PROLOGUE TO MR. ADDISON's

TRAGEDY OF CATO*.

To wake the foul by tender strokes of art,
To raise the genius, and to mend the heart,
To make mankind, in conscious virtue bold,
Live o'er each scene, and be what they behold;
For this the Tragic Muse first trod the stage,
Commanding tears to ftream through ev'ry age;
Tyrants no more their favage nature kept,
And foes to virtue wonder'd how they wept.
Our author fhuns by vulgar fprings to move
The hero's glory, or the virgin's love;
In pitying love, we but our weakness show,
And wild Ambition well deferves its woe.

NOTES.

5

ΤΟ

Here

*This Prologue, and the Epilogue which follows, are the most perfect models of this fpecies of writing, both in the serious and the ludicrous way. WARBURTON.

The former is much the better of the two; for fome of Dry. den's, of the latter kind, are unequalled. WARTON.

VER. 7. Tyrants no more] Louis XIV. wished to have pardoned the Cardinal de Rohan, after hearing the Cinna of Corneille.

WARTON.

VER. 11. In pitying love,] Why then did Addison introduce the loves of Juba and Marcia? which Pope faid to Mr. Spence, were not in the original plan of the play, but were introduced in compliance with the popular practice of the stage. WARTON.

Here tears fhall flow from a more gen'rous caufe,
Such tears as Patriots fhed for dying Laws:
He bids your breasts with ancient ardour rise,
And calls forth Roman drops from British eyes.
Virtue confefs'd in human fhape he draws,
What Plato thought, and godlike Cato was :
No common object to your fight difplays,
But what with pleasure Heav'n itself surveys,
A brave man struggling in the storms of fate,
And greatly falling with a falling state.

NOTES.

15

20

While

VER. 20. But what with pleasure] This alludes to a famous paffage of Seneca, which Mr. Addison afterwards used as a motto to his play, when it was printed. WARBURTON.

VER. 21. A brave man, &c.] The noble paffage of Seneca, which Addison adopted as a Motto, and to which Pope in this paffage finely alludes, is this,

"Ecce fpectaculum dignum ad quod refpiciat, intentus operi fuo, DEUS! Ecce par Deo dignum, vir fortis cum malâ fortunâ compofitus! non video, inquam, quid habeat in terris Jupiter pulcrius, fi convertere animum velit, quàm ut fpectet CATONEM, jam parti bus non femel fractis, nihilhominùs inter ruinas publicas erectum.” Pope has very much heightened the idea of Seneca, in one paffage, Fortis vir, malê fortunâ compofitus ;" which is far

lefs animated than

A brave man fruggling in the forms of fate!

Let me take this opportunity of remarking, that Pope has very feldom laid the fires, as it is in the line,

A brave mãn

The ftrefs, however, laid upon the epithet in this manner, has often a pleafing effect, and, when it is judiciously introduced, is particularly grateful to the ear. Milton and Shakespear often accent a line in this manner, and who but feels its occafional propriety and beauty?

"Thro' the HIGH wood, echoing fhrill.”

ALLEGRO.

"What time the GRAY fly winds her fullen horn." LyCIDAS. "On which the SWART ftar fparely looks."

While Cato gives his little Senate laws,

What bofom beats not in his Country's caufe?
Who fees him act, but envies ev'ry deed?

25

Who hears him groan, and does not wish to bleed?
Ev'n when proud Cæfar 'midst triumphal cars,
The fpoils of nations, and the pomp of wars,
Ignobly vain, and impotently great,

Show'd Rome her Cato's figure drawn in state; 30
As her dead Father's rev'rend image past,
The pomp was darken'd, and the day o'ercast;
The Triumph ceas'd, tears gufh'd from ev'ry eye;
The world's great Victor pafs'd unheeded by;
Her last good man dejected Rome ador'd,
And honour'd Cæfar's lefs than Cato's fword.
Britons, attend: be worth like this approv'd,
And show, you have the virtue to be mov'd.
With honeft fcorn the first fam'd Cato view'd

35

Rome learning arts from Greece, whom she subdu'd; Your fcene precarioufly fubfifts too long

On French translation, and Italian fong.

NOTES.

41

Dare

VER. 27. Ev'n when] The twenty-feventh, thirtieth, thirtyfourth, thirty-ninth, and forty-fifth lines, are artful allusions to the character and history of Cato himself. WARTON.

VER. 37. Britons, attend:] Spence told me, that Pope had written it" Britons, arife"; but that Addison, frightened at fo ftrong an expreffion, as promoting infurrection, lowered and weakened it by the word, attend. WARTON.

VER. 42. On French tranflation,] He glances obliquely at the Diftreft Mother of his old antagonist Philips, taken, evidently, from Racine. Cato's laft foliloquy is tranflated with great purity and elegance by Bland.

It is a little remarkable that the last line of Cato is Pope's ; and the laft of Eloifa is Addison's. WARTON.

Dare to have fense yourselves; affert the stage,
Be juftly warm'd with your own native rage:
Such Plays alone should win a British ear,
As Cato's felf had not difdain'd to hear.

NOTES.

45

VER. 45. Such Plays alone] Addifon, having finifhed and laid by, for feveral years, the firit four acts of Cato, applied to Hughes for a fifth; and Dr. Johnfon, from entertaining too mean an opinion of Hughes, does not think the application serious. When Hughes brought his fupplement, he found the author himfelf had finished his play. Hughes was very capable of writ ing this fifth act. The Siege of Damafcus is a better tragedy than Cato; though Pope affected to fpeak flightingly of its author. An audience was packed by Steele on the first night of Cato; and Addison fuffered inexpreffible uneafiness and folicitude during the reprefentation. Bolingbroke called Booth to his box, and gave him fifty guineas for defending the cause of liberty fo well, against a perpetual dictator. WARTON.

VER. 46. As Cato's felf, &c.] This alludes to that famous. ftory of his coming into the Theatre, and going out again, re

lated by Martial.

WARBURTON.

EPILOGUE TO MR. ROWE'S JANE SHORE.

THE Epilogue to Jane Shore is written with that air of gallantry and raillery which, by a ftrange perverfion of taste, the audience expects in all Epilogues to the most serious and pathetic pieces. To recommend cuckoldom, and palliate adultery, is their ufual intent. I wonder Mrs. Oldfield was not suffered to speak it; for it is fuperior to that which was used on the occafion. In this tafte Garrick has written fome that abound in spirit and drollery. Rowe's genius was rather delicate and foft, than ftrong. and pathetic; his compofitions foothe us with a tranquil and tender fort of complacency, rather than cleave the heart with pangs of commiferation. His diftreffes are entirely founded on the paffion of love. His diction is extremely elegant and chafte, and his verfification highly melodious. His plays are declamations, rather than dialogues; and his characters are general, and undiftinguished from each other. Such a furious character as that of Bajazet, is easily drawn ; and, let me add, eafily acted. There is a want of unity in the fable of Tamerlane. The death's head, dead body, and ftage hung in mourning, in the Fair Penitent, are artificial and mechanical methods of affecting an audience. In a word, his plays are mufical and pleafing poems, but inactive and unmoving tragedies. This of Jane Shore is, I think, the most interesting and affecting of any he has given us; but pro. bability is fadly violated in it by the neglect of the unity of time. For a perfon to be supposed to be starved, during the representation of five acts, is a ftriking inftance of the abfurdity of this violation.

It is probable that this is become the most popular and pleaf. ing tragedy of all Rowe's works, because it is founded on our own hiftory. I cannot forbear wifhing, that our writers would more frequently fearch for fubjects in the annals of England, which afford many ftriking and pathetic events, proper for the ftage.

VOL. I.