26 VOLTAIRE. 



be remarked in the piece a singular want of judgment. 

 The history of Catiline is not professed to be followed, 

 yet all the departures from it are in diminution of the 

 dramatic interest ; and nothing can be less correct 

 than the assertion which accompanies the confession 

 that the facts of the story are changed it is not true, 

 or anything like the truth, that the " genius and the 

 character of Cicero, Catiline, Cato, and Caesar, are 

 faithfully painted." Can anything be less excusable, 

 whether we regard dramatic interest or the truth of 

 history, than representing Catiline as uxorious, and 

 all but won over to abandon his enterprise by his 

 wife's remonstrances and tears ? The absurdity of 

 making Caesar put down the conspiracy, and supersede 

 C. Antonius and Petreius in the command at the 

 battle in which Catiline fell, requires no comment. 

 This, and Caesar's rhodomontade before setting out, his 

 embracing Cicero, and vowing that he goes either to 

 die, or to justify the Consul's good opinion of him, and 

 his being overpersuaded by a speech of Cicero, not 

 merely to abandon Catiline but to destroy him, is as 

 utterly unlike that great man's character as anything 

 that can well be imagined. For Cato, it is surely as 

 little in his manner as can be, to tell Cicero that 

 Rome calls him her father and her avenger ; and that 

 Envy at his feet trembles and adores him : 



" Et 1'Envie a tes pieds 1'admire avec terreur." 

 But the grand defect of this piece is the absurd and 

 hopeless attempt of bringing Cicero upon the stage. 

 Brutus and Antony had been successfully so dealt 

 with by Shakspeare ; but they were men of action ; 



