October 5

October 5 is celebrated as World Poetry Day in Britain. When this holiday was established by  the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1999, the date mentioned was March 21, but not all countries follow that.

We rely for our confetti on a book by Robert William Dent: Proverbial Language in English Drama Exclusive of Shakespeare, 1495-1616: an Index (1984). (He wrote another book on Shakespeare's proverbial language.)

These are a few of the cat related themes discovered in Dent's work. The dramatists we mention are not necessarily the originators of the phrase, but the proverb occurs in their work.

For instance there is Thomas Heywood. He wrote The Wise Woman of Hoxton, which was performed c. 1604.  And Heywood's text includes, "A cat may look on a king."

Monsieur Thomas, is a play by John Fletcher for which the dates 1610-1616 are mentioned.
Therein we find a variant of a cat always lands on its feet: Fletcher's text reads: "He pitcht upon his legs like a cat"

And lastly we reference John Lyly. His Gallathea (1592) contains something which sounds a bit less familiar. That playwright wrote:

It is a wilie mouse that will breede in the Cat's eare.

Dent's text glosses breede as "nestle."  Either way we are celebrating National Poetry Day with some ballsy mice.