Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- 1 Introduction: Jonson and Comedy
- 2 ‘For pleasing imitation of greater men’s action’: Nano the Anamorphic Ape
- 3 ‘Think me cold, frozen, and impotent, and so report me?’: Volpone and His ‘Castrone’ Complex
- 4 ‘The case appears too liquid’: The Two Sides of Androgyno
- 5 ‘I fear I shall begin to grow in love with my dear self’: The Parasite and His ‘Mirror Stage’
- 6 Jonson’s Comedy of Bastardy
- 7 Conclusion: ‘Fools, they are the only nation’: Rereading the Interlude and Beyond
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - ‘Think me cold, frozen, and impotent, and so report me?’: Volpone and His ‘Castrone’ Complex
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 May 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- 1 Introduction: Jonson and Comedy
- 2 ‘For pleasing imitation of greater men’s action’: Nano the Anamorphic Ape
- 3 ‘Think me cold, frozen, and impotent, and so report me?’: Volpone and His ‘Castrone’ Complex
- 4 ‘The case appears too liquid’: The Two Sides of Androgyno
- 5 ‘I fear I shall begin to grow in love with my dear self’: The Parasite and His ‘Mirror Stage’
- 6 Jonson’s Comedy of Bastardy
- 7 Conclusion: ‘Fools, they are the only nation’: Rereading the Interlude and Beyond
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
VOLPONE No, no, worthy gentlemen: to tell you true, I cannot endure to see the rabble of these ground ciarlitani that spread their cloaks on the pavement as if they meant to do feats of activity, and then come in lamely with their mouldy tales out of Boccaccio, like stale Tabarin, the fabulist – some of them discoursing their travels and of their tedious captivity in the Turks’ galleys, when indeed, were the truth known, they were the Christians’ galleys, where very temperately they ate bread and drunk water, as a wholesome penance, enjoined them by their confessors, for base pilferies.
(II.ii.44–52)What is the importance of castration in Volpone? Castrone, the eunuch, is one of the Venetian Magnifico's ‘bastards’. In Renaissance theatre, there are more castrated characters compared with the dwarf and the androgyne: there are twelve plays which have a dwarf character; Volpone is the only play that has a hermaphrodite character; and there are at least twenty-five plays with a eunuch. In Volpone, Castrone appears in five scenes. The only lines that he speaks are ‘here’ with Nano and Androgyno in Act V scene v and ‘I claim for myself’ in Act III scene iii. He is probably the character who has the fewest lines in Volpone, which makes him almost like a mute, a silent figure. Within the play, there are two appearances of the word ‘eunuch’ which are particularly interesting. The first one is in Act I scene ii, where Nano says:
This learnèd opinion we celebrate will,
Fellow eunuch, as behoves us, with all our wit and art,
To dignify that, whereof ourselves are so great and special a part.
(I.ii.60–2)Apart from meaning the companionship between the three, ‘fellow eunuch’ may mean that both the dwarf and the hermaphrodite are also castrated. Is it possible that there is more than one castrated figure in Volpone? If there is, how about Volpone? Another important reference to the word ‘eunuch’ appears in Act III scene vii when Volpone woos Celia:
and my dwarf shall dance,
My eunuch sing, my fool make up the antic,
Whilst we, in changèd shapes, act Ovid's tales.
(III.vii.218–20)- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Volpone's BastardsTheorising Jonson's City Comedy, pp. 48 - 72Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2018