The Alchemist

The Alchemist is an early modern comedic play written by Ben Jonson and originally performed in 1610 at Oxford by the King’s Men, a group most associated with Shakespeare.

The Alchemist, like many of Jonson’s plays, is a comedy of humors based on Galenic medical theory, which held that people are predominantly influenced by “humors,” or bodily fluids associated with specific personality types or traits. The play addresses themes of greed, deception, performance, and justice. Its three characters, Face, Subtle, and Dol, decide to deceive and rob as many people as they can. Their customers—merchants to knights to clergy—are tricked by virtue of their desire for some unattainable or magical thing that the trio promises to provide. The main object of desire is the philosopher’s stone, a mythic artifact that can cure any sickness and turn any metal into gold.

Jonson was a prolific playwright, writing 18 complete plays in his lifetime with two more left incomplete at the time of his death. Like Shakespeare, he was also an actor, becoming part of the theater scene after working as a bricklayer and a soldier. Jonson’s first play, Every Man in His Humour, was first performed in 1598.