Summary: Act II: Scene ii

Mosca and Nano enter the square, disguised; they serve as the advance scout party for Volpone. They establish themselves beneath the window of Corvino's house. Sir Politic identifies the oncoming crowd as the surrounding party for a mountebank, a Renaissance Italy version of the nineteenth century American medicine-show men, hucksters who sold fake potions to cure all and any ailments; they would "mount a bank" (embankment) in order to speak to the public. He then informs Peregrine that, contrary to popular belief, the Italian mountebanks are not all liars, but are in fact very learned men and excellent physicians. Volpone enters, followed by a crowd. Disguised as Scoto Mantua, Italian mountebank extraordinaire, he takes his place underneath Corvino's window with Mosca and Nano (who mounts on his shoulders) and engages on a long history of Scoto's fictional life, detailing the difficulties he has faced thanks to the rumor-mongering of Alessandro Buttone, a fellow mountebank, who has spread the vicious lie that Scoto was imprisoned for poisoning the cook of Archbishop Bembo, as well as the extreme popularity of the new potion he is selling. He of course lists the numerous illnesses the potion is supposed to cure, sings a wonderful song about its medicinal qualities, discusses how cheap his potion is, sings another song, before trying to convince everyone that they should buy it, immediately, at a special discount price of six pence. He then asks everyone to toss him their handkerchiefs so that he can rub some of his oil on them. The lovely Celia, watching above, tosses down her handkerchief, and Scoto/Volpone engages on a long tribute to her beauty, grace, and elegance.

Summary: Act II: Scene ii

Corvino enters, and he is enraged by his jealousy. He beats Volpone and the crowd away, referring to them by the names of various characters from the Comedia dell'Arte: Flaminio, the lover (Volpone); Franciscina, the serving-maid (Celia); and himself as Pantalone di besognioni, a stock buffoon character, often portrayed as a cuckold. Politic watches the events with shock, Peregrine with amusement. They leave, and Peregrine remarks that he will stay close to the hyper-gullible English knight for the sheer amusement it brings him

Analysis: Act II: Scenes i & ii

An essential part of Volpone's character is his fascination with disguises. Volpone assumes at least three separate disguises over the course of the play, if we count "ill Volpone" as being a disguise. He also assumes the disguise of Scoto and that of a sergeant in the final act. Furthermore, his thoughts are often obsessed with disguises, and he sees disguise—and acting—as a source of pleasure in its own right (see the analysis of III.vii). This enthusiasm for disguise has connotations both good and bad. On the one hand, his delight in constantly assuming new identities emphasizes Volpone's energy and imagination. But on the other hand, not having a fixed identity makes him appear unstable, irresponsible and untrustworthy. His love for pretending to be others sums up and connects the central traits that define-energy, imagination, and moral corruption.

Read more about disguises as a motif.

But at least at this point, we should share Volpone's pleasure in his inventiveness. Especially so at this stage of the play, where his tricks are as yet harmless. After all, this is a play we are reading; dramatic art itself is partly based on the basic pleasure to be found in make-believe, something Volpone seems to feel especially keenly. But there is a conflict here, especially in the fact that Volpone is so entertaining in his deceit emphasizes the connection between stagecraft and lying and establishes a conflict between stagecraft (the art of putting on a show) and truth. Disguise can be used both to conceal and reveal, while it may conceal the external facts of a person's identity, it can reveal aspects of their inner nature which are usually invisible. We might think that as Scoto Mantua, Volpone is deceiving everyone to an even greater extent than he is when pretending to be ill. But Volpone himself said that his disguise would have to "maintain his own shape"; that is, it would have to maintain some truth about his personality, since he counted this event as his introduction to Celia. So in a perfect example of situational irony, he chooses Scoto Mantua, the mountebank—the man whose profession it is to deceive—as a representation of his true, inner self.

Similarly, the play we are reading or watching is a fiction; the characters do not exist, and the actors who play them are all in diguise. They all pretend to be someone else. But they do so in order to convey a truth, the truth of Jonson's moral message: that greed and vanity are present everywhere and that they are demeaning and ridiculous vices, worthy of contempt, no matter how attractive they may appear, and that people should look beyond shiny, golden exteriors to the inner decadence they may contain. Scoto delivers his lines in prose, not verse. This could be both because Scoto is a "low", comic character (such characters traditionally spoke in prose, as it was less ornate and structured, more direct), or because he represents a direct authorial presence in the play. The only other part of the play in prose is Jonson's initial dedication, also written in his own voice. And Scoto also makes several references to Jonson's life. Like Scoto, over the course of eight months Jonson had been slandered in public and arrested; in Jonson's case, it was for participation in a play, Eastward Ho, that had been seen as mocking the king. Thus, Scoto seems to be something of a self-portrait. And this self- portrait Jonson paints of himself, as a carnival huckster/alchemist, suggests that he viewed his art as being similar to the art of both; that he took deceit, lies, and human vices (the trade of the huckster), and, like the alchemist, transformed these valueless things into something valuable—a work of art that could entertain, as well as instruct.

Read more about how disguises can reveal more truth than they conceal.