Introduction
In 1753, the house of inventor John Kay was trashed by weavers who feared that his ‘flying shuttle’ machine would put them out of work. Tom, hero of the satire The Life and Adventures of a Cat, published anonymously in 1760, felt the same way about mousetraps, and was just as willing to act.
“BY what name to call thee [said Tom]* I know not, but the use, to which thou art destined, is evident as a mouse-hole; and who will after trust man? Are Cats so scarce, that their proferr’d service stinks? Suppose the whole race extinct, would this admirable engine destroy the race of mice? Can this machine smell them out, follow them to their dark recesses, sit over them, till they pop out their heads, and then put them to the slaughter? The structure is indeed a proof of human ingenuity, but is it not also that of their ingratitude, and is thus the feline services repaid? If men lay snares and gins for the vermin, which infest them, to what use are Cats created?”
One day as he happened to be traversing the purlieus* of the village, he saw a great number of mouse-traps lying in a window for sale.* He recollected the form of the machine, and no doubt, judged rightly, that they were made there; upon this discovery, he went in the dusk of the evening, and by a most vociferous exertion of his voice, he summoned three-score Cats about him, who were curious to know the cause of this citation.*
* Tom’s story was republished in 2024 by Frank-Daniel Schulten as Tom: The Life and Aventures of a Cat: The First Cat Novel in World Literature. Schulten traced various contemporary figures and events he believed were satirised in the tale, and came to the conclusion that the anonymous author was actor-manager David Garrick (1717-1779).
* The word purlieu (pronounced purr-lyoo in English) comes from French. Originally it was a technical term for land bordering a forest and hence regulated by forest law, but now it has come to mean simply a neighbourhood, any surrounding area.
* The familiar spring-loaded mousetrap is an American invention of the 1890s, but mousetraps had existed in England long before. Leonard Mascall (?-1589), clerk to Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote a treatise on pest control that included several different kinds of mousetrap; it was published in 1590. And see the picture in Andrea Alciato’s Emblematum Liber (1534), published at Augsburg, and held today at Glasgow University.
* ‘Citation’ here means a summons. The word is still used in this way in the US, where they speak of e.g. a traffic citation, a summons to appear in court to answer a charge of violating traffic regulations.
Précis
The narrative begins with Tom pointing out that although mousetraps are ingenious devices, they cannot perform the task of mousing as professionally as a cat, and are frankly disrespectful to generations of working cats. Then we learn that his indignation was such that, on seeing mousetraps in a shop window, he gathered sixty like-minded moggies to help him take action. (60 / 60 words)
The narrative begins with Tom pointing out that although mousetraps are ingenious devices, they cannot perform the task of mousing as professionally as a cat, and are frankly disrespectful to generations of working cats. Then we learn that his indignation was such that, on seeing mousetraps in a shop window, he gathered sixty like-minded moggies to help him take action.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: besides, may, must, not, otherwise, until, whether, who.
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
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