The Terrifying Tudor Tale About Talking Cats.

The genre of horror fiction has a long history. Even in ancient Greece and Rome, and early European settlements which had prevalent folklore, people couldn’t help themselves but tell each other scary stories. As a genre in its own right, one can trace horror fiction back to Ann Radcliffe’s The Italian (1796) or Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764), which is regarded as the first gothic novel. However, one of the first horror novels in the English language emerges in the mid-16th century. Of what demons, ghosts, or other monstrosities does this tale seek to warn us? Cats. Seriously. Not big cats — like lions, tigers, or leopards — just normal, everyday, kitties.

Although such a premise may suggest that the author is a lunatic, William Baldwin (who penned Beware the Cat in 1553, though it was not to be published until 1561, 1570, and 1584) was actually addressing a fairly well-known subject matter at the time and missed no opportunity to comment on gender roles and religious controversies while doing so. To get the boring stuff out of the way: Baldwin’s story concerns the potential of ‘beasts’ (non-humans) to possess reason while also subtly pushing anti-Catholic propaganda and commenting on gendered issues at the time, such as of men who could not please their wives and wives who had affairs.

The novel consists of three stories, told by a Master Streamer to his friends, who are all lodging together at Christmas time, with the purpose of convincing them that beasts (in this case cats) can act…