Here an old crone, with her spectacles on,
is cautiously probing the contents of the said cauldron with a fork;
here the mistress of the house is peeling pears; here the plump and
soft-hearted cheese-wife is entertaining an admirer--outside there
are pictures as vivid. Here are the clumsy leather-topped coach with
its masked occupant and stumbling horses; the towed _trekschuit_,
with its merry freight, sliding swiftly through the low-lying
landscape; the windy mole, stretching seaward, with its blown and
flaring beacon-fire. Here again in the street is the toy-shop with
its open front and store of mimic drums and halberds for the martial
little burghers; here are the fruiteress with her stall of grapes
and melons, the rat-catcher with his string of trophies, the fowler
and his clap-net, the furrier with his stock of skins."
In 1860 a number of Van der Venne's best pictures were redrawn by John
Leighton to accompany translations of the fables by Richard Pigot. As
a taste of Cats' quality I quote two of the pieces. Why the pictures
should have been redrawn when they might have been reproduced exactly
is beyond my understanding. This is one poem:--
LIKE MELONS, FRIENDS ARE TO BE FOUND IN PLENTY
OF WHICH NOT EVEN ONE IS GOOD IN TWENTY.
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