The Alchemist: Act 1, Scene 4 Summary & Analysis

Doll enters and looks out the window. She can see Sir Epicure Mammon coming up the street, and he has someone with him. Subtle turns to Face and tells him to quickly go change. Doll asks why, and Subtle explains that Mammon thinks Subtle has created the philosopher’s stone for him. Mammon has been talking around town for the last month as if he already has it. He has visited those with the plague and the pox—even the lepers outside the city—and he promises to soon cure them. Mammon plans to turn the old young, and he will make beggars rich. “If his dream last,” Subtle says, “he’ll turn the age to gold.”