Volpone offers little direct reflection of the national political mood of the time, but the atmosphere of posturing, deception, male dominance and the compulsion to acquire material wealth trigger identification with the cultural mood in England. Sir Pol's and Peregrine's comments make topical references to matters at home, and the lies and deceptions of the play, enacted between the central characters, echo the personal politics of the most active and public sector of contemporary society and parallel the ‘cunning and undermining tricks’ Edward Reynolds remarked on in government and court circles. The play's texture is that of the rivalries, adulteries, flatteries, ambitiousness and money- focused intrigues of the makers and shakers. The court gave the age its flavour and provided much of the rumour and titillating scandal that charged tavern gossip.

What exactly was the court? It had three layers – the Household (the ‘Board of Greencloth’) under the Lord Steward, the Chamber (under the Chamberlain) and the Bechamber (under the groom of the stool, responsible for arranging the monarch's toilet procedures). The Household comprised all the indoor and outdoor servants keeping a palace running: cooks, footmen, chambermaids, cleaners, gardeners, soldiers, officers of the guard, a butler in charge of those who served food, clerks dealing with the paperwork (orders for food and materials). The Bedchamber was the cadre of personal body servants (mostly Scots) dressing the king and serving his washing/ toilet needs. The Chamber was the real court – a mix of true courtiers and an amorphous, constantly changing mass of hangers- on. ‘Court life was a constant canvassing of advances and rebuffs not only for the throngs of suitors but also for the highest officials of the Crown’. The inner circle of courtiers (many from old- established titled families) had specific roles as waiting gentlemen and gentlewomen of the king and queen (with petty responsibilities like placing the king's cutlery, carving his meat) or general roles escorting visiting ambassadors, running errands or chatting with the king.