Set in a plague-stricken London, the comedy centers on three opportunistic swindlers—Subtle, Face, and Dol Common—who take over a vacant townhouse to operate a professional confidence racket. They masquerade as an alchemist and his assistants, promising to manifest the philosopher’s stone for a parade of gullible marks. The targets include a greedy knight seeking infinite wealth, a tobacconist looking for business luck, and Anabaptists hoping for spiritual dominance. As the trio juggles these competing lies, their complex schemes unravel through mutual distrust and the sudden return of the house’s master.
Students of Jacobean literature and fans of satirical farce read this play to observe the technical mechanics of the long con. The text provides a detailed look at seventeenth-century urban skepticism and the precise vocabulary of historical occultism. Readers walk away with an understanding of how language and specialized jargon are used to manufacture authority. It serves as a study in frantic pacing and the way human avarice allows charlatans to succeed using little more than theatrical performance and false hope.
- Published
- 1612
- Language
- EN
