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Front Page  Titles (by Subject) ACT IV — - Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays
ACT 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 [ ]
ACT IV —
SCENE I
Lucia, Marcia.
Lucia- Now tell me, Marcia, tell me from thy soul,
- If thou believ’st ’tis possible for woman
- To suffer greater ills than Lucia suffers?
Marcia
- O Lucia, Lucia, might my big-swoln heart
- Vent all its griefs, and give a loose to sorrow:
- Marcia could answer thee in sighs, keep pace
- With all thy woes, and count out tear for tear.
Lucia- I know thou ’rt doomed, alike, to be beloved
- By Juba and thy father’s friend, Sempronius;
- But which of these has power to charm like Portius!
Marcia
- Still must I beg thee not to name Sempronius?
- Lucia, I like not that loud, boisterous man;
- Juba to all the bravery of a hero
- Adds softest love, and more than female sweetness:
- Juba might make the proudest of our sex,
- Any of woman-kind, but Marcia, happy.
Lucia- And why not Marcia? come, you strive in vain
- To hide your thoughts from one who knows too well
- The inward glowings of a heart in love.
Marcia
- While Cato lives, his daughter has no right
- To love or hate, but as his choice directs.
Lucia- But should this father give you to Sempronius?
Marcia
- I dare not think he will: but if he should—
- Why wilt thou add to all the griefs I suffer
- Imaginary ills, and fancied tortures?
- I hear the sound of feet! they march this way!
- Let us retire, and try if we can drown
- Each softer thought in sense of present danger.
- When love once pleads admission to our hearts,
- (In spite of all the virtue we can boast,)
- The woman that deliberates is lost.
SCENE II
Sempronius, dressed like Juba, with Numidian guards.
Sempronius
- The deer is lodged. I’ve tracked her to her covert.
- Be sure you mind the word, and when I give it,
- Rush in at once, and seize upon your prey.
- Let not her cries or tears have force to move you.
- —How will the young Numidian rave, to see
- His mistress lost! if aught could glad my soul,
- Beyond the enjoyment of so bright a prize,
- ’Twould be to torture that young gay barbarian.
- —But, hark, what noise! death to my hopes! ’tis he,
- ’Tis Juba’s self! there is but one way left—
- He must be murdered, and a passage cut
- Through those his guards—Hah! dastards, do you tremble!
- Or act like men, or by yon azure heaven—
Sempronius- One that was born to scourge thy arrogance,
- Presumptuous youth!
Juba- What can this mean? Sempronius!
Sempronius- My sword shall answer thee. Have at thy heart.
Juba- Nay, then beware thy own, proud, barbarous man!
- [Sempronius falls. His guards surrender.]
Sempronius
- Curse on my stars! am I then doomed to fall
- By a boy’s hand? disfigured in a vile
- Numidian dress, and for a worthless woman?
- Gods, I’m distracted! this my close of life!
- Oh for a peal of thunder that would make
- Earth, sea, and air, and heaven, and Cato tremble!
Juba- With what a spring his furious soul broke loose,
- And left the limbs still quivering on the ground!
- Hence let us carry off those slaves to Cato,
- That we may there at length unravel all
- This dark design, this mystery of fate.
SCENE III
Lucia, Marcia.
Lucia- Sure ’twas the clash of swords; my troubled heart
- Is so cast down, and sunk amidst its sorrows,
- It throbs with fear and aches at every sound.
- O Marcia, should thy brothers for my sake!—
- I die away with horror at the thought.
Marcia
- See, Lucia, see! here’s blood! here’s blood and murder!
- Hah! a Numidian! heavens preserve the prince;
- The face lies muffled up within the garment.
- But, hah! death to my sight; a diadem,
- And purple robes! O gods! ’tis he, ’tis he!
- Juba, the loveliest youth that ever warmed
- A virgin’s heart, Juba lies dead before us!
Lucia- Now, Marcia, now call up to thy assistance
- Thy wonted strength and constancy of mind;
- Thou canst not put it to a greater trial.
Marcia- Lucia, look there, and wonder at my patience.
- Have I not cause to rave, and beat my breast,
- To rend my heart with grief, and run distracted?"
Lucia- What can I think or say to give thee comfort?
Marcia
- Talk not of comfort, ’tis for lighter ills:
- Behold a sight, that strikes all comfort dead.
Enter Juba, listening.
- I will indulge my sorrows, and give way
- To all the pangs and fury of despair,
- That man, that best of men, deserved it from me.
Juba
- What do I hear? and was the false Sempronius
- That best of men? Oh had I fall’n like him,
- And could have thus been mourned, I had been happy!
Lucia- Here will I stand, companion in thy woes,
- And help thee with my tears! when I behold
- A loss like thine, I half forget my own.
Marcia- ’Tis not in fate to ease my tortured breast.
- This empty world, to me a joyless desert,
- Has nothing left to make poor Marcia happy.
Juba- I’m on the rack! was he so near her heart?
Marcia
- Oh! he was all made up of love and charms,
- Whatever maid could wish or man admire:
- Delight of every eye! when he appeared,
- A secret pleasure gladdened all that saw him;
- But when he talked, the proudest Roman blushed
- To hear his virtues, and old age grew wise.
Juba
Marcia
Juba- What means that voice? did she not call on Juba?
Marcia
- Why do I think on what he was! he’s dead!
- He’s dead, and never knew how much I loved him.
- Lucia, who knows but his poor bleeding heart,
- Amidst its agonies, remembered Marcia,
- And the last words he uttered called me cruel!
- Alas! he knew not, hapless youth, he knew not
- Marcia’s whole soul was full of love and Juba.
Juba
- Where am I! do I live! or am indeed
- What Marcia thinks! all is Elysium round me!
Marcia- Ye dear remains of the most loved of men!
- Nor modesty nor virtue here forbid
- A last embrace, while thus—
Juba
- —See, Marcia, see,
- [Throwing himself before her.]
- The happy Juba lives! he lives to catch
- That dear embrace, and to return it too
- With mutual warmth and eagerness of love.
Marcia- With pleasure and amaze, I stand transported!
- Sure ’tis a dream! dead and alive at once!
- If thou art Juba, who lies there?
Juba
- Disguised like Juba, on a cursed design.
- The tale is long, nor have I heard it out.
- Thy father knows it all. I could not bear
- To leave thee in the neighbourhood of death,
- But flew, in all the haste of love, to find thee:
- I found thee weeping, and confess this once,
- Am rapt with joy to see my Marcia’s tears.
Marcia
- I’ve been surprised in an unguarded hour,
- But must not now go back: the love, that lay
- Half smothered in my breast, has broke through all
- Its weak restraints, and burns in its full lustre;
- I cannot, if I would, conceal it from thee.
Juba- I’m lost in ecstasy! and dost thou love,
- Thou charming maid?
Marcia- And dost thou live to ask it?
Juba
- This, this is life indeed! life worth preserving,
- Such life as Juba never felt till now!
Marcia- Believe me, prince, before I thought thee dead,
- I did not know myself how much I loved thee.
Juba
Marcia
Juba
- My joy! my best beloved! my only wish!
- How shall I speak the transport of my soul?
Marcia
- Lucia, thy arm! oh let me rest upon it!—
- The vital blood, that had forsook my heart,
- Returns again in such tumultuous tide,
- It quite o’ercomes me. Lead to my apartment.—
- O prince! I blush to think what I have said,
- But fate has wrested the confession from me;
- Go on, and prosper in the paths of honour,
- Thy virtue will excuse my passion for thee,
- And make the gods propitious to our love.
- [Exeunt Marcia and Lucia.]
Juba
- I am so blest, I fear ’tis all a dream.
- Fortune, thou now hast made amends for all
- Thy past unkindness. I absolve my stars.
- What though Numidia add her conquered towns
- And provinces to swell the victor’s triumph!
- Juba will never at his fate repine;
- Let Caesar have the world, if Marcia’s mine.
SCENE IV —
—A march at a distance.
Cato, Lucius.
Lucius- I stand astonisht! what, the bold Sempronius!
- That still broke foremost through the crowd of patriots,
- As with a hurricane of zeal transported,
- And virtuous even to madness—
Cato
- Trust me, Lucius,
- Our civil discords have produced such crimes,
- Such monstrous crimes, I am surprised at nothing.
- —O Lucius! I am sick of this bad world!
- The day-light and the sun grow painful to me.
Enter Portius.
- But see where Portius comes! What means this haste?
- Why are thy looks thus changed?
Portius
- I bring such news as will afflict my father.
Cato- Has Caesar shed more Roman blood?
Portius
- Not so.
- The traitor Syphax, as within the square
- He exercised his troops, the signal given,
- Flew off at once with his Numidian horse
- To the south gate, where Marcus holds the watch.
- I saw, and called to stop him, but in vain,
- He tossed his arm aloft, and proudly told me,
- He would not stay and perish like Sempronius.
Cato
- Perfidious men! but haste, my son, and see
- Thy brother Marcus acts a Roman’s part. [Exit Portia.]
- —Lucius, the torrent bears too hard upon me:
- Justice gives way to force: the conquered world
- Is Caesar’s: Cato has no business in it.
Lucius
- While pride, oppression, and injustice reign,
- The world will still demand her Cato’s presence.
- In pity to mankind, submit to Caesar,
- And reconcile thy mighty soul to life.
Cato
- Would Lucius have me live to swell the number
- Of Caesar’s slaves, or by a base submission
- Give up the cause of Rome, and own a tyrant?
Lucius- The victor never will impose on Cato
- Ungenerous terms. His enemies confess
- The virtues of humanity are Caesar’s.
Cato
- Curse on his virtues! they’ve undone his country.
- Such popular humanity is treason—
- But see young Juba! the good youth appears
- Full of the guilt of his perfidious subjects.
Lucius- Alas! poor prince! his fate deserves compassion.
Cato
Juba
Cato- And a brave one too.
- Thou hast a Roman soul.
Juba- Hast thou not heard
- Of my false countrymen?
Cato
- Alas! young prince,
- Falsehood and fraud shoot up in every soil,
- The product of all climes—Rome has its Caesars.
Juba- ’Tis generous thus to comfort the distrest.
Cato
- ’Tis just to give applause where ’tis deserved;
- Thy virtue, prince, has stood the test of fortune,
- Like purest gold, that, tortured in the furnace,
- Comes out more bright, and brings forth all its weight.
Juba- What shall I answer thee? my ravished heart
- O’erflows with secret joy: I’d rather gain
- Thy praise, O Cato! than Numidia’s empire.
Cato- Hah! what has he done?
- Has he forsook his post? has he given way?
- Did he look tamely on, and let ’em pass?"
Portius
- Scarce had I left my father, but I met him
- Borne on the shields of his surviving soldiers,
- Breathless and pale, and covered o’er with wounds.
- Long, at the head of his few faithful friends,
- He stood the shock of a whole host of foes.
- Till, obstinately brave, and bent on death,
- Opprest with multitudes, he greatly fell.
Cato
Portius- Nor did he fall before
- His sword had pierced through the false heart of Syphax.
- Yonder he lies. I saw the hoary traitor
- Grin in the pangs of death, and bite the ground.
Cato
- Thanks to the gods! my boy has done his duty.
- —Portius, when I am dead, be sure thou place
- His urn near mine.
Portius- Long may they keep asunder.
Lucius
- O Cato! arm thy soul with all its patience;
- See where the corpse of thy dead son approaches!
- The citizens and senators, alarmed,
- Have gathered round it, and attend it weeping.
Cato, meeting the corpse.
- Welcome, my son! here lay him down, my friends,
- Full in my sight, that I may view at leisure
- The bloody corse, and count those glorious wounds.
- —How beautiful is death, when earned by virtue!
- Who would not be that youth? what pity is it
- That we can die but once to serve our country!
- —Why sits this sadness on your brows, my friends?
- I should have blushed if Cato’s house had stood
- Secure, and flourished in a civil war.
- —Portius, behold thy brother, and remember
- Thy life is not thy own, when Rome demands it.
Juba- Was ever man like this! [Aside.]
Cato
- Alas! my friends!
- Why mourn you thus? let not a private loss
- Afflict your hearts. ’Tis Rome requires our tears,
- The mistress of the world, the seat of empire,
- The nurse of heroes, the delight of gods,
- That humbled the proud tyrants of the earth,
- And set the nations free, Rome is no more.
- Oh liberty! Oh virtue! Oh my country!
Juba- Behold that upright man! Rome fills his eyes
- With tears, that flowed not o’er his own dead son. [Aside.]
Cato
- Whate’er the Roman virtue has subdued,
- The sun’s whole course, the day and year, are Caesar’s.
- For him the self-devoted Decii died,
- The Fabii fell, and the great Scipios conquered;
- Ev’n Pompey fought for Caesar. Oh! my friends!
- How is the toil of fate, the work of ages,
- The Roman empire fall’n! Oh curst ambition!
- Fall’n into Caesar’s hands! Our great forefathers
- Had left him nought to conquer but his country.
Juba- While Cato lives, Caesar will blush to see
- Mankind enslaved, and be ashamed of empire.
Cato- Caesar ashamed! has not he seen Pharsalia?
Lucius- Cato, ’tis time thou save thyself and us.
Cato
- Lose not a thought on me, I’m out of danger.
- Heaven will not leave me in the victor’s hand.
- Caesar shall never say, I conquered Cato.
- But, oh! my friends, your safety fills my heart
- With anxious thoughts: a thousand secret terrors
- Rise in my soul: how shall I save my friends!
- ’Tis now, O Caesar, I begin to fear thee.
Lucius- Caesar has mercy, if we ask it of him.
Cato
- Then ask it, I conjure you! let him know
- Whate’er was done against him, Cato did it.
- Add, if you please, that I request it of him,
- The virtue of my friends may pass unpunished.
- —Juba, my heart is troubled for thy sake.
- Should I advise thee to regain Numidia,
- Or seek the conqueror?—
Juba
- Whilst I have life, may heaven abandon Juba!
Cato
- Thy virtues, prince, if I foresee aright,
- Will one day make thee great; at Rome, hereafter,
- ’Twill be no crime to have been Cato’s friend.
- Portius, draw near! my son, thou oft hast seen
- Thy sire engaged in a corrupted state,
- Wrestling with vice and faction: now thou seest me
- Spent, overpowered, despairing of success:
- Let me advise thee to retreat betimes
- To thy paternal seat, the Sabine field,
- Where the great Censor toiled with his own hands,
- And all our frugal ancestors were blest
- In humble virtues, and a rural life.
- There live retired, pray for the peace of Rome:
- Content thyself to be obscurely good.
- When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway,
- The post of honour is a private station. "
Portius- I hope my father does not recommend
- A life to Portius that he scorns himself.
Cato
- Farewell, my friends! if there be any of you
- Who dare not trust the victor’s clemency,
- Know, there are ships prepared by my command,
- (Their sails already opening to the winds,)
- That shall convey you to the wished-for port.
- Is there aught else, my friends, I can do for you?
- The conqueror draws near. Once more farewell!
- If e’er we meet hereafter, we shall meet
- In happier climes, and on a safer shore,
- Where Caesar never shall approach us more.
- [Pointing to his dead son.]
- There the brave youth, with love of virtue fired,
- Who greatly in his country’s cause expired,
- Shall know he conquered. The firm patriot there,
- (Who made the welfare of mankind his care,)
- Though still, by faction, vice, and fortune crost,
- Shall find the generous labour was not lost.
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