Lives of the Poets | Page 8

more efficacy, practised for Cato." The
danger was soon over. The whole nation was at that time on fire with
faction. The Whigs applauded every line in which liberty was
mentioned, as a satire on the Tories; and the Tories echoed every clap,
to show that the satire was unfelt. The story of Bolingbroke is well
known; he called Booth to his box, and gave him fifty guineas for
defending the cause of liberty so well against a perpetual dictator. "The
Whigs," says Pope, "design a second present, when they can
accompany it with as good a sentence."
The play, supported thus by the emulation of factious praise, was acted
night after night for a longer time than, I believe, the public had
allowed to any drama before; and the author, as Mrs. Porter long
afterwards related, wandered through the whole
exhibition behind the
scenes with restless and unappeasable solicitude. When it was printed,
notice was given that the Queen would be pleased if it was dedicated to
her; "but, as he had designed that compliment elsewhere, he found
himself obliged," says Tickell, "by his duty on the one hand, and his

honour on the other, to send it into the world without any dedication."
Human happiness has always its abatements; the brightest sunshine of
success is not without a cloud. No sooner was Cato offered to the
reader than it was attacked by the acute malignity of Dennis with all the
violence of angry criticism. Dennis, though equally zealous, and
probably by his temper more furious than Addison, for what they called
liberty, and though a flatterer of the Whig Ministry, could not sit quiet
at a successful play; but was eager to tell friends and enemies that they
had misplaced their admirations. The world was too stubborn for
instruction; with the fate of the censurer of Corneille's Cid, his
animadversions showed his anger without effect, and Cato continued to
be praised.
Pope had now an opportunity of courting the friendship of Addison by
vilifying his old enemy, and could give resentment its full play without
appearing to revenge himself. He therefore published "A Narrative of
the Madness of John Dennis:" a performance which left the objections
to the play in their full force, and therefore discovered more desire of
vexing the critic than of defending the poet.
Addison, who was no stranger to the world, probably saw the
selfishness of Pope's friendship; and, resolving that he should have the
consequences of his officiousness to himself, informed Dennis by
Steele that he was sorry for the insult; and that, whenever he should
think fit to answer his remarks, he would do it in a manner to which
nothing could be objected.
The greatest weakness of the play is in the scenes of love, which are
said by Pope to have been added to the original plan upon a subsequent
review, in compliance with the popular practice of the stage. Such an
authority it is hard to reject; yet the love is so intimately mingled with
the whole action that it cannot easily be thought extrinsic and
adventitious; for if it were taken away, what would be left? or how
were the four acts filled in the first draft? At the publication the wits
seemed proud to pay their attendance with encomiastic verses. The best
are from an unknown hand, which will perhaps lose somewhat of their
praise when the author is known to be Jeffreys.

Cato had yet other honours. It was censured as a party-play by a scholar
of Oxford; and defended in a favourable examination by Dr. Sewel. It
was translated by Salvini into Italian, and acted at Florence; and by the
Jesuits of St. Omer's into Latin, and played by their pupils. Of this
version a copy was sent to Mr. Addison: it is to be wished that it could
be found, for the sake of comparing their version of the soliloquy with
that of Bland.
A tragedy was written on the same subject by Des Champs, a French
poet, which was translated with a criticism on the English play. But the
translator and the critic are now forgotten.
Dennis lived on unanswered, and therefore little read. Addison knew
the policy of literature too well to make his enemy important by
drawing the attention of the public upon a criticism which, though
sometimes intemperate, was often irrefragable.
While Cato was upon the stage, another daily paper, called the
Guardian, was published by Steele. To this Addison gave great
assistance, whether occasionally or by previous engagement is not
known. The character of Guardian was too narrow and too serious: it
might properly enough admit both the duties and the decencies of life,
but seemed not to include literary speculations, and was in some degree
violated by merriment and burlesque. What