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CATO;

A Tragedy,
IN FIVE ACTS,


BY JOSEPH ADDISON, ESQ.


AS PERFORMED AT THE
THEATRE ROYAL, COVENT GARDEN.


PRINTED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE MANAGERS
FROM THE PROMPT BOOK.

WITH REMARKS
BY MRS. INCHBALD.




PARIS,
PRINTED FOR BAUDRY,
ENGLISH, ITALIAN, SPANISH, PORTUGUESE AND GERMAN
LIBRARY, RUE DU COQ-SAINT-HONORE.

1823.




REMARKS.


The author of this tragedy, to whose vigorous mind the English are
indebted for their choicest moral works, came into the world with a
frame so weak, that he was christened immediately on his birth, in
consequence of the symptoms he gave of a speedy dissolution. The hand
which reared him did a more than ordinary service to the age in which
he lived, and to succeeding generations. Addison's pious writings,
untainted by the rigour of superstition, have softened the harsh spirit
of ancient religion, whilst they have confirmed all its principles.

He was the son of the Reverend Launcelot Addison, Rector of Milston, in
the county of Wilts, at which place he was born, on the 6th of May, 1672.

After passing through some inferior schools, he was placed at the
Charter-House; where he contracted that intimacy with Steele, which
grew to a friendship honourable to them both, from its duration, and
the instructions which their joint labour bestowed on mankind.

At the age of fifteen, young Addison was entered at Queen's College,
Oxford, where he applied himself so closely to study, that, in a few
years, his Latin poetry gained him high reputation in both universities,
and, at the age of twenty-two, he became known to the nation at large by
his English compositions.

He was now pressed by his father to take holy orders; which,
notwithstanding his sedate turn of mind, and his habits of piety, he
positively refused. Mr. Tickell has alleged, that it was Addison's
extreme modesty, a constitutional timidity, which made him resolve
against being in the church--but he became a statesman; and, surely,
that is a character which requires as much courage as a clergyman's,
when the church is not under persecution.

The first dramatic work from the pen of Addison, was an opera called
"Rosamond," which having but indifferent success, he next assisted
Steele in his play of "The Tender Husband;" for which the author
surprised him by a dedication, openly to avow the obligation.

These two friends now united their efforts in that well-known periodical
work, "The Spectator;" by which they reformed the manners, as well as
the morals, of their readers, and established their own literary fame.
But, as the talents of Addison were superior to those of Steele, so are
the papers in this work which were written by him esteemed above the
rest;--and, as a mark of distinction, he had the laudable, or his friend
Steele the honest pride, to affix a letter at the end of every such
paper, by which it should be known for his. The Muse Clio furnished the
four letters which have been thus used in "The Spectator," as Addison's
honourable stamp of authorship.

In the periodical work of "The Guardian" he had likewise some share;
and, in 1713, he produced, what Dr. Johnson has called "the noblest work
of Addison's genius"--"Cato."

Notwithstanding the merit of this play, it is certain that it was
indebted to the political circumstances of the times, for that
enthusiastic applause with which it was received by the town.

The joy or sorrow which an author is certain to experience upon every
new production, is far more powerful in the heart of a dramatist than
in that of any other writer. The sound of clamorous plaudits raises
his spirits to a kind of ecstacy; whilst hisses and groans, from a
dissatisfied audience, strike on the ear like a personal insult, avowing
loud and public contempt for that in which he has been labouring to show
his skill.

Addison, with his timid nature, felt all the excruciating tortures of
an ambitious, yet a fearful dramatist. He could not stay at home on the
first night of "Cato;" for to be told, at once, that his tragedy was
driven from the stage with derision, had been to his tremulous nerves
like the dart of death. Not less peril might have befallen him as an
auditor--he therefore was neither present on the first performance,
nor absent from the theatre;--but, placing himself on a bench in the
green-room, his body motionless, his soul in tumult, he kept by his side
a friend, whom he dispatched every minute towards the stage, to bring
him news of what was passing there. He thus secured, he conceived,
progressive information of his fate, without the risk of hearing it
from an enraged multitude. But such was the vehemence of applause,
that shouts of admiration forced their way through the walls of the
green-room, before his messenger could return with the gladsome tidings.
Yet, not till the last sentence was spoken, and the curtain fairly
dropped upon Cato and his weeping friends, did the author venture to
move from the inanimate position in which he was fixed. This acute dread
of failure now heightened the joy of success, and never was success
more complete.

"Cato," says Pope, in a letter to one of his friends, written at the
time, "was not so much the wonder of Rome in his days, as he is of
Britain in ours."

The most fortunate