Volpone

 

Ben Jonson was one of William Shakespeare's rivals at the time. Although this play is good there is just something about Shakespeare that is untimely. But then he just wasn't the best playwright of his time period, he is arguably the finest playwright in general. I guess it's an unfair comparison. In Volpone there is no likable character. It's about a rich man Volpone who sets out to dupe three men into thinking that they will be his heirs through deceitful means. Only he is cheated in the end by his servant Mosca who has been helping him all along. This would have made an awesome silent movie with someone like Conrad Veidt in the lead. It's a shame that no one envisioned this.