nd diction--in a word, for all those characteristics
of style afterwards summed up in the phrase "correctness."--W.J.
COURTHOPE'S "Addison."]

"When Mr. Addison," related Pope, "had finished his 'Cato,' he brought
it to me, desired to have my sincere opinion of it, and left it with
me for three or four days. I gave him my opinion of it sincerely,
which was, 'that I thought he had better not act it, and that he would
get reputation enough by only printing it.' This I said as thinking
the lines well written, but the piece was not theatrical enough. Some
time after Mr. Addison said 'that his own opinion was the same with
mine, but that some particular friends of his, whom he could not
disoblige, insisted on its being acted,'"

These particular friends who were not to be disobliged seem to have
been shining lights of the Whig party. It was feared that the Tories
were conspiring to reinstate the male line of Stuart the moment Queen
Anne should take herself to another world, and the friends of the
Hanoverian succession grew sorely anxious. They were filled with
delight, therefore, on hearing that Addison had, peacefully slumbering
in his desk, a drama which, as Maynwaring explained, was written not
for the love scenes, "but to support the old Roman and English public
spirit."[A] Here was a chance to inspire the people with a passion for
liberty; the story of Cato, served up in all the elegance of French
style, should point a moral against the claims of the Pretender, and
pure politics might thus be taught from the rostrum of a theatre!

[Footnote A: Those who _affected_ to think liberty in danger, and had
_affected_ likewise to think that a stage play might preserve it.--DR.
JOHNSON.]

So it came about that one fine day the company at Drury Lane began
the rehearsal of "Cato," under circumstances, however, which hardly
pointed to a successful production. There appears to have been some
difficulty in the assignment of parts, and it is easy to imagine
that at first the players exercised their prerogative of growling--a
prerogative not calculated to dispel the doubts fast assailing Addison
as to the outcome of the performance. Nance Oldfield made no fuss
at playing Marcia, Cato's daughter, for she was ever disposed to be
tractable; but when it came to casting the noble Roman himself the
trouble began. The story runs that the part was first offered
to Cibber, and that he sensibly refused it. Colley might make a
delightful fop