The Alchemist

The Alchemist

by

Ben Jonson

Doll Common Character Analysis

Face and Subtle’s criminal associate. In addition to numerous other scams and cons, Face is running a brothel out of Lovewit’s house, and Doll is his prostitute. When Abel Drugger visits Subtle and Face in search of a “familiar” to give him luck at cards and gambling, Doll dresses up as the “Fairy Queen,” a keeper of sorts of alchemical magic. Dressed as the Fairy Queen, Doll dupes Drugger out of even more money and gives him a bird that she swears will bring him luck at the card tables. Doll catches Mammon’s eye when he comes to Subtle for the philosopher’s stone, and Face tells him that Doll is the sister of an aristocrat and a “rare scholar,” who went insane after studying the works of a Puritan scholar. Face introduces Mammon to Doll—knowing Mammon will have sex with her and give Subtle an excuse not to give him the philosopher’s stone—and they quickly retire to the garden for privacy, where they presumably have sex. Afterward, Mammon indirectly mentions religion (against Face’s instructions), and Doll launches herself into an acute fit of insanity, excitedly quoting the same Puritan scholar who supposedly drove her to madness in the first place. After Lovewit returns and puts an end to Face’s criminal enterprise, Doll and Subtle plan to skip out on Face and rob him of his share of the profits, but Face betrays them first and doesn’t give them a chance to take their profits when the police come to Lovewit’s with the victims. Doll represents transformation within The Alchemist, as her character is constantly changing and evolving, and she also underscores Jonson’s religious argument. Doll’s act as a “rare scholar” driven insane by Puritan works mirrors Jonson’s condemnation of religious fanaticism, particularly radical Protestantism, which threatened to undermine the Protestant Reformation. Doll also represents greed and vice, namely sex. She is sexually linked to several of the characters, highlighting Jonson’s argument that while sex out of wedlock is often considered a particularly immoral vice, it is a common sin committed by many.

Doll Common Quotes in The Alchemist

The The Alchemist quotes below are all either spoken by Doll Common or refer to Doll Common. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Alchemy and Transformation  Theme Icon
).
Act 1, Scene 1 Quotes

And you, too,
Will give the cause, forsooth? You will insult
And claim a primacy in the divisions?
You must be chief? As if you only had
The powder to project with? And the work
Were not begun out of equality?
The venture tripartite? All things in common?
Without priority? ’Sdeath, you perpetual curs,
Fall to your couples again, and cozen kindly
And heartily and lovingly, as you should,
And lose not the beginning of a term,
Or, by this hand, I shall grow factious too,
And take my part, and quit you.

Related Characters: Doll Common (speaker), Face / Jeremy the Butler, Subtle
Related Symbols: The Philosopher’s Stone
Page Number: 221
Explanation and Analysis:

For which, at supper, thou shalt sit in triumph,
And not be styled Doll Common, but Doll Proper,
Doll Singular: the longest cut, at night,
Shall draw thee for his Doll Particular.

Related Characters: Face / Jeremy the Butler (speaker), Subtle, Doll Common
Page Number: 222
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 1, Scene 4 Quotes

Methinks I see him entering ordinaries,
Dispensing for the pox; and plaguy houses,
Reaching his dose; walking Moorfields for lepers;
And offering citizens’ wives pomander-bracelets
As his preservative, made of the elixir;
Searching the spittle, to make old bawds young;
And the highways for beggars to make rich.
I see no end of his labours. He will make
Nature ashamed of her long sleep, when art,
Who’s but a stepdame, shall do more than she,
In her best love to mankind, ever could.
If his dream last, he’ll turn the age to gold.

Related Characters: Subtle (speaker), Doll Common, Sir Epicure Mammon
Related Symbols: The Philosopher’s Stone
Page Number: 234
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 3 Quotes

You’re very right, sir; she is a most rare scholar,
And is gone mad with studying Broughton’s works.
If you but name a word touching the Hebrew,
She falls into her fit, and will discourse
So learnedly of genealogies,
As you would run mad, too, to hear her, sir.

Related Characters: Face / Jeremy the Butler (speaker), Doll Common, Sir Epicure Mammon
Page Number: 249
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 4, Scene 1 Quotes

Sweet Madame, let me be particular—

Particular, sir? I pray you, know your distance.

Related Characters: Doll Common (speaker), Sir Epicure Mammon (speaker), Face / Jeremy the Butler, Subtle
Related Symbols: The Philosopher’s Stone
Page Number: 281
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 4, Scene 7 Quotes

Be silent: not a word if he call or knock.
I’ll into mine old shape again, and meet him,
Of Jeremy the butler. I’ the meantime,
Do you two pack up all the goods and purchase
That we can carry i’ the two trunks. I’ll keep him
Off for today, if I cannot longer; and then
At night, I’ll ship you both away to Ratcliffe,
Where we’ll meet tomorrow, and there we’ll share.
Let Mammon’s brass and pewter keep the cellar;
We’ll have another time for that. But, Doll,
Pray thee, go heat a little water, quickly,
Subtle must shave me.

Related Characters: Face / Jeremy the Butler (speaker), Subtle, Doll Common, Sir Epicure Mammon, Lovewit
Page Number: 306
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 5, Scene 5 Quotes

So I will, sir. Gentlemen,
My part a little fell in this last scene,
Yet ’twas decorum. And though I am clean
Got off, from Subtle, Surly, Mammon, Doll,
Hot Ananias, Dapper, Drugger, all
With whom I traded; yet I put myself
On you, that are my country; and this pelf
Which I have got, if you do quit me, rests
To feast you often, and invite new guests.

Related Characters: Face / Jeremy the Butler (speaker), Subtle, Doll Common, Sir Epicure Mammon, Dapper, Ananias, Surly / The Spaniard, Abel Drugger
Page Number: 326
Explanation and Analysis:
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Doll Common Quotes in The Alchemist

The The Alchemist quotes below are all either spoken by Doll Common or refer to Doll Common. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Alchemy and Transformation  Theme Icon
).
Act 1, Scene 1 Quotes

And you, too,
Will give the cause, forsooth? You will insult
And claim a primacy in the divisions?
You must be chief? As if you only had
The powder to project with? And the work
Were not begun out of equality?
The venture tripartite? All things in common?
Without priority? ’Sdeath, you perpetual curs,
Fall to your couples again, and cozen kindly
And heartily and lovingly, as you should,
And lose not the beginning of a term,
Or, by this hand, I shall grow factious too,
And take my part, and quit you.

Related Characters: Doll Common (speaker), Face / Jeremy the Butler, Subtle
Related Symbols: The Philosopher’s Stone
Page Number: 221
Explanation and Analysis:

For which, at supper, thou shalt sit in triumph,
And not be styled Doll Common, but Doll Proper,
Doll Singular: the longest cut, at night,
Shall draw thee for his Doll Particular.

Related Characters: Face / Jeremy the Butler (speaker), Subtle, Doll Common
Page Number: 222
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 1, Scene 4 Quotes

Methinks I see him entering ordinaries,
Dispensing for the pox; and plaguy houses,
Reaching his dose; walking Moorfields for lepers;
And offering citizens’ wives pomander-bracelets
As his preservative, made of the elixir;
Searching the spittle, to make old bawds young;
And the highways for beggars to make rich.
I see no end of his labours. He will make
Nature ashamed of her long sleep, when art,
Who’s but a stepdame, shall do more than she,
In her best love to mankind, ever could.
If his dream last, he’ll turn the age to gold.

Related Characters: Subtle (speaker), Doll Common, Sir Epicure Mammon
Related Symbols: The Philosopher’s Stone
Page Number: 234
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 3 Quotes

You’re very right, sir; she is a most rare scholar,
And is gone mad with studying Broughton’s works.
If you but name a word touching the Hebrew,
She falls into her fit, and will discourse
So learnedly of genealogies,
As you would run mad, too, to hear her, sir.

Related Characters: Face / Jeremy the Butler (speaker), Doll Common, Sir Epicure Mammon
Page Number: 249
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 4, Scene 1 Quotes

Sweet Madame, let me be particular—

Particular, sir? I pray you, know your distance.

Related Characters: Doll Common (speaker), Sir Epicure Mammon (speaker), Face / Jeremy the Butler, Subtle
Related Symbols: The Philosopher’s Stone
Page Number: 281
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 4, Scene 7 Quotes

Be silent: not a word if he call or knock.
I’ll into mine old shape again, and meet him,
Of Jeremy the butler. I’ the meantime,
Do you two pack up all the goods and purchase
That we can carry i’ the two trunks. I’ll keep him
Off for today, if I cannot longer; and then
At night, I’ll ship you both away to Ratcliffe,
Where we’ll meet tomorrow, and there we’ll share.
Let Mammon’s brass and pewter keep the cellar;
We’ll have another time for that. But, Doll,
Pray thee, go heat a little water, quickly,
Subtle must shave me.

Related Characters: Face / Jeremy the Butler (speaker), Subtle, Doll Common, Sir Epicure Mammon, Lovewit
Page Number: 306
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 5, Scene 5 Quotes

So I will, sir. Gentlemen,
My part a little fell in this last scene,
Yet ’twas decorum. And though I am clean
Got off, from Subtle, Surly, Mammon, Doll,
Hot Ananias, Dapper, Drugger, all
With whom I traded; yet I put myself
On you, that are my country; and this pelf
Which I have got, if you do quit me, rests
To feast you often, and invite new guests.

Related Characters: Face / Jeremy the Butler (speaker), Subtle, Doll Common, Sir Epicure Mammon, Dapper, Ananias, Surly / The Spaniard, Abel Drugger
Page Number: 326
Explanation and Analysis: