Concerning Some Historic Cats 



romantic period, and the commemoration of Childe- 

 brand. 



" This name at once reveals a deep design of flout- 

 ing Boileau, whom I did not like then, but have since 

 become reconciled to. Has not Nicholas said : — 



" ' O le plaisant projet d'un poete ignorant 



Que de tant de hdros va choisir Childebrant ! ' 



" Now I considered Childebrand a very fine name 

 indeed, Merovingian, mediaeval, and Gothic, and 

 vastly preferable to Agamemnon, Achilles, Ulysses, 

 or any Greek name whatsoever. Romanticism was the 

 fashion of my early days : I have no doubt the people 

 of classical times called their cats Hector, Ajax, or 

 Patroclus. Childebrand was a splendid cat of com- 

 mon kind, tawny and striped with black, like the hose 

 of Saltabadil in ' Le Roi s' Amuse.' With his large, 

 green, almond-shaped eyes, and his symmetrical 

 stripes, there was something tigerlike about him that 

 pleased me. Childebrand had the honor of figuring in 

 some verses that I wrote to ' flout ' Boileau : — 



" Puis je te d^crirai ce tableau de Rembrandt 

 Que me fait tant plaisir : et mon chat Childebrand, 

 Sur mes genoux pose selon son habitude, 

 Levant sur moi la tete avec inquietude, 

 Suivra les mouvements de mon doigt qui dans I'air 

 Esquisse mon r^cit pour le rendre plus clair. 



" Childebrand was brought in there to make a good 

 rhyme for Rembrandt, the piece being a kind of con- 



9' 



