120 



ItMiittington and His Cat. 



Gould^'ng, releasing him from his indenture before his marriage. On 

 the first day of his freedom, Goulding was taken into the livery of his 

 company, and afterward appointed deputy to the alderman of his 

 ward. Relating his advraicement to his father-in-law, Touchstone 

 says: " I hope to see thee one of the monuments of our city, and reck- 

 oned among her worthies, to be remembered the same day w4th the 

 Lady Ramsey and grave Gresham, when the famous fable of Whitting- 

 ton and his puss shall be forgotten, and thou and thy acts shall be- 

 come the posies for hospitals ; when, thy name shall be written ujdou 

 conduits, and thy deeds played in thy life-time, by the best companies 

 of actors, and be called their get-penie.'"' This play was written m 

 1603. 



In an old play called If you know not me you know nobodie, or 

 the Troubles of Queen Elizabeth," by Thomas Heywood, 1609, we 

 have the followino^ dialoo^ue between Xowell and Hobson : 



Noicell — "This Sir Richard Whittington three times Maior, 

 Sonne to a Knight and prentice to a Mercer, 

 Began the librarie to G-rey Friars in London; 

 And his executors after him did build 



"Whittington College, thirteen Almes Houses for Poore Men, 



Repaired St. Bartholomew's in Smithfield, 



Glased the Guildhall and built Newgate." 

 Hohson — ''Bones of me ! then I have heard lies ; 



For ! have heard he was a scullion, 



And raised himself by venture of a cat." ' 

 Noicell — "They did the more wrong to the gentleman." 



In the ^' Induction," as it is called, to Beaumont and Fletcher's 

 comedy of the Knight of the Burning Pestle" (A. D. 1613), the 

 speaker of the prologue is interrupted by a citizen, who commands 

 him to stop, as the play is intended to abuse the citizens, and asks him : 

 "Why could you not be contented as well as others, with the legend of 

 Whittington, or the life and death of Sir Thomas Gresham with the 

 building of the Royal Exchange ? Or the story of Queen Eleanor, 

 with the rearing of London Bridge upon woolsacks ? " And the 

 earliest notice of the song, Turn Again, Whittington," is in "Shir- 

 ley's Constant Maid" (1640), where the niece says: 



" Faith, how many churches do you mean to build 



Before you die ? Six bells in every steeple, 



And let them all go to the City tune, 



' Turn again. Whittington ' — who. they say, 



Grew rich, and let his laud out for nine lives, 



'Cause all came in by a cat." 



