The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Foreword
• Introduction
• The Life of Joseph Addison
• Addison the Essayist
• Cato, a Tragedy
• Editors’ Note
• Acknowledgments
• Cato: a Tragedy
• Prologue By Mr. Pope 2
• Dramatis Personae
• Act I —
• Scene I
• Scene Ii
• Scene Iii
• Scene Iv
• Scene V
• Scene Vi
• Act Ii —
• Scene I
• Scene Ii
• Scene Iii
• Scene Iv
• Scene V
• Scene Vi
• Act Iii —
• Scene I
• Scene Ii
• Scene Iii
• Scene Iv
• Scene V
• Scene Vi
• Scene Vii
• Act Iv —
• Scene I
• Scene Ii
• Scene Iii
• Scene Iv —
• Act V —
• Scene I
• Scene Ii
• Scene Iii
• Scene Iv
• Epilogue By Dr. Garth. 1
• Selected Essays
• Tatler, No. 161
• Tatler, No. 162
• Whig Examiner, No. 5
• Spectator, No. 55
• Spectator, No. 125
• Spectator, No. 169
• Spectator, No. 215
• Spectator, No. 219
• Spectator, No. 231
• Spectator, No. 237
• Spectator, No. 243
• Spectator, No. 255
• Spectator, No. 256
• Spectator, No. 257
• Spectator, No. 287
• Spectator, No. 293
• Spectator, No. 349
• Spectator, No. 446
• Spectator, No. 557
• Guardian, No. 99
• Guardian, No. 161
• Freeholder, No. 1
• Freeholder, No. 2
• Freeholder, No. 5
• Freeholder, No. 10
• Freeholder, No. 12
• Freeholder, No. 13 1
• Freeholder, No. 16
• Freeholder, No. 29
• Freeholder, No. 34
• Freeholder, No. 39
• Freeholder, No. 51
• The Life and Character of M. Cato of Utica [ ]

SCENE I

The Senate.

Sempronius, Lucius.

Sempronius

• Rome still survives in this assembled senate!
• Let us remember we are Cato’s friends,
• And act like men who claim that glorious title.

Lucius

• Cato will soon be here, and open to us
• The occasion of our meeting. Hark! he comes!

•     [A sound of trumpets.]
• May all the guardian gods of Rome direct him!

Sempronius

•   My voice is still for war.
• Gods! can a Roman senate long debate
• Which of the two to choose, slavery or death!

• No, let us rise at once, gird on our swords,
• And, at the head of our remaining troops,
• Attack the foe, break through the thick array
• Of his thronged legions, and charge home upon him.
• Perhaps some arm, more lucky than the rest,

• May reach his heart, and free the world from bondage.
• Rise, fathers, rise! ’tis Rome demands your help;
• Rise, and revenge her slaughtered citizens,
• Or share their fate! the corps of half her senate
• Manure the fields of Thessaly, while we

• Sit here, deliberating in cold debates,
• If we should sacrifice our lives to honour,
• Or wear them out in servitude and chains.
• Rouse up, for shame! our brothers of Pharsalia
• Point at their wounds, and cry aloud—To battle!

• Great Pompey’s shade2 complains that we are slow,
• And Scipio’s ghost walks unrevenged amongst us!

Cato

• Let not a torrent of impetuous zeal
• Transport thee thus beyond the bounds of reason:3
• True fortitude is seen in great exploits,

• That justice warrants, and that wisdom guides,
• All else is towering phrensy4 and distraction.
• Are not the lives of those who draw the sword
• In Rome’s defence intrusted to our care?
• Should we thus lead them to a field of slaughter,

• Might not the impartial world with reason say
• We lavished at our deaths the blood of thousands,
• To grace our fall, and make our ruin glorious?
• Lucius, we next would know what’s your opinion.

Lucius

• My thoughts, I must confess, are turned on peace.

• Already have our quarrels filled the world
• With widows and with orphans: Scythia5 mourns
• Our guilty wars, and earth’s remotest regions
• Lie half unpeopled by the feuds of Rome:
• ’Tis time to sheath the sword, and spare mankind.

• It is not Caesar, but the gods, my fathers,
• The gods declare against us, and repel
• Our vain attempts. To urge the foe to battle,
• (Prompted by blind revenge and wild despair,)
• Were to refuse the awards of Providence,

• And not to rest in Heaven’s determination.
• Already have we shown our love to Rome,
• Now let us show submission to the gods.
• We took up arms, not to revenge ourselves,
• But free the commonwealth; when this end fails,

• Arms have no further use: our country’s cause,
• That drew our swords, now wrests ’em from our hands,
• And bids us not delight in Roman blood,
• Unprofitably shed; what men could do
• Is done already: heaven and earth will witness,

• If Rome must fall, that we are innocent.

Sempronius

• This smooth discourse and wild behaviour oft
• Conceal a traitor—something whispers me
• All is not right—Cato, beware of Lucius.  [Aside to Cato.]

Cato

• Let us appear nor rash nor diffident:

• Immoderate valour swells into a fault,
• And fear, admitted into public councils,
• Betrays like treason. Let us shun ’em both.
• Fathers, I cannot see that our affairs
• Are grown thus desperate. We have bulwarks round us;

• Within our walls are troops inured to toil
• In Afric’s heats, and seasoned to the sun;
• Numidia’s spacious kingdom lies behind us,
• Ready to rise at its young prince’s call.
• While there is hope, do not distrust the gods;

• But wait at least till Caesar’s near approach
• Force us to yield. ’Twill never be too late
• To sue6 for chains and own7 a conqueror.
• Why should Rome fall a moment ere her time?
• No, let us draw her term of freedom out

• In its full length, and spin it to the last,
• So shall we gain still one day’s liberty;
• And let me perish, but in Cato’s judgment,
• A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty
• Is worth a whole eternity in bondage.

Cato

• By your permission, fathers, bid him enter.  [Exit Marcus.]
• Decius was once my friend, but other prospects
• Have loosed those ties, and bound him fast to Caesar.
• His message may determine our resolves.

[2. ]Ghost.

[3. ]See Spectator 125.

[4. ]Frenzy.

[5. ]Northern and Eastern part of the Roman Empire, extending roughly from the Danube to the Don, Caucasus, and Volga; often used figuratively to represent the farthest and most uncivilized reaches of the Empire.

[6. ]To request, to petition.

[7. ]To acknowledge, to accept as one’s own.