Having said this, the genre that Ben Jonson's The Alchemist is
analyzed under is that of farce. Critics consider that his characters,
which are similar to the types in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales,
are farcical rather than allegorical. Jonson is using farce, with a
whole catalog of "typical" characters, to mock the social element
of swindlers and victims, a prevalent aspect of Jacobean society.
"Typical" characters are those drawn from established literary
types as opposed to fully realized individual characters. In farce
(as in fable and allegory) this technique works rather well because
audience members are familiar with these established literary
types and can therefore all the more easily understand and
appreciate the farce set before them, indeed, they may have on
occasion been one of those types (e.g., victim or swindler)
themselves.
The Alchemist is one of Ben Jonson's more popular comedies. Cony-catching or swindling (a cony was another
word for dupe, gull, or victim) was as popular in the seventeenth century as it is in the twentieth. The con or
swindle was a familiar theme and one which Jonson found to be a natural topic for comedy. There is little
known about audience reaction to any of Jonson's plays.
But Jonson was not as popular with theatre-goers as William Shakespeare. In general, Jonson's plays were not
well received by audiences, but The Alchemist appears to have been more popular than most, probably because
of its topic.