Some Poets' Cats. 339 



to "show her fur and be caterwauled," as Pope has it in his 

 translation of the '• Wif of Bathe's Prologue. 



The kitten's position in the household is easier to under- 

 stand. It is one of the most beautiful and amusing of pets. 

 The man who could watch kittens' " gambolling excessive," 

 as Hurdis calls it, and not laugh, must have had a death- 

 rattle as his only plaything when a baby. Richelieu and 

 Colbert delighted in cats' company. Wriothesley's pet 

 found him out in prison, and was his solace. Mahomet, 

 rather than disturb his cat, which was asleep on it, cut off 

 the skirt of his robe. Pope Gregory made his cat a cardinal. 

 How Gautier l.ked them. Do you remember Zizi (which 

 means " too beautiful for anything " ) that had a nose like a 

 truffle and adored books ? or that other which had a resem- 

 blance to a tiger, which he found, he says, " very pleasing ; " 

 the cat that saw the parrot and said, "This is decidedly 

 — yes it is — a green chicken ! " 



Not only is their unconscious absurdity immense, but 

 they have a deliberate appreciation of humour. They 

 know exactly when they are being played with and when 

 teased — Montaigne ''playing with his cat, complains she 

 thought him but an ass." 



" Ye who can smile — to wisdom no di-grace 

 At the arch meaning of a kitten's face," 



must remember many a time and oft when the small thing, 

 with its elegant overtures to a frolic, has tempted you into 

 joining it in a fit of nonsense. And how it acted all the 

 time, the fluffy little impostor ! What an enthusiasm it 

 obviously feigned for the trailing worsted, what desperate 

 struggles it made believe to have with a tassel, how it 

 pranced and cavorted, standing ridiculously on two legs 

 and skipping sideways ! With what matchless art did it 

 not pretend to get itself into inextricable difficulties with a 

 chair leg, in order to show off a hundred pretty devices of 



