Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/45

Rh by this author are ſo remarkable, that they deſerve to be related; and as they ſerve to ſhew the high opinion Mr. Addiſon entertained of our author’s abilities as a Poet, I ſhall therefore tranſcribe his own words. ‘It has been often ſaid by good judges, that Cato was no proper ſubject for a dramatic poem: That the character of a ſtoic philoſopher, is inconſiſtent with the hurry and tumult of action, and paſſions which are the ſoul of tragedy. That the ingenious author miſcarried in the plan of his work, but ſupported it by the dignity, the purity, the beauty, and juſtneſs of the ſentiments. This was ſo much the opinion of Mr. Maynwaring, who was generally allowed to be the beſt critic of our time; that he was againſt bringing the play upon the ſtage, and it lay by unfiniſhed many years. That it was play’d at laſt was owing to Mr. Hughes. He had read the four acts which were finiſhed, and really thought it would be of ſervice to the public, to have it repreſented at the latter end of queen Anne’s reign, when the ſpirit of liberty was likely to be loſt. He endeavoured to bring Mr. Addiſon into his opinion, which he did, and conſented it ſhould be acted if Mr. Hughes would write the laſt act; and he offered him the ſcenery for his aſſiſtance, excuſing his not finiſhing it himſelf, upon account of ſome other avocations. He preſs’d Mr. Hughes to do it ſo earneſtly, that he was prevailed upon, and ſet about it. But, a week after, ſeeing Mr. Addiſon again, with an intention to communicate to him what he thought of it, he was agreeably ſurprized at his producing ſome papers, where near half of the act was written by the author himſelf, who took fire at the hint, that it would be ſerviceable; and, upon a ſecond reflexion, went through with the fifth act, not that he