SIR,
'As to poetical affairs, I am content at present to be a bare looker on, and from a practitioner turn an admirer; which as the world goes, is not very usual. Cato was not so much the wonder of Rome in his Days, as he is of Britain in ours; and though all the foolish industry possible had been used to make it thought a party play, yet what the author once said of another, may the most properly in the world be applied to him on this occasion.
Envy itself is dumb, in wonder lost,
And factions strive who shall applaud him most.
The numerous and violent claps of the Whig party, on the one side of the theatre, were ecchoed back by the Tories on the other; while the author sweated behind the scenes, with concern to find their applause proceeding more from the hand than the head. This was the case too with the Prologue writer, who was clapp'd into a staunch Whig at the end of every two lines. I believe you have heard, that after all the applauses of the opposite faction, my lord Bolingbroke sent for Booth, who played Cato, into the box, between one of the acts, and presented him with fifty guineas, in acknowledgment as he expressed it, for defending the cause of liberty so well against a perpetual dictator. The Whigs are unwilling to be distanced this way, and therefore design a present to the same Cato very speedily; in the mean time, they are getting ready as good a sentence as the former on their side, so betwixt them it is probable, that Cato (as Dr. Garth exprest it) may have something to live upon after he dies.'
Immediately after the publication of this Tragedy, there came abroad a pamphlet, entitled, Observations on Cato; written by the ingenious Dr. Sewel: The design of this piece was to show that the applause this Tragedy met with was founded on merit. It is a very accurate and entertaining criticism, and tends to secure the poet the hearts of his readers, as well as of his audience.
Our author was not however without enemies, amongst whom was Mr. Dennis, who attacked it, first in a pamphlet, and then in a subsequent work, in which he employed seven letters in pulling it to pieces: In some of his remarks he is candid, and judicious enough, in others he is trifling and ill natur'd, and I think it is pretty plain he was agitated by envy; for as the intent of that play was to promote the Whig interest, of which Mr. Dennis was a zealous abettor, he could not therefore disesteem it from party principles.
Another gentleman, who called himself a scholar at Oxford, considered the play in a very different light; and endeavoured to serve his party by turning the cannon upon the enemy. The title of this pamphlet is, Mr. Addison turned Tory: It is written with great spirit and vivacity. Cato was speedily translated into French by Mr. Boyer, but with no spirit: It was translated likewise into Italian.
Voltaire has commended, and condemned Mr. Addison by turns, and in respect to Cato, he admires, and censures it extravagantly. The principal character he allows superior to any before brought upon the stage, but says, that all the love-scenes are absolutely insipid: He might have added unnecessary, as to the plot; and the only reason that can be assigned for the poet's introducing them was, the prevalence of custom; but it must be acknowledged, that his lovers are the most sensible, and address each other in the best language, that is to be found in any love dialogues of the British stage: It will be difficult to find a more striking line, or more picturesque of a lover's passion. than this pathetic exclamation;
A lover does not live by vulgar time.
Queen Anne was not the last in doing justice to our author and his performance; she was pleased to signify an inclination of having it dedicated to her, but as he intended that compliment to another, it came into the world without any dedication.