Volpone Act 2 Quotes Flashcards
Scene 1: some of Sir Politic’s nonsense - Raven, lion, meteors, porpoises
“A raven, that should build / In a ship royal of the King’s (…) Another whelp (from a lion in the Tower) (…) Saw you those meteors? (…) three porpoises seen, above the bridge”
Scene 1: Peregrine quote on the knight - english stage, ignorance
“O this knight, / Were he well known, would be a precious thing / To fit our English stage.” (…)
“This Sir Pol will be ignorant of nothing.
(To Sir Politic) It seems, sir, you know all?”
Scene 2: Sir Politic supports the mountebank sellers
“Pity his ignorance. / They are the only knowing men of Europe!”
Scene 2: what Peregrine has heard of mountebank sellers
“I have heard, they are most lewd imposters”
Scene 2: quotes from Volpone on the mountebank - selling, four elements
“For I have nothing to sell, little or nothing to sell.”
“To extract the four elements; that is to say, the fire, air, water, and earth, and return you your felt without burn or stain.”
Scene 2: Volpone on the mountebank talking about health
“O health! Health! The blessing of the rich, the riches of the poor! Who can buy thee at too dear a rate, since there is no enjoying in this world, without thee?” (…)
“But I despise money”
Scene 2: Volpone on the mountebank talking health vs money
“Take you a ducat, or your chequin of gold, and apply to the place affected: see what good effect it can work.”
Scene 2: quotes from Volpone on the mountebank - pilgrimage, Venus and Apollo
“So short is this pilgrimage of man (which some call life) to the expressing of it.”
“It is the powder that made Venus a goddess, given her by Apollo”
Scene 4: Volpone feels shot by Cupid after seeing Celia
“But angry Cupid, bolting from her eyes, Hath shot himself into me, like a flame (…) and I, without the hope Of some soft air, from her refreshing breath, Am but a heap of cinders.”
Scene 4: Volpone feels better after the mention of his money and Mosca flatters him
Volpone: “Gold, plate, and jewels, all’s at thy devotion” (…)
Mosca: “Sir, Scoto himself could hardly have distinguished!”
Scene 5: Corvino’s accusations against Celia
“Death of mine honour, with the city’s fool? (…) Get you a cittern, Lady Vanity” (…) you whore”
“Pain of thy life”
Scene 5: Corvino’s punishments
“And thy restraint, before, was liberty (…) I will have this bawdy light dammed up (…) I’ll chalk a line; o’er which, if thou but chance To set thy desp’rate foot, more hell, more horror” chastity belt
Scene 5: Corvino makes Celia be backwards
“I will keep thee backwards: Thy lodging shall be backwards, thy walks backwards, Thy prospect - all be backwards; and no pleasure That thou shalt know, but backwards. Nay, since you force my honest nature, know, it is your own Being too open, makes me use you thus.”
Scene 6: Mosca plants the idea of prostituting Celia in Corvino
“But some young woman must straight be sought out - Lusty, and full of juice - to sleep by him” (…)
“But they are all so subtle, full of art, And age again doting, and flexible” (…)
“Think, think, think, think, think, think, think, sir. One o’ the doctors offered, there, his daughter.”
Scene 6: Corvino believes his is in control
“Wherefore should not I As well command my blood, and my affections, as this dull doctor?”
