"A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty is worth a whole eternity in
bondage." -- Joseph Addison, Cato 1713. Joseph Addison was born in
1672 in Milston, Wiltshire, England. He was educated in the
classics at Oxford and became widely known as an essayist,
playwright, poet, and statesman. First produced in 1713, Cato, A
Tragedy inspired generations toward a pursuit of liberty. Liberty
Fund's new edition of Cato: A Tragedy, and Selected Essays brings
together Addison's dramatic masterpiece along with a selection of
his essays that develop key themes in the play. Cato, A Tragedy is
the account of the final hours of Marcus Porcius Cato (95-46BC), a
Stoic whose deeds, rhetoric, and resistance to the tyranny of
Caesar made him an icon of republicanism, virtue, and liberty. By
all accounts, Cato was an uncompromisingly principled man, deeply
committed to liberty. He opposed Caesar's tyrannical assertion of
power and took arms against him. As Caesar's forces closed in on
Cato, he chose to take his life, preferring death by his own hand
to a life of submission to Caesar. Addison's theatrical depiction
of Cato enlivened the glorious image of a citizen ready to
sacrifice everything in the cause of freedom, and it influenced
friends of liberty on both sides of the Atlantic. Captain Nathan
Hale's last words before being hanged were, "I only regret that I
have but one life to lose for my country," a close paraphrase of
Addison's "What pity is it that we can die but once to serve our
country!" George Washington found Cato such a powerful statement of
liberty, honor, virtue, and patriotism that he had it performed for
his men at Valley Forge. And Forrest McDonald says in his Foreword
that "Patrick Henry adapted his famous Give me liberty or give me
death' speech directly from lines in Cato." Despite Cato's enormous
success, Addison was perhaps best-known as an essayist. In
periodicals like the Spectator, Guardian, Tatler, and Freeholder,
he sought to educate England's developing middle class in the
habits, morals, and manners he believed necessary for the
preservation of a free society. Addison's work in these periodicals
helped to define the modern English essay form. Samuel Johnson said
of his writing, "Whoever wishes to attain an English style,
familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must
give his days and nights to the study of Addison."
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