Chapter Castagnette to Cat of C by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Castor (Stephanos), the wrestler.—Sir W. Scott: Count Robert of Paris (time, Rufus).

Castriot (George), called by the Turks “Scanderbeg” (1404–1467). George Castriot was son of an Albanian prince, delivered as a hostage to Amurath II. He won such favour from the sultan that he was put in command of 5000 men, but abandoned the Turks in the battle of Morava (1443).

This is the first dark blot
On thy name, George Castriot.
   —Longfellow: The Wayside Inn (an interlude).

Castruccio Castracani’s Sword. When Victor Emmanuel II. went t o Tuscany, the path from Lucca to Pistoia was strewed with roses. At Pistoia the orphan heirs of Puccini met him, bearing a sword, and said, “This is the sword of Castruccio Castracani, the great Italian soldier, and head of the Ghibelines in the fourteenth century, It was committed to our ward and keeping till some patriot should arise to deliver Italy and make it free.” Victor Emmanuel, seizing the hilt, exclaimed, “Questa é per me!” (“This is for me.”)—Mrs. Browning: The Sword of Castruccio Castracani.

Casyapa, father of the immortals, who dwells in the mountain called Hemacûta or Himakoot, under the Tree of Life.—Southey: Curse of Kehama (canto vi. is called “Casyapa,” 1809).

Cat (The) has been from time immemorial the familiar of witches; thus Galinthia was changed by the Fates into a cat (Antoninus Liberalis, Metam. 29). Hecate also, when Typhon compelled the gods and goddesses to hide themselves in animals, assumed the form of a cat (Pausanias, Bæotics). Ovid says, “Fele soror Phœbi latuit.”

The cat i’ the adage: that is, Catus amat pisces, sed non vult tingere plantas (“The cat loves fish, but does not like to wet her paws”).

Letting I dare not wait upon I would,
Like the poor cat i’ the adage.
   —Shakespeare: Macbeth, act i. sc. 7 (1606).

Not room to swing a cat; reference is to the sport of swinging a cat to the branch of a tree as a mark to be shot at. Shakespeare refers to another variety of the sport; the cat being enclosed in a leather bottle, was suspended to a tree and shot at. “Hang me in a bottle, like a cat” (Much Ado about Nothing, act i. sc. 1); and Steevers tells us of a third variety in which the “cat was placed in a soot-bag, hung on a line, and the players had to beat out the bottom of the bag.” He who succeeded in thus liberating the cat, had the “privilege” of hunting it afterwards.

Kilkenny Cats. A favourite amusement of the “good old times” with a certain regiment quartered at Kilkenny, was to tie two cats together by the tails, swing them over a line, and watch their ferocious attacks upon each other in their struggles to get free. It was determined to put down this cruel “sport;” and one day, just as two unfortunate cats were swung, the alarm was given that the colonel was riding up post haste. An officer present cut through their tails with his sword and liberated the cats, which scampered off before the colonel arrived.—From a correspondent, signed, R. G. Glenn (4, Rowden Buildings, Temple).

N.B.—Hogarth has a picture of the Kilkenny cats in his Four Stages of Cruelty.

The Kilkenny Cats. The story is that two cats fought in a saw-pit so ferociously that each swallowed the other, leaving only the tails behind to tell of the wonderful encounter. (See Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, for several other references to cats, pp. 223, 224.)