The Cat as a Tormentor.

The Cat as a Tormentor.

Shakespeare, in "Lucrece," says:

"Yet foul night-waking cat, he doth but dally,
While in his holdfast foot the weak mouse panteth."

In an essay on "The Art of Ingeniously Tormenting" (1753), the cat is alluded to in the frontispiece a cat at play with a mouse, below which is the couplet:

The cat doth play,
And after slay.