The Alchemist

During an outbreak of plague in London, the gentleman Lovewit flees to the country and leaves his house in the care of his butler, Face. Face invites in a con man, Subtle, who poses as an alchemist, and a prostitute, Dol Common, and together they turn the house into a factory of fraud, promising a parade of greedy and gullible visitors the philosopher's stone, luck at gambling, a rich marriage or a meeting with the Queen of Fairies, until the master unexpectedly comes home.

Ben Jonson's comedy was first performed in 1610, and it keeps strictly to the classical unity of time, taking place in the space of a few hours. Samuel Taylor Coleridge counted it, with Oedipus the King and Tom Jones, among the three most perfect plots ever planned. From here, try Jonson's Volpone.