play appeared, it was received with boundless admiration; and during the representation on the first night, on which its fate depended, it is said that Mr. Addison discovered uncommon timidity; he was agitated between hope and fear, and while he remained retired in the green-room, he kept a person continually going backwards and forwards, from the stage to the place where he was, to inform him how it succeeded, and till the whole was over, and the success confirmed, he never ventured to move.

When it was published, it was recommended by many Copies of Verses prefixed to it, amongst which the sincerity of Mr. Steele, and the genius of Eusden, deserve to be distinguished:  But, as I would not omit any particulars relative to this renowned play, and its great author, I shall insert a letter of Mr. Pope’s to Sir William Turnbull, dated the 30th of April 1713, in which are some circumstances that merit commemoration.

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.