Volpone Act 3 Quotes Flashcards
Scene 1: Mosca’s soliloquy 1
“I fear I shall begin to grow in love With my dear self (…) I can feel A whimsy i’ my blood (…) I could skip Out of my skin, now, like a subtle snake (…) your parasite is a most precious thing, dropped from above” (…) “And there, and here, and yonder, all at once”
Scene 1: Mosca’s view of the world
“All the wide world is little else, in nature, But parasites, or sub-parasites.”
Scene 2: Mosca sort of confesses to Bonario to gain trust - divided, betrayed, whispered etc
“I have done Base offices, in rending friends asunder, Dividing families, betraying counsels, Whispering false lies, or mining men with praises… (…) Let me here perish, in all hope of goodness.”
Scene 2: Mosca claims he is interested in goodness
“I claim an interest in the general state Of goodness, and true virtue (…) And I do suffer for you, sir. My heart Weeps blood, in anguish -“
Bonario: “Lead. I follow thee.”
Scene 4: Volpone moans about Lady Would-be
Out on my fate! I ha’ giv’n her the occasion How to torment me”
“Another flood of words! A very torrent!”
“The poet, As old in time as Plato, and as knowing, Says that your highest female grace is silence.”
Scene 4: Lady Would-be being flirtatious
“I must Visit you more, a-days; and make you well: Laugh, and be lusty.”
Scene 4: Volpone becomes desperate for Lady Would-be to leave
“Some power, some fate, some fortune rescue me.”
Scene 7: Celia begs Corvino to lock her up
“If you doubt my chastity, why, lock me up, for ever; Make me the heir of darkness. Let me live, Where I may please your fears, if not your trust.”
Scene 7: Corvino quotes about Celia and honour
“Obedient, and a wife.”
“Honour? Tut, a breath; There’s no such thing, in nature: a mere term Invented to awe fools.”
Scene 7: Celia begs Corvino and he threatens to humiliate and hurt her
I will drag thee hence, home, by the hair; Cry thee a strumpet through the streets; rip up Thy mouth, unto thine ears; and slit thy nose, (…) Death, I will buy some slave, Whom I will kill, and bind thee to him, alive; And, at my window, hang you forth; devising Some monstrous crime, which I, in capital letters, Will eat into thy flesh”
Scene 7: Corvino threatens Celia religious connotations (plagues of Egypt)
“An errant locust, by heaven, a locust, Whore, Crocodile that hast thy tears prepared, Expecting how thou’lt bid ‘em flow.”
Scene 7: Celia and Volpone quotes about money, modesty and Paradise
Celia: “And modesty an exile made, for money?”
Volpone: “He would have sold his part of Paradise / For ready money, had he met a cope-man.”
Scene 7: Volpone woos Celia - lovers and types of exotic birds
“Thou hast, in place of a base husband, found A worthy lover: use thy fortune well, With secrecy, and pleasure. See, behold, (shows the treasure) (…)
The heads of parrots, tongues of nightingales, the brains of peacocks, and of ostriches shall be our food”
Scene 7: Celia holds innocence as more worthy
“Good sir, these things might move a mind affected With such delights; but I, whose innocence Is all I can think wealthy, or worth th’ enjoying And which, once lost, I have nought to lose beyond it”
Scene 7: Celia begins to panic a little
“If you have ears, that will be pierced - or eyes, That can be opened - a heart, may be touched - (…) If you have touch of holy saints - or Heaven - Do me the grace, to let me ‘scape - if not, Be bountiful, and kill me - “ (lots of hyphens)
