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Volpone characterisation

Volpone
1. "I use no trade, no venture...I blow no subtle glass"
2. "I have no wife, no parent, child, ally"
3. False physician - "See how the people follow him!"
4. dependent
  1. "I cannot live except thou help me, Mosca"
5. becomes like Corvino "hum, hum, hum!"
6. "never but still myself"
Mosca
1. dependent
  1. "I am lost/Except the rising sun do shine on me"
  2. "your ends, on whom I have my whole dependence"
2. in control
  1. "here I wear your keys"
  2. "Mosca, take my keys/Gold, plate and jewels"
  3. "I'll so possess him"
  4. Stage directions - "[aside] [to Corvino] [to Bonario]..etc."
3. satanic
  1. "think, think, think, think...etc"
  2. "I could skip/Out of my skin...like a subtle snake"
  3. "parasite/Is a most precious thing, dropped from above"
  4. "elegant rascal"
  5. "be here/And there, and here, and yonder, all at once"
  6. "excellent basilisk"
Venice
1. Significance of St Mark
  1. "St Mark bear witness"
  2. St Mark/Deliver us!"
2. "rowing upon the water in a gondola/With the most cunning courtesan of Venice"
3. all appearance/no substance
  1. "within the first week/ All took me for a citizen of Venice/I knew the forms so well"
4. importance of fashion: "I went and bought two toothpicks"
5. "carnival concupiscence"
6. Baker and Harp: "a locus of corruption... the moral inverse of every humanistic ideal which he outlined in 'To Penshurst"
7. Laura Tosi: "claustrophobic"
Voltore
1. Edward Topsell: "wish the death of their friends, that they may possess their goods"
  1. "he smelled a carcass"
2. self-centered
  1. "but am I sole heir?"
Corbaccio
1. old
  1. "hopes to hop/Over his grave"
  2. mishearing
    1. "no amends... what? Mends he?"
    2. "To recover him?... Oh no,no,no,no,by no means"
    3. "He'll outlast May... today?"
  3. "Sure I shall outlast him!"
Corvino
1. apathetic to Volpone's life
  1. "Do as you will... Nay, at your discretion"
2. his wife is his property
  1. "she's kept as warily as your gold"
  2. "I'll make thee an anatomy"
3. subverted honour code
  1. "loyal...respect..."
  2. "Honour!... There's no such thing...Invented to awe fools"
  3. "Death of mine honour!"
Sir Pol + Lady Pol
1. arrogant
  1. "Sir, to a wise man all the world's his soil"
  2. "so lately!"
  3. "I know the ebbs and flows of state"
  4. "Petrach...Dante...Aretine"
  5. "Nick Machiavel and Monsieur Bodin"
  6. "I had read Contarine"
2. paranoid
  1. "things occurring strange!/And full of omen!"
  2. "received weekly intelligence... in cabbages... convey an answer in a toothpick"
  3. "I told you, sir, it was a plot"
  4. "I threw three beans over the threshold"
3. gullible
  1. "great general scholars, excellent physcians"
4. Vain
  1. "this band/Shows not my neck enough...Is this curl/In his right place?"
  2. "I would be loath... to seem/Froward, or violent"
5. chatty
  1. "The sun, the sea, will sooner both stand still/Than her eternal tongue"
6. fake
  1. use of conditionals: "I would... I could"
Bonario
1. knight in shining armour
  1. "Forbear, foul ravisher, libidinous swine!"
Celia
1. innocence/Is all I can think wealthy"
2. objectified
  1. "blazing star of Italy!"
  2. "bright as your gold, and lovely as your gold"

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Volpone characterisation

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	Created by lucy-hook over 10 years ago