1.  In Act I, scene 1 (pp. 1131-2), Volpone lists the many means of making money (honestly and dishonestly) that he does not use.  What is his "trade"?  How does he make his money?
2.  Trace the gold imagery in the first three acts.  What functions does gold serve in the world of Volpone?
3.  Jonson draws on animal fables for his characters' names and personalities.  How does this technique affect your expectations as a reader?  Does the text fulfill those expectations?
4.  Other than Mosca, the only members of Volpone's household are his three servants (rumored to be his illigitimate children).  In each of them, the natural body of a man has been in some way warped, mutilated, or curtailed: Nano is a dwarf, Androgyno a hermaphrodite, and Castrone a eunuch.  What is the effect of Volpone's bing surrounded by such creatures?  What is the point of their performance in Act 1, scene 2?  Note particularly the song in praise of Folly, a popular paradoxical genre (in both verse and prose) during the 17th century.
5.  Lady Politic Would-Be is, like Voltore, Corbaccio, and Corvino, a fortune-hunter.  But is she in the same category with the other three?  What, if anything, sets her apart?
6.  Why does Celia appear at her window and throw down a handkerchief full of coins to the supposed mountebank below?
7.  At the beginning of Act 3, Mosca speaks a grand soliloquy on his profession: that of the parasite.  What is a parasite?  Who qualifies as a "sub-parasite"?  If "Almost / All the wise world is little else, in nature, / But parasites and sub-parasites," does anyone qualify as another kind of being?
8.  What means does Volpone use in his attempt to seduce Celia?    How do they compare with the techniques in seduction poems we've read?
 

Monday, May 3, 1999:  Jonson's Volpone, Acts 4-5

1.  In Act 3, attempting to defend against the foul plans of her husband, Mosca, and Volpone, Celia declares her dedication to honor.  Corvino's response resembles that articulated by the speaker of Carew's "A Rapture."  Is Celia's view of honor vindicated by the end of the play?

2.  Is there any shift in the degree to which the audience (or reader) identifies with Volpone and/or Mosca at various points in the play?

3.  With whom, if anyone, do the audience's (or reader's) sympathies lie in the play's final scenes?

4.  What does Peregrine's trick on Sir Pol add to the plot and  theme?

5.  Courtroom scenes are versions of the play-within-a-play technique, for lawyers and witnesses are performers very conscious of the audience that will judge them.  How good are the performances in the courtroom scene of Act 5, scene 12?  How does the play-within-a-play relate to the play itself?  That is, how do the performances in the courtroom comment on those in the play proper?  And how does Volpone compare in its attempt to influence an audience with the performances of various characters in the courtroom as they work to persuade and influence the judges and one another?

6.  How do the various punishments meted out to Volpone, Mosca, and the others compare?  Are they equitable?