PUSS IN BOOTS A
Pantomime for 2009 from
Diddily.
There was a miller who left no more
estate to the three sons he had than his
mill, his ass, and his cat. scrivener nor attorney
was sent for. They would soon have eaten up all the
poor patrimony. The eldest had the mill, the second
the ass, and the youngest nothing but the cat. The
partition was soon made. Neither The poor
young fellow was quite comfortless at having so
poor a lot.
"My
brothers," said he, "may get their living
handsomely enough by joining
their stocks together; but for my part, when I have
eaten up my cat,1and made me a muff of
his skin, I must die of hunger."
The Cat, who heard all
this, but made as if he did not, said
to him with a grave and serious air:
"Do not thus afflict
yourself, my good master. You have
nothing else to do but to give
me a bag and get a pair of
boots made for me that I may scamper through the
dirt and the brambles, and
you shall see that you have not so bad a portion in
me as you imagine."
The
Cat's master did not build very much upon
what he said. He had often seen him play a great
many cunning tricks to catch rats and mice,
as when he used to hang by the heels, or hide
himself in the meal, and
make as if he were dead; so that he did not
altogether despair of his
affording him some help in his miserable condition.
When the Cat had
what he asked for he booted himself very gallantly,
and putting his bag
about his neck, he held the strings of it in his
two forepaws and went
into a warren
where was great abundance of rabbits. He put bran
and sow-thistle into
his bag, and stretching out at length, as if he had
been dead, he
waited for some young rabbits, not yet acquainted
with the deceits of
the world, to come and rummage his bag for what he
had put into it.
Scarce
was he lain down but he had what he wanted. A rash
and foolish young
rabbit jumped into his bag, and Monsieur Puss,
immediately drawing
close the strings, took and killed him
without pity. Proud of his prey, he went with it
to the palace and asked to speak
with his majesty.He was shown upstairs into
the King's apartment, and, making a
low reverence,19 said to him:
"I have brought you, sir, a
rabbit of the warren, which my noble lord
the Marquis of Carabas"
(for that was the title which puss was pleased to
give his master) "has
commanded me to present to your majesty from him."
"Tell thy master," said the
king, "that I thank him and that he does
me a great deal of pleasure."
Another
time he went and hid himself among some standing
corn, holding still
his bag open, and when a brace of partridges ran
into it he drew the
strings and so caught them both. He went and made
a present of these to the king,
as he had done before of the rabbit which he took
in the warren. The
king, in like manner, received the partridges with
great pleasure, and
ordered him some money for drink.
The Cat continued for two
or three months
thus to carry his Majesty, from time to time, game
of his master's
taking. One day in particular, when he knew for
certain that he was to take the air along
the river-side, with his daughter, the most
beautiful princess in the world, he said
to his master:
"If
you will follow my advice your fortune is made. You
have nothing else
to do but go and
wash yourself in the river, in that part I shall show
you, and leave the rest to me."
The
Marquis of Carabas did what the Cat advised him to,
without knowing why
or wherefore. While he was washing the King passed
by, and the Cat
began to cry out:
"Help! help! My Lord
Marquis of Carabas is going to be
drowned."
At
this noise the King put his head out of the coach-
window, and, finding
it was the Cat who had so often brought him such
good game, he
commanded his guards to run immediately
to the assistance of his
Lordship the Marquis of Carabas. While they were
drawing the poor
Marquis out of the river, the Cat came up to the
coach and told the
King that, while his master was washing, there came
by some rogues, who
went off with his clothes, though he had cried out:
"Thieves! thieves!"
several times, as loud as he could.
This
cunning Cat had hidden them under a great stone.
The King immediately
commanded the officers of his wardrobe to run and
fetch one of his best suits for the Lord
Marquis of Carabas.
Posted 13:34
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