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Sir Epicure Mammon: A Study in 'Spiritual Fornication'
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Extract
In his illuminating chapter on The Alchemist in The Broken Compass, Edward B. Partridge discusses the central role of the parody of religion. But he adds the surprising comment that Jonson ‘only sketches it in outline lest the impiety neutralize the comic tone’ (The Broken- Compass, Chatto & Windus, London, 1957). I wish to argue that the caricature of religion in the figure of Sir Epicure Mammon is strong and would have been recognized and condemned as such by the contemporary audience.
The insane hyperbole of Mammon's language is evident immediately on his arrival at Lovewit's house. To him, the den of thieves and prostitutes in which we have just seen Dapper and Drugger pettily deluded and swindled, is ‘the novo orbe,’ ‘the rich Peru.'
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- Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1969
References
1 All quotations from Jonson's plays are from the edition by C. H. Herford and Percy Simpson (Oxford, 1937). I have, however, followed modern typographical conventions.
2 The Song of Solomon was thought to be an alchemical treatise in code.
3 All Biblical quotations, except where otherwise specified, are from the Geneva Bible of 1560 (with abbreviations expanded); Jonson's spelling and quotations agree closely with this version.
4 Certain Sermons or Homilies appointed to be read in Churches,London, 1576. The text is that of the 1562 edition.
5 The italics here draw attention to the triple pun in the word ‘stone.’ Not only, in Mammon's estimation, were they both possessors of the philosopher's stone, and great builders; but he must have been aware too of the obscene use of the word as a slang term for ‘testicles.'
6 The second time this phrase is used exemplifies the process of debasement that is common in the play. Instead of the original proposal to rejuvenate old men and help them to retain a perpetual strength and vitality as Marses and young Cupids, Mammon tells Doll that the elixir will be used to ‘renew Our youth, and strength’ and so enable them to enjoy ‘a perpetuitie Of life, and lust’ (IV. 1. 163).
7 The phrase ‘sing praises’ occurs very frequently in the Psalms. See, for instance, Psalm 149:3: ‘Let them praise his name with the flute: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrell and harpe.'
8 The Geneva Bible's phrase follows the fourteenth-century text of the Wycliffite version. But most other sixteenth-century translations including Coverdale and Tyndale, agree with the Bishops’ Bible. The different emphases are even carried into the shoulder notes. Tyndale has the one word, ‘Mammon,’ while the Bishops’ comment runs: ‘In the Syrian tongue it signifieth money and lucre'—at a time when ‘lucre’ had already achieved its present pejorative associations.
9 See ‘Unifying Symbols in the Comedy of Ben Jonson,’ in Ben, Jonson:A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. Jonas A., Barish (New York, 1963).Google Scholar