08 Oct Wealth | Part B’
Poverty:
You’re not being serious now! You’re turning this into a farce, a bad comedy! You know very well that the sort of people that I create are far better than those created by Wealth! Both, the brain and the body of my men are far superior to those of Wealth. What do his men look like?Look at them: Limping around with gout, a fat bum, grotesque fat guts, swollen legs… you feel like puking just by looking at them! Now look at mine. See there? Lovely, slender body, the waist of a wasp, unbeatable in battle!
Chremylus:
Maybe they get their waspy waist from endless starvation, ey?
Poverty:
And let me tell you another thing about the poor. They are modest and civil, whereas the rich are all arrogant.
Chremylus:
Modest and civil means digging holes in walls and robbing people.
Blepsidemus:
Why not, if you can steal without getting caught? That’s civil, isn’t it?
Poverty:
Check out the politicians if you want. In every country. When they’re poor, they’re doing all sorts of good things for the public but then, when they become rich on public money, they all become real crooks. They scheme and plan and commit all sorts of vile wrongs on the poor folk.
Chremylus:
Well, you’re not wrong there, even though you are a sly old witch. Still, don’t think that your punishment is going to be any softer by trying to convince us that poverty is better than wealth!
Poverty:
But what about you? You haven’t managed to prove the opposite, have you? All you’re doing is waffling about crap and flapping your hands about as if they’re the wings of some giant bird!
Chremylus:
So, tell me this then: Why does everyone run away from you?
Poverty:
Because I try to make better people out of them. They behave just like kids do when they run away from their father who’s wise and wants to make them better grownups. Just like the kids, they find it too hard to understand the difference between good and evil.
Chremylus:
So you’re saying that Zeus isn’t wise, are you? Because that god is filthy rich!
Blepsidemus:
Yeah, he’s rich all right but what is he doing for us, poor folk? He goes and sends this witch to us!Thank you,ZEUS!
Poverty:
Sick little brains! Antiquated, blind brains! You’re both wrong!Zeus, in fact is very poor and I’ll prove it to you. Wealthy he’s not, otherwise, at the Olympic games, which are held every four years and where the cream of the Greek athletes gather to compete, if he was rich, he wouldn’t be crowning the winners with wreaths made of mere wild olive branches! If he was truly rich, he’d be crowning their heads with wreaths made of pure gold!
Wealth
Aristophanes