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Front Page  Titles (by Subject) SCENE VI - Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays
SCENE VI - 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 VI
Syphax, Sempronius.
Syphax- All hail, Sempronius!
- Well, Cato’s senate is resolved to wait
- The fury of a siege before it yields.
Sempronius- Syphax, we both were on the verge of fate:
- Lucius declared for peace, and terms were offered
- To Cato by a messenger from Caesar.
- Should they submit, ere our designs are ripe,
- We both must perish in the common wreck,
- Lost in a general, undistinguished ruin.
Syphax
Sempronius- Thou hast seen Mount Atlas:
- While storms and tempests thunder on its brows,
- And oceans break their billows at its feet,
- It stands unmoved, and glories in its height.
- Such is that haughty man; his towering soul,
- ’Midst all the shocks and injuries of fortune,
- Rises superior, and looks down on Caesar."
Syphax- But what’s this messenger?
Sempronius- I’ve practised with him,
- And found a means to let the victor know
- That Syphax and Sempronius are his friends.
- But let me now examine in my turn:
Syphax- Yes—but it is to Cato.
- I’ve tried the force of every reason on him,
- Soothed and caressed, been angry, soothed again,
- Laid safety, life, and interest in his sight,
- But all are vain, he scorns them all for Cato.
Sempronius- Come, ’tis no matter, we shall do without him.
- He’ll make a pretty figure in a triumph,
- And serve to trip before the victor’s chariot.
- Syphax, I now may hope thou hast forsook
- Thy Juba’s cause, and wishest Marcia mine.
Syphax- May she be thine as fast as thou wouldst have her!
Sempronius- Syphax, I love that woman; though I curse
- Her and myself, yet, spite of me, I love her.
Syphax- Make Cato sure, and give up Utica,
- Caesar will ne’er refuse thee such a trifle.
- But are thy troops prepared for a revolt?
- Does the sedition catch from man to man,
- And run among their ranks?
Sempronius- All, all is ready.
- The factious leaders are our friends, that spread
- Murmurs and discontents among the soldiers.
- They count their toilsome marches, long fatigues,
- Unusual fastings, and will bear no more
- This medley of philosophy and war.
- Within an hour they’ll storm the senate-house.
Syphax- Meanwhile I’ll draw up my Numidian troops
- Within the square, to exercise their arms,
- And, as I see occasion, favour thee.
- I laugh to think how your unshaken Cato
- Will look aghast, while unforeseen destruction
- Pours in upon him thus from every side.
- So, where our wide Numidian wastes extend,
- Sudden, the impetuous hurricanes descend,
- Wheel through the air, in circling eddies play,
- Tear up the sands, and sweep whole plains away.
- The helpless traveller, with wild surprise,
- Sees the dry desert all around him rise,
- And smothered in the dusty whirlwind dies.
ACT III —
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