Gold-makers

Meaning

Gold-makers are the targets of a warning in the main prologue’s verse. The text pairs them with alchemists who ‘distil’ money from purses and chests, converting an operation-word into an accusation of financial extraction. The warning is against deceptive appearance and misplaced trust, not a neutral definition of every person practising the art.

The same verse contrasts upright, devout and unboastful people who know their craft. That contrast prevents Goldtmachern from becoming a blanket synonym for all philosophers in the book. The English ‘gold-makers’ preserves the occupational claim while allowing the following joke to expose the gap between that claim and what the deceivers actually take.