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Irony
Explanation and Analysis—The Thrill of the Chase:
In Act 5, Scene 5, Volpone leaves Mosca alone in his house as he leaves to check in on the court proceedings. Soliloquizing on his machinations to the audience, Mosca builds upon the metaphorical animal identities of the play's characters and reveals his plot against Volpone, or "the fox."
[...] My fox
Is out on his hole, and ere he shall re-enter,
I’ll make him languish in his borrowed case,
Except he come to composition with me.[...]
So, now I have the keys and am possessed.
Since he will needs be dead afore his time,
I'll bury him, or gain by him. I'm his heir,
And so will keep me, till he share at least.
To cozen him of all were but a cheat
Well placed; no man would cònstrue it a sin.
Let his sport pay for 't. This is called the fox-trap.
Volpone has left his "hole," or burrow—that is, he has left his house, which is where Mosca now plots against him. Mosca's plan to fleece Volpone for his fortune, meanwhile, builds upon this metaphor when Mosca opts to give it the name of "the fox-trap." Mosca is now using the language of the hunt and establishing himself as the hunter—an aristocratic occupation befitting his newfound disguise as a member of the nobility, which he displays for Volpone and the audience at the beginning of this scene.
Mosca's great strength in Volpone is his ability to manipulate his identity and his status through the versatility of his language, and moments like this soliloquy show his skill in full form, thus creating some dramatic irony for the audience—only they are privy to the nature of Mosca's ambition, as he sets out to write his own story by moving against Volpone.
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