Rare Fox

By Gerald Clarke

VOLPONE by Ben Jonson

Ben Jonson's Fox may be the most avaricious character in literature, but to say that Volpone is about greed is like saying that King Lear is a study of the generation gap. What Jonson was writing about was not the pursuit of money, but power and the manipulation of human failings. Volpone is not only the most avaricious man who ever walked across a stage; he is also the most cynical. He has an infallible divining rod for everyone's weakness--and most especially his own.

Yet Volpone is not only evil but endlessly beguiling, and in this magnificent production at Britain's National Theater he is also unfailingly amusing. As played by Paul Scofield, he is the grandfather of all con men. Feigning terminal illness, he convinces half of Venice--the richer half --that he will make each one his heir so long as he is kept in good humor until his death. The lure of his wealth--"letting the cherry knock against their lips," as he puts it--makes Volpone truly rich. Urged on by his servant Mosca, the Venetians beggar themselves to keep him happy, giving him their own treasure now in hopes of gaining his later.

Even Volpone is bemused by the ease with which he has gulled his fellows. "What a rare punishment," he says, "is avarice to itself." Or undeserved success, for that matter: in the end Volpone is undone by his unquenchable desire to prove himself superior.

Watching Scofield slip effortlessly from dying Volpone to robustious Fox is as fascinating as the unfolding of his intricate schemes. One minute he is the Venetian magnifico, reveling in his gold and his audacity and boasting that even "the Turk is not more sensual in his pleasures than Volpone." The next he is an old man of faltering soprano. "Oh," he says, "I am sailing to my port and I am glad I am so near my haven."

Mosca, the Fox's Fly, is the oily instrument of his misdeeds. As played by Ben Kingsley, he is curiously modern, the unctuous image of the Madison Avenue p.r. man. "Mosca, this was thy invention?" asks Volpone after a show by his weird trio of dwarf, hermaphrodite and eunuch. "If it please my patron," he answers. "Not else."

Director Peter Hall, who is head of the National Theater, has staged the play as if he were giving a great banquet in St. Mark's Square. Indeed, Hall's Volpone takes all of three hours and includes a funny but rarely played subplot involving two early English tourists, Sir Politic and Lady Wouldbe.

If this production is a guide to what Hall will put on in the future, the National Theater's new complex on the Thames belongs at the top of any visitor's list, right next to the Tower, Big Ben and the corner pub. --Gerald Clark

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