Wealth & Money Quote by John Gay

Money here is pitched as a detergent for the soul, and John Gay knows exactly how ugly that metaphor is. Fuller's earth was a common clay used to scour grease from cloth; by yoking it to "reputations", Gay turns moral failure into mere laundry. The genius is the offhand domestic address - "wife" - which drags a grand public idea (honor) into the private sphere of housekeeping and purchase. Corruption isn’t a scandal; it’s a household tip.

Gay is writing from the early 18th century’s boomtown of credit, speculation, and patronage, where status was increasingly portable and purchasable. In that world, the currency of the court and the marketplace isn’t virtue but narrative control. "Spot or a stain" suggests sins big and small, and the phrasing "there is not... but what it can take out" lands like a salesman’s guarantee: total coverage, no exclusions, no moral fine print. That’s the joke and the accusation. Money doesn’t just buy forgiveness; it buys the version of events that counts.

The subtext is less "people are hypocrites" than "systems are designed to reward the well-funded". Gay’s line implies reputations are not earned but managed, a commodity responsive to solvent and influence. It also needles the listener: if you know this is how the world works, are you disgusted, or are you taking notes? In Gay’s satiric universe, the punchline is that the stain isn’t on the sinner. It’s on the public, eager to believe cleanliness can be purchased.