RENAISSANCE 73 



who presided silently and courteously for hours 

 over these tedious meetings. Indeed, Saint Simon, 

 then fuming with indignation at the recent appoint- 

 ment of new Councillors, proposed the adoption of 

 the kitten as a permanent member of the august 

 assembly ; — a jest which seems to have been con- 

 sidered by himself and others as exceedingly bitter 

 and well-timed. 



It is to Frangois Augustin Paradis de Moncrif 

 that we owe our intimate acquaintance with the 

 most distinguished cats of this period. Scotch by 

 descent, Parisian by birth, courtier by taste and 

 training, poet, dramatist, litterateur, and faithful 

 lover of the fair fehne race, Moncrif, in happy 

 mood, conceived the idea of writing a series of let- 

 ters in praise of cats. No one was better fitted for 

 the task ; no one could have accomplished it more 

 gracefully. In his pages, the names of pussies, 

 long since dead, live sweetly embalmed in verse. 

 Here may we read of Marmalain, the beautiful cat 

 of Mme. la Duchesse du Maine, who inscribed to 

 her favourite a spirited rondeau, full of tender flat- 

 tery, and the fond conceits hallowed by true affec- 

 tion. When Marmalain died, his noble mistress 

 was too profoundly dejected to compose a fitting 

 epitaph ; so to M. La Mothe le Vayer was assigned 

 that honour, and his touching lines have been sym- 

 pathetically translated by Mr. Edmund Gosse. 



