The Wooden O

A harmless, necessary cat

In the year before my birth, one Master William Baldwin publish'd Beware the Cat, which is now hail'd as the first novel in English. In this most merry tale (yet somewhat sharp in its satyr upon the faith of Rome), a man cometh by art magick to understand the speech of cat-kind, and to speak with them by moonlight.

Even so today, this Web of light in which we all are twined doth make the humble cat, without magic or other forbidden arts, to speak most feelingly. They be not, it seems, much learned in the Queen's English: indeed, I marvel that they be not better spoken, having lived so long amongst our kind. Howsomever, it seemeth some of these felines have turn'd scholar, and have taken to reading on my works. 'Tis a thing most strange, yet I confess me that these same cats have made me, indeed, to laugh out loud.