THE CAT OF ALBION 91 



fire Salisbury plain with his blazing torch ; but the 

 Arcadian bears, (she-bears probably, like Elisha's 

 terrible allies), the " serpentes of Lybany," dragons, 

 lions, leopards, and those formidable 



" mantycors of the montaynes," 



— whatever they may be — are all summoned from 

 the ordinary business of their lives to avenge a 

 sparrow's death upon a cat. 



" These vylanous false cattes 

 Were made for myse and rattes, 

 And not for byrdes smalle ; " 



explains Phylyp's mistress between her sobs ; but 

 this is precisely the point upon which she and Gyb 

 would naturally take issue. No broad-minded cat 

 recognizes such trivial classifications. 



Gilbert, abbreviated to Gyb or Gib, was the com- 

 mon name for a male cat in Skelton's England, just 

 as Thomas or Tom is the common name to-day. 

 On the continent, Tybalt or Tybert — familiar to 

 all readers of " Reineke Fuchs " — became, by the 

 same process of contraction, Tyb or Tib. Mercutio, 

 in " Romeo and Juliet," insults Tybalt on this easy 

 score : — 



" Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you walk ? 

 Tybalt. What wouldst thou have with me ? 

 Mercutio. Good king of cats, nothing but one of your nine lives." 



The term gib cat or gil cat came in time to sig- 

 nify an old male, well past the heyday of his prime. 



