Plutus [3]
CARIO
That the tower of Timotheus...
CHREMYLUS
...(To CARIO) May it fall upon your head! (To PLUTUS) In short,
Plutus, it is through you that everything is done; you must realize
that you are the sole cause both of good and evil.
CARIO
In war, it's the flag under which you serve that victory favours.
PLUTUS
What! I can do so many things by myself and unaided?
CHREMYLUS
And many others besides; wherefore men are never tired of your
gifts. They get weary of all else,-of love...
CARIO
Bread.
CHREMYLUS
Music.
CARIO
Sweetmeats.
CHREMYLUS
Honours.
CARIO
Cakes.
CHREMYLUS
Battles.
CARIO
Figs.
CHREMYLUS
Ambition.
CARIO
Gruel.
CHREMYLUS
Military advancement.
CARIO
Lentil soup.
CHREMYLUS
But of you they never tire. If a man has thirteen talents, he
has all the greater ardour to possess sixteen; if that wish is
achieved, he will want forty or will complain that he knows not how to
make both ends meet.
PLUTUS
All this, I suppose, is very true; there is but one point that
makes me feel a bit uneasy.
CHREMYLUS
And that is?
PLUTUS
How could I use this power, which you say I have?
CHREMYLUS
Ah! they were quite right who said there's nothing more timorous
than Plutus
PLUTUS
No, no; it was a thief who calumniated me. Having broken into a
house, he found everything locked up and could take nothing, so he
dubbed my prudence fear.
CHREMYLUS
Don't be disturbed; if you support me zealously, I'll make you
more sharp-sighted than Lynceus.
PLUTUS
And how should you be able to do that, you. who are but a mortal?
CHREMYLUS
I have great hope, after the answer Apollo gave me, shaking his
sacred laurels the while.
PLUTUS
Is he in the plot then?
CHREMYLUS
Surely.
PLUTUS
Take care what you say.
CHREMYLUS
Never fear, friend; for, be well assured, that if it has to cost
me my life, I will carry out what I have in my head.
CARIO
And I will help you, if you permit it.
CHREMYLUS
We shall have many other helpers as well-all the worthy folk who
are wanting for bread.
PLUTUS
Ah! they'll prove sorry helpers.
CHREMYLUS
No, not so, once they've grown rich. But you, Cario, run quick...
CARIO
Where?
CHREMYLUS
...to call my comrades, the other husbandmen (you'll probably
find the poor fellows toiling away in the fields), that each of
them may come here to take his share of the gifts of Plutus.
CARIO
I'm off. But let someone come from the house to take this morsel
of meat.
CHREMYLUS
I'll see to that; you run your hardest. As for you, Plutus, the
most excellent of all the gods, come in here with me; this is the
house you must fill with riches to-day, by fair means or foul.
PLUTUS
I don't at all like going into other folks' houses in this manner;
I have never got any good from it. If I got inside a miser's house,
straightway he would bury me deep underground; if some honest fellow
among his friends came to ask him for the smallest coin, he would deny
ever having seen me. Then if I went to a fool's house, he would
sacrifice in dicing and wenching, and very soon I should be completely
stripped and pitched out of doors.
CHREMYLUS
That's because you have never met a man who knew how to avoid
the two extremes; moderation is the strong point in my character. I
love saving as much as anybody, and I know how to spend, when it's
needed. But let us go in; I want to make you known to my wife and to
my only son, whom I love most of all after yourself.
PLUTUS
I'm quite sure of that.
CHREMYLUS
Why should I hide the truth from you?
(They enter CHREMYLUS' house.)
CARIO