Is a corruption either of the French Catherine la fidele

Is a corruption either of the French Catherine la fidele

Is a corruption either of the French Catherine la fidèle

"'Cat and Fiddle,' a public-house sign, is a corruption either of the French Catherine la fidèle, wife of Czar Peter the Great of Russia, or of Caton le fidèle, meaning Caton, governor of Calais." Dr. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.

Cat and Fiddle. "While on the subject of sign-boards," says a writer in Cassell's "Old and New London," vol. i., p. 507, "we may state that Piccadilly was the place in which 'The Cat and Fiddle' first appeared as a public-house sign. The story is that a Frenchwoman, a small shopkeeper at the eastern end soon after it was built, had a very faithful and favourite cat, and that in the lack of any other sign she put over her door the words, 'Voici un Chat fidèle.' From some cause or other the 'Chat fidèle' soon became a popular sign in France, and was speedily Anglicised into 'The Cat and Fiddle,' because the words form part of one of our most popular nursery rhymes. We do not pledge ourselves as to the accuracy of this definition."