Contributor Penny Taylor has found out about Hodge, Johnson’s famous cat, in celebration of International Cat Day.
In Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, he simply described the cat as ‘A domestick animal that catches mice’, but it is no secret that Johnson was very fond of cats. In recent years, cats have become part of a pop culture phenomenon, with famous felines such as Grumpy Cat and Lil Bub amassing millions of followers online. During the 18th century, however, cats were not held in quite such high regard. For example, James Boswell writes about his own ‘antipathy’ towards cats in his Life of Samuel Johnson and describes being ‘uneasy when in the room with one’. Needless to say, this starkly contrasts Johnson’s feelings towards cats, with different literary works preserving the memory of his most famous cat, Hodge, until this day.
Although little is known about the famous cat, perhaps the most useful account of him can be found within Boswell’s biography, The Life of Samuel Johnson. In one particular paragraph, Boswell recalls how well Johnson treated his feline companions, writing ‘I shall never forget the indulgence with which he treated Hodge, his cat: for whom he himself used to go out and buy oysters’. He then goes on to explain that Johnson’s logic behind this was that if he got his servants to do this job, they would begin to hate the spoilt cat. This scene was recreated with a bronze statue outside of Johnson’s London home in Gough Square. The bronze work was unveiled in 1997, and displays Hodge posing proudly next to a pair of empty Oyster shells.
Picture courtesy of Dr Johnson’s House in Gough Square, London.
Aside from Boswell’s account, Hodge has also been written about by other authors. Percival Stockdale, a friend of Johnson’s, wrote an elegy to Hodge in 1778. In it, he pays homage to the late cat, writing:
‘Hodge’s, example we shall find
A keen reproof of human kind.’
He also describes Hodge’s fur as being ‘sable’, which reveals that he was probably a black cat.
Although Hodge is undoubtedly the most famous of Johnson’s cats, he did have other four-legged friends who are often overlooked. Another of Johnson’s cats, Lily, was described as a ‘white kitling’ who was ‘very well behaved’. Boswell also stated that although Johnson was very fond of Hodge, he had cats that he liked better. Like Hodge, Lily has also had her legacy preserved through Yvonne Skargon’s wonderful book, Lily & Hodge & Dr Johnson, in which she includes a series of delightful engravings of the two cats accompanied by quotations from Johnson. Other than Lily and Hodge, it appears that no other cats have been named in any works relating to Johnson, however it appears that he may have shared the company of many felines throughout his interesting life.
If Johnson’s ‘fondness which he shewed for animals’ reveals anything about his character, it is that he was compassionate towards those less fortunate than himself. To echo Boswell, his ‘uncommon kindness to his servants’ and to the animals in his care demonstrates ‘an undoubted proof of the real humanity and gentleness of his disposition’. Although cats are sometimes our harshest of critics, as Johnson said himself, ‘I would rather be attacked than unnoticed’.