6–7
COCK
Well, Homer mentions only those two.Od. 19, 562. The truthful dreams use the gates of horn, the deceitful the gates of ivory.
MICYLLUS
Let that silly poet go hang! He knows nothing about dreams. Perhaps the beggarly dreams go out through those gates, dreams like those he used to see; and he couldn’t see them very plainly at that, for he was blind! But my darling dream came through gates of gold, and it was gold itself and all dressed in gold and brought heaps of gold with it.
COCK
Stop babbling of gold, most noble Midas. Really your dream was just like Midas’ prayer, and you appear to me to have slept yourself into whole goldmines.
MICYLLUS
I saw a lot of gold, Pythagoras, a lot; you can’t think how beautiful it was, and with what brilliancy it shone. What is it that Pindar says in praising it? Remind me, if you know. It is where he says water is best and then extols gold (and well he may), right in the beginning of the most beautiful of all his odes.
COCK
Is this what you are after? Water is best, but gold Like blazing fire at night Stands out amid proud riches. Olymp. 1, 1.
