Volpone takes place in Venice, Italy, in the early 17th century. The play unfolds in a handful of locations across Venice. It opens in the titular character’s bedroom, where he works to defraud his presumptive heirs by pretending to be dying and, at one point, dead. Scattered throughout are scenes in the Scrutineo, the chambers of the Venetian senate, where the avocatori meet and pass judgement on the characters as they begin to be—rightfully and wrongfully—accused of a slew of crimes. There are also some scenes in a few of the characters' own residences. Although it spans five acts, the entirety of the play takes place over the course of one day, starting with the sunrise from Volpone's room—although, Volpone being who he is, he begins the day by greeting his gold rather than the sun.
While the play focuses almost entirely on Venetian society, aside from a handful of English characters who provide sources of comic relief, Jonson wrote Volpone in 1606 during the rise of a new capitalist order in England. To this extent, the play's setting in Venice—home to a much more established capitalist economy at the time—could have been a way for Jonson to flag the dangers of capitalist avarice for England before it was too late.
