Comedy of Humours

[NU. 2005]
Comedy of humours is a special type of realistic comedy developed in the closing years of the 16 th century by Ben Jonson
and George Chapman and John Fletcher. It derives its comic interest largely from the exhibition of humorous
characters; that is, persons whose conduct is controlled by some one characteristic or whim or humour. The term humour
is derived from medieval physiology. According to the medieval belief, a persons character depends on the four fluids (or
humours) present in him, namely, blood, phlegm, choler and melancholy. The perfect character is one in whom there is a
balance between four fluids or humours. If any one of them has a prepoderance, the person shows the disposition
associated with that humour. A person with excess of the humour, blood, becomes sanguine; if it is phlegm, unemotional
and slow to react; it melancholy, gloomy and sad; if choler, irrascible. Ben Jonsons Volpone is comedy of humours. But
in this play comedy of humours receives a new dimension. Here Jonson depicts only one humour a master passion, the
passion of avarice for gold as it affects the whole social group.
The Greedy Trio/The Three Legacy Hunters
[NU. 2005]
In Ben Jonsons Volpone, Voltore, Corbaccio and Corvino are the three legacy hunters who come to Volpone one after
the other in order to become sole heir of Volpones wealth. They are distinguished from each other very effectively, but
they all have the same dominating humour, avarice. All will stoop to any level and do any base act just for the greed of
money. Voltore is an advocate who can plead against his Maker for a few pennies. Corbaccio is ready to disinherit his son
to achieve Volponos favour. Corvino tries to prostitute his chaste wife to inherit Volpones wealth. So they all have greed
for riches. Thus Ben Jonson rightly nicknames them vulture, raven and crow.
Celia
Celia is one of the two innocent characters of the play Volpone. She is the blazing star of Italy. She is beautiful, honest,
chaste, simple-minded and submissive. She has both physical charm and spiritual beauty. She was untouched by the goldcentred society. She values honour more than riches. When her husband tries to sleep her with Volpone, she pleads with
her husband to rather kill her or poison her, instead of asking her to do something dishonourable. She pleads with
Volpone too in the same vein. One seeing Volpone leap from his bed to ravish her, first she tries to run away and then calls
upon some serene to blast her and a lightning to strike her face. She refuses Volpones offering of riches and sensual
pleasure. We see her virtue, truly displayed in the court when the charge of adultery is levelled against her. She says, I
would I could forget I were a creature. When her husband says he has seen her glued to Bonario, she swoons. In the end
we find her, in true Christian fashion, pleading for Mercy to the evil doers. Thus Cilia becomes the symbol of innocence in
Volpone.
Lady Would-be
. Lady Would-be is the wife of Sir Politic Would-be. She fits into the picture of beast characters. She is associated with the
female parrot. Indeed her parrotty chatter threatens to drive even the masterful Volpone mad. She chatters about
medicine, poetry, psychology, and fashions without any sense of discrimination. She parodies the other legacy hunters by
bringing a knitted cap for Volpone. Though past her prime, Lady Would-be imitates fashions, especially those of the
Venetian prostitutes. Lady Would-bes behaviour towards Volpone seems to have been designed to present a sharp
contrast with that of Celia. Celia refuses to be seduced by Volpone, but Lady Would-be tries to seduce him (Volpone). Lady
Would-bes lacquering her face and making indecent advances to Volpone brings into sharper focus Celias sudden horror
at her own beauty which aroused lust in Volpone. Lady Would-be seeks to beautify her face while Celia prays for
disfigurement of her face in order to preserve her chastity. Lady Would-be covets Italian vices and Celia, by her gesture as
well as her name, alienates herself from Venetian immoral ways of living.
The Deformed trio
Nano, the dwarf, Andragyno, the hermaphrodite, and Castrone the eunuch are in Volpone to supply the comic.
They do not contribute to the main plot in any significant way. The first interlude where the three bring in the
transmigration theory of Pythagoras smacks of the Renaissance love for things ancient in Rome and Greece. Towards the
end, we find the deformed trio, becoming part of the plot. In a passive way the existence of the trio helps in the portrayal
of Volpone. The presence of the three deformed persons in the Volpone home suggests the deformed nature of the master
of the house. They bring to the notice the defective fallacious and unnatural life Volpone leads. Mosca, the evil genius is
the one who directs them. And Volpone is found appreciating their joint work, the interlude. All these suggest that the
deformed three have some allegorical significance in the play.
Voltore
Voltore, whose name means vulture, is one of the three legacy- hunters in Ben Jonsons satirical comedy Volpone. He is a
typical advocate of Jonsons England. He has great professional skill. The way in which he prepares the case and pleads
the case give ample evidence for it. He uses wit, irony, and sarcasm to dup the innocents guilty and the guilty innocent. He
addresses the judges often and again as honoured fathers your fatherhood, your virtues etc to gain the sympathy of
the judges. Like other legacy-hunters, he is blinded by his avarice. He could swear against his Maker if he were paid a fqp
of six sols more. He knows that Volpone and Mosca are wrong doers but he exploits all his forensic skills to defend them in
the court. More than that, he does not mind causing suffering to the innocent Bonario and Celia in order to further his
own interest. He is thus a disgrace to his profession. Appropriately enough, he is debarred from the company of learned
men and banished from Venice as a punishment for his having prostituted his learned profession.
Corbaccio

Corbaccio, the raven, is the oldest of the three-legacy hunters in Volpone. His avarice is the least justifiable because he is
already old, deaf, and bespectacled- He cannot have much use for the riches of Volpone, even if he were to become
Volpones sole heir. He agrees to disinherit his own son Bonario in order to secure Volpones wealth. He not does mind
telling lies and defaming his own son in order to remain in Volpones favour. In the court, when the advocate wants to
know Bonarios offence, Corbaccio accuses his son of being
an utter stranger to my loins
Monster of men, swine, goat, wolf, parricide!
Being prompted by greed he gives false evidence against his son. True, he is greed incarnate, but there is a little Shylock
like character in him. Because of his greed he losses his wealth and his progeny even like Shylock in The Merchant of
Venice. It is truly comic to see this senile old man thinks of outliving Volpone. By portraying him as partially deaf and
blind, Jonson hints at the spiritual blindness and deadness of this clarissimo.
Corvino
Corvino, the merchant is portrayed as the crow in the play Volpone. He is married to an exquisite beauty, Celia. He has
greed of inheriting Volpones estate. We find him in the beginning of the play as an extremely jealous husband. However,
we find greed in him making a change to a baser creature. Blinded by his greed, he cajoles his wife to go and sleep with
Volpone. He does not find anything wrong in the act. The baseness of his character is. illustrated by his telling Celia, that
nobody would come to know and so there is no harm if she sleeps with Volpone. Very rightly Volpone calls him a chimera
of wittal, fool and knave. True, he is not a mere cuckold, but he is worse than that. And the judges give him a fitting
punishment, to be paraded with a fools cap and asss ears on him.
Bonario
Bonario, the son of Corbaccio, has only too minor a role in the play Volpone. Like Celia, he represents innocence and
goodness. From the beginning we find him disliking Mosca who is the embodiment of evil. When he is in Volpones house
he is suspicious of Mosca. He says in an aside, I do doubt this fellow. As he notices Volpone about to ravish Celia, just as
a chivalrous knight he leaps forward from his hiding place and saves her. He does not hesitate even to wound Mosca in his
attempt to save her honour. In his eagerness to see justice established he shouts certain comments in the court and
displeases the judges. He comments that Voltore, the advocate, for six sols more, would plead against his Maker may be
true, but in the court that is an outrageous remark or at least improper. However, his impropriety is part of his innocence.
Seeing his father accuse him of evil doing, he does not find fault with the old man. Thus he is a loyal son, ready to excuse
all the unnatural behavior of the father.

Greed
Volpone's satire is directed against "avarice," which can be thought of as greed that extends not just to money
but also to all objects of human desire. The play's main thesis is stated by Volpone himself, "What a rare
punishment / Is avarice to itself." The punishmentand the central irony of the playis that while greed drives
the search for money, power, and respect, it ends up making everyone in the play look foolish, contemptible,
and poorer, both spiritually and financially. A similar idea is stated by both Celia, when she asks in III.vii,
"Whither [where] is shame fled human breasts?" and by the judge at the end of the play in his plea that the
audience should "learn" from the play what happens to those who succumb to greed, emphasizing that the play's
stance on greed is a didactic one, intended to teach the audience what greed's real consequences are. Volpone
himself starts out as an instrument of this lessonhe dupes the Corvino, Corbaccio and Voltore into parting
with their goods in the hope of inheriting hisbut ends up an object of the lesson as well, for succumbing to his
greedy want for sensual pleasure.