THE CAT OF SHAKESPEARE. 193 



THE CAT OF SHAKESPEARE. 



Shakespeare mentions the cat forty-four times, and in thi?, 

 like nearly all else of which he wrote, displayed both won- 

 derful and accurate knowledge, not only of the form, nature, 

 habits, and food of the animal, but also the inner life, the 

 disposition, what it was, of what capable, and what it re- 

 sembled. How truly he saw either from study, observation, 

 or intuitively knew, not only the outward contour of " men 

 and things," but could see within the casket which held 

 the life and being, noting clearly thoughts, feelings, aspira- 

 tions, intents, and purposes, not of the one only, but that 

 also of the brute creation. 



How truthfully he alludes to the peculiar eyes of the 

 cat, the fine mark that the pupil dwindles to when the sun 

 rides high in the heavens ! Hear Grumio in The Taming of 

 the Shrew : 



And so disfigure her with it, that she shall have no more eyes to see 

 withal than a cat. 



As to the food of the cat, he well infornr.s us that at this 

 distant period domestic cats were fed and cared for to 

 a certain extent, for besides much else, he points to the 

 fact of its love of milk in The TemJ>esf, Antonio's reply to 

 Sebastian in Act 'II., Scene i : 



For all the rest, 

 They'll take suggestion as a cat laps milk. 



And in Kiiig Henry the Fourth, Act IV., Scene 2, of its 

 pilfering ways, Falstaff cries out : 



I am as vigilant as a cat to steal cream, 

 while Lady Macbeth points to the uncertain, timid, cautious 

 habits of the cat, amounting almost to cowardice : 



Letting I dare not wait upon I would, 

 Like the poor cat i' the adage. 



and in the same play the strange superstitious fear attached 



o 



