Cato: A Tragedy, and Selected Essays

ACT I

DRAM ATIS PERSONAE Men Cato, mr. booth Lucius, a Senator, mr. keen Sempronius, a Senator, mr. mills Juba, Prince of Numidia, mr. wilks Syphax, General of the Numidians, mr. cibber Portius, Son of Cato, mr. powell Marcus, Son of Cato, mr. ryan Decius, Ambassador from Caesar, mr. bowman Mutineers, Guards, &c. Women Marcia, Daughter to Cato, mrs. oldfield Lucia, Daughter to Lucius, mrs. porter Scene, A large Hall in the Governor’s Palace of Utica. ACT I—scene i Portius, Marcus. Portius The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers, And heavily in clouds brings on the day, The great, the important day, big with the fate Of Cato and of Rome.— Our father’s death Would fill up all the guilt of civil war,5 5 5. The Roman civil war (49–45 b.c.) began with Caesar crossing the Rubicon to invade Italy. Having fled Rome as Caesar advanced, Pompey and the republican forces were defeated at Pharsalus in 48 b.c. Soon after he fled Pharsalus, Pompey was assassinated in Egypt by Ptolemy XII’s men, while Cato and the other republicans scattered and re-massed in Africa. The play’s action takes place just after Caesar’s 46 b.c. victory at Thapsus. 8 cato, a tragedy 6. Gaius Julius Caesar (100 –44 b.c.) was created dictator for life in 44 b.c., the same year in which he was assassinated by supporters of the Roman Republic. Caesar’s opposition to Cato predates the civil war, going back to the Catiline conspiracy of 63 b.c. 7. Stoicism; see note at I.4 (p. 20, n. 31). 8. Small trading city in Thessaly. The 48 b.c. battle of Pharsalus, in which Caesar’s outnumbered forces routed the Pompeians, was the decisive battle of the civil war. 9. Roman privileged class, whose membership was based on birth. And close the scene of blood. Already Caesar6 Has ravaged more than half the globe, and sees Mankind grown thin by his destructive sword: Should he go further, numbers would be wanting To form new battles, and support his crimes. 10 Ye gods, what havoc does ambition make Among your works! Marcus Thy steady temper, Portius, Can look on guilt, rebellion, fraud, and Caesar, In the calm lights of mild philosophy;7 I’m tortured ev’n to madness, when I think 15 On the proud victor: every time he’s named Pharsalia8 rises to my view!—I see The insulting tyrant, prancing o’er the field Strowed with Rome’s citizens, and drenched in slaughter, His horse’s hoofs wet with Patrician9 blood! 20 Oh, Portius! is there not some chosen curse, Some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven, Red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man Who owes his greatness to his country’s ruin? Portius Believe me, Marcus, ’tis an impious greatness, 25 And mixt with too much horror to be envied. How does the lustre of our father’s actions, Through the dark cloud of ills that cover him, Break out, and burn with more triumphant brightness! His sufferings shine, and spread a glory round him; 30 act i 9 10. Ancient Phoenician settlement along the coast of present-day Tunisia. In the second century b.c., Utica was made the capital of Roman Africa and was accorded the privileged status of free city, which allowed it local autonomy and perhaps tax immunity. Utica’s sympathy toward Caesar’s opponents led to an eventual decline of its influence. 11. Numidia was a Roman province in North Africa, in present-day Algeria. 12. See I.4, p. 20, n. 31. Greatly unfortunate, he fights the cause Of honour, virtue, liberty, and Rome. His sword ne’er fell but on the guilty head; Oppression, tyranny, and power usurped, Draw all the vengeance of his arm upon ’em. 35 Marcus Who knows not this? but what can Cato do Against a world, a base, degenerate world, That courts the yoke, and bows the neck to Caesar? Pent up in Utica10 he vainly forms A poor epitome of Roman greatness, 40 And, covered with Numidian11 guards, directs A feeble army, and an empty senate, Remnants of mighty battles fought in vain. By heavens, such virtues, joined with such success, Distract my very soul: our father’s fortune 45 Would almost tempt us to renounce his precepts.12 Portius Remember what our father oft has told us...