Tanya Pollard
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199270835
- eISBN:
- 9780191710322
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199270835.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This chapter examines depictions of dangerous doctors and medicines in plays by Jonson and Webster. It argues that Jonson draws on popular fears of drugs and poisons when he identifies cosmetics and ...
More
This chapter examines depictions of dangerous doctors and medicines in plays by Jonson and Webster. It argues that Jonson draws on popular fears of drugs and poisons when he identifies cosmetics and medicines with dangerous forms of political and theatrical manipulation in Sejanus, and that Webster uses a similar strategy in The White Devil to link the seductive powers of Vittoria and Brachiano with various chemicals and poisons. While these two plays offer a sinister image of theatrical deception, however, Volpone uses a similar vocabulary to construct a more complex and variable model of theater’s physiological effects. Ultimately, Jonson suggests that the power of the theater can be harnessed to improve or cure spectators as well as to harm them.Less
This chapter examines depictions of dangerous doctors and medicines in plays by Jonson and Webster. It argues that Jonson draws on popular fears of drugs and poisons when he identifies cosmetics and medicines with dangerous forms of political and theatrical manipulation in Sejanus, and that Webster uses a similar strategy in The White Devil to link the seductive powers of Vittoria and Brachiano with various chemicals and poisons. While these two plays offer a sinister image of theatrical deception, however, Volpone uses a similar vocabulary to construct a more complex and variable model of theater’s physiological effects. Ultimately, Jonson suggests that the power of the theater can be harnessed to improve or cure spectators as well as to harm them.
Isaac Hui
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474423472
- eISBN:
- 9781474444958
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474423472.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
Through studying Volpone’s three bastard children – the dwarf, the androgyne and the eunuch – from the theoretical arguments of Freud, Lacan, Derrida and Foucault, this book discusses how Jonson’s ...
More
Through studying Volpone’s three bastard children – the dwarf, the androgyne and the eunuch – from the theoretical arguments of Freud, Lacan, Derrida and Foucault, this book discusses how Jonson’s comedies are built upon the tension between death, castration and nothingness on one hand, and the comic slippage of identities in the city on the other. This study understands Jonson, first and foremost, as a comedy writer, linking his work with modern film comedies such as the Marx Brothers, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks and Monty Python. It is a new approach to Jonsonian studies, responding to the current Marxist-Lacanian studies of literature, film and culture made popular by scholars such as Slavoj Žižek, Alenka Zupančič and Mladen Dolar. While the book pays close attention to the historical context of Jonson’s time, it brings him into the twenty-first century by discussing early modern comedies with modern critical theories and film.Less
Through studying Volpone’s three bastard children – the dwarf, the androgyne and the eunuch – from the theoretical arguments of Freud, Lacan, Derrida and Foucault, this book discusses how Jonson’s comedies are built upon the tension between death, castration and nothingness on one hand, and the comic slippage of identities in the city on the other. This study understands Jonson, first and foremost, as a comedy writer, linking his work with modern film comedies such as the Marx Brothers, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks and Monty Python. It is a new approach to Jonsonian studies, responding to the current Marxist-Lacanian studies of literature, film and culture made popular by scholars such as Slavoj Žižek, Alenka Zupančič and Mladen Dolar. While the book pays close attention to the historical context of Jonson’s time, it brings him into the twenty-first century by discussing early modern comedies with modern critical theories and film.
Maggie Vinter
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780823284269
- eISBN:
- 9780823286133
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823284269.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This chapter argues that Ben Jonson’s Volpone uses the situation of the deathbed to consider how communal obligations are created and broken. Volpone’s fraud transforms the value-creating spiritual ...
More
This chapter argues that Ben Jonson’s Volpone uses the situation of the deathbed to consider how communal obligations are created and broken. Volpone’s fraud transforms the value-creating spiritual and material economies that ars moriendi texts imagine to operate at the good communal deathbed into unending, life-threatening obligations best understood through Roberto Esposito’s notion of the munus. Gatherings of onlookers at Volpone’s couch superficially resemble the traditional deathbed communities supposed to offer comfort and spiritual support to the dying. But in fact, divergent economic interests separate Volpone and his visitors from one another. The play investigates how natural biological processes and traditional understandings of interpersonal relations can be refigured as willed actions that entitle their performers to profit and promise them immunity from community obligations. In the process, it uncovers affinities between dying and theatrical playing and asks what kind of value-creating or value-destroying community the commercial theater might be.Less
This chapter argues that Ben Jonson’s Volpone uses the situation of the deathbed to consider how communal obligations are created and broken. Volpone’s fraud transforms the value-creating spiritual and material economies that ars moriendi texts imagine to operate at the good communal deathbed into unending, life-threatening obligations best understood through Roberto Esposito’s notion of the munus. Gatherings of onlookers at Volpone’s couch superficially resemble the traditional deathbed communities supposed to offer comfort and spiritual support to the dying. But in fact, divergent economic interests separate Volpone and his visitors from one another. The play investigates how natural biological processes and traditional understandings of interpersonal relations can be refigured as willed actions that entitle their performers to profit and promise them immunity from community obligations. In the process, it uncovers affinities between dying and theatrical playing and asks what kind of value-creating or value-destroying community the commercial theater might be.
Isaac Hui
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474423472
- eISBN:
- 9781474444958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474423472.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
The introductory chapter gives a preliminary reading of Act 1 scene 2 of Volpone, suggesting how it was often neglected by many early modern scholars. The phenomenon reflects the traditional tendency ...
More
The introductory chapter gives a preliminary reading of Act 1 scene 2 of Volpone, suggesting how it was often neglected by many early modern scholars. The phenomenon reflects the traditional tendency of reading the dramatist from a moral perspective. It discusses the concept of bastardy through plays such as The Merchant of Venice and Much Ado About Nothing. This chapter suggests that modern literary and cultural theories can help us understand Jonson in a different light.Less
The introductory chapter gives a preliminary reading of Act 1 scene 2 of Volpone, suggesting how it was often neglected by many early modern scholars. The phenomenon reflects the traditional tendency of reading the dramatist from a moral perspective. It discusses the concept of bastardy through plays such as The Merchant of Venice and Much Ado About Nothing. This chapter suggests that modern literary and cultural theories can help us understand Jonson in a different light.
Isaac Hui
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474423472
- eISBN:
- 9781474444958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474423472.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
Discussing Volpone with the paintings of Velázquez, Holbein, and Shakespeare’s King Richard III, this chapter argues that the dwarf is an important character as he relates to concepts such as ...
More
Discussing Volpone with the paintings of Velázquez, Holbein, and Shakespeare’s King Richard III, this chapter argues that the dwarf is an important character as he relates to concepts such as anamorphosis, imitation, death, castration, and the Lacanian concept of the gaze. Not only is there a dwarfish quality within Volpone, it suggests that the signification of the ape is related to the ‘gold’ in Volpone’s shrine, meaning that the dwarf’s representation can be read as the play’s critique of nascent early modern capitalism.Less
Discussing Volpone with the paintings of Velázquez, Holbein, and Shakespeare’s King Richard III, this chapter argues that the dwarf is an important character as he relates to concepts such as anamorphosis, imitation, death, castration, and the Lacanian concept of the gaze. Not only is there a dwarfish quality within Volpone, it suggests that the signification of the ape is related to the ‘gold’ in Volpone’s shrine, meaning that the dwarf’s representation can be read as the play’s critique of nascent early modern capitalism.
Isaac Hui
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474423472
- eISBN:
- 9781474444958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474423472.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
Reading Jonson with the Fabliau, Boccaccio and Chaucer, this chapter, with the help of Lacan’s theory, rereads Volpone Act 3 scene 7, explaining why Volpone ‘delays’ his ‘rape’ of Celia. While ...
More
Reading Jonson with the Fabliau, Boccaccio and Chaucer, this chapter, with the help of Lacan’s theory, rereads Volpone Act 3 scene 7, explaining why Volpone ‘delays’ his ‘rape’ of Celia. While Volpone is commonly known for his love of theatrical performance and transformation, the chapter suggests that this cannot be thought without the concept of his being ‘castrated’. Although ‘castration’ is usually regarded as a censoring force, Volpone is empowered and thrives on it. Moreover, this chapter compares the scene in Volpone with another similar one in Philip Massinger’s The Renegado, discussing how the subject of castration is used in early modern comedy and tragicomedy.Less
Reading Jonson with the Fabliau, Boccaccio and Chaucer, this chapter, with the help of Lacan’s theory, rereads Volpone Act 3 scene 7, explaining why Volpone ‘delays’ his ‘rape’ of Celia. While Volpone is commonly known for his love of theatrical performance and transformation, the chapter suggests that this cannot be thought without the concept of his being ‘castrated’. Although ‘castration’ is usually regarded as a censoring force, Volpone is empowered and thrives on it. Moreover, this chapter compares the scene in Volpone with another similar one in Philip Massinger’s The Renegado, discussing how the subject of castration is used in early modern comedy and tragicomedy.
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846310225
- eISBN:
- 9781846314391
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781846310225.003.0013
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter examines the most successful of Peake's plays, The Wit to Woo, which had a brief run at the Arts Theatre in London in the spring of 1957, and discusses how his growing interest in ...
More
This chapter examines the most successful of Peake's plays, The Wit to Woo, which had a brief run at the Arts Theatre in London in the spring of 1957, and discusses how his growing interest in writing for the theatre is evident in his fiction. It considers the problems Peake had to contend with in writing plays, and how the classic play, Volpone, or The Fox (1606) became a major source of inspiration for him.Less
This chapter examines the most successful of Peake's plays, The Wit to Woo, which had a brief run at the Arts Theatre in London in the spring of 1957, and discusses how his growing interest in writing for the theatre is evident in his fiction. It considers the problems Peake had to contend with in writing plays, and how the classic play, Volpone, or The Fox (1606) became a major source of inspiration for him.
Nat Segaloff
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813129761
- eISBN:
- 9780813135502
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Discontinued
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813129761.003.0021
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Sly Fox is a play based on Ben Jonson's Elizabethan drama Vulpine which was finished in 1606. It is a comedy about deceit, death, greed, fraud, and was influenced by Stefan Zweig's German adaptation. ...
More
Sly Fox is a play based on Ben Jonson's Elizabethan drama Vulpine which was finished in 1606. It is a comedy about deceit, death, greed, fraud, and was influenced by Stefan Zweig's German adaptation. Although it took longer for Larry Gelbart and Arthur Penn to create their own version than the five weeks it took Jonson to compose his version, the Broadway opening was nonetheless a success. Jonson's original work is about how a fly who served as the clever fox's accomplice, announced that the fox's estate would be given to whoever proves to be the most generous and loyal. Sly Fox was developed as a means for deriving money from television to help Actors Studio.Less
Sly Fox is a play based on Ben Jonson's Elizabethan drama Vulpine which was finished in 1606. It is a comedy about deceit, death, greed, fraud, and was influenced by Stefan Zweig's German adaptation. Although it took longer for Larry Gelbart and Arthur Penn to create their own version than the five weeks it took Jonson to compose his version, the Broadway opening was nonetheless a success. Jonson's original work is about how a fly who served as the clever fox's accomplice, announced that the fox's estate would be given to whoever proves to be the most generous and loyal. Sly Fox was developed as a means for deriving money from television to help Actors Studio.
