an, "with
his usual freedom of speech," to treat the suggestion "as a pitiful
evasion of their intended generosity."

"But Dogget, who was not so wide of my meaning, clapping his hand upon
mine, said, with an air of security, O! don't trouble yourself! there
must be two words to that bargain; let me alone to manage that matter.
Wilks, upon this dark discourse, grew uneasy, as if there were some
secret between us that he was to be left out of. Therefore, to avoid
the shock of his intemperance, I was the town crowded to the theatre.
Even the good Queen, who must have been more or less bored at the fuss
bestowed upon it, actually suggested that Mr. Addison should dedicate
the tragedy to her Royal self. To inscribe a work to a sovereign means
little or nothing in these days of republicanism, real or assumed,
but Anne's request came as a great compliment It was a compliment,
however, which had to be dispensed with, for Addison had already
proposed to dedicate 'Cato' to the Duchess of Marlborough, and he
harboured no wish to mortify the aggressive Sarah (now out of favour
with the Queen) by acting upon the hint of her one-time friend and
mistress. So the author diplomatically ignored both horns of the
dilemma, or, in other words, determined to consecrate his tragedy
neither to Queen nor Duchess."

When June was well nigh ended the Drury Lane players transplanted
"Cato" to the scholarly environment of Oxford, where, as friend Cibber
tells us, "a great deal of that false, flashy wit and forc'd humour,"
which had been the delight of London, was rated at "its bare
intrinsick value." The play was admirably suited to the temper of a
university audience, and its success proved so great, its sentiment so
uplifted, that Dr. Sandridge, Dean of Carlisle, wrote to Barton Booth
expressing his wish that "all discourses from the pulpit were as
instructive and edifying, as pathetic and affecting," as those
provided by Mr. Addison.

The "Apology" gives us an interesting account of the favour accorded
to "Cato," above all other modern plays, by the dwellers in thoughtful
Oxford.

"The only distinguished merit allow'd to any modern writer was to the
author of 'Cato,' which play being the flower of a plant raised in
that learned garden (for there Mr. Addison had his education), what
favour may we not suppose was due to him from an audience of brethren,
who from that local relation to him might naturally have a warmer
pleasure in their bene