cat steals dildo/penis

I suppose common-sense urges that the object in the cat’s mouth must be a penis-shaped dildo, and cannot be a real, dismembered, erect penis (which, in any case, if dismembered, would presumably not remain erect!) — but then this is a story, and in stories common-sense is not always required. And there are versions of the Reynard beast-epic in which the member is that of the master of the house that the cat bites off and runs away with. ….

A surprisingly widespread motif: from the late 13C manuscript drolerie, via the 16C prints, to the late 16 and early 17C alba amicorum, in which I am currently aware of 3 examples dating from 1581-1633 (2 of which are reproduced below). The woman whose dildo has been stolen, tries to persuade the cat to drop it, by offering it a fish instead — as in the Heidenreich album, and the earlier German print — or a mouse, as in the Huber album’s lift-the-flap presentation.

from the album of Michael von Heidenreich, this page dated 1601. Kórnik, Biblioteka Kórnicka PAN, BK 1508, p.149

This is a lift-the-flap miniature in the album of Matthias Huber, this page dated 1633. Here the flap is closed. Weimar, Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek, Signatur Stb 44 Nachtrag, f.39r.

And here the flap is lifted, disclosing a cat which formerly had something in its mouth, before it was evidently obliterated by some prudish later owner of the album

I have no image of the scene but it is evidently also to be found in the album of Adam Gruttschreiber, as part of an entry made in 1581 [Kraków, Biblioteka Jagiellonska, Berol. Ms. Alba amic. 1]. In Polish Libraries 9 (2021), 24-78, Adam Szczepaniec describes the relevant miniature thus:

Earlier and later examples of the motif

woman chases cat with distaff, marginal drolerie in the late 13C manuscript, Bruges, Stadsbibliotheek, hs. 251, f.299v.

lead badge found at Groede in the Netherlands, 1350×1400

German print dated 1555. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, RP-P-OB-78. 861. Here the comedy is exacerbated by the fact that the woman is a nun — with a surprisingly phallus-shaped bead hanging from her rosary — and by the fact that the costumed fool who observes the scene dangles his breech-cloth through the window. Flaisch macht flaisch means, literally, ‘Flesh makes flesh’.

attributed to Niccolo Nelli, a.1600. Cracow, Polish Academy of Sciences
18C German book illustration in Francis Douce’s collection (now in the Ashmolean) with Douce’s handwritten notes below
18C Bohemian engraved glass goblet, inscribed Kom soll wir dauschen [come let’s swap! i.e. the dildo for the mouse] Sold Dr Fischer Auction 301 i, European Glass, lot 297


2 responses to “cat steals dildo/penis”

  1. Lee Gutman Avatar
    Lee Gutman

    Interestingly, there seems to be a reference to this trope (though thankfully for the man in question, less thoroughly) in “Beware the Cat” (1584) by William Baldwin, when a cat (interestingly, on trial for refusing to have sex with a tomcat against the laws of cats that mandate female sexual availability) decides to expose her mistresses’ adultery by clawing at her hiding lover: “But I minding another thing, & seeing that scratching could not mooue him: sudainly I lept vp & caught him by the genitalls with my teeth, and bote so hard, that whe he had restrained more then I thought any man could: at last he cryed out & caught me by the neck and thinking to haue strangled me. My Maister not smelling but hearing such a Rat as was not wunt to be about suche walles: came to the cloth and lift it vp and there he found this bare arst Gentleman strangling me, who had his stones in my mouth. & whe I saw my maister I let goe my hold, and the Gentleman his and away I ran immediatly to the place where I now dwel, and neuer came there since so that how they agreed amog them I cannot tel, nor neuer durst go see, for feare of my life.”

    1. Malcolm Jones Avatar

      Ah, how kind of you to remind me of this incident, Lee! What an extraordinary book Beware the Cat is!

      Malcolm

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