Act IV, Scene 3 Summary

Mosca arrives and asks about the commotion. Lady Would-Be claims she apprehended the sex worker and will bring Peregrine to court. Mosca lies that Celia is the sex worker who was with her husband, and she is already at the court. Lady Would-Be apologizes to Peregrine and implores him to use her friendship while he is in Venice. She and Mosca leave together. Peregrine suspects the incident was a trick set up by Sir Politic to embarrass him, and he determines to get revenge.

Act IV, Scene 4 Summary

In the courtroom, Mosca ensures the suitors have their false story straight. Mosca speaks to each man individually, continuing his promises of inheritance. Mosca confirms to Corvino that he covered up the original plot with Celia, and he quells Corvino’s fears that Voltore will overstep him because of his larger role. Mosca then mocks Corvino to Voltore and wishes him good luck. If necessary, Mosca has Lady Would-Be ready as a witness.

Act IV, Scene 5 Summary

Four Avvocati (judges) enter the court with Celia, Bonario, and other officials. They discuss the egregious nature of the case, which they first heard from Celia and Bonario offstage. They send an officer to fetch Volpone, who Mosca claims is too fragile to leave his house. Voltore asserts his power to speak on Volpone’s behalf.

Contrary to Celia and Bonario’s story, Voltore claims that the couple are the real criminals. Voltore accuses Celia and Bonario of having an affair, the daily tales of which swayed Corbaccio into disinheriting his son. Voltore describes how Bonario discovered the changes to his father’s will, naming Volpone as the heir, and he set out with Celia to kill his father. However, Corbaccio was delayed. Bonario instead attacked Volpone and Mosca, concocted false rape accusations, and set out to bring the innocent men to court.

Bonario protests the lies and proclaims his innocence. The Avvocati command Voltore to produce proof, and the lawyer calls Corbaccio and Corvino forward as witnesses. Both men confirm his false story. Mosca also produces his wound as proof of Bonario’s attack. Celia swoons, and Voltore uses this as additional proof of her performed innocence. Mosca claims he can produce another witness, Lady Would-Be, to speak on Celia’s promiscuity. The Avvocati send for Mosca’s witness and express their shock at the case’s developments.

Act IV, Scene 6 Summary

Mosca re-enters the court with a furious Lady Would-Be, who accuses Celia of being a sex worker. She apologizes for her unladylike outburst, and the Avvocati forgive her. After hearing Voltore’s witnesses, the Avvocati ask Bonario and Celia to produce witnesses for their own story. However, Bonario and Celia have only themselves and God as proof.

The officer returns with Volpone, who enters the court disguised as a frail old man. Voltore argues that Volpone’s fragile stature proves that his innocence. Voltore asserts that no one will be safe from criminals if Celia and Bonario can accuse such a man of rape and get away with it. He concludes that Bonario and Celia’s confidence in their innocence is a sure sign they are guilty.

The Avvocati convict Celia and Bonario and schedule their sentencing for the evening. They thank Voltore for capturing the criminals, and they exit. Mosca praises Voltore’s excellent speaking. He reassures Corvino that it is better to be seen as a cuckold than to be seen as having encouraged his wife to engage in sex work for his own profit. Mosca promises Corbaccio he will draw up Volpone’s will for him. Corbaccio pays the lawyer’s fees and gives Mosca a tip. Mosca tells Lady Would-Be that she will be named the sole heir of Volpone’s fortune for her enthusiastic contribution to the case.

Act IV Analysis

In the Early Modern Period, a growing class of people earned large fortunes—and thus improved their social standings—through maritime merchant trade. However, the rapidity of this growth raised suspicion about the morality of their business practices. Sir Politic represents someone who aspires to this nouveau-riche status. In Act IV, Jonson mocks the man’s phony entrepreneurship and his absurd plans to get rich. Sir Politic demonstrates his underlying desire to improve his social rank when he boasts about the prestigious institutions to whom he will present his ideas: “I mean (in hope of pension) to propound / To the Great Council, then unto the forty, / So the Ten” (4.1.73-74). Sir Politic mentions increasingly powerful levels of Venetian government, whom he thinks his ventures will impress. Sir Politic’s plague detection scheme further proves his arrogance and his sham entrepreneurialism. Sir Politic plans a massive development of infrastructure for the primitive plague detection method of watching onions for their discoloration. His surety in the ingenuity of the plan—and his belief that the Venetian state will willingly foot the bill—further emphasize his ignorance.

The courtroom action from Act IV, Scenes 4 through 7 develops the theme of The Moral Impact of Performance. Mosca ramps up his deception by developing a new story for the suitors to perform in front of the court. Mosca ensures each player knows his part when he asks, “Is the lie / Safely conveyed amongst us? Is that sure? / Knows every man his burden?” (4.5.3-5). Volpone arrives in his sickly disguise, turning the courtroom into his theatre. This disguise is so convincing that the Avvocati feel ashamed for ever having suspected him of the crime. At the same time, Mosca also continues to spin the threads of his earlier performance. Jonson plays up the comedy of the situation when Mosca runs between the various suitors and speaks quick lines to each before he exasperatedly cries, “Much!” (4.4.19). This exclamation also expresses Mosca’s minor anxiety for his fabrication, since he has to rely on the suitors’ performance for the success of the deception—something he is not used to doing.

The courtroom scenes are a major climactic moment in the action of the play. Rather than offering a sense of relief when the suitors succeed, however, Jonson creates new tensions. Jonson again employs dramatic irony, but here the audience’s knowledge of Celia and Bonario’s innocence produces a tragic effect instead of a comic one. In earlier acts, the audience could laugh when Volpone and Mosca covertly mocked the vices and absurdity of the gullible suitors. In comparison, the mockery of Celia and Bonario’s virtuousness falls flat because the audience knows the court will dole out substantial punishment for crimes the pair didn’t commit. The fraudulent conviction invokes pathos for Celia and Bonario, which begins to sever the audience’s gleeful collusion with Volpone and Mosca. Although the audience feels satisfied that Mosca was able to pull off his deception, the new tensions also create anticipation for his, Volpone’s, and the suitors’ capture.

Act IV shows how corrupt people manipulate legal processes to conceal crimes rather than punish them. Bonario’s observation that Voltore “would plead against his maker” (4.5.97) if the price was right recalls Mosca’s earlier comments about lawyers who argue any side of a case with no conviction of their own. Bonario associates this skill with bribery and thus corruption of the judicial process due to greed. Voltore, as a lawyer, knows the inner workings of the court, and therefore knows what will sway the Avvocati. Voltore produces four witnesses, plus himself, as well as physical evidence, like Mosca’s wound and Volpone’s frailty. Although his witnesses are false, Voltore has more proof of his story than Bonario and Celia, who have no other person on their side. Celia and Bonario’s guilty verdict, despite their innocence, expands on the theme of Seeking Justice in a Corrupt Society and offers the argument that such an endeavor is hopeless.