Greed and Imbecility in Ben Jonson's "The Alchemist"

1 Tanase Mihaela MA 1st year Anglo-American Studies Professor: Monica Matei Chesnoiu Cultural Landmarks in Elizabethan Drama 19 January 2013

Greed and Imbecility in Ben Jonson’s

The Alchemist 

Ben Jonson’s comedies depict and satirize vices in human character which have  been and are still alive. An example is The Alchemist in Alchemist in which he depicts greed, credulity, imbecility and analyses how some people try to take advantage over the others. The play concerns with people “Whose manners, now call’d humours feed the stage;/And which have still been subject for the rage/ Or spleen of comic writers” 1. Like nowadays people to be tricked are easy to find because of their poor education or because of their edgeless greed and even wish for a better life, with no effort involved. But what characterizes the gulls, being well educated or not, poor or financially rich, is their immense hunger for  wealth and tricksters hunt greedy, naïve people like they are. Being a play that concerns gullibility the characters are divided into two main categories: the gulls and the tricksters. The tricksters are Subtle who is The Alchemist of  the play, Face the butler of the house where the tricks are taking place and Dol Common a prostitute. Among the gulls there is Dapper a lawyer clerk, Drugger a tobacconist, Sir  Epicure Mammon whom I will analyse in this paper and who is accompanied by Surly a sceptic sceptic of the idea of alchemy, alchemy, Tribulatio Tribulation n Wholesome, Wholesome, Ananias, Kastril Kastril also called the angry boy and his sister Dame Pliant. All these gulls are in search for different things 1

Ben Jonson. Jonson. The Alchemist and Other Plays. Plays . (Oxford, Oxford University University Press, 1998) p. 215 (hereafter  quoted with the number of the act and of the scene)

2 such as spirits to guide them in winning at bets or cards, money and wealth or knowledge, which they hope to achieve through the use of alchemy and of the supernatural powers that Subtle presumably has. Probably the most important gull in the play is Sir Epicure Mammon. But why is he considered “the most important” and what are his most important traits of character? Sir Epicure Mammon is an interesting character with interesting features. Supposedly he is a well educated aristocrat, a knight who knows literature and is well read. His name gives also his major characteristic: a greedy person who is concerned only with material things. Apart from being greedy he is also ridiculous almost an imbecile, and unimaginably naïve. He shows avarice and wish for possession since the predominant word in his vocabulary is the verb “to have”. In the end he is proven unworthy of the  philosopher’s stone since he lacks virtue and he cannot help himself from the pleasures of  the flesh. He is also considered guilty for the destruction of the imaginary furnace in which the stone was being crafted. First of all his name like almost all the other characters’ names, has a meaning. Epicure comes from the Greek philosopher Epicurus “who held that the greatest good is  pleasure”2. From the Greek philosopher also derived the term epicurean, which refers to a  person who enjoys eating, drinking, sleeping and also sexual pleasures, meaning a  pleasure-seeker. Mammon, his surname also has a meaning and it refers to “wealth regarded as an evil influence or false object of worship or devotion. It was taken by medieval writers as the name of the devil of covetousness”3. According to the definitions above his name suggests a greedy person that seeks only the pleasures of life and fortune in excess. He is easy to trick when he is promised the philosopher’s stone which will provide him immense fortune, eternal youth and  political power over the others (i.e. master-servant). He also intends to transform all metals from his house into gold. Having read a lot of works of literature, his fantasies about lust and youth may derive from it. Like Don Quixote who after reading so many romances thought himself a knight brought to Earth to set out and fight the evils of the world and restore the peace, sir Epicure Mammon may have also been influenced by the literature of the time. 2 3

Archie Hobson , The Oxford Dictionary of Difficult Terms (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 157 Hobson, 157

3 Just like Don Quixote he lives in a fantasy where everything is possible and all his dreams come true. His imagination is boundless; he travels in his fantasies through all the exotic places of the earth and enjoys all the earthly pleasures. His dreams are unimaginable great and various. According to Wolfang G. Muller:

There are three rhetorical and poetic climaxes in Epicure’s effusive speeches, the first relating to his dreams of absolute power, the second to his excessive notions of erotic satisfaction, and the third to his fantasies of eating the most luxurious kinds of food served in the most exquisite dishes and cutlery.4

His dreams of absolute power involve the “purchase [of] Devonshire and Cornwall, /and make them perfect Indies!”(II 2) thus, thinking of this province as his own  property and of himself as its master. He alludes to the great riches of India and of its landscapes, about which he probably heard about or read. His voluptuous mind is attracted by everything is mysterious and at that period India was not so well known. Most probably it was considered an exotic country with voluptuous women and strong men. It was also a place to be compared to London because of its warm climate and  because it didn’t rain so much and was the place from where spices came from. Connected to his intention of gaining immense power is his plan of curing the plague that was hunting London at that time: I’ll undertake, withal, to fright the plague / out of  the kingdom in three months (II 2) By curing the plague or more precisely by “frightening it” he thinks he guarantees his appraisal as a hero, thus being acknowledged automatically as a leader of the people. So his greed does not refer simply to having more money but having also power over the people and the power to cure all sorts of diseases, thus becoming some sort of god with infinite powers, a god that is able to control what ordinary people cannot, for example diseases.

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Wolfang, G., Muller .”Private Culinary Fantasies, Public Feasting and the Cannibalization of the Body in Jacobean Drama”. The Pleasures and Horrors of Eating, The Cultural History of Eating in Anglophone  Literature.Marion Gymnich, Norbert Lennartz. (Bonn: Bonn University Press 2010) 110-113

4 It is inferred at some moment in the play that he is no longer young and that he intends to use the stone in order to renew his age and have heirs and heiress: In eight-andtwenty days/I’ll make an old man of fourscore a child.(II 2.). He also dreams to be like Solomon about whom he thinks he had the stone and plans to make a list of wives and concubines and also pay men to be his cuckolds: “A wealthy citizen, or rich lawyer,/ Have a sublimed pure wife, unto that fellow/ I’ll send a thousand pound, to be my cuckold” (II 2). Moreover he wants to use the elixir (i.e. the philosopher’s stone) to be “as tough as Hercules, to encounter fifty, a night.” (II.2). So, Epicure Mammon proves that he has a perverse mind and he intends to make it reality without ever thinking what this might infer both spiritually and physically. Julie Sanders claims that: “critics have abstracted Mammon into being a generic representative of knighthood, of the corrupt and hedonistic Jacobean aristocracy, and even of innate avarice” because “his dream is one of possession.” 5 By planning to pay men to be his cuckolds, Sir Epicure Mammon proves that he is also selfish because he is thinking only in how to turn his fantasies to reality, without taking into account how the others may be affected. Up to a certain degree he may be compared with a tyrant that thinks he has  power over everything is under his jurisdiction. Apart from the sexual pleasures there are also the culinary pleasures which he is in search for and are also suggested in the explanation of his name. He dreams of having his meat served in “Indian shells” 6 and eat the most exclusive dishes of that time. When Dol appears disguised as a mad noblewoman and reminds him that they live in a monarchy and that the king may hear of the stone and imprison him he expresses his wish of living in a free state where everything is allowed and where along with Dol will “enjoy a perpetuity/of life and lust” (IV 4). Again his greediness is put brought to attention. Given the period when the play was written, greed was considered a capital death. His desires of living in a free state and serving the most exquisite dishes of the time and also his desires of sexual intercourse and power make him a sinner with no hope of redemption. Looked upon from the  perspective of the church of that period he may have been considered a lost sheep with no hope of returning. He is thus corrupted but not in the sense that he wants to have more 5 6

Julie Sanders, Ben Jonson’s Theatrical Republics, (Hampshire: MacMillan, 1998) 82.

5 money and because he bribes Subtle into providing him the philosopher’s stone, this sense of corruption refers to his soul and to the lack of moral qualities. Another important trait that can be well associated with his greediness is his naivety and his inability to see the things as they are. He is blinded by all the dreams he has and he does not want to listen to Surly’s manoeuvres of making him realize what is really going on and that Dol is really a prostitute disguised as a sophisticated lady and that Subtle is actually a common caretaker. But the one to have the philosopher’s stone must be absolutely pure and virtuous, such qualities that Sir Epicure Mammon does not have. Instead, he is blinded by his lust and desire for fine drinks and foods. Knowing his character Subtle and Face trick Sir  Epicure Mammon to get in contact with Dol Common and get seduced by her. Induced into a room with her disguised, as not to disturb their work Mammon cannot help himself  from trying to have sexual intercourse with Dol. S ubtle catches the moment and questions sir Epicure Mammon about his deed reminding him that the crafting of the stone may be  put in jeopardy because of his behaviour. Sir Epicure tries to defend himself by pointing out that “there was no unchaste purpose” (IV 5) involved. This episode proves both Sir  Mammon’s inability to control his own body and mind and his sense of cowardice  because he is unable to face his own deeds and assume responsibility for them. Subtle’s questioning of Sir Mammon corresponds to the moment when the imaginary surface explodes and all of Sir Epicure Mammon’s dreams as well as his investments are ruined. Also this is the moment when Sir Mammon acknowledges his faults and has the chance to repent. It is also an opportunity for him to wake from his dreams and take the life as it is without wanting to have more that he can put up with. Ben Jonson has managed to create a remarkable character in the persona of Sir  Epicure Mammon. Even though it is inferred that he knows literature and is well read, therefore he has some education he can still be fooled into believing that the  philosopher’s stone really exists and that he can have it. His greediness entwined with his rich make his acting quite ridiculous and awkward. Ben Jonson depicts to the reader of  his plays that no matter how many books one reads, and how many knowledge one has he/she can still be tricked, because of his/her greed, thirst for power or occult knowledge.

6 He also shows how deceiving and how mean the human mind can be when it comes to hurting other people. Sir Epicure Mammon is a good example of a person which blinded by the  pleasures of life fails to acknowledge that it destroys his/her soul, mind as well as his/her   body. Driven by greed, lust and thirst for more or less occult knowledge humans let themselves buffaloed by such people who promise them all they want. People like Sir  Epicure Mammon and like all the other gulls existed, still exist and will continue to exist until the world will end.

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Works Cited

Gymnich, Marion and Norbert Lennartz. The Pleasures and Horrors of Eating, the Cultural History of Eating in Anglophone Literature: Wolfang G. Muller, “Public Culinary Fantasies, Public Feasting and the Cannibalization of the Body in Jacobean Drama”. Bonn, Bonn University Press, 2010.

Hobson, Archie. The Oxford Dictionary of Difficult Terms. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2004.

Jonson, Ben. The Alchemist and Other Plays. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1998.

Sanders, Julie. Ben Jonson’s Theatrical Republics. Hampshire MacMillan, 1998.