Addison, as Pope also tells us, thought the prologue ambiguous, and altered "Britons, _arise_!" to "Britons, _attend_!" lest the phrase should be thought to hint at a new revolution.

Addison advised Pope about this time not to be content with the applause of "half the nation," and perhaps regarded him as one who, by the fact of his external position with regard to parties, would be a more appropriate sponsor for the play.
Whatever the intrinsic significance of _Cato_, circumstances gave it a political colour; and Pope, in a lively description of the first triumphant night to his friend Caryll, says, that as author of the successful and very spirited prologue, he was clapped into a Whig, sorely against his will, at every two lines.

Shortly before he had spoken in the warmest terms to the same correspondent of the admirable moral tendency of the work; and perhaps he had not realized the full party significance till he became conscious of the impression produced upon the audience.

Not long afterwards (letter of June 12, 1713), we find him complaining that his connexion with Steele and the _Guardian_ was giving offence to some honest Jacobites.

Had they known the nature of the connexion, they need hardly have grudged Steele his contributor.
His next proceedings possibly suggested the piece of advice which Addison gave to Lady M.W.