The Devil is an Ass

About

Jonson's 1616 comedy is a companion to Volpone and The Alchemist in his great satirical triptych: a minor devil is sent to London to tempt mankind, but discovers that human wickedness has already surpassed anything Hell can offer — he is repeatedly out-conned by the mortals around him. The play is a fascinating document of Jacobean anxieties about capitalism, land speculation, and fraudulent investment schemes; the con at its center involves early modern property speculation of the kind that would produce the South Sea Bubble. Less tightly constructed than Volpone or The Alchemist, it compensates with considerable comic invention.