Chapter The Alchemist Summaries and Commentary of The Alchemist - Study Guide by Ben Jonson

Lost where Satan the arch villain and root of evil is endowed with similar rhetorical and manipulative skills.

In the final speech of the scene, for further proof, Mammon claims that various classical stories are "All abstract riddles of our stone" (II.i.104), that is secret, figurative presentations. The stone, he seems to believe, is, and always has been, at the very heart of the truth of the world and in acquiring it he shall return to this truth. Such a viewpoint can only come from the greediest of men, who place their desire for wealth at the centre of their universe.

Act 2. Scene 2

Here Face enters, playing the role of Lungs, the alchemist's assistant, later called Ulen Spiegel, a mythical German practical joker. He reassures Mammon that all is set for "projection", setting Mammon off on further more outlandish and greedier dreams of the future with the stone. He fully reveals his immoral desires, first stating that his only worry is getting enough stuff to transmute. Face wonderfully fuels his immorality by suggesting that he buy the lead coverings off the churches. Mammon needs no persuading and has soon launched into sexual fantasies, drooling at the thought of what the stone will bring him. He believes it will enable him to have any women he desires and shall give him the power to have fifty in a night should he so desire! His talk is entirely of sensual pleasure, from perfumed mists to exquisite foods. By the time Surly points out that it is generally believed that the man who gains the stone must be "a pious, holy and religious man" (II.ii.98) Mammon has well revealed that he is the antithesis of these adjectives. This, he believes, poses no problem for he does not make the stone but merely buys it. The phrase "But I buy it" well demonstrates how in Mammon's world money and satisfying the desire for money are the only things that matter, all other things simply fall into place afterwards.

Act 2. Scene 3

The previous scene ends on an ironic note with Mammon praising Subtle's piety and claiming that he is a man free enough of greed to create the philosopher's stone. Subtle, of course, has created the dream of the stone entirely out of greed. In this scene we are treated to Subtle's pretence of piety as he appears in the role of the holy alchemist, the greatest of roles for the greatest of gulls - Johnson thus highlights the gap between appearance and reality, fantasy and fact.

The scene opens with Subtle warning Mammon of the dangers of "importune, and carnal appetite" (II.iii.8) lest his wanton mind should jeopardise their project. This of course is a set up to allow Subtle to blame the lack of a stone on Mammon's "voluptuous mind". There follows a discussion between Subtle and Face regarding the progress of the stone. It is couched in alchemical jargon which, though deliberately obscurantist, is largely taken from Martin Delrio's Disquisitiones Magicae (1599). Jonson's use of the language of alchemy is well informed and any discussion of its principles in The Alchemist would have been accepted by the authorities of the day. Indeed when the sceptical Surly challenges Subtle, as he does later in the scene, it is not the principles of alchemy that he takes issue with but rather the esoteric nature of the terms used. Subtle, for his part, uses the standard argument of the day in support of his cant that being that the terms are deliberately obscure so that, as Mammon is keen to point out, "the simple idiot should not learn it,/ And make it vulgar" (II.iii.201-202) Mammon, to support the claim, relates the story of Sisyphus who was damned for betraying the secrets of the Gods saying "Sisyphus was damn'd/ To roll the ceaseless stone, only because/ He would have made ours common" (II.iii.208-210).

As he says "common", in a neat theatrical joke, Dol Common appears and Mammon's downfall is furthered. Dol appears as bait for Mammon who sees her and is tempted by Face who leads him to believe she is "a lord's sister". In the hope of sexual conquest, Mammon asks Face to arrange a meeting with her. Face warns Mammon that the alchemist would be very angry if he discovered that he was with her and this harks back to Subtle's warnings of the possibility of endangering the project through giving in to carnal appetites. Thrown into this perfect set up is the easy means for 'the alchemist' to discover Mammon with Dol as Face claims that she has "gone mad, with studying Broughton's works", and "If you but name