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Volpone

Edição BooksWhale em inglês por Ben Jonson

A dazzling comedy of greed built around a rich Venetian impostor.

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Volpone

Volpone stages greed as theatre: a dying man’s fortune attracts heirs, flatterers, lawyers, and parasites, while disguise and performance expose the moral economy of Renaissance Venice.

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Ben Jonson died in 1637; Volpone was first published or performed in 1606. This entry uses the original English text.

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Volpone

Ben Jonson

Capítulo de préviaVOLPONE; OR, THE FOXPrévia

By Ben Jonson

Capítulo de préviaINTRODUCTIONPrévia

The greatest of English dramatists except Shakespeare, the first literary

dictator and poet-laureate, a writer of verse, prose, satire, and

criticism who most potently of all the men of his time affected the

subsequent course of English letters: such was Ben Jonson, and as such his

strong personality assumes an interest to us almost unparalleled, at least

in his age.

Ben Jonson came of the stock that was centuries after to give to the world

Thomas Carlyle; for Jonson's grandfather was of Annandale, over the

Solway, whence he migrated to England. Jonson's father lost his estate

under Queen Mary, "having been cast into prison and forfeited." He entered

the church, but died a month before his illustrious son was born, leaving

his widow and child in poverty. Jonson's birthplace was Westminster, and

the time of his birth early in 1573. He was thus nearly ten years

Shakespeare's junior, and less well off, if a trifle better born. But

Jonson did not profit even by this slight advantage. His mother married

beneath her, a wright or bricklayer, and Jonson was for a time apprenticed

to the trade. As a youth he attracted the attention of the famous

antiquary, William Camden, then usher at Westminster School, and there the

poet laid the solid foundations of his classical learning. Jonson always

held Camden in veneration, acknowledging that to him he owed,

"All that I am in arts, all that I know;"

and dedicating his first dramatic success, "Every Man in His Humour," to

him. It is doubtful whether Jonson ever went to either university, though

Fuller says that he was "statutably admitted into St. John's College,

Cambridge." He tells us that he took no degree, but was later "Master of

Arts in both the universities, by their favour, not his study." When a

mere youth Jonson enlisted as a soldier, trailing his pike in Flanders in

the protracted wars of William the Silent against the Spanish. Jonson was

a large and raw-boned lad; he became by his own account in time

exceedingly bulky. In chat with his friend William Drummond of

Hawthornden, Jonson told how "in his service in the Low Countries he had,

in the face of both the camps, killed an enemy, and taken opima spolia

from him;" and how "since his coming to England, being appealed to the

fields, he had killed his adversary which had hurt him in the arm and

whose sword was ten inches longer than his." Jonson's reach may have made

up for the lack of his sword; certainly his prowess lost nothing in the

telling. Obviously Jonson was brave, combative, and not averse to talking

of himself and his doings.

In 1592, Jonson returned from abroad penniless. Soon after he married,

almost as early and quite as imprudently as Shakespeare. He told Drummond

curtly that "his wife was a shrew, yet honest"; for some years he lived

apart from her in the household of Lord Albany. Yet two touching epitaphs

among Jonson's "Epigrams," "On my first daughter," and "On my first son,"

attest the warmth of the poet's family affections. The daughter died in

infancy, the son of the plague; another son grew up to manhood little

credit to his father whom he survived. We know nothing beyond this of

Jonson's domestic life.

How soon Jonson drifted into what we now call grandly "the theatrical

profession" we do not know. In 1593, Marlowe made his tragic exit from

life, and Greene, Shakespeare's other rival on the popular stage, had

preceded Marlowe in an equally miserable death the year before.

Shakespeare already had the running to himself. Jonson appears first in

the employment of Philip Henslowe, the exploiter of several troupes of

players, manager, and father-in-law of the famous actor, Edward Alleyn.

From entries in "Henslowe's Diary," a species of theatrical account book

which has been handed down to us, we know that Jonson was connected with

Sumário

Nesta edição

  1. 01Full text
  2. 02VOLPONE; OR, THE FOX
  3. 03INTRODUCTION
  4. 04FELIX E. SCHELLING. THE COLLEGE, PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A.
  5. 05DRAMAS:
  6. 06POEMS:
  7. 07PROSE:
  8. 08WORKS:
  9. 09SELECTIONS:
  10. 10LIFE:
  11. 11VOLPONE; OR, THE FOX
  12. 12TO THE MOST NOBLE AND MOST EQUAL SISTERS, THE TWO FAMOUS UNIVERSITIES, FOR
  13. 13THEIR LOVE AND ACCEPTANCE SHEWN TO HIS POEM IN THE PRESENTATION, BEN
  14. 14JONSON, THE GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGER, DEDICATES BOTH IT AND HIMSELF.
  15. 15DRAMATIS PERSONAE
  16. 16SCENE: VENICE. THE ARGUMENT.
  17. 17PROLOGUE.
  18. 18ACT 1. SCENE 1.1. A ROOM IN VOLPONE'S HOUSE. ENTER VOLPONE AND MOSCA.
  19. 19[MOSCA WITHDRAWS THE CURTAIN, AND DISCOVERS PILES OF GOLD,
  20. 20PLATE, JEWELS, ETC.]
  21. 21[GIVES HIM MONEY.]
  22. 22[EXIT MOS.]
  23. 23[RE-ENTER MOSCA WITH NANO, ANDROGYNO, AND CASTRONE.]
  24. 24[KNOCKING WITHOUT.]
  25. 25[EXEUNT NANO AND CASTRONE.]
  26. 26[EXIT ANDROGYNO.]
  27. 27[EXIT MOSCA.]
  28. 28[RE-ENTER MOSCA, WITH THE GOWN, ETC.]
  29. 29[PUTS ON HIS SICK DRESS.]
  30. 30[EXIT MOSCA.]
  31. 31[RE-ENTER MOSCA, INTRODUCING VOLTORE, WITH A PIECE OF PLATE.]
  32. 32[LOUD KNOCKING WITHOUT.]
  33. 33[EXIT VOLTORE.]
  34. 34[PUTTING THE PLATE TO THE REST.]
  35. 35[ENTER CORBACCIO.]
  36. 36[POINTING TO THE MONEY.]
  37. 37[GOING.]
  38. 38[EXIT.]
  39. 39[KNOCKING WITHIN.]
  40. 40[ANOINTING THEM.]
  41. 41[ENTER CORVINO.]
  42. 42[THEY EMBRACE.]
  43. 43[SHOUTS IN VOL.'S EAR.]
  44. 44[EXIT CORV.]
  45. 45[KNOCKING WITHIN.]
  46. 46[EXIT MOS.]
  47. 47[RE-ENTER MOSCA.]
  48. 48[EXEUNT.] ACT 2. SCENE 2.1. ST. MARK'S PLACE; A RETIRED CORNER BEFORE CORVINO'S HOUSE.
  49. 49ENTER SIR POLITICK WOULD-BE, AND PEREGRINE.
  50. 50[ASIDE.]
  51. 51[ASIDE.]
  52. 52[ENTER MOSCA AND NANO DISGUISED, FOLLOWED BY PERSONS WITH
  53. 53MATERIALS FOR ERECTING A STAGE.]
  54. 54[ENTER VOLPONE, DISGUISED AS A MOUNTEBANK DOCTOR, AND
  55. 55FOLLOWED BY A CROWD OF PEOPLE.]
  56. 56[VOLPONE MOUNTS THE STAGE.]
  57. 57[POINTING TO HIS BILL AND HIS VIAL.]
  58. 58[CELIA AT A WINDOW ABOVE, THROWS DOWN HER HANDKERCHIEF.]
  59. 59[ENTER CORVINO.]
  60. 60[BEATS AWAY VOLPONE, NANO, ETC.]
  61. 61[EXEUNT.] SCENE 2.2. A ROOM IN VOLPONE'S HOUSE.
  62. 62ENTER VOLPONE AND MOSCA.
  63. 63[ASIDE.]
  64. 64[EXEUNT.] SCENE 2.3. A ROOM IN CORVINO'S HOUSE.
  65. 65ENTER CORVINO, WITH HIS SWORD IN HIS HAND, DRAGGING
  66. 66IN CELIA.
  67. 67[KNOCKING WITHIN.]
  68. 68[EXIT CELIA.] [ENTER SERVANT.]
  69. 69[EXIT SERVANT.]
  70. 70[ENTER MOSCA.]
  71. 71[WALKS ASIDE.]
  72. 72[EXIT.]
  73. 73[RE-ENTER CELIA.]
  74. 74ACT 3. SCENE 3.1. A STREET. ENTER MOSCA.
  75. 75[ENTER BONARIO.]
  76. 76[WEEPS.]
  77. 77[EXEUNT.] SCENE 3.2. A ROOM IN VOLPONE'S HOUSE.
  78. 78ENTER VOLPONE.
  79. 79[ENTER NANO, ANDROGYNO, AND CASTRONE.]
  80. 80[KNOCKING WITHIN.]
  81. 81[EXE. AND. AND CAS.]
  82. 82[EXIT NANO.]
  83. 83[RETIRES TO HIS COUCH.]
  84. 84[RE-ENTER NANO, WITH LADY POLITICK WOULD-BE.]
  85. 85[ENTER 1 WAITING-WOMAN.]
  86. 86[EXIT 1 WOMAN.]
  87. 87[RE-ENTER 1 WITH 2 WOMAN.]
  88. 88[EXEUNT NANO AND WAITING-WOMEN.]
  89. 89[ENTER MOSCA.]
  90. 90[EXIT LADY P. HASTILY.]
  91. 91[RE-ENTER LADY P. WOULD-BE.]
  92. 92[EXIT LADY P.]
  93. 93[EXIT.]
  94. 94[THE SCENE CLOSES UPON VOLPONE.] SCENE 3.3 THE PASSAGE LEADING TO VOLPONE'S CHAMBER.
  95. 95ENTER MOSCA AND BONARIO.
  96. 96[SHEWS HIM A CLOSET.]
  97. 97[KNOCKING WITHIN.]
  98. 98[EXIT.]
  99. 99[GOES INTO THE CLOSET.] SCENE 3.4. ANOTHER PART OF THE SAME.
  100. 100ENTER MOSCA AND CORVINO, CELIA FOLLOWING.
  101. 101[EXIT.]
  102. 102[EXEUNT.] SCENE 3.5. A CLOSET OPENING INTO A GALLERY.
  103. 103ENTER MOSCA AND BONARIO.
  104. 104[EXIT.]
  105. 105[EXIT.] SCENE 3.6. VOLPONE'S CHAMBER.—VOLPONE ON HIS COUCH.
  106. 106MOSCA SITTING BY HIM. ENTER CORVINO, FORCING IN CELIA.
  107. 107[SHUTS THE DOOR, AND EXIT WITH MOSCA.]
  108. 108[LEAPING FROM HIS COUCH.]
  109. 109[SINGS.]
  110. 110[SINGS.]
  111. 111[SEIZES HER.]
  112. 112[EXEUNT BON. AND CEL.]
  113. 113[ENTER MOSCA, WOUNDED AND BLEEDING.]
  114. 114[KNOCKING WITHIN.]
  115. 115[VOLPONE LIES DOWN, AS BEFORE.]
  116. 116[ENTER CORBACCIO.]
  117. 117[ENTER VOLTORE, BEHIND.]
  118. 118[EXIT CORBACCIO, FOLLOWED BY VOLTORE.]
  119. 119[EXEUNT.] ACT 4. SCENE 4.1. A STREET. [ENTER SIR POLITICK WOULD-BE AND PEREGRINE.]
  120. 120[SEARCHING HIS POCKETS.]
  121. 121[EXAMINING HIS PAPERS.]
  122. 122[READS.]
  123. 123[ENTER, AT A DISTANCE, LADY POLITICK-WOULD BE, NANO,
  124. 124AND TWO WAITING-WOMEN.]
  125. 125[RUBBING HER CHEEKS.]
  126. 126[TO PER.]
  127. 127[EXIT.]
  128. 128[ENTER MOSCA.]
  129. 129[EXEUNT LADY WOULD-BE, MOSCA, NANO, AND WAITING-WOMEN.]
  130. 130[EXIT.] SCENE 4.2. THE SCRUTINEO, OR SENATE-HOUSE.
  131. 131ENTER VOLTORE, CORBACCIO, CORVINO, AND MOSCA.
  132. 132[TO VOLTORE.]
  133. 133[ASIDE.]
  134. 134[TO CORBACCIO.]
  135. 135[TO VOLTORE.]
  136. 136[ENTER AVOCATORI AND TAKE THEIR SEATS, BONARIO, CELIA, NOTARIO, COMMANDADORI, SAFFI,
  137. 137AND OTHER OFFICERS OF JUSTICE.]
  138. 138[EXEUNT OFFICERS.]
  139. 139[CORBACCIO COMES FORWARD.]
  140. 140[CORVINO COMES FORWARD.]
  141. 141[CELIA SWOONS.]
  142. 142[EXIT MOSCA.]
  143. 143[RE-ENTER MOSCA WITH LADY WOULD-BE.]
  144. 144[POINTING TO CELIA.]
  145. 145[RE-ENTER OFFICERS, BEARING VOLPONE ON A COUCH.]
  146. 146[EXEUNT OFFICERS WITH VOLPONE.]
  147. 147[EXEUNT AVOCAT., NOT., AND OFFICERS WITH BONARIO AND CELIA.]
  148. 148[EXIT.]
  149. 149[EXIT.]
  150. 150[EXIT.]
  151. 151[EXEUNT.] ACT 5. SCENE 5.1 A ROOM IN VOLPONE'S HOUSE.
  152. 152ENTER VOLPONE.
  153. 153[DRINKS.]
  154. 154[DRINKS AGAIN.]
  155. 155[ENTER MOSCA.]
  156. 156[ENTER CASTRONE AND NANO.]
  157. 157[EXEUNT CAST. AND NANO.]
  158. 158VOLP: O,
  159. 159MOS [PUTTING ON A CAP, AND SETTING OUT THE TABLE, ETC.]:
  160. 160[KNOCKING WITHIN.]
  161. 161[GOES BEHIND THE CURTAIN.]
  162. 162[ENTER VOLTORE.]
  163. 163[ENTER SERVANTS, WITH CORBACCIO IN A CHAIR.]
  164. 164[EXEUNT SERVANTS.]
  165. 165[ENTER CORVINO.]
  166. 166[ENTER LADY POL. WOULD-BE.]
  167. 167VOLP: O,
  168. 168[GIVES THEM THE WILL CARELESSLY, OVER HIS SHOULDER.]
  169. 169[EXIT LADY WOULD-BE.]
  170. 170[EXIT CORVINO.]
  171. 171[EXIT VOLTORE.] VOLP [COMES FROM BEHIND THE CURTAIN.]:
  172. 172[EXEUNT.] SCENE 5.2. A HALL IN SIR POLITICK'S HOUSE.
  173. 173ENTER PEREGRINE DISGUISED, AND THREE MERCHANTS.
  174. 174[EXEUNT MERCHANTS.] [ENTER WAITING-WOMAN.]
  175. 175[EXIT.]
  176. 176[RE-ENTER WAITING-WOMAN.]
  177. 177[EXIT WOMAN.]
  178. 178[RE-ENTER WAITING-WOMAN.]
  179. 179[EXIT WOMAN.] [ENTER SIR POLITICK.]
  180. 180[KNOCKING WITHIN.]
  181. 181[LIES DOWN WHILE PEREGRINE PLACES THE SHELL UPON HIM.]
  182. 182[EXIT PEREGRINE.] [THE THREE MERCHANTS RUSH IN.]
  183. 183[RE-ENTER PEREGRINE.]
  184. 184[ASIDE TO SIR POLITICK.]
  185. 185[THEY PULL OFF THE SHELL AND DISCOVER HIM.]
  186. 186[EXEUNT PER. AND MERCHANTS.] [RE-ENTER WAITING-WOMAN.]
  187. 187[EXEUNT.] SCENE 5.3. A ROOM IN VOLPONE'S HOUSE.
  188. 188ENTER MOSCA IN THE HABIT OF A CLARISSIMO; AND VOLPONE IN THAT OF A COMMANDADORE.
  189. 189[EXIT.]
  190. 190[ENTER ANDROGYNO, CASTRONE AND NANO.]
  191. 191[EXEUNT.]
  192. 192[EXIT.] SCENE 5.4 A STREET. ENTER CORBACCIO AND CORVINO.
  193. 193[ENTER VOLPONE.]
  194. 194[ENTER VOLTORE.]
  195. 195[EXIT.]
  196. 196[EXIT.] SCENE 5.5. ANOTHER PART OF THE STREET.
  197. 197ENTER CORBACCIO AND CORVINO;— MOSCA PASSES OVER THE STAGE, BEFORE THEM.
  198. 198[ENTER VOLPONE.]
  199. 199[AS HE IS RUNNING OFF, RE-ENTER MOSCA.]
  200. 200[EXEUNT CORV. AND CORB.]
  201. 201[ENTER VOLTORE.]
  202. 202[EXIT.]
  203. 203[EXEUNT.] SCENE 5.6. THE SCRUTINEO OR SENATE-HOUSE.
  204. 204ENTER AVOCATORI, NOTARIO, BONARIO, CELIA, CORBACCIO, CORVINO, COMMANDADORI, SAFFI, ETC.
  205. 205[ENTER VOLTORE AND VOLPONE.]
  206. 206VOLT: O,
  207. 207[EXIT.]
  208. 208[EXIT NOTARY.]
  209. 209[GIVING THEM THE PAPERS.]
  210. 210[THE SCENE CLOSES.] SCENE 5.7. A STREET. ENTER VOLPONE.
  211. 211[ENTER NANO, ANDROGYNO, AND CASTRONE.]
  212. 212[EXEUNT.] SCENE 5.8. THE SCRUTINEO, OR SENATE-HOUSE.
  213. 213AVOCATORI, BONARIO, CELIA, CORBACCIO, CORVINO,
  214. 214COMMANDADORI, SAFFI, ETC., AS BEFORE.
  215. 215[SHEWING THE PAPERS.]
  216. 216[ENTER VOLPONE.]
  217. 217[ENTER MOSCA.]
  218. 218[ASIDE TO VOLP.]
  219. 219[ASIDE TO VOLP.]
  220. 220[ASIDE.]
  221. 221[THE OFFICERS SEIZE VOLPONE.]
  222. 222[THROWS OFF HIS DISGUISE.]
  223. 223[POINTING TO MOSCA.]
  224. 224[MOSCA IS CARRIED OUT.]
  225. 225[HE IS TAKEN FROM THE BAR.]
  226. 226[EXEUNT.] [VOLPONE COMES FORWARD.]
  227. 227[EXIT.]

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