Deception and gullibility are the very foundation of Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist. The play is based on two conmen, Face and Subtle, who use deception to “cozen,” or trick, gullible Londoners into believing they are experts of alchemy in possession of the philosopher’s stone. The very practice of alchemy itself connotes deception and gullibility. Alchemy was viewed as a legitimate branch of science in Jonson’s day; however, the field of alchemy was also known to be saturated with imposters and charlatans—frauds looking to swindle unsuspecting people who turned to alchemy for valid reasons. Alchemy, an early from of chemistry, was credited with the discovery of many important medicines, and since Jonson’s play takes place during a major plague, it is no wonder his characters want so badly to believe in the power of alchemy. Face and Subtle are not the only characters in The Alchemist to use deception, and when Face and Subtle deceive each other, they prove to be just as gullible as their victims. Deception and gullibility are everywhere in The Alchemist, and, Jonson thus implies, in the real world as well. Jonson draws attention to the unfortunate reality of deception and ultimately argues that everyone is at risk of being duped.
Most of Jonson’s characters employ deception in some way, implying that deceptive practices are common in broader society. Face and Subtle’s con depends on them convincing their victims that they are experts in alchemy. As such, Subtle dresses in long robes and claims to be a respected doctor of alchemy. Face pretends to be one of Subtle’s students, and they dupe their victims into believing their story through costumes and speaking in alchemical jargon. Surly, the friend of Mammon (one of Face and Subtle’s victims), suspects that Face and Subtle are cons when they promise to deliver the philosopher’s stone. To expose them as frauds, Surly arrives at Face and Subtle’s house disguised as a Spaniard. Surly’s deception works, and even though it does him little good, he exposes Face and Subtle as frauds. Doll, Face and Subtle’s criminal associate, likewise uses deception to dupe their victims. Dressed as the “Fairy Queen,” Doll convinces Dapper, a clerk and their first victim, that she is the keeper of the magic of the philosopher’s stone. Like most of the deception depicted in The Alchemist, Doll manages to convince Dapper of her mystical identity.
In addition to the successful deception of many of Jonson’s characters, their victims—who are otherwise intelligent people—prove to be incredibly gullible, especially Dapper, a law clerk and Subtle and Face’s first victim. This gullibility implies that even smart people are vulnerable to deception. When Dapper first arrives at Face’s door, he tells Face that he nearly didn’t make it. The night before, Dapper lent his watch “to one / That dines today at the sheriff’s and so was robbed / Of [his] pass-time.” Dapper is immediately portrayed as gullible, as he borrowed his watch to a thief without realizing it. Dapper, who comes to Face and Subtle in search of a “familiar”—a bit of alchemical magic that will give him luck at gambling and cards—instantly believes Face and Subtle when they tell him that he must obtain such “familiars” from the “Fairy Queen.” Furthermore, Dapper believes the ritual Face and Subtle insist must be completed before meeting the Fairy. They claim Dapper must first fast and “take / Three drops of vinegar in at [his] nose; / Two at [his] mouth; and one at either ear; / Then bathe [his] fingers’ ends; and wash [his] eyes.” Dapper must also “hum” and “buzz” three times, and only then will the Fairy see him. Dapper proves to be exceedingly gullible, and he immediately rushes home to complete the ritual. Before Dapper finally meets the Fairy Queen (who is, of course, Doll in disguise), Face and Subtle convince him that he must greet her in a petticoat. Dapper again proves himself gullible and dresses in a petticoat, and he further allows Face and Subtle to blindfold him and gag him with a rag and “a piece of gingerbread” shoved into his mouth. Dapper submits to each of these humiliations just to meet the Fairy Queen and get his “familiar.”
Face, as it turns out, is deceiving everyone and is really a butler named Jeremy. His master, Lovewit, returns from the country at the end of the play to find Jeremy posing as Face and running cons out of his home with Subtle. Jeremy manages to convince Lovewit not to punish him by bribing Lovewit with Dame Pliant, a beautiful, young woman, and when Face’s victims converge on the house with police looking for the conmen who swindled them, Lovewit claims his house has been closed up for nearly a month and was broken in by criminal conmen, who have long since fled. Lovewit likewise uses deception, and the police and the victims fall for his lies, which further speaks to the deception and gullibility of broader society.
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Deception and Gullibility Quotes in The Alchemist
In the age of sacrifices, the truth of religion was not in the greatness and fat of the offerings, but in the devotion and zeal of the sacrifices: else, what could a handful of gums have done in the sight of a hecatomb? Or how might I appear at this altar, except with those affections that no less love the light and witness than they have the conscience of your virtue? If what I offer bear an acceptable odour, and hold the first strength, it is your value of it which remembers where, when, and to whom it was kindled. Otherwise, as the times are, there comes rarely forth that thing so full of authority or example but by assiduity and custom grows less, and loses. This yet safe in your judgement (which is a Sidney’s) is forbidden to speak more, lest it talk or look like one of the ambitious Faces of the time, who, the more they paint, are the less themselves.
If thou beest more, thou art an understander, and then I trust thee. If thou art one that tak’st up, and but a pretender, beware at what hands thou receiv’st thy commodity; for thou wert never more fair in the way to be cozened than in this age in poetry, especially in plays: wherein now the concupiscence of dances and antics so reigneth, as to run away from Nature and be afraid of her is the only point of art that tickles the spectators.
Our scene is London, ’cause we would make known
No country’s mirth is better than our own.
No clime breeds better matter for your whore,
Bawd, squire, impostor, many persons more,
Whose manners, now called humours, feed the stage,
And which have still been subject for the rage
Or spleen of comic writers. Though this pen
Did never aim to grieve, but better men,
Howe’er the age he lives in doth endure
The vices that she breeds, above their cure.
But when the wholesome remedies are sweet,
And in their working, gain and profit meet,
He hopes to find no spirit so much diseased,
But will, with such fair correctives, be pleased;
For here, he doth not fear, who can apply.
If there be any, that will sit so nigh
Unto the stream, to look what it doth run,
They shall find things they’d think, or wish, were done;
They are so natural follies, but so shown,
As even the doers may see, and yet not own.
And you, too,
Will give the cause, forsooth? You will insult
And claim a primacy in the divisions?
You must be chief? As if you only had
The powder to project with? And the work
Were not begun out of equality?
The venture tripartite? All things in common?
Without priority? ’Sdeath, you perpetual curs,
Fall to your couples again, and cozen kindly
And heartily and lovingly, as you should,
And lose not the beginning of a term,
Or, by this hand, I shall grow factious too,
And take my part, and quit you.
Yes, Captain, I would have it for all games.
Sir, against one o’clock, prepare yourself.
Till when you must be fasting; only, take
Three drops of vinegar in at your nose;
Two at your mouth; and one at either ear;
Then bathe your fingers’ ends; and wash your eyes,
To sharpen your five senses; and cry ‘hum’
Thrice; and then ‘buzz’, as often; and then, come.
Pray you, sir, stay.
Rather than I’ll be brayed, sir, I’ll believe,
That alchemy is a pretty kind of game,
Somewhat like tricks o’the cards, to cheat a man
With charming.
Good brother, we must bend unto all means
That may give furtherance to the holy cause.
She now is set
At dinner in her bed, and she has sent you
From her own private trencher, a dead mouse
And a piece of gingerbread, to be merry withal,
And stay your stomach, lest you faint with fasting;
Yet, if you could hold out till she saw you (she says)
It would be better for you.
Be silent: not a word if he call or knock.
I’ll into mine old shape again, and meet him,
Of Jeremy the butler. I’ the meantime,
Do you two pack up all the goods and purchase
That we can carry i’ the two trunks. I’ll keep him
Off for today, if I cannot longer; and then
At night, I’ll ship you both away to Ratcliffe,
Where we’ll meet tomorrow, and there we’ll share.
Let Mammon’s brass and pewter keep the cellar;
We’ll have another time for that. But, Doll,
Pray thee, go heat a little water, quickly,
Subtle must shave me.
So I will, sir. Gentlemen,
My part a little fell in this last scene,
Yet ’twas decorum. And though I am clean
Got off, from Subtle, Surly, Mammon, Doll,
Hot Ananias, Dapper, Drugger, all
With whom I traded; yet I put myself
On you, that are my country; and this pelf
Which I have got, if you do quit me, rests
To feast you often, and invite new guests.
