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Act 3, Scene 4
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Volpone, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Theatre and Appearance vs Reality
Money and Commerce
Greed and Corruption
Gender Roles and Women
Language
Summary
Analysis
Mosca enters the room in the house where Lady Would-be is talking to Volpone. Volpone tells Mosca to get rid of Lady Would-be, who has been torturing him with her incessant talking. Mosca asks if she has given any gifts, but Volpone says he doesn’t care, and that he’d pay any price to get her away from him. Mosca then tells Lady Would-be that he saw Sir Politic where she wouldn’t expect: rowing in a gondola with the most cunning whore in Venice.
Volpone shows here that his primary desire (which will become excessive and corrupted) is not greed for money. Instead, it is desire for pleasure and comfort. He would rather be comfortable and rid of Lady Would-be than get more money from her.
Themes
Lady Would-be runs off with Nano to look for her husband, and Volpone praises Mosca for his “quick fiction” which got rid of Lady Would-be. Mosca says that Corbaccio is coming soon with his will, and Volpone says that he feels alive and ready for both trickery and his sexual encounter with Celia. He gets into bed and draws the bed curtains.
Mosca’s “quick fiction” echoes the Prologue’s reference to Jonson’s “quick comedy,” cementing the notion that Mosca is like a playwright, actor, and director within the play.
Themes
