the cat - World eBook Library

THE CAT
There is no word of Shakespeare's to which the
cat-lover may turn with delight, as the hunter turns
to the gallant lines of Theseus
" My hounds are hred out of the Spartan kind,
So flew'd, so sanded; and their heads are hung
With ears that sweep away the morning dew."
As a matter of fact, all the earliest notices of
the cat are peevish outcries against her freebooting
instincts, her spirit of stubborn independence.
She was centuries winning a foothold in society
even as the
" harmless necessary cat/'
that rid the household of mice, and any deviation
from duty's path brought down upon her graceful
head a torrent of abuse.
" These vylanous false cattes
Were made for mice and rattes,
And not for byrdes small/'
writes John Skelton, with unwarranted confidence
in the discrimination of nature's laws.
" Grimalkin, the foul Fiend's cat,
Grimalkin, the witche's brat,"
runs an old rhyme, expressing the popular preju-
dice of its day.
xiv