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Jonson’s Comedy of Bastardy

This chapter discusses how the comedy of bastardy can be seen in The Alchemist and Bartholomew Fair, examining how Jonson plays on the tension between possession and dispossession, and the ambiguity between folly and madness. While Jonson makes fun of the city ‘professionals’, and to be possessed is to be melancholic; to be a fool, for him, is a liberation. The city helps to create and construct different identities. In his article ‘Jonson’s Metempsychosis’, Harry Levin suggests that ‘Possibly Mosca’s interlude was written before the rest of the play, like the puppet-show in Bartholomew Fair.’ The second part of this chapter develops from this suggestion, examining the similarities and differences between the two scenes and their importance in the two plays. It argues how the puppet embodies the characteristics of Volpone’s bastards.