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 V

Cato, Sempronius, Lucius, Portius, Marcus.

Cato

• Where are these bold, intrepid sons of war,
• That greatly turn their backs upon the foe,
• And to their general send a brave defiance?

Sempronius

• Curse on their dastard souls, they stand astonished!  [Aside.]

Cato

• Perfidious men! and will you thus dishonour

• Your past exploits, and sully all your wars?
• Do you confess ’twas not a zeal for Rome,
• Nor love of liberty, nor thirst of honour,
• Drew you thus far; but hopes to share the spoil
• Of conquered towns and plundered provinces?

• Fired with such motives you do well to join
• With Cato’s foes, and follow Caesar’s banners.
• Why did I ’scape the envenomed aspic’s6 rage,
• And all the fiery monsters of the desert,
• To see this day? why could not Cato fall

• Without your guilt? Behold, ungrateful men,
• Behold my bosom naked to your swords,
• And let the man that’s injured strike the blow.
• Which of you all suspects that he is wronged,
• Or thinks he suffers greater ills than Cato?

• Am I distinguished from you but by toils,
• Superior toils, and heavier weight of cares?
• Painful pre-eminence!

Sempronius

•   By heavens they droop!
• Confusion to the villains! all is lost.  [Aside.]

Cato

• Have you forgotten Libya’s burning waste,

• Its barren rocks, parched earth, and hills of sand,
• Its tainted air, and all its broods of poison?
• Who was the first to explore the untrodden path,
• When life was hazarded in every step?
• Or, fainting in the long, laborious march,

• When on the banks of an unlooked-for stream
• You sunk the river with repeated draughts,
• Who was the last in all your host that thirsted?

Sempronius

• If some penurious source by chance appeared,
• Scanty of waters, when you scooped it dry,

• And offered the full helmet up to Cato,
• Did he not dash the untasted moisture from him?
• Did he not lead you through the mid-day sun,
• And clouds of dust? did not his temples glow
• In the same sultry winds and scorching heats?

Cato

• Hence, worthless men! hence! and complain to Caesar
• You could not undergo the toils of war,
• Nor bear the hardships that your leader bore.

Lucius

• See, Cato, see the unhappy men! they weep!
• Fear, and remorse, and sorrow for their crime,

• Appear in every look, and plead for mercy.

Cato

• Learn to be honest men, give up your leaders,
• And pardon shall descend on all the rest.

Sempronius

• Cato, commit these wretches to my care.
• First let’em each be broken on the rack,

• Then, with what life remains, impaled and left
• To writhe at leisure round the bloody stake.
• There let’em hang, and taint the southern wind.
• The partners of their crime will learn obedience,
• When they look up and see their fellow-traitors

• Stuck on a fork, and blackening in the sun.

Lucius

• Sempronius, why, why wilt thou urge the fate
• Of wretched men?

Sempronius

•   How! wouldst thou clear rebellion?
• Lucius (good man) pities the poor offenders,
• That would imbrue7 their hands in Cato’s blood.

Cato

• Forbear, Sempronius!—see they suffer death,
• But in their deaths remember they are men.
• Strain not the laws to make their tortures grievous.
• Lucius, the base, degenerate age requires
• Severity, and justice in its rigour;

• This awes an impious, bold, offending world,
• Commands obedience, and gives force to laws.
• When by just vengeance guilty mortals perish;
• The gods behold their punishment with pleasure,
• And lay the uplifted thunderbolt aside.8

Sempronius

• Cato, I execute thy will with pleasure.

Cato

• Meanwhile we’ll sacrifice to liberty.
• Remember, O my friends, the laws, the rights,
• The generous plan of power delivered down,
• From age to age, by your renowned forefathers,

• (So dearly bought, the price of so much blood,)
• Oh let it never perish in your hands!
• But piously transmit it to your children.
• Do thou, great liberty, inspire our souls,
• And make our lives in thy possession happy,

• Or our deaths glorious in thy just defence.

[6. ]Asp’s.

[7. ]Stain, dirty, defile.

[8. ]See Guardian 99.