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 II

Lucia, Portius.

Lucia

• Did not I see your brother Marcus here?
• Why did he fly the place, and shun my presence?

Portius

• Oh, Lucia, language is too faint to show
• His rage of love; it preys upon his life;
• He pines, he sickens, he despairs, he dies:

• His passions and his virtues lie confused,
• And mixt together in so wild a tumult,
• That the whole man is quite disfigured in him.
• Heavens! would one think ’twere possible for love
• To make such ravage in a noble soul!

• Oh, Lucia, I’m distrest! my heart bleeds for him;
• Ev’n now, while thus I stand blest in thy presence,
• A secret damp of grief comes o’er my thoughts,
• And I’m unhappy, though thou smil’st upon me.

Lucia

• How wilt thou guard thy honour, in the shock

• Of love and friendship! think betimes,3 my Portius,
• Think how the nuptial tie, that might insure
• Our mutual bliss, would raise to such a height
• Thy brother’s griefs, as might perhaps destroy him.

Portius

• Alas, poor youth! what dost thou think, my Lucia?

• His generous, open, undesigning heart
• Has begged his rival to solicit for him.
• Then do not strike him dead with a denial,
• But hold him up in life, and cheer his soul
• With the faint glimmering of a doubtful hope:

• Perhaps, when we have passed these gloomy hours,
• And weathered out the storm that beats upon us—

Lucia

• No, Portius, no! I see thy sister’s tears,
• Thy father’s anguish, and thy brother’s death,
• In the pursuit of our ill-fated loves.

• And, Portius, here I swear, to heaven I swear,
• To heaven, and all the powers that judge mankind,
• Never to mix my plighted hands with thine,
• While such a cloud of mischiefs hangs about us,
• But to forget our loves, and drive thee out

• From all my thoughts, as far—as I am able.

Portius

• What hast thou said! I’m thunder-struck!—recall
• Those hasty words, or I am lost for ever.

Lucia

• Has not the vow already passed my lips?
• The gods have heard it, and ’tis sealed in heaven.

• May all the vengeance that was ever poured
• On perjured heads o’erwhelm me, if I break it!  [After a pause.]

Portius

• Fixt in astonishment, I gaze upon thee;
• Like one just blasted by a stroke from heaven,
• Who pants for breath, and stiffens, yet alive,

• In dreadful looks:—a monument of wrath!

Lucia

• At length I’ve acted my severest part,
• I feel the woman breaking in upon me,
• And melt about my heart! my tears will flow.
• But oh I’ll think no more! the hand of fate

• Has torn thee from me, and I must forget thee.

Portius

• Hard-hearted, cruel maid!

Lucia

•   Oh stop those sounds,
• Those killing sounds! why dost thou frown upon me?
• My blood runs cold, my heart forgets to heave,
• And life itself goes out at thy displeasure.

• The gods forbid us to indulge our loves,
• But, oh! I cannot bear thy hate and live!

Portius

• Talk not of love, thou never knew’st its force,
• I’ve been deluded, led into a dream
• Of fancied bliss. Oh Lucia, cruel maid!

• Thy dreadful vow, loaden with death, still sounds
• In my stunned ears. What shall I say or do?
• Quick, let us part! perdition’s in thy presence,
• And horror dwells about thee!—hah, she faints!
• Wretch that I am! what has my rashness done!

• Lucia, thou injured innocence! thou best
• And loveliest of thy sex! awake, my Lucia,
• Or Portius rushes on his sword to join thee.
• —Her imprecations reach not to the tomb,
• They shut not out society in death—

• But, hah! she moves! life wanders up and down
• Through all her face, and lights up every charm.

Lucia

• O Portius, was this well!—to frown on her
• That lives upon thy smiles! to call in doubt
• The faith of one expiring at thy feet,

• That loves thee more than ever woman loved!
• —What do I say? my half-recovered sense
• Forgets the vow in which my soul is bound.
• Destruction stands betwixt us! we must part.

Portius

• Name not the word, my frighted thoughts run back,

• And startle into madness at the sound.

Lucia

• What wouldst thou have me do? consider well
• The train of ills our love would draw behind it.
• Think, Portius, think, thou seest thy dying brother
• Stabbed at his heart, and all besmeared with blood,

• Storming at heaven and thee! thy awful sire
• Sternly demands the cause, the accursed cause,
• That robs him of his son! poor Marcia trembles,
• Then tears her hair, and frantic in her griefs
• Calls out on Lucia! What could Lucia answer?

• Or how stand up in such a scene of sorrow?

Portius

• To my confusion and eternal grief,
• I must approve the sentence that destroys me.
• The mist that hung about my mind clears up;
• And now, athwart the terrors that thy vow

• Has planted round thee, thou appear’st more fair,
• More amiable, and risest in thy charms.
• Loveliest of women! heaven is in thy soul,
• Beauty and virtue shine for ever round thee,
• Brightening each other! thou art all divine!

Lucia

• Portius, no more! thy words shoot through my heart,
• Melt my resolves, and turn me all to love.
• Why are those tears of fondness in thy eyes?
• Why heaves thy heart? why swells thy soul with sorrow?
• It softens me too much—farewell, my Portius,

• Farewell, though death is in the word, for ever!

Portius

• Stay, Lucia, stay! what dost thou say? For ever?

Lucia

• Have I not sworn? if, Portius, thy success
• Must throw thy brother on his fate, farewell—
• Oh, how shall I repeat the word?—for ever!

Portius

• Thus o’er the dying lamp the unsteady flame
• Hangs quivering on a point, leaps off by fits,
• And falls again, as loth to quit its hold.
• —Thou must not go, my soul still hovers o’er thee,
• And can’t get loose.

Lucia

•   If the firm Portius shake

• To hear of parting, think what Lucia suffers!

Portius

• ’Tis true; unruffled and serene I’ve met
• The common accidents of life, but here
• Such an unlooked-for storm of ills falls on me,
• It beats down all my strength. I cannot bear it.

• We must not part.

Lucia

•   What dost thou say? not part?
• Hast thou forgot the vow that I have made?
• Are there not heavens, and gods, and thunder o’er us?
• —But see! thy brother Marcus bends this way!
• I sicken at the sight. Once more, farewell,

• Farewell, and know thou wrong’st me, if thou think’st
• Ever was love, or ever grief, like mine.  [Exit.]

[3. ]Quickly, soon.