Volpone
![An illustration for an 1898 edition of Volpone by Aubrey Beardsley.](/Images/godic/202502/20/Volpone_Beardsley3709.jpg")
![Volpone (Stephen Moorer) from a Pacific Repertory Theatre production at the Golden Bough Playhouse in Carmel, California, September 2000](/Images/godic/202502/20/Volpone33709.jpg")
Volpone (Italian for "sly fox") is a comedy play by English playwright Ben Jonson first produced in 1605-06, drawing on elements of city comedy and beast fable. A merciless satire of greed and lust, it remains Jonson's most-performed play, and it is ranked among the finest Jacobean Era comedies.