Carl Van Vechten (1880–1964). The Tiger in the House. 1922.
Bibliography: XVIII
Poetry
As many of the following poems are to be found in one or more of the cat anthologies, I have given these references for convenience. Cats and Kittens, of course, refers to Mrs. Pender’s Work; The Cat, to Miss Repplìer’s, and Concerning Cats, to Mrs. Tomson’s.
Alnaharwany, Ibn Alalaf: On a cat that was killed as she was attempting to rob a dove-cote; translated from the Arabic and rendered freely by “Dr. Carlyle”: The Cat, P. 42.
Arnold, Matthew: Poor Matthias; from Later Poems. The Atossa episode from this: The Cat, P. 84; Cats and Kittens, P. 182; Concerning Cats, P. 10; The Fireside Sphinx, P. 177.
Baudelaire, Charles: Fleurs du Mal; édition définitive; Calmann-Lévy; Paris. Le Chat, P. 135; Le Chat, P. 161; Les Chats, P. 189. These are all published in French in Concerning Cats; there is an English translation of Les Chats on P. 67 of The Cat; English translations of Le Chat (2) and Les Chats, Pages 16, 17 of Mrs. W. Chance’s A Book of Cats; English translation of Le Chat (1), Cats and Kittens, P. 115.
Benserade, Isaac de: Labyrinthe de Versailles; Amsterdam; 1682 (?). Published in four languages, French, English, German, and Dutch. The original edition in French appeared in Paris in 1677. Fables, with curious engravings of the fountains. The cat pieces are: Le chat pendu et les rats, Le conseil des rats, Le singe et le chat, La souris, le chat, et le petit coq.
Brown, Hattie: Catoninetales: a domestic epic, comprising a very true and dismal pathetic narration of the ends of a most worthy cat Kok Robyn beginning with his first death and burial and the inquest thereupon; Lawrence and Bullen; London; 1891. 330 numbered copies. Edited and illustrated by W. J. Linton. According to the editor, Hattie Brown was “a young lady of colour lately deceased at the age of fourteen.”
Carryl, Guy Wetmore: How a Cat was annoyed and a Poet was booted; Grimm Tales Made Gay; Houghton, Mifflin and Co.; Boston; 1902. Illustrations by Albert Levering.
A cat may look upon a king; an epistolary poem on the loss of the ears of a favourite female cat. By J. A. Belcher, esq. in his ms., “To …”: Concerning Cats, P. 53.
Concerning a Certain Tom Cat, the companion and friend of one Widow Tomkins, but whom she left locked up in her room without either milk or mice: Ross: The Book of Cats, P. 185; Concerning Cats, P. 96 (abbreviated).
Deshoulières, Madame et Mademoiselle: Oeuvres; two volumes; Stéréotype d’Herman; Paris; 1803. The cat poems are all by Madame: Lettre en chansons à M. Deshoulières; 1677; P. 55. Moncrif quotes part of this, Les Chats, P. 97 and Gosse translates a stanza in his essay in Gossip in a Library; Concerning Cats (Gosse’s translation), P. 45. Épître de Tata, chat de Madame la Marquise Montglas, à Grisette, chatte de Madame Deshoulières; October 1678; P. 55; Moncrif, P. 169. Réponse de Grisette à Tata, P. 56; Moncrif, P. 171. Blondin, chat des Jacobins de la rue Saint-Honoré, à sa voisine Grisette, sur les rimes de la pièce précédente, P. 58. Dom Gris, chat de Madame la Duchesse de Béthune, à Grisette, P. 59. Mittin, chat de Mademoiselle Bocquet, à Grisette, P. 61. Regnault, chat de A.…, à Grisette, P. 65. Réponse de Tata à Grisette, P. 65; Moncrif, P. 173. Réponse de Grisette à Tata, P. 67; Moncrif, P. 176. Grisette, à M. le Maréchal Duc de Vivonne, qui faisoit semblant de croire que Madame Deshoulières avoit fait un mauvais rondeau qui couroit le monde, P. 69. Épître de Cochon, chien de M. le Maréchal de Vivonne, à Grisette, P. 72. Résponse de Grisette Cochon, P. 73. Réponse de Cochon à Grisette, P. 75. Réponse de Grisette à Cochon, P. 77; Moncrif, P. 179. Réponse de Cochon à Grisette, P. 80. Réponse de Grisette à Cochon, P. 83; Moncrif, P. 184. Rondeau à M. le Duc de Vivonne, sur ce qu’il soutenoit, en plaisantant, qu’elle étoit auteur du mauvais rondeau dont il a été parlé dans l’épître de Grisette; 1678; P. 84.
Florian, Jean Pierre Clarisse: Fables. The Cat fables are: Le Chat et le Miroir; Le Chien et le Chat; Le Chat et la Lunette; Les Deux Chats; l’Hibou, le Chat, l’Oison, et le Rat; Le Chat et les Rats; and Le Chat et le Moineau. There is an edition illustrated by Grandville.
Gay, John: Fables. The Fables about cats are The Rat-catcher and the Cats; Concerning Cats, P. 38, and The Cat, P. 132; The Old Woman and her Cats; and The Man, The Cat, the Dog, and the Fly.
Gray, Thomas: On the death of a favourite cat drowned in a tub of gold-fishes: Concerning Cats, P. 25; The Cat, P. 158; Cats and Kittens, P. 232; The Fireside Sphinx, P. 135; Ross: The Book of Cats, P. 260.
Guyot-Desherbiers: a long poem on cats, parts of which are quoted in Mégnin’s Notre Ami le Chat, Pages 66, 70, 73, 74, and 111, and in Landrin’s Le Chat, P. 69, 89, 91, 93, 94, 101, 148, 150. According to Landrin, Guyot-Desherbiers was the maternal grandfather of Alfred de Musset, who sent the poem to Jean Gay, who published it in his Les Chats.
Heine, Heinrich: Poems, translated by Edgar Alfred Bowring; George Bell; London; 1884. P. 46, Sonnet No. 7, (another translation in Concerning Cats, P. 74): Hüt dich, mein Freund, vor grimmen Teufelsfratzen; P. 117, No. 6, Clarissa; P. 129, Songs of Creation; P. 162, No. 6, The Old Chimneypiece (two stanzas of this, translated by Sir Theodore Martin, P. 14, The Cat); P. 455, Romancero, Retrospect; P. 506, Red Slippers: Rote Pantoffeln: Gar böse Katze, so alt und grau; P. 529, Mimi: Bin kein sittsam Bürgerkatzchen; P. 533, The Young Cats’ Club for Poetry-Music: Der philharmonische Katerverein. Mrs. Browning translated two stanzas of a poem by Heine beginning, “The neighbour’s old cat often came to pay us a visit; to be found in Vol. 6, P. 165 of Mrs. Browning’s Complete Works; Thomas Y. Crowell and Co.; and in Kate Sanborn’s My Literary Zoo, P. 85.
Herford, Oliver: The Bashful Earthquake; Charles Scribner’s Sons; New York; 1900; contains the following poems on cats: The Music of the Future, P. 9; Song, P. 11; The Tragic Mice, P. 38; Illustrations by the author.
Herford, Oliver: At the Photographers: Cat Stories from St. Nicholas, P. 20; An Open Letter: Cat Stories, P. 71 and Cats and Kittens (called A Mirror Cat), P. 30; The Audacious Kitten: Cat Stories, P. 178 and Cats and Kittens, P. 184. Illustrations by the author.
Huddesford, George: Monody on the Death of Dick, an Academical Cat; Collected Poems in two volumes; printed for J. Wright; London; 1801; Vol. 1, P. 131.
Katzenleben, Baroness de (pseudonym): The Cat’s Tail: being the history of Childe Merlin; William Blackwood; Edinburgh; 1831. With two etchings and copies in colour by George Cruikshank.
La Fontaine, Jean de: Fables. The cat fables are Le Chat, la Belette, et le petit Lapin; Le Chat, le Cochet, et le Souriceau; Le Chat et les deux Moineaux; Le Chat et le vieux Rat; Le Chat et le Renard; Le Chat et le Singe; Le vieux Chat et la jeune Souris (translated in The Cat, P. 54); La querelle des Chats et des Chiens, et celle des Chats et des Souris; La Chatte m&étamorphosée en Femme (Concerning Cats, P. 126); and La Chatte, la Laie, et l’Aigle.
Lamb, Charles: Prince Dorus; printed for M. J. Godwin; London; 1811. Illustrated with coloured engravings. The cat Minon plays a part in this tale in rhyme and there are two pictures of him. A facsimile of this book was printed in 1890.
La Mothe le Vayer, François de: Epitaphe de Marlemain (favourite cat of Madame la Duchesse du Maine): Moncrif, P. 106; Gosse (trans.) Gossip in a Library, P. 180; Concerning Cats, P. 46 (Gosse’s translation); The Cat, P. 71 (Gosse’s translation); The Fireside Sphinx, P. 74 (Gosse’s translation).
Maine, Duchesse du: Rondeau Marotique: Moncrif, P. 96. The envoy, translated by Gosse, P. 179, Gossip in a Library; The Cat, P. 70; and Concerning Cats, P. 44.
Scheffel, Joseph Victor von: Der Trompeter von Säkkingen: ein Sang vom Oberrhein. Hiddigeigei, the Tom Cat, appears in the poem, and there are thirteen Lieder des Katters Hiddigeigei. Translated as The Trumpeter, from the two hundredth German edition by Jessie Beck and Louise Lorimer, with an introduction by Sir Theodore Martin, K. C. B., this book was issued by William Blackwood and Sons; Edinburgh and London. 1893.
Skelton, John: The Boke of Phyllyp Sparowe: Vol. 1, P. 51, The Poetical Works of John Skelton, with notes by Rev. Alexander Dyce; two volumes; Thomas Rodd; London; 1843. The cat episode from this long narrative poem may be found in The Cat, P. 47.
Taine, Hippolyte: Douze sonnets inédits de Taine; Figaro; Paris; Supplement Littéraire; March 11, 1893. 1, Le Bonheur; II, La Societé; III, La Religion; IV, Les Souvenirs; V, Les Pénates; VI, La Philosophie; VII, L’Enseignement; VIII, La Pratique; IX, L’Enfance; X, La Sensibilité; XI, Le Point de Vue; XII, L’Absolu. Published posthumously without the consent of the author’s heirs and executors. They carry this inscription: A trois chats, Puss, Ebène et Mitonne, domiciliés à Menthon-Saint-Bernard, Haute-Savoie, ces douze sonnets sont dediés par leur ami et serviteur, H. Taine, novembre, 1883. Pratique, in French, The Fireside Sphinx, P. 194; translated, in The Cat, P. 33.
Tomson, Graham R.: Arsinoë’s Cats (imitation in the manner of the latter Greek poets, circa A. D. 500): Concerning Cats, P. 51; The Cat, P. 65; The Fireside Sphinx, P. 14.
Tuberville, George (attributed to): The Lover, whose Mistresse feared a Mouse, declareth that he would become a Cat if he might have his desire: Concerning Cats, P. 36; The Cat, P. 8; The Fireside Sphinx, P. 132.
