The History of Sir Richard Whittington | Page 2

T. H.'s History (see p. 11) we have--
"Turn again, Whittington, Lord Mayor of London."
In the later chap-book version this is altered into--
"Turn again, Whittington,?Lord Mayor of great London."
It will be seen that the special reference to the fact that Whittington was three times Lord Mayor is not to be found in either the ballads or the chap-books.
In the Life_, by the author of _George Barnwell (1811), however we read--
"Return again, Whittington,?Thrise Lord Mayor of London."
And in The Life and Times of Whittington (1841)--
"Turn again, turn again, Whittington,?Three times Lord Mayor of London."
In the early version of the History by T. H. the fanciful portions are only allowed to occupy a small portion of the whole, and a long account is given of Whittington's real actions, but, in the later chap-book versions, the historical incidents are ruthlessly cut down, and the fictitious ones amplified. This will be seen by comparing the two printed here. Thus T. H. merely says (p. 6) that Whittington was obscurely born, and that being almost starved in the country he came up to London. In the later chap-book the journey to London is more fully enlarged upon (p. xxxiii.), and among those at Whittington's marriage with Alice Fitzwarren the name of the Company of Stationers not then in existence is foisted in (pp. xlii.) It does not appear in T. H.'s History.
In many other particulars the later chap-book which contains the story as known to modern readers is amplified, and thus shows signs of a very late origin.
With regard to the three fictitious points of Whittington's history mentioned at the beginning of this preface, the first--his poor parentage--is disposed of by documentary evidence; the second--his sitting on a stone at Highgate hill--has been shown to be quite a modern invention; and the third--the story of the cat--has been told of so many other persons in different parts of the world that there is every reason to believe it to be a veritable folk-tale joined to the history of Whittington from some unexplained connection. None of the early historians who mention Whittington allude to the incident of the cat, and it is only to be found in popular literature, ballads, plays, &c. The story seems to have taken its rise in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The reason why however the life of Whittington should have been chosen as the stock upon which this folk-tale should be grafted is still unexplained. Some have supposed that he obtained his money by the employment of "cats," or vessels for the carriage of coals; but this suggestion does not appear to be worthy of much consideration.
It is said that at Newgate, which owed much to Whittington, there was a statue of him with a cat, which was destroyed in the Great Fire; and in 1862, when some alterations were made in an old house at Gloucester, which had been occupied by the Whittington family until 1460, a stone was said to have been dug up on which was a basso-relievo representing the figure of a boy carrying a cat in his arms. This find, however, appears rather suspicious.
Keightley devotes a whole chapter of his Tales and Popular Fictions to the legend of Whittington and his Cat, in which he points out how many similar stories exist. The Facezie, of Arlotto, printed soon after the author's death in 1483, contain a tale of a merchant of Genoa, entitled "Novella delle Gatte," and probably from this the story came to England, although it is also found in a German chronicle of the thirteenth century. Sir William Ouseley, in his Travels, 1819, speaking of an island in the Persian Gulf, relates, on the authority of a Persian MS., that "in the tenth century, one Keis, the son of a poor widow in Sir��f, embarked for India with a cat, his only property. There he fortunately arrived at a time when the palace was so infested by mice or rats that they invaded the king's food, and persons were employed to drive them from the royal banquet. Keis produced his cat; the noxious animals soon disappeared, and magnificent rewards were bestowed on the adventurer of Sir��f, who returned to that city, and afterwards, with his mother and brothers, settled on the island, which from him has been denominated Keis, or according to the Persians Keisch." Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps quotes from the Description of Guinea (1665) the record of "how Alphonso, a Portuguese, being wrecked on the coast of Guinney, and being presented by the king thereof with his weight in gold for a cat to kill their mice; and an oyntment to kill their flies, which he improved within five years to 6000l. in the place, and, returning to Portugal after fifteen years traffick, became the third man in the kingdom."[1] Keightley also quotes two