Jonson's Volpone

ENGL 520

Dr. Fike

1. What points arise from the prologue?

2. What are the two plots? How do they relate?

A. Main plot:

B. The subplot:

3. How does the medieval beast fable relate to the two catastrophes?

4. What is the play's subject?

5. Put the characters in the following three categories:

A. Good, bad, and a middle ground

B. Humoural characters

C. Overreachers

6. What motivates Mosca?

7. Why does Volpone give himself up?

8. What is the function of Nano, Castrone, and Androgyno?

9. What is the play's moral?

10. What does Volpone stress in the seduction speech in III.vii?

11. Why does the play contain the mountebank scene (II.ii)? What do you make of its frequent references to physical illness?

13. What are the animal references in the characters' names? Do you find them appropriate? What implications do they suggest?

14. What does it mean to "mortify" a fox? See V.12.125.

15. In the end, what does the purpose of the play seem to be? See especially V.xii.149-51.

16. How do all the references to classical figures and deities work in this play?