.... I design this paper as a dissertation upon the cat-call. .... A Fellow of the Royal Society, who is my good friend, and a great proficient in the mathematical part of music...observes very well, that musical instruments took their first rise from the notes of birds, and other melodious animals; and what, says he, was more natural than for the first ages of mankind to imitate the voice of a cat that lived under the same roof with them? He added, that the cat had contributed more to harmony than any other animal; as we are not only beholden to her for this wind-instrument, but for our string music in general.....[O]thers...ascribe this invention to Orpheus, and look upon the cat-call to be one of those instruments which that famous musician made use of to draw the beasts about him. It is certain, that the roasting of a cat does not call together a greater audience of that species, than this instrument, if dexterously played upon in proper time and place.
But not withstanding these various and learned conjectures, I cannot forbear thinking that the cat call is originally a piece of English music. Its resemblance to the voice of some of our British songsters, as well as the use of it, which is peculiar to our nation, confirms me in this opinion....Having said thus much concerning the original of the cat-call, we are in the next place to consider the use of it. The cat-call exerts itself to most advantage in the British theatre: it very much improves the sound of nonsense, and often goes along with the voice of the actor who pronounces it, as the violin or harpsicord accompanies the Italian recitative. It has often supplied the place of the ancient chorus...
In short, a bad poet has as great an antipathy to a cat call, as many people have to a real cat.
Do we not, in this essay, which uses history and literature to such humorous effect, see the effect of coffee on the Enlightenment intellect?
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