Category Archives: Satire

Ethics of Service

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Yevgeniy Kharonov

In Massinger’s A New Way to Pay Old Debts, the role of the servant is captured in two differing lights. Firstly there are the servants that work in the home of Lady Allworth with great pride and fulfillment. These servants are absolutely necessary for the upkeep and normal function of the household. There is Order the steward, Amble the usher, Furnace the cook, Watchall the porter, and Waiting-woman and Chambermaid. Lady Allworth treats her staff with respect and shows them gratitude for their work, as when she gave Furnace money for new aprons and a summer suit: “In the meantime, there is gold / To buy thee aprons and a summer suit” (1.2.58-59). The staff shows great loyalty in return for Lady Allworth’s conscientious conduct. Overreach tries and fails to get Order to criticize Lady Allworth about her mourning rituals: “Sir, it is her will, / Which we that are her servants ought to serve it / And not dispute” (1.3.4-6). The staff also knows their place in the household and in society in general. In the presence of Lovell, Lady Allworth asks Amble and Waiting-woman for some privacy. Their reply characterizes both their social status and their respect for Lady Allworth: “Amble: We are taught better / By you, good madam. / Waiting-woman: And well know our distance” (4.1.173-174). The house servants’ compliance was imperative to the fruition of Wellborn’s plot (of the false engagement to Lady Allworth). Without the servants this plot would have never worked and Wellborn would not have been able to attain the same resolution for his debts.

Greedy and Marall are technically Overreach’s servants and parallel the loyal servants in Lady Allworth’s home. These two show their loyalty to their master by complementing his notorious schemes and in most cases carrying them out. However they do not show the same respect for Overreach as the respect that Lady Allworth gets from her servants. Marall and Greedy are in it for themselves and each one only serves in order to attain their personal desires. They interact in a way that befits common thieves and sell-swords. Overreach calls them fools and knaves while they reply: “You are all wisdom” (2.1.23), or “The best I ever heard! I could adore you” (2.1.43). Overreach realizes that he needs his servants : “Alone I can do nothing, but I have servants / And friends to second me…” (5.1.312-313). Unfortunately, Marall does not have much loyalty left for Overreach and he betrays him by changing the deed for Wellborn. He then offers his services to Wellborn :”If it please Your Worship / To call to memory, this mad beast once caused me to urge you to or drown or hang yourself; / I’ll do the like to him, if you command me” (5.1.335-337). To which Wellborn replies:

You are a rascal! He that dares be false
To a master, though unjust, will ne’er be true
To any other. Look not for reward
Or favor from me; I will shun thy sight
As I would do a basilisk’s. Thank my pity
If thou keep thy ears. Howe’r, I will take order
Your practice shall be silenced (5.1.337-344).

In the end, everyone gets what they deserve and those who were loyal to their masters retain pride in their loyalty, while those that betrayed their masters retain great shame. As Wellborn said: “His conscience be his prison” (5.1.347).

Posted in A New Way to Pay Old Debts, Comedy, Power struggles, Satire | 1 Comment

Loyalty like a Fly

Posted on April 15, 2013 by eg129177

From the beginning it is clear that Mosca’s relationship to Volpone is rooted in the delicate acts they construe.  They function as a finely tuned machine of trickery that operates seamlessly, even in the face of unforeseen obstacles. Throughout his servitude to Volpone, Mosca is undoubtedly loyal, and receives the greatest satisfaction at his successes in the name of their bizarre game. While Volpone seems to derive satisfaction from the sheer thrill, Mosca nourishes himself on the scraps of this profound enjoyment, much like a parasite would his host. He is an unswerving and irreplaceable aspect of Volpone’s grand ruse. Until he isn’t. Much like others in the play, he is forced to sacrifice his bizarre code of honor in the face of self-interest, which, oddly enough forces Volpone to do the same. Although portrayed rather abruptly, it would seem that this inevitable reversal is something Jonson is keenly fascinated with, an altogether unsurprising conclusion.

These shifts occur at key junctures. As soon as Volpone commits the fatal flaw of violating their relationship status, by elevating him beyond his well-accepted boundaries, he forces the break in Mosca’s otherwise solid code. In this darker take on the pitfalls of honor, the near inability of it to exist, one finds that the root of this falls to nature, and the movement of people. In such a city, marred as it is by strains of depravity, but also, resting on these shifting, oozing grounds as foundation. Mosca begins to realize that his affection for the con is growing beyond his bounds of loyalty.

Willing his estate to Mosca, forgetting his ultimate reliance on the cunning man, is symbolic for each misstep. And in committing this motion Volpone has allowed himself to fall victim to his own devices. The only way to right this imbalance is to essentially ‘reset’ by self-incrimination and acceptance of guilt. Thus they are all wrapped up in varying levels of greed and conditions for individual honor, and until the final unraveling, this suspends each character against the chaos of the cityscape of Venice.

Ultimately what does this mess present as a central theme? At the risk of oversimplification, some light cliche, and grandiose generalizations, the work as a whole takes a very hopeless turn for those mired in greed and depravity. It would seem that once tainted, various indiscretions are impossible to wash off.

Posted in Power struggles, Psychological detail, Satire, Uncategorized, Volpone | 1 Comment