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Allusion
Explanation and Analysis—Volpone's Fated Threads:
In Act 5, Scene 3, Mosca and Volpone continue to toy with the suitors by faking Volpone's death. As Mosca begins to read the lengthy will without naming any of the suitors as an heir, Lady Would-Be bursts into the room, using an idiom to inquire about Volpone's fate:
[Enter Lady Would-Be.]
Lady Would-Be: Mosca!
Is his thread spun?Mosca: Eight chests of linen—
In Ancient Greek myth, destiny was personified by the three Fates (the sisters Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos), and mortal life was represented by a thread of fabric. The sisters would spin these threads of a life and, when they had been spun, measure and cut the threads; they would thereby determine how and when a mortal would die. When Lady Would-Be asks, "Is his thread spun?" she is idiomatically asking whether or not Volpone has died, thus alluding to this mythic tradition of the Fates. This is also a bit of wordplay on Jonson's part, as Mosca is reading a portion of the will that lists the considerable variety of fabrics in Volpone's fortune, which are technically "Volpone's spun threads."
Lady Would-Be's idiomatic question builds upon a strain of classical allusion that Jonson weaves throughout Volpone, as he builds the Italian Renaissance setting of his narrative; as a satirical take on an over-educated English aristocrat, Lady Would-Be constantly makes erudite allusions that emphasize her elite education.
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