ice is in the play, England is about to become, in the city of London, in the year of our lord 1606" (p. 1114).
The relationship between Volpone and Mosca is central to the play and to the development of the theme. They represent types, embodied in animal imagery, with the greedy lawyer being the fox and with his wily and scavenging servant being the fly. In the Italian tradition, these types were presented with specific routines and vulgar comedy that emphasized the defining characteristic. This is seen in Volpone as Mosca hones in on anyone with money like a fly buzzing around garbage and as Volpone lies, cajoles, invents, and play-acts as necessary to con his visitors out of their money. Volpone is as much a parasite as his fly, Mosca, but they are on different social levels and so are viewed differently by society. It is this hypocrisy that Jonson sees embodied in the law.
Volpone's greed is alluded to in the Argument, and it is made clear in the first line of the play as Volpone awakens: "Good morning to the day; and next, my gold!" (I.i.1). Volpone is a gentleman, and his greed is sanctioned by society in a way that Mosca's scavenging is not. Yet, in this first scene we see the two of them praising gold together and each delighting in the way the gold is acquired, through fooling the people who have it into surrendering a portion of it. These contributors are themselves greedy people and are only participating in this confidence game because they see an advantage to themselves, believing that if they provide a good enough gift, Volpone will name them in his will. They believe that his demise is imminent because he has convinced them of this in order to get their gold. Each is trying to con the other, and the smarter of the two is the one who gets the gold.
Much of the play is taken up with interplay between the fox and his victims as Volpone and Mosca fleece the sheep of Venice. Though Volpone is of a higher cl...