Volpone

This is a play written by Ben Jonson. The story takes place in the seventeenth-century Venice, over the course of one day. The play is about Volpone, a Venetian nobleman. He is rich and has accumulated his fortune through dishonest means and he likes to use his money extravagantly. As volpone has a lot of money and no children, he has attracted the interest of three extremely avaricious characters: Voltore, a lawyer; Corbaccio, an old gentleman; and Corvino, a merchant. They want to inherit all his money after his death. So, in order to deceive them and at the same time to have some fun, Volpone, with the help of his servant Mosca, pretends to be dying. This is why, each of his hunters decide to give him gifts in order to be his legal heir. His legacy hunters do not know that Volpone is actually in excellent health and merely faking illness for the purpose of collecting all those impressive "get-well" gifts. But Volpone decides to spread the rumor that he has died and then tells Mosca to pretend that he has been made his master's heir. The plan goes off perfectly, and all three legacy hunters are fooled but at the end it backfires. Mosca, after all, has a will, written by Volpone and with his signature on it, stating that he is Volpone's heir. Now that Volpone is believed to be dead, Mosca legally owns Volpone's property, and he tells Volpone that he is not going to give it back. Realizing that he has been betrayed, Volpone decides that rather than let Mosca inherit his wealth, he will turn them both in. So, Volpone takes off his disguise and reveals the truth about the events of the past day. Volpone is sent to prison, while Mosca is consigned to a slave galley

Sun