2018 Reprint of 1958 Edition. Much-studied and frequently performed, this comedy by the great Elizabethan playwright Ben Jonson satirizes the greed, mendacity, gullibility, and pretension of seventeenth-century London society. In Volpone (1605), a crafty rich man attempts to augment his wealth by feigning a mortal illness. His wealthy neighbors, spying the opportunity for an inheritance, vie with each other in courting the "dying" man's favor. The play abounds in colorful characters, ingenious plotting, biting wit, and sharp insight into human nature. Edited by Jonas Barish.