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Front Page  Titles (by Subject) SCENE IV - Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays
SCENE IV - 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 IV
Cato, Juba.
Cato- Juba, the Roman senate has resolved,
- Till time give better prospects, still to keep
- The sword unsheathed, and turn its edge on Caesar.
Juba
- The resolution fits a Roman senate.
- But, Cato, lend me for a while thy patience,
- And condescend to hear a young man speak.
- My father, when some days before his death
- He ordered me to march for Utica,
- (Alas! I thought not then his death so near!)
- Wept o’er me, prest me in his aged arms,
- And, as his griefs gave way, “My son,” said he,
- “Whatever fortune shall befall thy father,
- Be Cato’s friend, he’ll train thee up to great
- And virtuous deeds: do but observe him well,
- Thou ’lt shun misfortunes, or thou ’lt learn to bear ’em.”
Cato- Juba, thy father was a worthy prince,
- And merited, alas! a better fate;
- But heaven thought otherwise.
Juba
- My father’s fate,
- In spite of all the fortitude that shines
- Before my face, in Cato’s great example,
- Subdues my soul, and fills my eyes with tears.
Cato- It is an honest sorrow, and becomes thee.
Juba
- My father drew respect from foreign climes:
- The kings of Afric sought him for their friend;
- Kings far remote, that rule, as fame reports,
- Behind the hidden sources of the Nile,
- In distant worlds, on t’ other side the sun:
- Oft have their black ambassadors appeared,
- Loaden with gifts, and filled the courts of Zama.
Cato- I am no stranger to thy father’s greatness!
Juba
- I would not boast the greatness of my father,
- But point out new alliances to Cato.
- Had we not better leave this Utica,
- To arm Numidia in our cause, and court
- The assistance of my father’s powerful friends?
- Did they know Cato, our remotest kings
- Would pour embattled multitudes about him;
- Their swarthy hosts would darken all our plains,
- Doubling the native horror of the war,
- And making death more grim.
Cato
- Cato will fly before the sword of Caesar?
- Reduced, like Hannibal, to seek relief
- From court to court, and wander up and down,
- A vagabond in Afric!
Juba
- Cato, perhaps
- I’m too officious, but my forward cares
- Would fain preserve a life of so much value.
- My heart is wounded, when I see such virtue
- Afflicted by the weight of such misfortunes.
Cato
- Thy nobleness of soul obliges me.
- But know, young prince, that valour soars above
- What the world calls misfortune and affliction.
- These are not ills; else would they never fall
- On heaven’s first favourites, and the best of men:
- The gods, in bounty, work up storms about us,
- That give mankind occasion to exert
- Their hidden strength, and throw out into practice
- Virtues which shun the day, and lie concealed
- In the smooth seasons and the calms of life.
Juba- I’m charmed whene’er thou talk’st! I pant for virtue!
- And all my soul endeavours at perfection.
Cato- Dost thou love watchings, abstinence, and toil,
- Laborious virtues all? learn them from Cato:
- Success and fortune must thou learn from Caesar.
Juba
- The best good fortune that can fall on Juba,
- The whole success at which my heart aspires,
Cato- What does Juba say?
- Thy words confound me.
Juba- I would fain retract them,
- Give ’em me back again. They aimed at nothing.
Cato- Tell me thy wish, young prince; make not my ear
- A stranger to thy thoughts.
Juba
Cato- What can Juba ask
- That Cato will refuse!
Juba- I fear to name it.
- Marcia—inherits all her father’s virtues.
Cato
Juba- Cato, thou hast a daughter.
Cato
- Adieu, young prince: I would not hear a word
- Should lessen thee in my esteem: remember
- The hand of fate is over us, and heaven
- Exacts severity from all our thoughts:
- It is not now a time to talk of aught
- But chains or conquest, liberty or death.
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