In 1789, Edmund Burke quoted the play in a letter to Charles-Jean-François Depont entitled "Reflections on the revolution in France", saying that the French people may yet be obliged to go through more changes and "to pass, as one of our poets says, 'through great varieties of untried being,'" before their state obtains its final form. The poet referred to is Addison and the passage quoted is from "Cato" (V.i. II): "Through what variety of untried being, through what new scenes and changes must we pass!"