offence--"One is as good as another," and as a Scotchman once said, "and
better."
_A muffled cat is no good mouser._--CLARKE, 1639. No good workman wears
gloves. By some is said "muzzled."
_A piece of a kid is worth two of a cat._ A little of good is better
than much that is bad.
_A scalded cat fears cold water._ Once bit always shy. What was may be
again.
_As cat or cap case_.
"Bouser I am not, but mild sober Tuesday,
_As catte in cap case_, if I like not St. Hewsday."
_The Christmas Prince_, 1607.
_As gray as Grannum's cat._--HAZLITT. So old as to be likely to be
doubly gray.
_As melancholy as a cat._--WALKER. The voice of the cat is melancholy.
_As melancholy as a gib-cat_ (Scotch). As an old, worn-out
cat.--JOHNSTON.
"I am as melancholy as a gib-cat or a lugged bear."[B]
SHAKESPEARE.
[B] A lugged bear is a bear with its ears cut off, so that when used for
baiting there is less hold for the dogs.
Gib-cat; an old, lonely, melancholy cat.
_Before the cat can lick her ear._ "Nay, you were not quite out of
hearing ere the cat could lick her ear."--_Oviddius Exultans_, 1673, p.
50. That is never.
Dun, besides being the name of one who arrested for debt in Henry VII.'s
time, was also the name of the hangman before "Jack Ketch."--GROSE.
"And presently a halter got,
Made of the best strong teer,
And ere a cat could lick her ear,
Had tied it up with so much art."
1664, COTTON'S _Virgile_, Book 4.
_By biting and scratching dogs and cats come together._--HEYWOOD.
Quarrelling oft makes friends.
_Care clammed a cat._--SIR G. C. LEWIS'S "Herefordshire Glossary."
Clammed means starvation; that is, care killed the cat; for want of food
the entrails get "clammed."
_Care killed the cat, but ye canna live without it._ To all some
trouble, though not all take heed. None know another's burden.
_Care will kill a cat._
"Then hang care and sorrow,
'Tis able to kill a cat."--D'URFEY.
Alluding to its tenacity of life and the carking wear of care.
_Cats after kind good mouse hunt._--HEYWOOD. Letter by F. A. touching
the quarrel between Arthur Hall and Melch Mallorie, in 1575-6, repr. of
ed. 1580, in "Misc^{y}. Antiq. Anglic." 1816, p. 93. "For never yet was
good cat out of kinde."--_English Proverbs_, HAZLITT.
_Cats and Carlins sit in the sun._ When work is done then warmth and
rest.
_Cats eat what hussies spare._ Nothing is lost. Also refers to giving
away, and saying "the cat took it."
_Cats hide their claws._ All is not fair that seems so. Trust not to
appearances.
_Cry you mercy, killed my cat._--CLARKE, 1639. Better away, than stay
and ask pardon.
_Every day's no yule; cast the cat a castock._ The stump of a cabbage,
and the proverb means much the same thing as "Spare no expense, bring
another bottle of _small beer_."--DENHAM'S _Popular Sayings_, 1846.
OF FALSE PERSONS.
_He bydes as fast as a cat bound with a sacer._ He does as he likes;
nothing holds him.
OF WITTIE PERSONS.
_He can hold the cat to the sun._ Bold and foolish enough for anything.
INCONSTANT PERSONS.
_He is like a dog or a cat._ Not reliable.
_He looks like a wild cat out of a bush._ Fiercely afraid.
_He's like a cat; fling him which way you will, he'll not hurt._ Some
are always superior to misfortune, or fortune favours many.
_He's like a singed cat, better than he's likely._ He's better than he
looks or seems.
_He stands in great need that borrows the cat's dish._--CLARKE, 1639.
The starving are not particular. The hungry cannot choose.
_He lives at the sign of the cat's foot._ He is hen-pecked, his wife
scratches him.--RAY.
_He wald gar a man trow that the moon is made of green cheis, or the cat
took the heron._ Never believe all that is laid to another.
_Honest as the cat when the meat is out of reach._ Some are honest, but
others not by choice.
_How can the cat help it when the maid is a fool?_ Often things lost,
given, or stolen, are laid to the cat.
_If thou 'scap'st, thou hast cat's luck_, in Fletcher's _Knight of
Malta_, alluding to the activity and caution of the cat, which generally
stands it in good stead.
_I'll not buy a cat in a poke._ F., _Chat en Poche_. See what you buy;
bargain not on another's word.
_Just as quick as a cat up a walnut-tree._--D'URFEY. To climb well and
easily. To be alert and sudden.
_Let the cat wink, and let the mouse run._ For want of watching and care
much is lost.--HAZLITT'S "Dodsley," i. 265. The first portion is in the
interlude of "The World and the Child," 1522.
_Like a cat he'll fall on his legs._ To succeed, never to fail, always
right.
_Like a cat round hot milk._ Wait and have; all things come to those who
wait.
_Little and little the cat eateth the stickle._--HEYWOOD. Constant
dropping weareth a stone.
_Long and slender like a cat's elbow._--HAZLITT. A sneer at the
ill-favoured.
_Love me, love my cat._--This refers to one marrying; in taking a wife
he must take her belongings. Or, where you like, you must avoid
contention.
_Never was cat or dog drowned that could see the shore._ To know the way
often brings a right ending.
_None but cats and dogs are allowed to quarrel here._ All else agree.
_No playing with a straw before an old cat._--HEYWOOD, 1562. Every
trifling toy age cannot laugh at.--"Youth and Folly, Age and Wisdom."
_Rats walk at their ease if cats do not them meese._--WODROEPHE, 1623.
Rogues abound where laws are weak.
_Send not a cat for lard._--GEORGE HERBERT. Put not any to temptation.
_So as cat is after kind._ Near friends are dearest. Birds of a feather
flock together.
_Take the chestnuts out of the fire with the cat's paw._ Making use of
others to save oneself.
_That comes of a cat will catch mice._ What is bred in the bone comes
out in the flesh. Like father, like son.
_The cat and dog may kiss, but are none the better friends._ Policy is
one thing, friendship another.
_The cat invites the mouse to her feast._ It is difficult for the weak
to refuse the strong.
_The cat is in the cream-pot._ Any one's fault but hers. A row in the
house (Northern).
_The cat is hungry when a crust contents her._ Hunger is a good sauce.
_The cat is out of kind that sweet milk will not lap._ One is wrong who
forsakes custom.--"History of Jacob and Esau," 1568.
_The cat, the rat, and Lovel the dog, rule England under one hog._--"A
Myrrour for Magistrates," edition 1563, fol. 143. This couplet is a
satire on Richard III. (who carried a boar on his escutcheon) and his
myrmidons, _Cat_esby, _Rat_cliffe, and Lovell.
_The cat would eat fish, and would not wet her feet._--HEYWOOD, 1562.
"Fain would the cat fish eat,
But she is loth to wet her feet."
"What cat's averse to fish?"--GRAY.
Dr. Trench has pointed out the allusion to this saying in _Macbeth_,
when Lady Macbeth speaks of her husband as a man,
"Letting I dare not, wait upon I would,
Like the poor cat i' the adage."
_The cat sees not the mouse ever._--HEYWOOD. Those that should hide, see
more than they who seek. The fearful eye sees far.
_The liquorish cat gets many a rap._ The wrong-doer escapes not.
_The more you rub a cat on the back, the higher she sets her tail._
Praise the vain and they are more than pleased. Flattery and vanity are
near akin.
_The mouse lords it where the cat is not._--MS., 15th century. The
little rule, where there are no great.
_The old cat laps as much as the young._--CLARKE. One evil is much like
another.
_They agree like two cats in gutter._--HEYWOOD. To be less than friends.
_They argue like cats and dogs._ That is to quarrel.
_Thou'lt strip it, as Stack stripped the cat when he pulled her out of
the churn._ To take away everything.
_Though the cat winks awhile, yet sure he is not blind._ To know all and
pretend ignorance.
_To grin like a Cheshire cat._ Said to be like a cheese cat, often made
in Cheshire; but this is not very clear, and the meaning doubtful.
_To go like a cat on a hot bake-stone._ To lose no time. To be swift and
stay not.
_To keep a cat from the tongs._ To stop at home in idleness. It is said
of a youth who stays at home with his family, when others go to the wars
abroad, in "A Health to the Gentlemanly Profession of Serving Men,"
1598.
_Too late repents the rat when caught by the cat._ Shun danger, nor dare
too long.
_To love it as a cat loves mustard._ Not at all. To abhor.
_Two cats and a mouse, two wives in one house, two dogs and one bone,
never agree._ No peace when all want to be masters, or to possess one
object.
_Well might the cat wink when both her eyes were out._
"Sumwhat it was sayeth the proverbe old,
That the cat winked when here iye was out."
_Jack Juggler_, edit. 1848, p. 46.
Those bribed are worse than blind.
"_Well wots the cat whose beard she licketh._"--SKELTON'S _Garlande of
Laurel_, 1523.
"Wel wot nure cat whas berd he lickat."--WRIGHT'S _Essays_, vol. i. p.
149.
"The cat knoweth whose lips she licketh."--HEYWOOD, 1562.
The first appears the most correct.
_What the good wife spares the cat eats._ Favourites are well cared for.
_When candles are out all cats are gray._ In the dark all are alike.
This is said of beauty in general.
_When the cat is away the mice will play._--"The Bachelor's Banquet,"
1603. Heywood's "Woman Killed with Kindness," 1607. When danger is past,
it is time to rejoice.
_When the weasel and the cat make a marriage, it is very ill presage._
When enemies counsel together, take heed; when rogues agree, let the
honest folk beware.
_When the maid leaves the door open, the cat's in fault._ It is always
well to have another to bear the blame. The way to do ill deeds oft
makes ill deeds done.
_Who shall hang the bell about the cat's neck?_--HEYWOOD, 1562.
"Who shall ty the bell about the cat's necke low?
Not I (quoth the mouse), for a thing that I know."
The mice at a consultation held how to secure themselves from the cat,
resolved upon hanging a bell about her neck, to give warning when she
was near; but when this was resolved, they were as far to seek; for who
would do it?--R. Who will court danger to benefit others?
A Douglas in the olden time, at a meeting of conspirators, said he would
"bell the cat." Afterwards the enemy was taken by him, he retaining the
cognomen of "Archibald Bell-the-cat."
_You can have no more of a cat than its skin._ You can have no more of a
man but what he can do or what he has, or no more from a jug than what
it contains.
THE CAT OF SHAKESPEARE.
Shakespeare mentions the cat forty-four times, and in this, like nearly
all else of which he wrote, displayed both wonderful and accurate
knowledge, not only of the form, nature, habits, and food of the animal,
but also the inner life, the disposition, what it was, of what capable,
and what it resembled. How truly he saw either from study, observation,
or intuitively knew, not only the outward contour of "men and things,"
but could see within the casket which held the life and being, noting
clearly thoughts, feelings, aspirations, intents, and purposes, not of
the one only, but that also of the brute creation.
How truthfully he alludes to the peculiar eyes of the cat, the fine mark
that the pupil dwindles to when the sun rides high in the heavens! Hear
Grumio in _The Taming of the Shrew:_
And so disfigure her with it, that she shall have no more
eyes to see withal than a cat.
As to the food of the cat, he well informs us that at this distant
period domestic cats were fed and cared for to a certain extent, for
besides much else, he points to the fact of its love of milk in _The
Tempest_, Antonio's reply to Sebastian in Act II., Scene 1:
For all the rest,
They'll take suggestion as a cat laps milk.
And in _King Henry the Fourth_, Act IV., Scene 2, of its pilfering ways,
Falstaff cries out:
I am as vigilant as a cat to steal cream.
While Lady Macbeth points to the uncertain, timid, cautious habits of
the cat, amounting almost to cowardice:
Letting I dare not wait upon I would,
Like the poor cat i' the adage.
and in the same play the strange superstitious fear attached to the
voice and presence of the cat at certain times and seasons:
Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed.
The line almost carries a kind of awe with it, a sort of feeling of
"what next will happen?" He noted, also, as he did most things, its
marvellous powers of observation, for in _Coriolanus_, Act IV., Scene 2,
occurs the following:
Cats, that can judge as fitly.
and of the forlorn loneliness of the age-stricken male cat in _King
Henry the Fourth_, Falstaff, murmuring, says:
I am as melancholy as a gib cat.
He marks, too, the difference of action in the lion and cat, in a state
of nature:
A crouching lion and a ramping cat.
Of the night-time food-seeking cat, in _The Merchant of Venice_, old
Shylock talks of the
...Slow in profit, and he sleeps by day
More than the wild cat.
In the same play Shylock discourses of those that have a natural horror
of certain animals, which holds good till this day:
Some men there are love not a gaping pig,
Some, that are mad if they behold a cat.
and further on:
As there is no firm reason to be rendered
Why he cannot abide a gaping pig,
Why he, a harmless necessary cat.
Note the distinction he makes between the wild and the domestic cat; the
one, evidently, he knew the value and use of, and the other, its
peculiar stealthy ways and of nature dread. In _All's Well that Ends
Well_, he gives vent to his dislike; Bertram rages forth:
I could endure anything before but a cat,
And now he's cat to me.
The feud with the wild cat intensifies in _Midsummer Night's Dream_;
'tis Lysander speaks:
Hang off, thou cat, thou burr, thou vile thing.
And Gremio tells of the untamableness of the wild cat, which he deems
apparently impossible:
But will you woo this wild cat?
Romeo, in _Romeo and Juliet_, looks with much disfavour, not only on
cats but also dogs; in fact, the dog was held in as high disdain as the
cat:
And every cat and dog,
And every little mouse, and every unworthy thing.
Here is Hamlet's opinion:
The cat will mew, the dog will have his day.
In _Cymbeline_ there is:
In killing creatures vile, as cats and dogs.
The foregoing is enough to show the great poet's opinion of the cat.
SUPERSTITION AND WITCHCRAFT.
A very remarkable peculiarity of the domestic cat, and possibly one that
has had much to do with the ill favour with which it has been regarded,
especially in the Middle Ages, is the extraordinary property which its
fur possesses of yielding electric sparks when hand-rubbed or by other
friction, the black in a larger degree than any other colour, even the
rapid motion of a fast retreating cat through rough, tangled underwood
having been known to produce a luminous effect. In frosty weather it is
the more noticeable, the coldness of the weather apparently giving
intensity and brilliancy, which to the ignorant would certainly be
attributed to the interference of the spiritual or superhuman. To
sensitive natures and nervous temperaments the very contact with the fur
of the black cat will often produce a startling thrill or absolutely an
electric shock. That carefully observant naturalist, Gilbert White,
speaking of the frost of 1785, notes: "During those two Siberian days my
parlour cat was so electric, that had a person stroked her, and been
properly insulated, the shock might have been given to a whole circle of
people."
Possibly from this lively fiery sparkling tendency, combined with its
noiseless motion and stealthy habits, our ancestors were led in the
happily bygone superstitious days to regard the unconscious animal as a
"familiar" of Satan or some other evil spirit, which generally appeared
in the form of a black cat; hence witches were said to have a black cat
as their "familiar," or could at will change themselves into the form of
a black cat with eyes of fire. Shakespeare says, "the cat with eyne of
burning coal," and in Middleton's _Witch_, Act III., Hecate says:
I will but 'noint, and then I'll mount.
(_A Spirit like a cat descends. Voice above._)
There's one come down to fetch his dues.
(_Later on the Voice calls._) Hark! hark! the cat sings a brave treble in
her own language.
(_Then_ HECATE.) Now I go, now I fly,
Malkin, my sweet spirit, and I, etc.
NOTE.--Almost the same words are sung in the music to _Macbeth_.
"One of the frauds of witchcraft," says Timbs, "is the witch pretending
to transform herself into a certain animal, the favourite and most usual
transformation being a _cat_; hence cats were tormented by the ignorant
vulgar."
"_Rutterkin_ was a famous cat, a cat who was 'cater'-cousin to the
great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother of
Grimalkin, and first cat in the caterie of an old woman who was tried
for bewitching a daughter of the Countess of Rutland in the beginning of
the sixteenth century. The monodis connects him with cats of great
renown in the annals of witchcraft, a science whereto they have been
allied as poor old women, one of whom, it appears, on the authority of
an old pamphlet entitled 'Newes from Scotland,' etc., printed in the
year 1591, 'confessed that she took a cat and christened it, etc., and
that in the night following, the said cat was conveyed into the middest
of the sea by all these witches sayling in their Riddles, or Cives, and
so left the said cat right before the towne of Leith in Scotland. This
done, there did arise such a tempest at sea as a greater hath not been
seen, etc. Againe it is confessed that the said christened cat was the
cause of the kinges majestie's shippe, at his coming forthe of Denmarke,
had a contrarie winde to the rest of the shippes then being in his
companie, which thing was most straunge and true, as the kinges majestie
acknowledgeth, for when the rest of the shippes had a fair and good
winde, then was the winde contrairie, and altogether against his
majestie,' etc."[C]
[C] Hone's "Every-day Book," vol. i.
"In some parts black cats are said to bring good luck, and in
Scarborough (Henderson's 'Folk-lore of the Northern Counties'). A few
years ago, sailors' wives were in the habit of keeping one, thinking
thereby to ensure the safety of their husbands at sea. This,
consequently, gave black cats such a value that no one else could keep
them, as they were nearly always stolen. There are various proverbs
which attach equal importance to this lucky animal, as, for example:
Whenever the cat o' the house is black,
The lasses o' lovers will have no lack.
"And again:
Kiss the black cat,
An' 'twill make ye fat;
Kiss the white ane,
'Twill make ye lean.
"In Scotland there is a children's rhyme upon the purring of the cat:
Dirdum drum,
Three threads and a thrum;
Thrum gray, thrum gray!
"In Devonshire and Wiltshire it is believed that a May cat--or, in other
words, a cat born in the month of May--will never catch any rats or
mice, but, contrary to the wont of cats, will bring into the house
snakes, and slow-worms, and other disagreeable reptiles. In
Huntingdonshire it is a common saying that 'a May kitten makes a dirty
cat.' If a cat should leap over a corpse, it is said to portend
misfortune. Gough, in his 'Sepulchral Monuments,' says that in Orkney,
during the time the corpse remains in the house, all the cats are locked
up, and the looking-glasses covered over. In Devonshire a superstition
prevails that a cat will not remain in a house with an unburied corpse;
and stories are often told how, on the death of one of the inmates of a
house, the cat has suddenly made its disappearance, and not returned
again until after the funeral. The sneezing of the cat, says Brand
('Popular Antiquities,' 1849, vol. iii., p. 187), appears to have been
considered as a lucky omen to a bride who was to be married on the
succeeding day.
"'In Cornwall,' says Hunt, 'those little gatherings which come on
children's eyelids, locally called "whilks," and also "warts," are cured
by passing the tail of a black cat nine times over the place. If a ram
cat, the cure is more certain. In Ireland it is considered highly
unlucky.'"[D]
[D] Mr. T. F. Thiselton Dyer's "English Folk-lore."
Sailors are very superstitious as regards cats. If a black cat comes on
board, it is a presage of disaster; if the ship's cat is more lively
than ordinary, it is a sign of wind; but if the cat is accidentally
drowned, then there is consternation, which does not wear off until the
vessel is safe in harbour.
Lady Wilde, in her "Irish Legends," gives a cat story quite of the fairy
type, and well in keeping with many of witchcraft and sorcery. "One
dark, cold night, as an old woman was spinning, there came three taps at
her door, and not until after the last did she open it, when a pleading
voice said: 'Let me in, let me in,' and a handsome black cat, with a
white breast, and two white kittens, entered. The old woman spun on, and
the cats purred loudly, till the mother puss warned her that it was very
late, that they wanted some milk, and that the fairies wanted her room
that night to dance and sup in. The milk was given, the cats thanked
her, and said they would not forget her kindness; but, ere they vanished
up the chimney, they left her a great silver coin, and the fairies had
their ball untroubled by the old woman's presence, for the pussy's
warning was a gentle hint."
If a kitten comes to a house in the morning, it is lucky; if in the
evening, it portends evil of some kind, unless it stays to prevent it.
A cat's hair is said to be indigestible, and if one is swallowed death
will ensue (Northern).
Milton, in his "Astrologaster," p. 48, tells us: "That when the cat
washes her face over her eares we shall have great store of raine."
Lord Westmoreland, in a poem "To a cat bore me company in confinement,"
says:
----Scratch but thine ear,
Then boldly tell what weather's drawing near.
The cat sneezing appears to be a lucky omen to a bride.
It was a vulgar notion that cats, when hungry, would eat coals; and even
to this day, in some parts there is a doubt about it. In "The Tamer
Tamed, or, Woman's Pride," Izamo says to Moroso, "I'd learn to eat coals
with a hungry cat"; and in "Boduca," the first daughter says, "They are
cowards; eat coals like compelled cats."
"The crying of cats, ospreys, ravens, or other birds upon the tops of
houses in the night time are observed by the vulgar to presignify death
to the sick."--Brand.
There is also a superstition that cats will suck the breath of infants.
Nothing could be more ridiculous. The formation of the cat's mouth is
not well adapted for such action, the under jaw being shorter than the
upper, which is one reason why it _laps_ fluids instead of drinking.
Cats will creep into cradles, but for no other purpose than that of
sleep, the bed and clothes being warm and soft, and of course
comfortable; yet instead of doing harm, they help to keep the child's
temperature more even in cold weather. Of course, if they lie on the
infant, it is a different matter.
WEATHER NOTIONS.
"Signs of Foul Weather," by Dr. Erasmus Darwin. In a poem, the
well-known relative of the eminent Charles Darwin describes the various
natural indications of coming storms. Among the animals and birds he
notes the cat:
Low o'er the grass the swallow wings;
The cricket, too, how sharp he sings;
Puss on the hearth, with velvet paws,
Sits wiping o'er his whiskered jaws.
"In England," says Mr. T. F. Thiselton Dyer, "the superstitious still
hold the cat in high esteem, and oftentimes, when observing the weather,
attribute much importance to its various movements. Thus, according to
some, when they sneeze it is a sign of rain; and Herrick, in his
'Hesperides,' tells us how:
True calendars as pusses eare,
Wash't o're to tell what change is neare.
"It is a common notion that when a cat scratches the legs of a table, it
is a prognostic of change of weather. John Swan, in his 'Speculum Mundi'
(Cambridge, 1643), writing of the cat, says: 'She useth therefore to
wash her face with her feet, which she licketh and moisteneth with her
tongue; and it is observed by some that if she put her feet beyond the
crown of her head in this kind of washing, it is a signe of rain.'
Indeed, in the eyes of the superstitious, there is scarcely a movement
of the cat which is not supposed to have some significance.