CHREMYLUS. Were you initiated into the Great Mysteries in that
cloak?[791]
JUST MAN. No, but I shivered in it for thirteen years.
CHREMYLUS. And this footwear?
JUST MAN. These also are my winter companions.
CHREMYLUS. And you wish to dedicate them too?
JUST MAN. Unquestionably.
CHREMYLUS. Fine presents to offer to the god!
AN INFORMER. Alas! alas! I am a lost man. Ah! thrice, four, five, twelve
times, or rather ten thousand times unhappy fate! Why, why must fortune
deal me such rough blows?
CHREMYLUS. Oh, Apollo, my tutelary! oh! ye favourable gods! what has
overtaken this man?
INFORMER. Ah! am I not deserving of pity? I have lost everything; this
cursed god has stripped me bare. Ah! if there be justice in heaven, he
shall be struck blind again.
JUST MAN. Methinks I know what's the matter. If this man is unfortunate,
'tis because he's of little account and small honesty; and i' faith he
looks it too.
CHREMYLUS. Then, by Zeus! his plight is but just.
INFORMER. He promised that if he recovered his sight, he would enrich us
all unaided; whereas he has ruined more than one.
CHREMYLUS. But whom has he thus ill-used?
INFORMER. Me.
CHREMYLUS. You were doubtless a villainous thief then.
INFORMER (_to Chremylus and Cario_). 'Tis rather you yourselves who were
such wretches; I am certain you have got my money.
CHREMYLUS. Ha! by Demeter! 'tis an informer. What impudence!
CARIO. He's ravenously hungry, that's certain.
INFORMER. You shall follow me this very instant to the marketplace, where
the torture of the wheel shall force the confession of your misdeeds from
you.
CARIO. Ha! look out for yourself!
JUST MAN. By Zeus the Deliverer, what gratitude all Greeks owe to Plutus,
if he destroys these vile informers!
INFORMER. You are laughing at me. Ho! ho! I denounce you as their
accomplice. Where did you steal that new cloak from? Yesterday I saw you
with one utterly worn out.
JUST MAN. I fear you not, thanks to this ring, for which I paid
Eudemus[792] a drachma.
CHREMYLUS. Ah! there's no ring to preserve you from the informer's bite.
INFORMER. The insolent wretches! But, my fine jokers, you have not told
me what you are up to here. Nothing good, I'll be bound.
CHREMYLUS. Nothing of any good for you, be sure of that.
INFORMER. By Zeus! you're going to dine at my expense!
CHREMYLUS. You vile impostor, may you burst with an empty belly, both you
and your witness.
INFORMER. You deny it? I reckon, you villians, that there is much salt
fish and roast meat in this house. Hu! hu! hu! hu! hu! hu! (_He sniffs._)
CHREMYLUS. Can you smell anything, rascal?
INFORMER. Can such outrages be borne, oh, Zeus! Ye gods! how cruel it is
to see me treated thus, when I am such an honest fellow and such a good
citizen!
CHREMYLUS. You an honest man! you a good citizen!
INFORMER. A better one than any.
CHREMYLUS. Ah! well then, answer my questions.
INFORMER. Concerning what?
CHREMYLUS. Are you a husbandman?
INFORMER. D'ye take me for a fool?
CHREMYLUS. A merchant?