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SCENE V - Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays [1710]

Edition used:

Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays, ed. by Christine Dunn Henderson and Mark E. Yellin, with a Foreword by Forrest McDonald (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2004).

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


SCENE V

Juba, Marcia, Lucia.

Juba

  • Hail, charming maid! how does thy beauty smooth
  • The face of war, and make ev’n horror smile!
  • At sight of thee my heart shakes off its sorrows;
  • I feel a dawn of joy break in upon me,
  • And for a while forget the approach of Caesar.

Marcia

  • I should be grieved, young prince, to think my presence
  • Unbent your thoughts, and slackened ’em to arms,
  • While, warm with slaughter, our victorious foe
  • Threatens aloud, and calls you to the field.

Juba

  • O Marcia, let me hope thy kind concerns
  • And gentle wishes follow me to battle!
  • The thought will give new vigour to my arm,
  • Add strength and weight to my descending sword,
  • And drive it in a tempest on the foe.

Marcia

  • My prayers and wishes always shall attend
  • The friends of Rome, the glorious cause of virtue,
  • And men approved of by the gods and Cato.

Juba

  • That Juba may deserve thy pious cares,
  • I’ll gaze for ever on thy godlike father,
  • Transplanting, one by one, into my life,
  • His bright perfections, till I shine like him.

Marcia

  • My father never, at a time like this,
  • Would lay out his great soul in words, and waste
  • Such precious moments.

Juba

  •     Thy reproofs are just,
  • Thou virtuous maid; I’ll hasten to my troops,
  • And fire their languid souls with Cato’s virtue.
  • If e’er I lead them to the field, when all
  • The war shall stand ranged in its just array,
  • And dreadful pomp; then will I think on thee!
  • O lovely maid, then will I think on thee!
  • And, in the shock of charging hosts, remember
  • What glorious deeds should grace the man who hopes
  • For Marcia’s love.  [Exit.]