The cat would eat fish and would

The cat would eat fish and would

The cat would eat fish and would

The cat would eat fish, and would not wet her feet. Heywood, 1562.

"Fain would the cat fish eat,
But she is loth to wet her feet."
"What cat's averse to fish?" Gray.

Dr. Trench has pointed out the allusion to this saying in Macbeth, when Lady Macbeth speaks of her husband as a man,

"Letting I dare not, wait upon I would,
Like the poor cat i' the adage."