Originally Posted by
Conrad_Jalowski
Ah! Within the search engine description there is a mention of Joseph Addison's Tragedy of Cato Uticensis. I have read such a tragic composition numerous times due to multifarious aspects. The sheer eloquence and embellished language prevalent during 18th Century England/Enlightenment Period; the instillation of the themes of tragic grandeur; the opposing dichotomy of unity to division and dissolution, or the political context of the classical commonwealth to autocracy/despotism; and the sempiternal theme of noble virtue inimical or hostile to imperious and unconstitutional rule/authority or despotism.
The utilization of flosculation or the elements/specific functions of language within the historical context of the Period of Enlightenment is complex, allegorical, multifaceted and ornate as opposed to the plebeian style language and vituperative elements/facets. Such language contained within this particular tragedy on the dilapidation of the Classical Roman Commonwealth is rich, poetic and refined. Through rich imagery and a constant flow of thought processes that offer subplots as well as providing greater depth to the overall/overarching theme of this tragedy is a measure of considerable creative power as well as a lofty imagination. In my opinion, this tragic work was composed due to momentary divine inspiration or the creative ideal by being able to express the numerous dimensions of human nature; from a drunken stupor of euphoria to sheer melancholy [melancholy= an aesthetic experience/integration of the multifaceted whole of the self into a cohesive/amalgamated form within the context of Western philosophy as during the Period of European Romanticism. Examples: the Wertherian hero of Goethe, within Friedrich Schiller's aesthetic principles and tragic compositions, the Byronic hero, etc.]
Joseph Addison utilized epideictic speech, or the lofty and grand tone/style of speech within the context of political/ceremonial affairs to the remnant of the Senatorial elite [quaesters, aediles, praetors, curules, and patrician elements] within the Roman Commonwealth stronghold of Utica in North Africa. Cato Uticensis in such scenes promulgated the course of action and policies in regards to the actions of the Caesarian faction. [As Julius Caesar Scaliger noted in Renaissance literary theory the tripartite division of speech consists of the 1. lofty/grand, 2. the mixture of elements #1 and #3, and 3. the common or plebeian form/pattern of speech. Dionysius of Halicarnassus who existed further back in history had a classificatory scheme also based on a tripartite division of the style of speech: 1. Attic or pedantic, succinct and generally simple, 2. Rhodian or a combination of elements #1 and #3, and 3. Asiatic/Oriental or the bombastic, heroic, grandiose, fanciful.]
Throughout the tragedy of Cato Uticensis, the noble struggle and virtue of Cato Uticensis amidst social and political decadence, dilapidation or general decay, deterioration of civic duty as to the ideals of the Roman Mos Maiorum, and a loss of self-autonomy amidst mere conformity to the repressed collective whole that would characterize the autocratic periods that would emerge out of the Roman Civil War through great turmoil, bloodshed, anguish and destruction with the abjuration/dissolution of the Classical Roman Commonwealth to the periods of the Principate and the Dominate. In essence, this tragic composition details the Platonic ideals of self-sufficiency and of self-sacrifice to maintain liberty and virtue from external deprivation as well as the underlying dignity of human beings through the concept of the immortality of the soul. Cato Uticensis took his own life so as to die with the Roman Commonwealth rather than to be binded to chains of subservience and of base servitude to the despotism and licentiousness under the future reign of the autocrats.
Excellent companions to Joseph Addison's Cato Uticensis are Sallust's [author= Sallustius Crispus] works on the events surrounding the Jugurthine War, the Catilinarian Conspiracy as well as the late Roman Republic period; and the letters and political speeches/orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero.
This has been my brief outlook on a particular tragic/dramatic composition that I greatly admire for its incorporation of numerous layers of thought whilst at the same time always maintaining the central focus and/or the general context of the plot.
