Listen then, since I must reveal what I had
intended
to keep a
secret.
secret.
Aristophanes
393).
The Athenians
suspected him of having been bribed by the Spartans.
[683] A coined word, derived from [Greek: _achras_], a wild pear.
[684] Amynon was not a physician, according to the Scholiast, but one of
those orators called [Greek: europr_oktoi] (_laticuli_) 'wide-arsed,'
because addicted to habits of pathic vice, and was invoked by Blepyrus
for that reason.
[685] A doctor notorious for his dissolute life.
[686] The Grecian goddess who presided over child-birth.
[687] He is afraid lest some comic poet should surprise him in his
ridiculous position and might cause a laugh at his expense upon the
stage.
[688] In accordance with a quaint Athenian custom a rope daubed with
vermilion was drawn across from end to end of the Agora (market-place) by
officials of the city at the last moment before the Ecclesia, or Public
Assembly, was to meet. Any citizen trying to evade his duty to be present
was liable to have his white robe streaked red, and so be exposed to
general ridicule on finally putting in an appearance on the Pnyx.
[689] A parody on a verse in 'The Myrmidons' of Aeschylus. --Antilochus
was the son of Nestor; he was killed by Memnon, when defending his
father.
[690] See above.
[691] He was very poor, and his cloak was such a mass of holes that one
might doubt his having one at all. This surname, Evaeon ([Greek: eu
ai_on], delicious life) had doubtless been given him on the 'lucus a non'
principle because of his wretchedness.
[692] Apparently a wealthy corn-factor.
[693] Presumably this refers to the grandson of Nicias, the leader of the
expedition to Sicily; he must have been sixteen or seventeen years old
about that time, since, according to Lysias, Niceratus, the son of the
great Nicias, was killed in 405 B. C. and had left a son of tender age
behind him, who bore the name of his grandfather.
[694] That is, the pale-faced folk in the Assembly already referred
to--really the women there present surreptitiously.
[695] To eat cuttle-fish was synonymous with enjoying the highest
felicity.
[696] A common vulgar saying, used among the Athenians, as much as to
say, _To the devil with interruptions! _
[697] This stood in the centre of the market-place.
[698] It was the custom at Athens to draw lots to decide in which Court
each dicast should serve; Praxagora proposes to apply the same system to
decide the dining station for each citizen.
[699] In Greek [Greek: h_e basileius]([Greek: stoa], understood), the
first letter a [Greek: b_eta. ]
[700] Commencing with a [Greek: Th_eta].
[701] [Greek: Ha alphitop_olis stoa]; why [Greek: kappa], it is hard to
say; from some popular nickname probably, which is unknown to us.
[702] The pun cannot be kept in English; it is between [Greek: kaptein],
to gobble, to cram oneself, and [Greek: kappa], the designating letter.
[703] That is, one of the beautiful maidens selected to bear the baskets
containing the sacred implements in procession at the Festival of
Demeter, Bacchus and Athene.
[704] The slave-girl who attended each Canephoros, and sheltered her from
the sun's rays.
[705] Mentioned a little above for his ugliness; the Scholiast says he
was a general.
[706] Hydriaphoros; the wives of resident aliens ([Greek: metoikoi]) were
allowed to take part in these processions, but in a subordinate position;
they carried vessels full of water for the service of the sacrifice.
[707] Scaphephoros, bearer of the vases containing the honey required for
the sacrifices. The office was assigned to the [Greek: metoikoi] as a
recognition of their semi-citizenship.
[708] A miser, who, moreover, was obstinately constipated.
[709] Presumably a man in extreme poverty.
[710] The ancients carried small coins in their mouth; this custom still
obtains to-day in the East.
[711] This Euripides was the son of the tragic poet.
[712] This Smaeus was a notorious debauchee; the phrase contains obscene
allusions, implying that he was ready both to ride a woman or to lick her
privates--[Greek: kel_etizein] or [Greek: lesbiazein].
[713] Geres, an old fop, who wanted to pass as a young man.
[714] According to Greek custom, these were left at the entrance of the
banqueting-hall.
[715] The names of his slaves.
[716] A specimen of the _serenades_ ([Greek: paraklausithura]) of the
Greeks.
[717] An Attic deme. There is an obscene jest here; the word [Greek:
anaphlan] means to masturbate.
[718] [Greek: Ton Sebinon], a coined name, representing [Greek: ton se
binounta], 'the man who is to tread you. '
[719] The passage is written in the language of the Bar. It is an
allusion to the slowness of justice at Athens.
[720] i. e. the new law must be conformed to all round.
[721] It was customary to paint phials or little bottles on the coffins
of the poor; these emblems took the place of the perfumes that were
sprinkled on the bodies of the rich.
[722] i. e. unless I am your slave; no doubt this tax of five hundredths
was paid by the master on the assumed value of his slave. --We have,
however, no historical data to confirm this.
[723] Nickname of the notorious brigand. The word means 'one who
stretches and tortures,' from [Greek: prokrouein], and refers to his
habit of fitting all his captives to the same bedstead--the 'bed of
Procrustes'--stretching them if too short to the required length, lopping
their limbs as required if they were too long. Here a further pun is
involved, [Greek: prokrouein] meaning also 'to go with a woman first. '
[724] Athenian law declared it illegal for a woman to contract any debt
exceeding the price of a _medimnus_ of corn; this law is now supposed to
affect the men.
[725] Merchants were exempt from military service; in this case, it is
another kind of service that the old woman wants to exact from the young
man.
[726] A Thracian brigand, who forced strangers to share his daughters'
bed, or be devoured by his horses.
[727] Dead bodies were laid out on a layer of origanum, which is an
aromatic plant.
[728] The young man is here describing the formalities connected with the
laying out of the dead.
[729] Who had married his mother Jocasta without knowing it.
[730] A hideous spectre that Hecate was supposed to send to frighten men.
[731] Which provided that where a number of criminals were charged with
the same offence, each must be tried separately.
[732] As an aphrodisiac.
[733] We have already seen similar waggish endings to phrases in the
'Lysistrata'; the figure is called [Greek: para prosdokian]--'contrary to
expectation. '
[734] Nothing is known as to these Cretan rhythms. According to the
Scholiast, this is a jest, because the Cretans, who were great eaters,
sat down to table early in the morning. This is what the Chorus supposes
it is going to do, since 'The Ecclesiazusae' was played first, i. e.
during the forenoon.
[735] This wonderful word consists, in the original Greek, of
seventy-seven syllables. For similar burlesque compounds see the
'Lysistrata,' 457, 458; 'Wasps,' 505 and 520. Compare Shakespeare,
'Love's Labour's Lost,' Act V. sc. 1: "I marvel thy master hath not eaten
thee for a word; for thou art not so long by the head as
_honorificabilitudinitatibus_. " This is outdone by Rabelais'
_Antipericatametaanaparbeugedamphicribrationibus_.
PLUTUS[*]
[* Transcriber's note: This caption is missing in the original. ]
INTRODUCTION
The 'Plutus' differs widely from all other works of its Author, and, it
must be confessed, is the least interesting and diverting of them all.
"In its absence of personal interests and personal satire," and its lack
of strong comic incidents, "it approximates rather to a whimsical
allegory than a comedy properly so called. "
The plot is of the simplest. Chremylus, a poor but just man, accompanied
by his body-servant Cario--the redeeming feature, by the by, of an
otherwise dull play, the original type of the comic valet of the stage of
all subsequent periods--consults the Delphic Oracle concerning his son,
whether he ought not to be instructed in injustice and knavery and the
other arts whereby worldly men acquire riches. By way of answer the god
only tells him that he is to follow whomsoever he first meets upon
leaving the temple, who proves to be a blind and ragged old man. But this
turns out to be no other than Plutus himself, the god of riches, whom
Zeus has robbed of his eyesight, so that he may be unable henceforth to
distinguish between the just and the unjust. However, succoured by
Chremylus and conducted by him to the Temple of Aesculapius, Plutus
regains the use of his eyes. Whereupon all just men, including the god's
benefactor, are made rich and prosperous, and the unjust reduced to
indigence.
The play was, it seems, twice put upon the stage--first in 408 B. C. , and
again in a revised and reinforced edition, with allusions and innuendoes
brought up to date, in 388 B. C. , a few years before the Author's death.
The text we possess--marred, however, by several considerable lacunae--is
now generally allowed to be that of the piece as played at the later
date, when it won the prize.
* * * * *
PLUTUS
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
CHREMYLUS.
CARIO, Servant of Chremylus.
PLUTUS, God of Riches.
BLEPSIDEMUS, friend of Chremylus.
WIFE OF CHREMYLUS.
POVERTY.
A JUST MAN.
AN INFORMER, or Sycophant.
AN OLD WOMAN.
A YOUTH.
HERMES.
A PRIEST OF ZEUS.
CHORUS OF RUSTICS.
SCENE: In front of a farmhouse--a road leading up to it.
* * * * *
PLUTUS
CARIO. What an unhappy fate, great gods, to be the slave of a fool! A
servant may give the best of advice, but if his master does not follow
it, the poor slave must inevitably have his share in the disaster; for
fortune does not allow him to dispose of his own body, it belongs to his
master who has bought it. Alas! 'tis the way of the world. But the god,
Apollo, whose oracles the Pythian priestess on her golden tripod makes
known to us, deserves my censure, for 'tis assured he is a physician and
a cunning diviner; and yet my master is leaving his temple infected with
mere madness and insists on following a blind man. Is this not opposed to
all good sense? 'Tis for us, who see clearly, to guide those who don't;
whereas he clings to the trail of a blind fellow and compels me to do the
same without answering my questions with ever a word. (_To Chremylus. _)
Aye, master, unless you tell me why we are following this unknown fellow,
I will not be silent, but I will worry and torment you, for you cannot
beat me because of my sacred chaplet of laurel.
CHREMYLUS. No, but if you worry me I will take off your chaplet, and then
you will only get a sounder thrashing.
CARIO. That's an old song! I am going to leave you no peace till you have
told me who this man is; and if I ask it, 'tis entirely because of my
interest in you.
CHREMYLUS. Well, be it so. I will reveal it to you as being the most
faithful and the most rascally of all my servants. [736] I honoured the
gods and did what was right, and yet I was none the less poor and
unfortunate.
CARIO. I know it but too well.
CHREMYLUS. Other amassed wealth--the sacrilegious, the demagogues, the
informers,[737] indeed every sort of rascal.
CARIO. I believe you.
CHREMYLUS. Therefore I came to consult the oracle of the god, not on my
own account, for my unfortunate life is nearing its end, but for my only
son; I wanted to ask Apollo, if it was necessary for him to become a
thorough knave and renounce his virtuous principles, since that seemed to
me to be the only way to succeed in life.
CARIO. And with what responding tones did the sacred tripod resound? [738]
CHREMYLUS. You shall know. The god ordered me in plain terms to follow
the first man I should meet upon leaving the temple and to persuade him
to accompany me home.
CARIO. And who was the first one you met?
CHREMYLUS. This blind man.
CARIO. And you are stupid enough not to understand the meaning of such an
answer? Why, the god was advising you thereby, and that in the clearest
possible way, to bring up your son according to the fashion of your
country.
CHREMYLUS. What makes you think that?
CARIO. Is it not evident to the blind, that nowadays to do nothing that
is right is the best way to get on?
CHREMYLUS. No, that is not the meaning of the oracle; there must be
another, that is nobler. If this blind man would tell us who he is and
why and with what object he has led us here, we should no doubt
understand what our oracle really does mean.
CARIO (_to Plutus_). Come, tell us at once who you are, or I give effect
to my threat. (_He menaces him_. ) And quick too, be quick, I say.
PLUTUS. I'll thrash you.
CARIO (_to Chremylus_). Ha! is it thus he tells us his name?
CHREMYLUS. 'Tis to you and not to me that he replies thus; your mode of
questioning him was ill-advised. (_To Plutus. _) Come, friend, if you care
to oblige an honest man, answer me.
PLUTUS. I'll knock you down.
CARIO. Ah! what a pleasant fellow and what a delightful prophecy the god
has given you!
CHREMYLUS. By Demeter, you'll have no reason to laugh presently.
CARIO. If you don't speak, you wretch, I will surely do you an ill turn.
PLUTUS. Friends, take yourselves off and leave me.
CHREMYLUS. That we very certainly shan't.
CARIO. This, master, is the best thing to do. I'll undertake to secure
him the most frightful death; I will lead him to the verge of a precipice
and then leave him there, so that he'll break his neck when he pitches
over.
CHREMYLUS. Well then, I leave him to you, and do the thing quickly.
PLUTUS. Oh, no! Have mercy!
CHREMYLUS. Will you speak then?
PLUTUS. But if you learn who I am, I know well that you will ill-use me
and will not let me go again.
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. [739]
CHREMYLUS. Oh! you wretched rascal! You Plutus all the while, and you
never said so!
CARIO. You, Plutus, and in this piteous guise!
CHREMYLUS. Oh, Phoebus 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. [740]
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! For instance, what is the origin of the power
that Zeus wields over the other gods? [741]
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 please 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? [742] 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.
CHREMYLUS. You speak of those who accept all comers; yet some of them are
honest, and 'tis not money they ask of their patrons.
CARIO. What then?
CHREMYLUS. A fine horse, a pack of hounds.
CARIO. Aye, they would blush to ask for money and cleverly disguise their
shame.
CHREMYLUS. 'Tis in you that every art, all human inventions, have had
their origin; 'tis through you that one man sits cutting leather in his
shop.
CARIO. That another fashions iron or wood.
CHREMYLUS. That yet another chases the gold he has received from you.
CARIO. That one is a fuller.
CHREMYLUS. That t'other washes wool.
CARIO. That this one is a tanner.
CHREMYLUS. And that other sells onions.
CARIO. And if the adulterer, caught red-handed, is depilated,[743] 'tis
on account of you. [744]
PLUTUS. Oh! great gods! I knew naught of all this!
CARIO. Is it not he who lends the Great King all his pride?
CHREMYLUS. Is it not he who draws the citizens to the Assembly? [745]
CARIO. And tell me, is it not you who equip the triremes? [746]
CHREMYLUS. And who feed our mercenaries at Corinth? [747]
CARIO. Are not you the cause of Pamphilus' sufferings? [748]
CHREMYLUS. And of the needle-seller's[749] with Pamphilus?
CARIO. Is it not because of you that Agyrrhius[750] lets wind so loudly?
CHREMYLUS. And that Philepsius[751] rolls off his fables?
CARIO. That troops are sent to succour the Egyptians? [752]
CHREMYLUS. And that La? s is kept by Philonides? [753]
CARIO. That the tower of Timotheus[754] . . .
CHREMYLUS. . . . (_To Cario. _) May it fall upon your head! (_To Plutus. _)
In short, Plutus, 'tis through you that everything is done; be it known
to you that you are the sole cause both of good and evil.
CARIO. In war, 'tis 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.
suspected him of having been bribed by the Spartans.
[683] A coined word, derived from [Greek: _achras_], a wild pear.
[684] Amynon was not a physician, according to the Scholiast, but one of
those orators called [Greek: europr_oktoi] (_laticuli_) 'wide-arsed,'
because addicted to habits of pathic vice, and was invoked by Blepyrus
for that reason.
[685] A doctor notorious for his dissolute life.
[686] The Grecian goddess who presided over child-birth.
[687] He is afraid lest some comic poet should surprise him in his
ridiculous position and might cause a laugh at his expense upon the
stage.
[688] In accordance with a quaint Athenian custom a rope daubed with
vermilion was drawn across from end to end of the Agora (market-place) by
officials of the city at the last moment before the Ecclesia, or Public
Assembly, was to meet. Any citizen trying to evade his duty to be present
was liable to have his white robe streaked red, and so be exposed to
general ridicule on finally putting in an appearance on the Pnyx.
[689] A parody on a verse in 'The Myrmidons' of Aeschylus. --Antilochus
was the son of Nestor; he was killed by Memnon, when defending his
father.
[690] See above.
[691] He was very poor, and his cloak was such a mass of holes that one
might doubt his having one at all. This surname, Evaeon ([Greek: eu
ai_on], delicious life) had doubtless been given him on the 'lucus a non'
principle because of his wretchedness.
[692] Apparently a wealthy corn-factor.
[693] Presumably this refers to the grandson of Nicias, the leader of the
expedition to Sicily; he must have been sixteen or seventeen years old
about that time, since, according to Lysias, Niceratus, the son of the
great Nicias, was killed in 405 B. C. and had left a son of tender age
behind him, who bore the name of his grandfather.
[694] That is, the pale-faced folk in the Assembly already referred
to--really the women there present surreptitiously.
[695] To eat cuttle-fish was synonymous with enjoying the highest
felicity.
[696] A common vulgar saying, used among the Athenians, as much as to
say, _To the devil with interruptions! _
[697] This stood in the centre of the market-place.
[698] It was the custom at Athens to draw lots to decide in which Court
each dicast should serve; Praxagora proposes to apply the same system to
decide the dining station for each citizen.
[699] In Greek [Greek: h_e basileius]([Greek: stoa], understood), the
first letter a [Greek: b_eta. ]
[700] Commencing with a [Greek: Th_eta].
[701] [Greek: Ha alphitop_olis stoa]; why [Greek: kappa], it is hard to
say; from some popular nickname probably, which is unknown to us.
[702] The pun cannot be kept in English; it is between [Greek: kaptein],
to gobble, to cram oneself, and [Greek: kappa], the designating letter.
[703] That is, one of the beautiful maidens selected to bear the baskets
containing the sacred implements in procession at the Festival of
Demeter, Bacchus and Athene.
[704] The slave-girl who attended each Canephoros, and sheltered her from
the sun's rays.
[705] Mentioned a little above for his ugliness; the Scholiast says he
was a general.
[706] Hydriaphoros; the wives of resident aliens ([Greek: metoikoi]) were
allowed to take part in these processions, but in a subordinate position;
they carried vessels full of water for the service of the sacrifice.
[707] Scaphephoros, bearer of the vases containing the honey required for
the sacrifices. The office was assigned to the [Greek: metoikoi] as a
recognition of their semi-citizenship.
[708] A miser, who, moreover, was obstinately constipated.
[709] Presumably a man in extreme poverty.
[710] The ancients carried small coins in their mouth; this custom still
obtains to-day in the East.
[711] This Euripides was the son of the tragic poet.
[712] This Smaeus was a notorious debauchee; the phrase contains obscene
allusions, implying that he was ready both to ride a woman or to lick her
privates--[Greek: kel_etizein] or [Greek: lesbiazein].
[713] Geres, an old fop, who wanted to pass as a young man.
[714] According to Greek custom, these were left at the entrance of the
banqueting-hall.
[715] The names of his slaves.
[716] A specimen of the _serenades_ ([Greek: paraklausithura]) of the
Greeks.
[717] An Attic deme. There is an obscene jest here; the word [Greek:
anaphlan] means to masturbate.
[718] [Greek: Ton Sebinon], a coined name, representing [Greek: ton se
binounta], 'the man who is to tread you. '
[719] The passage is written in the language of the Bar. It is an
allusion to the slowness of justice at Athens.
[720] i. e. the new law must be conformed to all round.
[721] It was customary to paint phials or little bottles on the coffins
of the poor; these emblems took the place of the perfumes that were
sprinkled on the bodies of the rich.
[722] i. e. unless I am your slave; no doubt this tax of five hundredths
was paid by the master on the assumed value of his slave. --We have,
however, no historical data to confirm this.
[723] Nickname of the notorious brigand. The word means 'one who
stretches and tortures,' from [Greek: prokrouein], and refers to his
habit of fitting all his captives to the same bedstead--the 'bed of
Procrustes'--stretching them if too short to the required length, lopping
their limbs as required if they were too long. Here a further pun is
involved, [Greek: prokrouein] meaning also 'to go with a woman first. '
[724] Athenian law declared it illegal for a woman to contract any debt
exceeding the price of a _medimnus_ of corn; this law is now supposed to
affect the men.
[725] Merchants were exempt from military service; in this case, it is
another kind of service that the old woman wants to exact from the young
man.
[726] A Thracian brigand, who forced strangers to share his daughters'
bed, or be devoured by his horses.
[727] Dead bodies were laid out on a layer of origanum, which is an
aromatic plant.
[728] The young man is here describing the formalities connected with the
laying out of the dead.
[729] Who had married his mother Jocasta without knowing it.
[730] A hideous spectre that Hecate was supposed to send to frighten men.
[731] Which provided that where a number of criminals were charged with
the same offence, each must be tried separately.
[732] As an aphrodisiac.
[733] We have already seen similar waggish endings to phrases in the
'Lysistrata'; the figure is called [Greek: para prosdokian]--'contrary to
expectation. '
[734] Nothing is known as to these Cretan rhythms. According to the
Scholiast, this is a jest, because the Cretans, who were great eaters,
sat down to table early in the morning. This is what the Chorus supposes
it is going to do, since 'The Ecclesiazusae' was played first, i. e.
during the forenoon.
[735] This wonderful word consists, in the original Greek, of
seventy-seven syllables. For similar burlesque compounds see the
'Lysistrata,' 457, 458; 'Wasps,' 505 and 520. Compare Shakespeare,
'Love's Labour's Lost,' Act V. sc. 1: "I marvel thy master hath not eaten
thee for a word; for thou art not so long by the head as
_honorificabilitudinitatibus_. " This is outdone by Rabelais'
_Antipericatametaanaparbeugedamphicribrationibus_.
PLUTUS[*]
[* Transcriber's note: This caption is missing in the original. ]
INTRODUCTION
The 'Plutus' differs widely from all other works of its Author, and, it
must be confessed, is the least interesting and diverting of them all.
"In its absence of personal interests and personal satire," and its lack
of strong comic incidents, "it approximates rather to a whimsical
allegory than a comedy properly so called. "
The plot is of the simplest. Chremylus, a poor but just man, accompanied
by his body-servant Cario--the redeeming feature, by the by, of an
otherwise dull play, the original type of the comic valet of the stage of
all subsequent periods--consults the Delphic Oracle concerning his son,
whether he ought not to be instructed in injustice and knavery and the
other arts whereby worldly men acquire riches. By way of answer the god
only tells him that he is to follow whomsoever he first meets upon
leaving the temple, who proves to be a blind and ragged old man. But this
turns out to be no other than Plutus himself, the god of riches, whom
Zeus has robbed of his eyesight, so that he may be unable henceforth to
distinguish between the just and the unjust. However, succoured by
Chremylus and conducted by him to the Temple of Aesculapius, Plutus
regains the use of his eyes. Whereupon all just men, including the god's
benefactor, are made rich and prosperous, and the unjust reduced to
indigence.
The play was, it seems, twice put upon the stage--first in 408 B. C. , and
again in a revised and reinforced edition, with allusions and innuendoes
brought up to date, in 388 B. C. , a few years before the Author's death.
The text we possess--marred, however, by several considerable lacunae--is
now generally allowed to be that of the piece as played at the later
date, when it won the prize.
* * * * *
PLUTUS
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
CHREMYLUS.
CARIO, Servant of Chremylus.
PLUTUS, God of Riches.
BLEPSIDEMUS, friend of Chremylus.
WIFE OF CHREMYLUS.
POVERTY.
A JUST MAN.
AN INFORMER, or Sycophant.
AN OLD WOMAN.
A YOUTH.
HERMES.
A PRIEST OF ZEUS.
CHORUS OF RUSTICS.
SCENE: In front of a farmhouse--a road leading up to it.
* * * * *
PLUTUS
CARIO. What an unhappy fate, great gods, to be the slave of a fool! A
servant may give the best of advice, but if his master does not follow
it, the poor slave must inevitably have his share in the disaster; for
fortune does not allow him to dispose of his own body, it belongs to his
master who has bought it. Alas! 'tis the way of the world. But the god,
Apollo, whose oracles the Pythian priestess on her golden tripod makes
known to us, deserves my censure, for 'tis assured he is a physician and
a cunning diviner; and yet my master is leaving his temple infected with
mere madness and insists on following a blind man. Is this not opposed to
all good sense? 'Tis for us, who see clearly, to guide those who don't;
whereas he clings to the trail of a blind fellow and compels me to do the
same without answering my questions with ever a word. (_To Chremylus. _)
Aye, master, unless you tell me why we are following this unknown fellow,
I will not be silent, but I will worry and torment you, for you cannot
beat me because of my sacred chaplet of laurel.
CHREMYLUS. No, but if you worry me I will take off your chaplet, and then
you will only get a sounder thrashing.
CARIO. That's an old song! I am going to leave you no peace till you have
told me who this man is; and if I ask it, 'tis entirely because of my
interest in you.
CHREMYLUS. Well, be it so. I will reveal it to you as being the most
faithful and the most rascally of all my servants. [736] I honoured the
gods and did what was right, and yet I was none the less poor and
unfortunate.
CARIO. I know it but too well.
CHREMYLUS. Other amassed wealth--the sacrilegious, the demagogues, the
informers,[737] indeed every sort of rascal.
CARIO. I believe you.
CHREMYLUS. Therefore I came to consult the oracle of the god, not on my
own account, for my unfortunate life is nearing its end, but for my only
son; I wanted to ask Apollo, if it was necessary for him to become a
thorough knave and renounce his virtuous principles, since that seemed to
me to be the only way to succeed in life.
CARIO. And with what responding tones did the sacred tripod resound? [738]
CHREMYLUS. You shall know. The god ordered me in plain terms to follow
the first man I should meet upon leaving the temple and to persuade him
to accompany me home.
CARIO. And who was the first one you met?
CHREMYLUS. This blind man.
CARIO. And you are stupid enough not to understand the meaning of such an
answer? Why, the god was advising you thereby, and that in the clearest
possible way, to bring up your son according to the fashion of your
country.
CHREMYLUS. What makes you think that?
CARIO. Is it not evident to the blind, that nowadays to do nothing that
is right is the best way to get on?
CHREMYLUS. No, that is not the meaning of the oracle; there must be
another, that is nobler. If this blind man would tell us who he is and
why and with what object he has led us here, we should no doubt
understand what our oracle really does mean.
CARIO (_to Plutus_). Come, tell us at once who you are, or I give effect
to my threat. (_He menaces him_. ) And quick too, be quick, I say.
PLUTUS. I'll thrash you.
CARIO (_to Chremylus_). Ha! is it thus he tells us his name?
CHREMYLUS. 'Tis to you and not to me that he replies thus; your mode of
questioning him was ill-advised. (_To Plutus. _) Come, friend, if you care
to oblige an honest man, answer me.
PLUTUS. I'll knock you down.
CARIO. Ah! what a pleasant fellow and what a delightful prophecy the god
has given you!
CHREMYLUS. By Demeter, you'll have no reason to laugh presently.
CARIO. If you don't speak, you wretch, I will surely do you an ill turn.
PLUTUS. Friends, take yourselves off and leave me.
CHREMYLUS. That we very certainly shan't.
CARIO. This, master, is the best thing to do. I'll undertake to secure
him the most frightful death; I will lead him to the verge of a precipice
and then leave him there, so that he'll break his neck when he pitches
over.
CHREMYLUS. Well then, I leave him to you, and do the thing quickly.
PLUTUS. Oh, no! Have mercy!
CHREMYLUS. Will you speak then?
PLUTUS. But if you learn who I am, I know well that you will ill-use me
and will not let me go again.
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. [739]
CHREMYLUS. Oh! you wretched rascal! You Plutus all the while, and you
never said so!
CARIO. You, Plutus, and in this piteous guise!
CHREMYLUS. Oh, Phoebus 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. [740]
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! For instance, what is the origin of the power
that Zeus wields over the other gods? [741]
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 please 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? [742] 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.
CHREMYLUS. You speak of those who accept all comers; yet some of them are
honest, and 'tis not money they ask of their patrons.
CARIO. What then?
CHREMYLUS. A fine horse, a pack of hounds.
CARIO. Aye, they would blush to ask for money and cleverly disguise their
shame.
CHREMYLUS. 'Tis in you that every art, all human inventions, have had
their origin; 'tis through you that one man sits cutting leather in his
shop.
CARIO. That another fashions iron or wood.
CHREMYLUS. That yet another chases the gold he has received from you.
CARIO. That one is a fuller.
CHREMYLUS. That t'other washes wool.
CARIO. That this one is a tanner.
CHREMYLUS. And that other sells onions.
CARIO. And if the adulterer, caught red-handed, is depilated,[743] 'tis
on account of you. [744]
PLUTUS. Oh! great gods! I knew naught of all this!
CARIO. Is it not he who lends the Great King all his pride?
CHREMYLUS. Is it not he who draws the citizens to the Assembly? [745]
CARIO. And tell me, is it not you who equip the triremes? [746]
CHREMYLUS. And who feed our mercenaries at Corinth? [747]
CARIO. Are not you the cause of Pamphilus' sufferings? [748]
CHREMYLUS. And of the needle-seller's[749] with Pamphilus?
CARIO. Is it not because of you that Agyrrhius[750] lets wind so loudly?
CHREMYLUS. And that Philepsius[751] rolls off his fables?
CARIO. That troops are sent to succour the Egyptians? [752]
CHREMYLUS. And that La? s is kept by Philonides? [753]
CARIO. That the tower of Timotheus[754] . . .
CHREMYLUS. . . . (_To Cario. _) May it fall upon your head! (_To Plutus. _)
In short, Plutus, 'tis through you that everything is done; be it known
to you that you are the sole cause both of good and evil.
CARIO. In war, 'tis 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.
