Origins entry

entry author	entry date	entry editor	document type
Fred Schurink	27.01.08		printedbook

Authors
published anonymously
full name	additional information
William Baldwin	author
T. K. (Thomas Knell, the Younger?)	author of preliminary material

Publication Details

Composition date
information
1552-53

Publication date
information
1584

format
octavo (88 pages; signatures: A-E8, F4)

Bibliographic number
STC (2nd ed.), 1245

Stationers register
One of the 1570 editions was entered in the Stationers' Register to Roger Ireland, 22 July 1568 - 22 July 1569, probably July 1569: 'Recevyd of master Irelonde for his lycense for pryntinge of a boke intituled beware the Catt by Wylliam Bawdw[i]n ... iiijd' (Arber, i. 389).

Associates
full name	additional information
Edward Allde	printer
John Young	dedicatee

Languages
English
Latin

Content

Title page

Preliminary Material (A2r-A5r)
1. Address: 'T. K. to the Reader', 44 lines (A2rv). 'Explain[s] why [the work] was earlier withheld from publication [?] and [?] indicate[s] its applicability to the renewed fears of dangers from a Catholic plot in the 1580s' (Ringler and Flachmann, p. 57). 2. Dedication: 'TO THE RIGHT WORshipful Esquire John Yung, grace and helth' (A3rv). Signed 'Yours to his power. G. B.'.

Argument (A4r-A5r)
3. 'The argument' (A4r-A5r). Set at court, this is an discussion between Baldwin (the author's persona) and Master Streamer (who is the divine of Master Ferrers, master of the king's pastimes) about whether animals have reason, narrated by Baldwin in the first person. At the end, Streamer demands to speak without interruption, and he is the narrator of the story until the exhortation.

First Part of Streamer's Oration (A5v-C1r)
4. 'The first parte of Maister Streamers Oration' (A5v-C1r). Streamer recounts how the cats in the garden of John Day's printing shop, where he was working and lodging, made so much noise that he could not sleep. He then engages in a dialogue with others in the same house. A servant in Day's printing shop (originally from Staffordshire) tells a story about talking cats, who refer to the death of a cat called Grimalkin. In response to this 'old Thomas' tells the story of the death of Grimalkin, who ate an amazing amount, and of the murder of his assassin by other cats, which he heard while he was in Ireland. A 'well-learned man', identified as Richard Sherry in the marginal notes, suggests the cat was a witch, who appeared as such by deceiving the senses of its viewers.

First Part of Streamer's Oration (A5v-C1r)

4. 'The first parte of Maister Streamers Oration' (A5v-C1r). Streamer recounts how the cats in the garden of John Day's printing shop, where he was working and lodging, made so much noise that he could not sleep. He then engages in a dialogue with others in the same house. A servant in Day's printing shop (originally from Staffordshire) tells a story about talking cats, who refer to the death of a cat called Grimalkin. In response to this 'old Thomas' tells the story of the death of Grimalkin, who ate an amazing amount, and of the murder of his assassin by other cats, which he heard while he was in Ireland. A 'well-learned man', identified as Richard Sherry in the marginal notes, suggests the cat was a witch, who appeared as such by deceiving the senses of its viewers.

Second Part of Streamer's Oration (C1v-D2v)
5. 'The second parte of Maister Streamers Oration' (C1v-D2v). Streamer observes the cats when they meet at night, and remembers that Albertus Magnus describes how to understand the voices of animals. The remainder of the second part describes the medical and astronomical procedures by which Streamer acquires his ability to hear animals speak.

Third Part of Streamer's Oration (D3r-F2r)
6. 'The third parte of Maister Streamers Oration' (D3r-F2r). Streamer reports the conversation between the various cats in his garden. To exonerate herself Mouse-Slayer, who has been falsely accused, gives an account of the last two years of her life (the first four had been treated in the previous two nights) to the great grey cat and chief counselor Grisard and his assistants. She describes how many of her owners secretedly persisted in superstition and followed the Catholic rites. Includes a letter: 'The nameles loouer to the nameles belooued in whose looue sith he may not liue he desireth licence to dye' (E2r-E3r).

Third Part of Streamer's Oration (D3r-F2r)

6. 'The third parte of Maister Streamers Oration' (D3r-F2r). Streamer reports the conversation between the various cats in his garden. To exonerate herself Mouse-Slayer, who has been falsely accused, gives an account of the last two years of her life (the first four had been treated in the previous two nights) to the great grey cat and chief counselor Grisard and his assistants. She describes how many of her owners secretedly persisted in superstition and followed the Catholic rites. Includes a letter: 'The nameles loouer to the nameles belooued in whose looue sith he may not liue he desireth licence to dye' (E2r-E3r).

Exhortation (F2v-F3r)
7. 'An Exhortation' (F2v-F3r). The narrator warns readers to 'eschue secret sins and privy mischeuous counsels: lest (to their shame) all the world at length doo knowe thereof' (i.e. after it has been revealed by their cats).

Postliminary Material (F3v)
8. 'The Himne' (F3v), 20 lines.

Illustration
Block ornaments (A5r, C1r, D2v, F2r, F3v, F4r)

Colophon
'Imprinted at London at the long shop adioyning vnto Saint Mildreds Church in the Pultrie by Edward Allde. 1584.' (F4r)

Paratext
Very frequent (see below under Additional information)

Genres
1. autobiography
2. controversial writing
3. dialogue
4. dream vision
5. fable
6. handbook
7. hymn
8. oration
9. prose
10. prose fiction
11. proverbs
12. satire

Subjects
1. animals birds and fish
2. astronomy
3. idolatry
4. magic and witchcraft
5. medicine
6. miracles
7. reason
8. reformation and counter-reformation
9. religion conflict
10. religion doctrine and worship
11. secrets and secrecy
12. superstition

Extra

Sources
Apuleius, The Golden Ass (for metamorphosis into an animal, witchcraft motif, intricate narrative structure, and first-person narrator who actively participates in events)

Adaptions
There is a scurrilous attack on this work in the single sheet folio A Short Answer to the Book Called Beware the Cat (c. 1570).

Additional
Composed during the reign of Edward VI, when attacks on alleged Catholic superstition and idolatry were at their height, Baldwin's virulent anti-Catholic satire was originally prevented from being published by the death of Edward and the accession of the Catholic Queen Mary in 1553. It has been argued that its eventual publication in 1570 reflects the impact of the Northern Rising in 1569 and the excommunication of Queen Elizabeth by the Pope in early 1570, which generated strong anti-Catholic feeling (Ringler and Flachmann, p. xxix), but this doesn't seem to be supported by the date of the entry in the Stationers' Register, which precedes both events. No copies of the first 1570 edition of the text survive, but a careful nineteenth-century transcript is available in the British Library (MS Add. 24628). Of the second 1570 edition only the first four leaves survive (BL, shelfmark C.60.b.8), while all of the surviving copies of the 1584 edition lack the title-page. No author is named on the sole surviving title-page (of the second 1570 edition), but the dedication is signed G. B. (i.e. Gulielmus Baldwin) in all editions and headed by Baldwin's motto 'Loue and Liue' in both 1570 editions; in addition, Baldwin is named as the author in the entry in the Stationer's Register and in A Short Answere to the Boke Called Beware the Cat (c. 1570). The 'T. K.' who signs the verse address may be Thomas Knell, the younger (1543/4-c.1592) (Ringler and Flachmann, p. 57). The narrative has an extremely detailed and realistic setting. The argument consists of a dialogue said to have taken place between Baldwin, his associate, the prominent courtier and poet George Ferrers, Ferrers's astronomer (Thomas?) Willot, and his 'divine' Gregory Streamer at Court the previous Christmas (28 December 1552). The main body of the text, consisting of three orations, is narrated by Streamer and set in the printing shop of John Day at Aldersgate in London. The third oration includes a long account of the last two years of her life by the cat Mouse-Slayer, as overheard by Streamer. The book includes a great number of printed marginal notes, which summarize and explain the action, provide additional information, draw out proverbial meanings, and emphasize the anti-Catholic message. Most importantly, they consistently question the reliability of the narrator of the orations (Streamer) by contradicting and ridiculing his speech and actions.

Compilation editions
edition title	information	bib.no.
BL, Huth.66 (via EEBO)

Modern editions
edition title	information	bib.no.
William Baldwin, Beware the Cat: The First English Novel, ed. by William A. Ringler, Jr. and Michael Flachmann (San Marino: Huntington Library, 1988) (modern-spelling edition based on BL, MS Add. 24628)
William Baldwin, Beware the Cat, and The Funerals of King Edward the Sixth, ed. by William P. Holden, Connecticut College Monograph, 8 (New London: Connecticut College, 1963) (based on 1584 edition)
Beware the Cat, 1570. An Exceedingly Rare and Curious Rhapsody, Containing Matters Illustrative of the History of the Stage, and of the Writings of Shakespeare, ed. by J. O. Halliwell ([London]: Chiswick Press, 1864) (edition of corrupt transcript of BL, MS Add. 24628)
BL, MS Add. 24628 (transcript of lost first edition of 1570)

Early editions
edition title	information	bib.no.
No copies of the first 1570 edition of the text survive, but a careful nineteenth-century transcript is available in the British Library (MS Add. 24628). The colophon reads: 'Imprinted at London by John Allde, Anno Domini 1570, and are to be sold by John Arnold at the North Door of Paul's'. This edition lacks the verse address to the reader by T. K.
The first four leaves of the second 1570 edition alone survive (BL, shelfmark C.60.b.8; STC (2nd ed.), 1244). The title-page reads: 'A MARVELOVS \| Hystory intitulede, Beware the \| Cat. Conteynyng diuerse wounder-\|full and incredible matters. \| Very pleasant and mery to read. \|\| [device with motto 'GEVE GOD THE GLORYE NOWE AND EVER MORE'] \|\| IMPRINTED AT LONDON, IN \| Fleetestrete at the signe of the \| Faulcon by Wylliam Gryffith: \| and are to be sold at his shop \| in S. Dunstons Church-\|yarde. Anno. 1570.'.This octavo edition lacks the verse address to the reader by T. K.

Beware the Cat

Publication Details

Content

Extra