April 11, 1770

Perhaps like me, you need an introduction to George Canning (April 11, 1770 to August 8, 1827). We found this:

'... George Canning[s] ....reputation as a complete politician sometimes obscures his achievement as a first-class comic poet. Yet his comical verse in the Anti-Jacobin helped shape the course of British history, and secured a career that led to the prime ministry and even to a role in American history.

'Of a well-established Protestant family in Ireland, his father had moved to London after falling in love with a local young woman of no fortune. In London, on a grudging allowance of 150 [pounds sterling] a year, he married a different young woman of no fortune and was summarily disinherited. His death in 1771, left one-year-old George and his mother without even that 150 [pounds sterling] a year. So she went upon the stage. Unsuccessful in London and then in the provinces, she lived in sin with a dissolute actor named Reddish, leading her little boy through a maze of cheap theatrical lodgings. His paternal uncle rescued him at age nine, raised him with his own children so well that, at sixteen, Canning led his form at Eton and achieved national fame as a precocious wit for his contributions to the school humor magazine, The Microcosm.

'The weekly Microcosm (November 6, 1786-July 30, 1787) was the creation of Canning and two equally comical friends, J. Hookham Frere and George Ellis. Their parodies attracted so much notoriety that they were published in book form, that ran through five editions, reaching such influential readers as the royal family ...The issue for February 12, 1787, carried Canning's explication of "The queen of hearts she made some tarts" as an epic poem. Anticipating objections that "a Knave is an unworthy Hero," he counters with the example of Paradise Lost: "the greatest work of this kind that the World has ever produced," and its hero, "the Devil" himself.... The final issue concludes with four specimens of "Griffmiana," so called because [supposedly] the entire Microcosm had been penned by one "Gregory Griffin," only lately deceased, whose passing, like Dr. Johnson's, now calls for memorial anecdotes in the manner of Mrs. Piozzi: "Mr. Griffin was a man of great humour. Coming one day into the parlour, where Pompey, the Editor's little dog, was lying and basking before the fire, 'I protest, Pompey,' said he, 'you are almost as lazy a dog as myself!!!'" Clearly young Canning's comic genius inclined to parody of the playful kind.

'Along with fame for the Microcosm came a fortune of 400 [pounds sterling] a year as a legacy from his paternal grandmother. Part he set aside for his mother's care, the remainder he invested in a distinguished career at Oxford. At his uncle's home he had met Charles James Fox, who took such special interest in him that everyone at Oxford assumed Fox was his patron. In debating clubs he was acknowledged the champion of the Foxite faction on campus, presumably being groomed to play a like role in Parliament. But after taking his degree in 1791, and falling out with Fox on the French Revolution, to everyone's surprise (including Pitt's), he offered his services to the Prime Minister--thus laying the foundation of a recurring reputation as a turncoat, disliked by Whigs, distrusted by Tories. …

George Canning is remembered for his subsequent career as an MP and minister in various posts. We though, must recall his talent as a humorous poet because he wrote these lines:

"Tell me, tell me, gentle Robin,
What is it sets thy heart a-throbbing?
Is it that Grimalkin fell
Hath killed thy father or thy mother,
Thy sister or thy brother,
Or any other?
Tell me but that,
And I'll kill the Cat.

But stay, little Robin, did you ever spare,
A grub on the ground or a fly in the air?
No, that you never did, I'll swear;
So I won't kill the Cat,
That's flat."

What kind of guy was George Canning? I like this story. Challenged to a duel by a political adversary within the government, Lord Castlereagh,(1769 –1822). Canning accepted and a duel took place. Canning had never fired a pistol before, and came nowhere near hitting Castlereagh. Castlereagh, an excellent shot, hit Canning in the leg. It is worth mentioning that there was public indignation, in 1809, at the news that such measures were resorted to in government business.

Carl Van Vechten thinks Canning's cat verse is the first poem that takes up for the cat in the cat versus bird debate.