Unfortunately I didn't send the correct link to "My Cat Geofrrey", so I'll
post the poem directly, and add a few quotes from Kinbote's
cat-mouse adventures with black felines.
(Charles Kinbote:) "Among various detailed notices
affixed to a special board in the pantry... I found the diet of the black cat
that came with the house:
Mon, Wed, Fri: Liver / Tue, Thu, Sat: Fish /
Sun: Ground meat/ (All it got from me was milk and sardines; it was a likable
little creature but after a while its movements began to grate on my nerves and
I farmed it out to Mrs. Finley, the cleaning woman.) But perhaps the funniest
note concerned the manipulations of the window curtains which had to be drawn in
different ways at different hours to prevent the sun from getting at the
upholstery. A description of the position of the sun, daily and seasonal, was
given for the several windows...My dear Shade roared with laughter...Thank God,
his robust hilarity dissipated the atmosphere of damnum infectum in which I was
supposed to dwell. ..He did not bring up, my sweet old friend never did,
ridiculous stories about the terrifying shadows that Judge Goldsworth’s gown
threw across the underworld... Let us turn to our poet’s windows. I have no
desire to twist and batter an unambiguous apparatus criticus into the monstrous
semblance of a novel."
...........................
"The Goldsworth château
had many outside doors...One night the black cat, which a few minutes before I
had seen rippling down into the basement ... suddenly reappeared on the
threshold of the music room...arching its back and sporting a neck bow of white
silk which it could certainly never have put on all by itself. I telephoned
11111 and a few minutes later was discussing possible culprits with a
policeman...It is so easy for a cruel person to make the victim of his ingenuity
believe that he has persecution mania, or is really being stalked by a killer,
or is suffering from hallucinations. Hallucinations! ...I am happy to report
that soon after Easter my fears disappeared never to return".
.......................................................
FOR I WILL
CONSIDER MY CAT JEOFFRY from"Jubilate Agno"
by Christopher Smart
For
I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.
For he is the servant of the Living God duly
and daily serving him.
For at the first glance of the glory of God in the
East he worships in his way.
For this is done by wreathing his body seven
times round with elegant quickness.
For then he leaps up to catch the musk,
which is the blessing of God upon his prayer.
For he rolls upon prank to
work it in.
For having done duty and received blessing he begins to consider
himself.
For this he performs in ten degrees.
For first he looks upon
his forepaws to see if they are clean.
For secondly he kicks up behind to
clear away there.
For thirdly he works it upon stretch with the forepaws
extended.
For fourthly he sharpens his paws by wood.
For fifthly he
washes himself.
For sixthly he rolls upon wash.
For seventhly he fleas
himself, that he may not be interrupted upon the beat.
For eighthly he rubs
himself against a post.
For ninthly he looks up for his instructions.
For tenthly he goes in quest of food.
For having consider'd God and
himself he will consider his neighbour.
For if he meets another cat he will
kiss her in kindness.
For when he takes his prey he plays with it to give it
a chance.
For one mouse in seven escapes by his dallying.
For when his
day's work is done his business more properly begins.
For he keeps the
Lord's watch in the night against the adversary.
For he counteracts the
powers of darkness by his electrical skin and glaring eyes.
For he
counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life.
For in his
morning orisons he loves the sun and the sun loves him.
For he is of the
tribe of Tiger.
For the Cherub Cat is a term of the Angel Tiger.
For he
has the subtlety and hissing of a serpent, which in goodness he suppresses.
For he will not do destruction, if he is well-fed, neither will he spit
without provocation.
For he purrs in thankfulness, when God tells him he's a
good Cat.
For he is an instrument for the children to learn benevolence
upon.
For every house is incomplete without him and a blessing is lacking in
the spirit.
For the Lord commanded Moses concerning the cats at the
departure of the Children of Israel from Egypt.
For every family had one cat
at least in the bag.
For the English Cats are the best in Europe.
For he
is the cleanest in the use of his forepaws of any quadruped.
For the
dexterity of his defence is an instance of the love of God to him exceedingly.
For he is the quickest to his mark of any creature.
For he is tenacious
of his point.
For he is a mixture of gravity and waggery.
For he knows
that God is his Saviour.
For there is nothing sweeter than his peace when at
rest.
For there is nothing brisker than his life when in motion.
For he
is of the Lord's poor and so indeed is he called by benevolence
perpetually--Poor Jeoffry! poor Jeoffry! the rat has bit thy throat.
For I
bless the name of the Lord Jesus that Jeoffry is better.
For the divine
spirit comes about his body to sustain it in complete cat.
For his tongue is
exceeding pure so that it has in purity what it wants in music.
For he is
docile and can learn certain things.
For he can set up with gravity which is
patience upon approbation.
For he can fetch and carry, which is patience in
employment.
For he can jump over a stick which is patience upon proof
positive.
For he can spraggle upon waggle at the word of command.
For he
can jump from an eminence into his master's bosom.
For he can catch the cork
and toss it again.
For he is hated by the hypocrite and miser.
For the former is afraid of detection.
For the latter refuses the
charge.
For he camels his back to bear the first notion of business.
For
he is good to think on, if a man would express himself neatly.
For he made a
great figure in Egypt for his signal services.
For he killed the
Ichneumon-rat very pernicious by land.
For his ears are so acute that they
sting again.
For from this proceeds the passing quickness of his attention.
For by stroking of him I have found out electricity.
For I perceived
God's light about him both wax and fire.
For the Electrical fire is the
spiritual substance, which God sends from heaven to sustain the bodies both of
man and beast.
For God has blessed him in the variety of his movements.
For, tho he cannot fly, he is an excellent clamberer.
For his motions
upon the face of the earth are more than any other quadruped.
For he can
tread to all the measures upon the music.
For he can swim for life.
For
he can creep.
Christopher Smart , 1722 - 1771