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 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,3
• 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

• I shall run mad—

Marcia

•   O Juba! Juba! Juba!

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 Elysium4 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,5 I stand transported!
• Sure ’tis a dream! dead and alive at once!
• If thou art Juba, who lies there?

Juba

•   A wretch,

• 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

• Oh fortunate mistake!

Marcia

•   Oh happy 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.

[3. ]A crown.

[4. ]Dwelling place of the blessed after death; used figuratively to indicate a condition of perfect happiness.

[5. ]Amazement; wonder.