"I am as melancholy as a gib cat,"
sighs Falstaff wearily. Grimalkin, on the other hand, was less a domestic than a poetical appellation, given often to Pussy in literature, but never in friendly fireside intercourse. John Philips deemed the word sufficiently Miltonic to fit his parody, "The Splendid Shilling," published in 1703.
"Grimalkin, to Domestick Vermin sworn
An everlasting Foe, with watchful Eye
Lies nightly brooding o'er a chinky Gap,
Protending her fell Claws, to thoughtless Mice
Sure Ruin."
Through long association with witchcraft—witches' cats seem to have been constantly christened Grimalkin—the name became deservedly unpopular.
"Grimalkin, the foul Fiend's cat.
Grimalkin, the witche's brat."
runs an ancient and unsavoury rhyme,—one of a number which served to blacken an innocent animal's reputation.
From many an old adage, from many a proverb and rude snatch of rhyme, we may judge for ourselves how Pussy gradually, and with soft insistence, won her place by cottage hearth, and in the snug English farm. Her characteristics were so marked, her habits so unalterable, that she came in time to stand for certain qualities, and to serve as their homely illustration. Her chimney-corner
