nobleman’s house in order to blackmail Volpone out of half of his riches. But this comedy has no happy ending for the principal players. Volpone’s scheme finally collapses upon itself, and the forces of law and justice mete out severe penalties both to Volpone and Mosca at the play’s conclusion.
Mosca (whose name means fly) is described in this play as a parasite or hanger-on. But as Mosca notes, most of the people in the world are also parasitical in nature. In a soliloquy before the third act, Mosca clearly defines the world, his role in it, and his attitude about himself:
I fear I shall begin to grow in love
With my dear self, and my most prosp'rous parts, They do so spring, and burgeon; I can feel
A whimsy i’ my blood. I know not how Success hath made me wanton. I could skip Out of my skin now like a subtle snake,
I am so limber. Oh, your parasite
Is a most precious thing, dropped from above,
Not bred ‘mongst clods, and clodpolls, here on earth. I muse the mystery was not made a science,
It is so liberally professed! Almost,
All the wise world is little else in nature, But parasites, or subparasites. And yet,
I mean not those that have your bare town-art, To know who’s fit to feed ‘em; have no house, No family, no care, and therefore mold
Tales for men’s ears, to bait that sense; or get Kitchen-invention, and some stale receipts To please the belly, and the groin; nor those,
With their court-dog tricks, that can fawn, and fleer,