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Cover of Cato

Cato

Joseph Addison

Length
1 h 48 min
Chapters
5
Language
English
Genre
Tragedy
First published
1823

Joseph Addison is known mostly for his periodical, "The Spectator", written with his friend Richard Steele. But he found time to write a few plays - with and without Steele (Cato is without) - before being elevated to Secretary of State and putting drama aside.

This play was supposedly staged by George Washington after the winter of 1778 at Valley Forge as an inspiration to his officers on self-sacrificing republican virtues. Many quotes of American revolution leaders - Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or Give me death" and Nathan Hale's "I only regret I have but one life to lose for my country" - are drawn from this play. - Summary by ToddHW

Cast list:

Cato: Greg Giordano

Portius: Adrian Stephens

Marcus: Tomas Peter

Sempronius: Inkell

Juba: Jim Locke

Syphax: Cavaet

Lucius: Alan Mapstone

Decius: Kerry Adams

Lucia: Sonia

Marcia: Anna Maria

1st Leader of the Mutiny: David Purdy

Stage Directions and Editing: ToddHW

Chapters

From LibriVox, read by volunteers and in the public domain. LibriVox page (opens librivox.org), the text (opens gutenberg.org), all files on the Internet Archive (opens archive.org).