htley also quotes two similar stories from Thiele's _Danish Popular
Traditions_ and another from the letters of Count Magalotti, a
Florentine of the latter half of the seventeenth century.

Mr. Lysons gives much information as to the great value of cats in the
Middle Ages, but the writer of the _History of Whittington_ does not
lead us to believe that they were dear in England, for he makes the boy
buy his cat for one penny. The two following titles are from the
Stationers' Registers. The ballad is probably the one subsequently
referred to as by Richard Johnson:--

"The History of Richard Whittington, of his lowe birthe, his great
fortune, as yt was plaied by the Prynces Servants. Licensed to Thomas
Pavyer, Feb. 8, 1604-5."

"A Ballad, called The vertuous lyfe and memorable death of Sir Richard
Whittington, mercer, sometymes Lord Maiour of the honorable Citie of
London. Licensed to John Wright, 16 July, 1605."

The first reference that we find to the cat incident is in the play
_Eastward Hoe_ by Chapman, Ben Jonson, and Marston; for, as the portrait
which was said to have existed at Mercers' Hall is not now known, it can
scarcely be put in evidence. This half-length portrait of a man of about
sixty years of age, dressed in a livery gown and black cap of the time
of Henry VIII. with a figure of a black and white cat on the left, is
said to have had painted in the left-hand upper corner of the canvas the
inscription, "R. Whittington, 1536."

In _Eastward Hoe_, 1605, Touchstone assures Goulding that he hopes to
see him reckoned one of the worthies of the city of London "When the
famous fable of Whittington and his puss shall be forgotten."

The next allusion is in Thomas Heywood's _If you know not me, you know
nobody_, 2nd part, 1606.

_Dean Nowell._ "This Sir Richard Whittington, three times Mayor,
Sonne to a knight and prentice to a mercer,
Began the Library of Grey-Friars in London,
And his executors after him did build
Whittington Colledge, thirteene Alms-houses for poore men,
Repair'd S. Bartholomewes, in Smithfield,
Glased the Guildhall, and built Newgate.

_Hobson._ Bones of men, then I have heard lies;
For I have heard he was a scullion,
And rais'd himself by venture of a cat.

_Nowell._ They did the more wrong to the gentleman."

Here it will be seen that, although the popular tale is mentioned, it is
treated as a mere invention unworthy of credence.

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