Whittington and His Cat. 123 



Nabob," which was produced at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 1772. 

 Sir Matthew Mite, the hero of the comedy, was the son of a cheese- 

 monger, and was sent beyond the seas to escape the punishment of 

 some youthful indiscretion. "While there he accumulated great wealth, 

 and on his return home he lived in profligacy. Among the other 

 honors that were heaped upon him, notwithstanding his low life, was 

 his election to be a member of the Antiquarian Society, and one of the 

 rules of the society was, that every member elected should produce 

 proofs of his antique erudition, and should deliver an inauguration 

 speech. To prove that he has made the necessary antiquarian 

 researches, he attends the meeting preceded by four black servants, 

 one bearing an illegible manuscript in Latin, containing the twelve 

 books of Livy, supposed to have been lost ; another bearing a sarco- 

 phagus or porcelain urn, dug from the Temple of Concord, and supposed 

 to have held the dust of Marc Antony's coachman ; another, a large 

 piece of lava thrown from the Vesuvian volcano at the last great 

 eruption, by a chemical analysis of which, and by properly preparing 

 it, it will be no difficult task to propagate burning mountains in Eng- 

 land, if encouraged by premiums; and a fourth containing a box 

 bearing petrifactions, bones, beetles and butterflies. These proofs of 

 antiquarian research being considered sufficient, he proceeds to deliver 

 his inaugural address, taking for his subject "Whittington and his cat. 

 *'The point I mean to clear up," he says, ^^is an error crept into the 

 life of that illustrious magistrate, the great Whittington, and his no 

 less eminent cat ; and in this disquisition four material points are in 

 question. 1st. Did Whittington ever exist? 2d. Was Whittington 

 Lord Mayor of London? 3d. Was he really possessed of a cat? 4th. 

 Was that cat the source of his wealth ? That Whittington lived no 

 doubt can be made ; that he was Lord Mayor of London is equally 

 true ; but as to his cat, that, gentlemen, is the Gordian knot to untie. 

 And here, gentlemen, be it permitted me to define what a cat is. A cat 

 is a domestic whiskered four-footed animal, whose employment is 

 catching of mice ; but let puss have been ever so subtle, let puss 

 have been ever so successful, to what could puss's captures amount ? 

 No tanner can curry the skin of a mouse, no family make a meal of 

 the meat; consequently no cat could give Whittington his wealth. 

 From whence then does this error proceed ? Be that my case to point 

 out. The commerce this worthy merchant carried on was chiefly con- 

 fined to our coasts ; for this purpose he constructed a vessel which, for 

 its agility and lightness, he aptly christened a cat. Nay, to this our 

 day, gentlemen, all our coals from Newcastle are imported in nothing 



