Scottish Designs: Bedchamber Politics in Volpone

Abstract

James I's accession to the English throne in 1603 was marked by the rising prominence of the Bedchamber as a powerful and semi-autonomous institution that was manned by an entourage of royal advisors and close personal associates who took care not just of the king's physical needs and private ablutions but also played a vital role in government and policy matters. Based on a prototype of the king's former integrated Scottish household this new ceremonial space became the crux around which the private and political life of the monarch was centered. Yet James' decision to reserve bedchamber positions solely for his Scottish countrymen caused deep disquiet and jealousy among the English political elite. This essay attempts to read the bedchamber setting in Volpone (notwithstanding its Venetian locale and characters) as a darkly humorous parody of the reorganized Scots-centric Jacobean Bedchamber, especially in its potential to function as a privileged site of power, homoerotic patronage, and material profit for a select few. Coming within a year of the composition of the infamous anti-Scots comedy Eastward Ho and written immediately in the aftermath of the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, Volpone (1606) is the closest albeit indirect reflection of the political disgruntlement and cultural anxiety prevailing in England in the first few years of James' reign.