CHREMYLUS: I call the gods to witness that you have naught to fear if you will only speak.
PLUTUS: Well then, first unhand me.
CHREMYLUS: There! we set you free.
PLUTUS: Listen then, since I must reveal what I had intended to keep a secret. I am Plutus.
CHREMYLUS: Oh! you wretched rascal! You Plutus all the while, and you never said so!
CARIO: You, Plutus, and in this piteous guise! Oh, Phœbus Apollo! oh, ye gods of heaven and hell! Oh, Zeus! is it really and truly as you say?
PLUTUS: Aye.
CHREMYLUS: Plutus' very own self?
PLUTUS: His own very self and none other.
CHREMYLUS: But tell me, whence come you to be so squalid?
PLUTUS: I have just left Patrocles' house, who has not had a bath since his birth.
CHREMYLUS: But your infirmity; how did that happen? Tell me.
PLUTUS: Zeus inflicted it on me, because of his jealousy of mankind. When I was young, I threatened him that I would only go to the just, the wise, the men of ordered life; to prevent my distinguishing these, he struck me with blindness! so much does he envy the good!
CHREMYLUS: And yet, 'tis only the upright and just who honour him.
PLUTUS: Quite true.
CHREMYLUS: Therefore, if ever you recovered your sight, you would shun the wicked?
PLUTUS: Undoubtedly.
CHREMYLUS: You would visit the good?
PLUTUS: Assuredly. It is a very long time since I saw them.
CHREMYLUS: That's not astonishing. I, who see clearly, don't see a single one.
PLUTUS: Now let me leave you, for I have told you everything.
CHREMYLUS: No, certainly not! we shall fasten ourselves on to you faster than ever.
PLUTUS: Did I not tell you, you were going to plague me?
CHREMYLUS: Oh! I adjure you, believe what I say and don't leave me; for you will seek in vain for a more honest man than myself.
CARIO: There is only one man more worthy; and that is I.
PLUTUS: All talk like this, but as soon as they secure my favours and grow rich, their wickedness knows no bounds.
CHREMYLUS: And yet all men are not wicked.
PLUTUS: All. There's no exception.
CARIO: You shall pay for that opinion.
CHREMYLUS: Listen to what happiness there is in store for you, if you but stay with us. I have hope; aye, I have good hope with the god's help to deliver you from that blindness, in fact to restore your sight.
PLUTUS: Oh! do nothing of the kind, for I don't wish to recover it.
CHREMYLUS: What's that you say?
CARIO: This fellow hugs his own misery.
PLUTUS: If you were mad enough to cure me, and Zeus heard of it, he would overwhelm me with his anger.
CHREMYLUS: And is he not doing this now by leaving you to grope your wandering way?
PLUTUS: I don't know; but I'm horribly afraid of him.
CHREMYLUS: Indeed? Ah! you are the biggest poltroon of all the gods! Why, Zeus with his throne and his lightnings would not be worth an obolus if you recovered your sight, were it but for a few instants.
PLUTUS: Impious man, don't talk like that.
CHREMYLUS: Fear nothing! I will prove to you that you are far more powerful and mightier than he.
PLUTUS: I mightier than he?
CHREMYLUS: Aye, by heaven!
(To CAIRO)
For instance, what is the origin of the power that Zeus wields over the other gods?
CARIO: 'Tis money; he has so much of it.
CHREMYLUS: And who gives it to him?
CARIO (pointing to Plutus): This fellow.
CHREMYLUS: If sacrifices are offered to him, is not Plutus their cause?
CARIO: Undoubtedly, for 'tis wealth that all demand and clamour most loudly for.
CHREMYLUS: Thus 'tis Plutus who is the fount of all the honours rendered to Zeus, whose worship he can wither up at the root, if it so pleases him.
PLUTUS: And how so?
CHREMYLUS: Not an ox, nor a cake, nor indeed anything at all could be offered, if you did not wish it.
PLUTUS: Why?
CHREMYLUS: Why? but what means are there to buy anything if you are not there to give the money? Hence if Zeus should cause you any trouble, you will destroy his power without other help.
PLUTUS: So 'tis because of me that sacrifices are offered to him?
CHREMYLUS: Most assuredly. Whatever is dazzling, beautiful or charming in the eyes of mankind, comes from you. Does not everything depend on wealth?
CARIO: I myself was bought for a few coins; if I'm a slave, 'tis only because I was not rich.
CHREMYLUS: And what of the Corinthian courtesans? If a poor man offers them proposals, they do not listen; but if it be a rich one, instantly they offer their buttocks for his pleasure.
CARIO: 'Tis the same with the lads; they care not for love, to them money means everything.