The Comedy of

Humours
 Dramatic genre inspired by the medieval medical
theory of humours
humours (ancients) = bodily fluids that permeated body
& influenced its health/ personality
balance - a determining factor of human health – eucrasia
imbalance – directly caused diseases - dyscrasia
"temperament" - Galen
bodily dispositions (susceptibility to particular diseases)
psychlogical dispositions, behavioural and emotional
inclinations
balanced mixture of the four qualities >> ideal
temperament
predominance of each of these 4 secretions within
the body (earth, air, fire, and water) >> specific
temperament
blood  'sanguine'
phlegm  'phlegmatic'
choler (or yellow bile)  'choleric'
black bile  'melancholic'
c. 400 Hippocrates
B.C.
yellow black bi phlegm blood
's
four humour
bile le
s
season summer autumn winter spring
element fire earth water air
organ liver brain/lungs gall bladder spleen
quality dry & hot dry & cold wet & cold wet & hot
characteristic easily despondent, calm, courageous,
angered, bad sleepless, unemotional hopeful,
tempered irritable amorous
c. 325 Aristotle's four hedone propraitari ethikos dialogike
B.C. sources of (sensuous (acquiring (moral (logical
happiness pleasure) assets) virtue) investigation
)
c. 190 Galen's choleric melancholic phlegmatic sanguine
A.D.' four temperam
ents
Paracelsus's changeable industrious inspired curious
four totem salamanders gnomes nymphs sylphs
spirits
 Comedies of humour
vehicles for satire popularised in England in 1598 by Ben
Jonson’s Every Man in His Humour
• portrayal of the follies & vices of society
• individual eccentricities of characters - distorted temperaments
characters’ natures = source of the action
• stock characters (stereotypes) - humours out of balance
 the miles gloriosus – swaggering warrior
 the senex iratus – angry father
 the dolosus servus – crafty servant
 the greedy miser
 the foolish spendthrift
 the jealous husband, etc.
people - ruled by single passions (greed / anger / self-
righteousness)
pretensions to abilities (wit / learning / fashion / social prestige)
Ben Jonson, c. 1573—1637
Baroque artist  
more than 35 masques and entertainments & 14 complete comedies -
extraordinarily varied - satires, comedies of manners, comedies of
humours and farces
• experimented with approach, point of view, characterization,
language & plotting 
establish drama as a legitimate literary form - raise the
status of his art  (not mere acting vehicles)
1616 The Workes of Benjamin Jonson (collection of
his plays, masques & poems - printed in folio)
• first English dramatist to publish collected edition of his own works
• right of plays to be considered as literature - promoted the cause of
drama as high art
 Literary career
bestrode the Stuart drama world as a prime playwright and as a
theorist - greatest of Shakespeare's dramatic contemporaries
• low birth (son of a Scottish minister)
• formidable learning - Westminster School - studied with William
Camden (perhaps the greatest classicist and antiquarian of the
Elizabethan and Jacobean ages - interest in classical & English
languages & literatures, care in constructing what he wrote, and
respect for learning)
• bricklayer and soldier
• travelling actor (performed as Hieronimo in Thomas Kyd’s The
Spanish Tragedy)
• Twice imprisoned
 1597 - partial authorship of The Isle of Dogs (politically subversive)
 1598 - killed Gabriel Spencer, a fellow actor, in a duel - capital offence
- pled “benefit of clergy” (able to recite a biblical verse in Latin)  
dramatist as well as a masterful poet
dedicated classicist, emphasized clarity of form and
phrase over expression of emotion
studied the poetic forms of classical Greek and Latin
literature & of later European literature
diverse body of poetry
elegies, epistles, homilies, Pindaric odes, epigrams,
love-poems, epitaphs
collected his poems - Epigrams (1616), The Forest
(1616), & The Underwood (1640–1641)
 1597 - Theatrical career
translator (Ars poetica)
Horatian dictum- poetry should entertain & instruct the
audience
1. INSTRUCT
strong satirical bent - didacticism
aim of comedy = expose vices and follies which weaken
society & disrupt the web of human relationships necessary
to a common wealth
individual failings + failures of the age (foolishness, greed,
pretentiousness, hypocrisy, self-deception)
major function of comedy = moral edification (shame them
out of their vices and follies)
2. ENTERTAIN
  rigid moralist ( preach)
comedy’s primary responsibility = amuse - e.g.
Prologue to Volpone:
"In all his poemes, still, hath been this measure, / To
mixe profit, with your pleasure"
most effective way to teach through art = clothe the
lesson in a delightful fable
Jonson’s concern with entertaining makes most of his
comedies delightful and attractive to audiences; his
effort to instruct makes his plays substantial and
meaningful
 Neoclassicism of Jonson's comedies
adapts classical ideals to contemporary material
classical unities of time, place, & action + sense of decorum
internal unity and coherence
disciplined structure, concentrated action, and serious
purpose
characters & situations = carefully integrated - fabric of the
whole play
loose ends are resolved, subplot and main plot are
interwoven so that each enhances the other, and the
conclusion of each play resolves the basic issues brought up
during the action
Every Man in His Humour (1598)
• applies the classical theory of the humours to social behaviour
• complex interweaving of plots - atmosphere of comic frenzy
• fools are duped, husbands fear cuckolding, wives suspect their
husbands of having mistresses, fathers spy on sons, a servant plays
tricks on everyone, and myriad disguises and social games confuse
the characters
character typology
• suspicious father (Edward Knowell)
• errant son (Edward Knowell)
• soldier (Bobadill) - the miles gloriosus from classical comedies
• wily servant (Brainworm)
• Downright - shatterer of illusions
• would-be poet (Matthew), gull (Stephen)
• Kitely, Dame Kitely, Cob and Tib - reflect the ridiculousness of the
behavior of the main characters
Every Man Out Of his Humour (1599)
expounds his theories of drama - how
humours govern character
both plays = comedies of correction (by the end
of the plays - taken 'out of their humour‘) -
ridiculed or shocked, cured into realizing their
folly
satiric targets
• sins--pride, luxury, ambition and greed, moral idiocy,
deception, self-deception, vanity and disguise the real
self
• replacement of spiritual ideals with materialistic ones
turned to satire – 1601: Cynthia’s Revels ; The Poetaster
• strongly criticized life at court
• targeted fellow playwrights Thomas Dekker & John Marston (had
also attacked Jonson in the so-called War of the Theatres)
  1603 - 2 classical historical dramas / tragedies (accurate re-
creations of Roman life)
Sejanus His Fall
failure – lack of action & great number of similar characters
Catiline
studies - effects of ambition, corruption and power-lust in the State
characters - powerfully & clearly drawn, but verbose & static
classical background - closely follows Latin models - subject matter &
style
firm dramatic footing - great triumph - Volpone: Or, The Fox -
premiered in 1605
• straightforward moral judgment: the evil (vice, deceit and greed) one
commits brings with it a suitable punishment
• comedy of humours - subplot
• characters in the grip of obsessions (love / money)
• farcical build-up of the --- climax of deceit and trickery
Epicoene (1609)
The Alchemist (1610)
Bartholomew Fair (1614)
plays written after Bartholomew Fair – dismissed - “dotages” (by John
Dryden): The Devil Is an Ass, The Staple of News, A Tale of a Tub (1633)
 Volpone,
or The Fox
(1605)
Venetian magnifico - Volpone ("fox") - imminent death (feigns gout,
catarrh, palsy, and consumption - no heirs) - mental agility and
showmanship
accomplice, Mosca (fly) - convinces each victim that he is favored above
all others in Volpone’s will - delight in perpetrating perversities - malicious
and witty parasite - frequent instigator of additional pranks, keeps the plot
moving
three birds of prey stumble over one another in their haste to devour the
supposed carcass - Mosca and Volpone simply bring out the worst in them;
they do not plant it
lawyer Voltore (the vulture, ruthless and voracious scavenger)
elderly Corbaccio (the crow, aged miser, feeble, deaf, pathologically greedy)
merchant and husband of Celia, Corvino (the raven, insanely jealous of his
beautiful wife, greed - sufficient to counteract his jealousy)
Volpone’s gold-centered world - victims include innocents
 Bonario, disinherited by his father
 heavenly Celia, Corvino’s virtuous wife, faces her slander and perils
with noble fortitude
underlying the gold-centered world is ugliness
under Volpone’s dashing personality is bestiality
under Mosca’s wit is spiritual paucity
• Volpone - pretends to be physically degenerated, yet the pretense mirrors the
spiritual reality - his performance becomes more extreme; eventually, he
pretends to be nearly a corpse - trapped in his world of gold
his feigned physical degeneration emerges in his spiritual self, and he is
doomed
gold turns the world upside down
• a husband gives his wife to another man
• a father displaces his son
• the just are made to look false
• a servant becomes master
Volpone becomes enamoured of his own
ability to scheme
voluptuous nature - lust for Celia, Corvino’s
virtuous young wife - attempted rape - play's
first catastrophe
averts public exposure - high opinion of his
cleverness soars - opportunity for the parasite
Mosca to seize his fortune - rivalry of master
and servant - second and complete catastrophe
 Performance versus reality
Volpone - near-rape of Celia - ensuing trial - presented to the court as a
nearly dead old man
Voltore - public mask of respectability
Corbaccio - acts the part of the kindly old gentleman
Corvino plays the honest merchant
• Volpone’s exuberant exterior of covers a decayed spirit
• the public personalities of Corbaccio, Corvino, and Voltore belie their evil
in a world in which gold is of paramount importance, such people can seem
good
likewise, the truly honest and chaste Bonario and Celia can be made to seem
conniving, greedy, and concupiscent
ending
• reveals the falseness in the principal characters
• lays bare the emptiness of Volpone’s world
 Sources
Petronius’ Satiricon & Lucian's Dialogues of the
Dead
plot of Volpone = based on a Roman fortune-hunting
theme (Horace, Juvenal, Pliny, Lucian, and Petronius)
Volpone's Venice = a city of dissemblers
o       pretend to infirmity in order to attract gifts
o       feign friendship and generosity in order to attract
inheritances
the tale of Eumolpos - shipwrecked wayfarer - gets rich
in a foreign land - poses as a childless old man - speaks
only of his wealth - rewrites his testament between fits
of coughing
medieval beast fable - tale of the death-feigning
fox  mythological substructure of the play
o       Latin bestiary - 12th century - recounts a
version of the tale of the hungry fox who besmears
himself with red mud to resemble blood - lies on
his back holding his breath in order to attract
carrion birds - grabs and devours
 primordial trickster - audacious cunning
fox - portrayal of greed in contemporary society
 Double plot
Aristotelian unities of time, place, and action
only one day (the unity of time)
entirely in contemporary Venice (place)
• city's dual nature
 both a city of great beauty, prominent reputation for art and
wealth
 city of sin, extensive population of courtesans - lust associated
with excessive sexual freedom
action unified structurally - centred on the
machinations of Volpone, his follower, and the
greedy dupes - (exception - Peregrine and Sir Politic
Would-Be)
 Subplot
comedy of humours in miniature - ameliorate the tension of the
major plot
expatriate English couple, humour characters (pretenders to that which
they do not have)
• Sir Politic Would-Be – gullible, naïve traveller, eager to be thought
a member of the inner circle of state knowledge, ridiculous English
tourist on the Continent, full of assumed dignity, self-importance
• Lady Politic Would-Be , shallow-brained Englishwoman - beauty,
intelligence, and fashion - ridiculousness - havoc she wreaks on her
mother tongue
Peregrine sophisticated traveller, amusement & contempt - credulities
and foibles of Sir Politic
  structural contrast
• Sir Politic Would-be - innocence of the Englishman abroad
• juxtaposed with the duplicity - Venetian men     
 Volpone's opening speech
Good morning to the day; and next, my gold! 
Open the shrine, that I may see my saint. . . .
Hail the world's soul, and mine! More glad than is
The teeming earth to see the long'd-for sun
Peep through the horns of the celestial Ram,
Am I, to view thy splendour darkening his;
That lying here, amongst my other hoards,
Show'st like a flame by night; or like the day
Struck out of chaos, when all darkness fled
Unto the centre . . .
 religious imagery (saint, adoration, & soul) > something
irreligious & mean - perversion of religious images
1. Christian & humanistic values
• exalts the eternal over the temporal
• the spiritual over the worldly
2. debased world in which these values are reversed
• disproportion, transvaluation of values
• main pursuit of men = acquisition of riches

Volpone's morning hymn -- new metaphysic and a new

ethic = point for point the reverse of the Christian
Gold = new god, the world's soul, and its own saint
 Imitation
important theme - distortion of normal reality
characters - constantly assuming either literal or
figurative disguises
• Sir Politic Would-Be seeks to imitate Volpone, an imitation of a
dying man
• Mosca - ability to make what his dupes see before their eyes conform
to whatever fabrication he has led them to accept
• Lady Would-Be - cover her mental deformities with physical
cosmetics
• Volpone pretends to be a mountebank - foxlike trickery, delights in
acting, both onstage and off fooling others, disguises, makeup, &
changes of voice
How one can distinguish between a real imitator and an
imitation imitator?
T. S. Eliot - "No theory of humours
could account for Jonson's best plays"
Northrop Frye - Volpone "is
exceptional in being a kind of comic
imitation of a tragedy, with the point of
Volpone's hybris carefully marked"