THE CAT OF ALBION 87 



dom that a flattering or grateful word is spoken. 

 No pretty compliments here ; no charming allusions 

 to her beauty and distinction, as in those flowers 

 of Gallic verse. Chaucer, indeed, aptly compares 

 Pussy, snug and sleek in her soft fur, to a beneficed 

 Canon ; but Chaucer had no place in his heart for 

 cats. Perhaps his passionate love for birds preju- 

 diced him against their destroyer ; perhaps his 

 frankly masculine temperament debarred him from 

 sympathy with a creature so subtle and seductive. 

 He reproaches her bitterly because her passion for 

 the chase exceeds all other passions in her breast ; 

 and this is a just arraignment, for the cat which is, 

 by courtesy, called domestic, is as pure a beast of 

 prey as its wild cousin of the woods and mountains. 

 He also recognizes her beauty, but with a grudging 

 slur, — the slur which masculinity has, during all 

 ages, delighted to cast upon femininity ; and in 

 which femininity has, during all ages, failed to feel 

 the sting:. 



'£>• 



" For whoso wolde senge a cattes skyn, 

 Thenne wolde the cat wel dwellen in hir in; 

 And if the cattes skyn be slyk and gay, 

 She wol nat dwelle in house half a day. 

 But forth she wol, er any day be dawed, 

 To shewe hir skyn, and goon a-caterwawed." 



It may be remembered that John Bossewell, honest 

 man, assigns the same trait to the male cat, — 



