《狐狸》(Volpone)的戏剧背景分析

Analysts of Volpone's Setting

本·琼生(Ben Jonson)是英国文艺复兴时期的戏剧家,和莎士比亚是同一时代的人。《狐狸》(Volpone)是他的代表作。剧本以讽刺当时社会“金钱至上”的唯金主义为主题,批判和揭露了由此引发的各种社会畸形。剧本虽然主要反映的是英国詹姆士(Jacobean)时代伦敦刚刚崛起的商人阶层,但故事背景却是意大利的威尼斯。本文力图分析琼生把一部反映英国社会问题戏剧的背景选择为威尼斯的原因,和威尼斯的故事背景对《狐狸》的剧情展开的作用。

Ben Jonson is a dramatist,and one of Shakespeare contemporaries in the Renaissance. Volpone is generally considered Jonson's masterpiece.The play is focusing on the overemphasis on the importance of money, criticizing the“materalism of the age”and exposing the various deformities arising from the vice.This paper is striving to analyze the reasons why Jonson chooses Venice as the play's setting and how Volpone benefits from the setting.