[NARES has shown, very satisfactorily, that _Gib_, the
contraction of _Gilbert_, was the name formerly applied to a
cat, as _Tom_ is now. He states that _Tibert_ (the name
given to the Cat in the old Reynard the Fox) was the old French for
_Gilbert_; and at all events, be that as it may, Chaucer, in
his _Romance of the Rose_, verse 6204., translates "Thibert le
Cas" by "Gibbe our Cat."]
_Lay of the Phoenix._--"SELEUCUS" is informed that the
Anglo-Saxon Lay of the Phoenix is contained in the _Codex
Exoniensis_, edited by Mr. B. Thorpe. The Latin poem, in
hexameters and pentameters, attributed to Lactantius, is given at
the foot of the page. It will be found at the end of the works of
Lactantius, in the small edition by Fritzsche (Lipsiæ, 1842).
Fritzsche mentions two separate editions of the poem; 1. by Martini,
Lunæburgi, 1825; 2. by Leyser, Quedlinburgi, 1839.