Volpone’s queer interlude: Ben Jonson as a rewriter of Lucian of Samosata’s work

This paper intends to consider Ben Jonson’s (1572-1637) position as an adaptor or appropriator of the Classics, situating his practice in the context of early modern theatre and its production, as well as looking more closely at Act 1, Scene 2 of Volpone, or The Fox (1606) as a case study. To do that, it will make use of Queer Theory (Butler, 2007 [1990]; Carroll, 2012; Sullivan; 2003), considering non-conforming characters and/or situations, as established by the cis-heterosexual matrix; Early Modern Studies (Bentley, 1971; Orgel, 1991; Masten, 1997; Smith, 2022), delineating the different understanding of authorship during the period, compared to today’s; Translation Studies (Lefevere, 2016 [1992]), considering the creation of an image of a given author in a given polysystem; and Adaptation/Appropriation Studies (Hutcheon; O’Flynn, 2012; Sanders, 2022), contrasting the fields’ current understanding of adaptation and appropriation and, consequently, of authorship, and the early modern period’s. Act 1, Scene 2 of Volpone features an interlude by the main character’s so-called “bastard children” — Androgyno, Castrone and Nano — and is a scene that is commonly cut from recent productions of the play. This paper intends to underscore this scene’s queerness, both in and of itself, but also in Jonson’s practice as a rewriter, questioning whether he adapted or appropriated Lucian of Samosata’s work in 1.2 of the play.