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Front Page  Titles (by Subject) SCENE II - Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays
SCENE II - 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).
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- 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 II
Decius, Cato.
Decius- Caesar sends health to Cato.—
Cato- Could he send it
- To Cato’s slaughtered friends, it would be welcome.
- Are not your orders to address the senate?
Decius
- My business is with Cato: Caesar sees
- The straits to which you’re driven; and, as he knows
- Cato’s high worth, is anxious for your life.
Cato- My life is grafted on the fate of Rome:
- Would he save Cato? Bid him spare his country.
- Tell your dictator this: and tell him Cato
- Disdains a life which he has power to offer.
Decius- Rome and her senators submit to Caesar;
- Her generals and her consuls are no more,
- Who checked his conquests, and denied his triumphs.
- Why will not Cato be this Caesar’s friend?
Cato- Those very reasons thou hast urged forbid it.
Decius
- Cato, I’ve orders to expostulate
- And reason with you, as from friend to friend:
- Think on the storm that gathers o’er your head,
- And threatens every hour to burst upon it;
- Still may you stand high in your country’s honours,
- Do but comply, and make your peace with Caesar.
- Rome will rejoice, and cast its eyes on Cato,
- As on the second of mankind.
Cato- No more!
- I must not think of life on such conditions.
Decius
- Caesar is well acquainted with your virtues,
- And therefore sets this value on your life:
- Let him but know the price of Cato’s friendship,
- And name your terms.
Cato
- Bid him disband his legions,
- Restore the commonwealth to liberty,
- Submit his actions to the public censure,
- And stand the judgment of a Roman senate:
- Bid him do this, and Cato is his friend.
Decius- Cato, the world talks loudly of your wisdom—
Cato
- Nay more, though Cato’s voice was ne’er employed
- To clear the guilty, and to varnish crimes,
- Myself will mount the rostrum in his favour,
- And strive to gain his pardon from the people.
Decius- A style like this becomes a conqueror.
Cato- Decius, a style like this becomes a Roman.
Decius- What is a Roman, that is Caesar’s foe?
Cato- Greater than Caesar: he’s a friend to virtue.
Decius- Consider, Cato, you’re in Utica,
- And at the head of your own little senate;
- You don’t now thunder in the Capitol,
- With all the mouths of Rome to second you.
Cato
- Let him consider that, who drives us hither:
- ’Tis Caesar’s sword has made Rome’s senate little,
- And thinned its ranks. Alas! thy dazzled eye
- Beholds this man in a false glaring light,
- Which conquest and success have thrown upon him;
- Didst thou but view him right, thou’dst see him black
- With murder, treason, sacrilege, and crimes
- That strike my soul with horror but to name ’em.
- I know thou look’st on me, as on a wretch
- Beset with ills, and covered with misfortunes;
- But, by the gods I swear, millions of worlds
- Should never buy me to be like that Caesar.
Decius- Does Cato send this answer back to Caesar,
- For all his generous cares, and proffered friendship?
Cato
- His cares for me are insolent and vain:
- Presumptuous man! the gods take care of Cato.
- Would Caesar show the greatness of his soul,
- Bid him employ his care for these my friends,
- And make good use of his ill-gotten power,
- By sheltering men much better than himself.
Decius- Your high unconquered heart makes you forget
- You are a man. You rush on your destruction—
- But I have done. When I relate hereafter
- The tale of this unhappy embassy,
- All Rome will be in tears. [Exit Decius.]
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