INTRODUCTION

A. EDITIONS OF THE TEXT

Volpone was first published in quarto in 1607. As the date at the end of the author's Epistle Dedicatory is February 11, 1607, this edition was evidently published in February or March, 1607-8. It does not appear in the Stationers' Register until 1610:

3° Octobris

[Here follows an entry of Alchemist.]

Walter Burre Entred for his Copyes by assignemente

from Thomas Thorpe and with the consente
of Th'wardens vnder their handes, 2 bookes
th[e] one called SEIANUS his fall, th[e]
other, VULPONE or the ffoxe.

xijd

The play was next printed in the folio edition of Jonson's works published in 1616, and has been included in all the later folios and collected editions, an account of which has been given in earlier numbers of this series. Volpone has also appeared in the following editions: The British Museum Catalogue lists Volpone, or the Fox. A comedy, etc., pp. 95, H. Hills: London, [1680, 12°. It was included in A Collection of the Best English Plays, Vol. 4, 1711. The Three Celebrated Plays of that Excellent Poet Ben Jonson, London, 1732, contains Volpone, Alchemist, and Epicane. This was re-issued with a new title-page prefixed in 1736. Volpone is also included in Bell's British

Theatre, Vol. 19, 1778, with some alterations and omis-+1739 ?

sions. This edition is interesting as showing the form in which the play was then acted; the title-page describes

1710

it as ‘altered from Ben Jonson.' It is said to be ‘regulated from the Prompt-Book, by Permission of the Managers by Mr. Wild, Prompter.' The frontispiece to the volume is a portrait of Hull as Voltore in the mountebank-scene. The play is also to be found in The Modern British Drama, Vol. 1, 1830. More recently, it has been included in Neilson's Chief Elizabethan Dramatists, Boston, 1911, and in the volume devoted to Jonson in Masterpieces of the English Drama, Cincinnati, 1915. A manuscript edition, prepared by L. H. Holt, is in the Yale University Library. The only edition based on the quarto of 1607 appeared at London, 1898, with an essay on Jonson by Vincent O'Sullivan, and initial letters for each of the acts by Aubrey Beardsley. The only annotated edition of the play published since the Gifford-Cunningham edition of 1875 is that by Henry Blackstone Wilkins, Oxford, 1906, presented as a thesis for the doctorate at the University of Paris. It reproduces the text of the folio of 1616.

B. DATE AND STAGE-HISTORY

The title-page of the folio states that the play was acted in 1605. This might be any time before March 25, 1606, New Style. Fleay noted that the reference to the whale1 which, according to Stow, was seen January 19, 1605-6, shows that the play was completed later than this date. He remarks: 'The play (which was only five weeks in writing) must have been produced Jan.-Feb. 1606, immediately before Mucedorus was acted on Shrove

Sunday.' Castelain2 says that the play must have been played in January 1605-6, and written November-December 1605. Holt disagrees, and dates the first performance

2

1 2. I. 46.

between March 9 and 25, 1606, supposing that the reference to the whale indicates that the play was not begun before January 19, and that the time of composition would therefore be February, with the latter part of January, and the first few days of March. But it is not necessary to suppose that the play was written wholly after the appearance of the whale; it would have been quite possible to insert this reference at any time during the writing of the play, or even up to the time of its performance. The incident is likely to have happened at the very time Jonson was engaged on this scene. I am inclined to think that this is the most probable supposition, and to agree with Fleay's dating rather than Holt's. Castelain's date of composition should probably be corrected to December-January. On the bearing of the references to Mucedorus, see below, p. xli, note.

The play was first acted by the King's Men, then playing at the Globe. Gifford says: 'Lowin played Volpone, which was one of his favourite characters; and Cooke

probably took the part of Lady Would-be.' It had also been presented, as the Epistle Dedicatory shows, at Oxford and Cambridge. Fleay remarks: 'The acting at the Universities was most likely during the plague, 1606, July-Dec., but may have been 1607 July-Nov.' E. S. refers to these performances in his verses prefixed to the quarto:

Now he hath run his traine, and show'n

His subtill body, where he best was knowne;
In both Minerua's Cittyes.

J. Payne Collier mentions a presentation at Whitehall, 1623-4, and refers to the diary of Sir H. Mildmay: 'Under the date of 26 Oct. 1638 he saw "The Foxe playe, with Fra. Wortley," and it cost him, on that occasion, the extraordinary sum of 4/6. This was probably at the Globe, as Ben Jonson's Fox belonged to the King's

Company.' The bill presented by the King's Men for Court-performances during 1637 shows that Volpone was presented before the King and Queen at the Cockpit at Whitehall, November 8th.

The play had evidently maintained its place on the stage until this time. It was revived soon after the Restoration. Downes gives the following cast for it as performed at Drury Lane in 1663: Volpone, Mohun; Mosca, Hart; Corbaccio, Cartwright; Voltore, Shatterel; Corvino, Burt; Sir Politique, Lacy; Peregrine, Kynaston; Lady Wouldbee, Mrs. Corey; Celia, Mrs. Marshal. Downes speaks of Mohun as eminent for his performance of Volpone; and this is confirmed by some lines of Lord Rochester quoted by Baker,5 on those who tried to mimic Mohun's manner in his old age:

These blades, indeed, are cripples in their art,
Mimic the foot, but not the speaking part;

Let them the Traitor, or Volpone try,

Could they rage like Cethegus, or like Cassius die?

Pepys records in his diary that he saw it January 14th, 1665: 'With my wife to the King's house, there to see Vulpone, a most excellent play; the best I think I ever saw, and well acted.'

In the Tatler, No. 21, Steele records under date of May 27, 1709: 'This night was acted the comedy called The Fox.' He speaks of it with high praise, as compared with comedies then being written and acted. Genest's record shows more than fifty performances during the eighteenth century. Among those who acted the part of Volpone were Powell and Quin; Wilks, Ryan, and Macklin acted Mosca; Cibber, Walker, and Wright acted Corvino; Mrs. Oldfield, Mrs. Rogers, Mrs. Booth, Mrs. Butler, Mrs.

Given in J. Q. Adams, Shakespearean Playhouses, p. 404. "I. 57.

Cibber, and Mrs. Inchbald all acted Celia; and Lady Would-bee was played by Mrs. Leigh, Mrs. Knight, Mrs. Charke, Mrs. Clive, and Mrs. Pritchard. According to Genest, Garrick meant to have revived the play: "The parts were transcribed and delivered to the actors, but the acting of it was superseded by some means not known.' Gifford says characteristically of its last presentation: 'Its last appearance, I believe, was at the Haymarket, some time before the death of the elder Colman, who made some trifling alterations in the disposition of the scenes. That it was not successful cannot be wondered at; the age of dramatic imbecility was rapidly advancing upon us, and the stage already looked to jointed-dolls, water spaniels, and peacocks-tails, for its main credit and support.'

C. SOURCES

Perhaps the discussion of sources is more important in the case of a work of Jonson's than in that of almost any other dramatist. This is because the sources are almost the play itself: the author found his material in books, rather than in human life, though undoubtedly often applying what he found in books to persons or types seen in life about him. The method used in such a play as Volpone is that of the mosaic-maker, rather than that of the painter. It is possible to state definitely not merely the source from which the suggestion for the work as a whole was obtained, but also the sources of almost all the important parts.

It may be well to summarize first the conclusions of former writers on the play.

In Modern Language Notes for February, 1905, L. H. Holt calls attention to the following passages from eighteenth-century writers; the first is from Rev. Thomas Francklin's translation of Lucian, Vol. 1, p. 237, on the third dialogue: