For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry
Bowing to popular demand, Paul Bommer has produced a new edition of his print inspired by Christopher Smart’s eulogy of his cat Jeoffry, coinciding with Paul’s return to Spitalfields from Norfolk bringing an exhibition of prints to the Townhouse Window in Fournier St. And today I republish my story of Christopher Smart & Jeoffry in Old St, telling the tale behind this celebrated verse.
Whenever I walk along Old St, I always think of the brilliant eighteenth century poet Christopher Smart who once resided here in St Luke’s Hospital for Lunatics, with only his cat Jeoffry for solace, on the spot where the Co-operative and Argos are today. So when artist Paul Bommer asked me to suggest a subject for an illustrated print, I had no hesitation in proposing Christopher Smart’s eulogy to his cat Jeoffry, the best description of the character of a cat that I know. And, to my amazement and delight, Paul has illustrated all eighty-nine lines, each one with an apposite feline image.
In an age when only aristocrats with private incomes were able to exist as poets, Christopher Smart was a superlative talent with small means who struggled to make his path through the world and his emotional behaviour became increasingly volatile as a result. He fell into debt whilst a student at Cambridge and, even though his literary talent was acknowledged with awards and scholarships, his delight in high jinks and theatrical performances did not find favour with the University. Once he married Anna Maria Canaan, Smart was unable to remain at Cambridge and came to London, seeking to make ends meet in the precarious realm of Grub St. His prolific literary career turned to pamphleteering and satire, publishing hundreds of works in a desperate attempt to keep his wife and two little daughters, Marianne and Elizabeth Ann.
Eventually, he signed a contract to write a weekly magazine, The Universal Visitor, and the strain of producing this caused Smart to have a fit, sometimes ascribed as the origin of his madness. Yet there are divergent opinions as to whether he was mad at all, or whether his consignment was in some way political on the part of John Newbery, the man who was both Smart’s publisher and father-in-law. However, Smart made a religious conversion at this time, and there is an account of him approaching strangers in St James’ Park and inviting them to pray with him.
In Smart’s day, Old St was the edge of the built up city with market gardens and smallholdings beyond. The maps of St Luke’s Hospital show gardens behind and it was possible that like John Clare in the Northamptonshire Lunatic Asylum, Smart was simply left alone to tend the garden and get on with his writing. Consigned at first on 6th May 1757 as a “curable” patient, Smart was designated “incurable” whilst there and subsequently transferred to Mr Potter’s asylum in Bethnal Green as a cheaper option – at a location known to this day as “Barmy Park.” Meanwhile, his wife Anna Maria took their two daughters to Ireland and he never saw them again. In 1763, Smart was released through intervention of friends and lived eight another years, imprisoned for debt in King’s Bench Walk Prison in April 1770, he died there in May 1771.
“For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry” was never printed in Smart’s day, it was first published in 1939 after being discovered in manuscript amongst Smart’s papers, and subsequently W.H. Auden gave a copy to Benjamin Britten who wrote a famous setting as part of a choral work entitled “Rejoice in the Lamb” in 1942.
The irony is that the “madness” of Christopher Smart, which was his unravelling as a writer in his own time, signified the creation of him as a poet who spoke beyond his age. Smart is sometimes idenitified as one of the Augustan poets, notable for their formality of style and content, but the idiosyncratic language, fresh observation and fluid form of “For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry” break through the poetic convention of his period and allow the poem to speak across the centuries.
It is the tender observation present in these lines that touches me most, speaking of the fascination of a cat as a source of joy for one with nothing else in the world. In fact, Smart was often known as Kit or Kitty and I wonder if he saw an image of himself in Jeoffry and it liberated him from the tyranny of his circumstance. Simply by following his nature, Jeoffry becomes holy in Christopher Smart’s eyes, exemplifying the the wonder of all creation.
It was a triumphant observation for a man who was losing his life, yet it is all the more remarkable that it is solely through this playful masterpiece he is remembered today. He did not know that – at the moment of disintegration – his words were gaining immortality thanks to the presence of his cat Jeoffry. And this is why, whenever I walk along Old St with my face turned to the wind, I cannot help thinking of poor Christopher Smart.
Christopher Smart (1722-71)
Paul Bommer at St Luke’s, Old St.
The St Luke’s Hospital for Lunatics in Old St where Christopher Smart lived with his cat Jeoffry on a site now occupied by Argos and The Co-operative.
St Luke’s Hospital for Lunatics, Old St, in the nineteenth century.
Paul Bommer in the rose garden on the site of the former St Luke’s Hospital garden where Christopher Smart’s cat Jeoffry once roamed.
Paul Bommer’s print of Christopher Smart’s “For I will consider my cat Jeoffry.”
The Gentle Author’s cat Mr Pussy.
Copies of Paul Bommer’s new edition of Christopher Smart’s “For I will consider my cat Jeoffry” are available from the Spitalfields Life online shop.
Artwork copyright © Paul Bommer
Archive image from Bishopsgate Institute
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Mr. Pussy’s face has character!
Fat cat on the mat
may seem to dream
of nice mice that suffice
for him, or cream;
but he free, maybe,
walks in thought
unbowed, proud, where loud
roared and fought
his kin, lean and slim,
or deep in den
in the East feasted on beasts
or tender Men.
The giant lion with iron
claw in paw
and huge ruthless tooth
in gory jaw;
the pard dark-starred
fleet upon feet,
that oft soft from aloft
leaps on his meat
where woods loom in gloom –
far now they be,
fierce and free,
and tamed is he;
but fat cat on the mat
kept as a pet,
he does not forget.
Beautiful – thank you.
Excellent post :o)
“Simply by following his nature, Jeoffry becomes holy in Christopher Smart’s eyes, exemplifying the wonder of all creation.” Well-put.
An article on Christopher Smart’s “Jubilate Agno” in the Public Domain Review may be of interest.
http://publicdomainreview.org/2011/01/31/christopher-smarts-jubilate-agno/
This is just wonderful! Thank you. I have long loved this poem – there seem to be fragments in so many anthologies for children – but I had never heard the story behind it or given it a “place”.
thank you for resurrecting him. we may be shadows, but on voit le soleil.
I Am
I am: yet what I am none cares or knows,
My friends forsake me like a memory lost;
I am the self-consumer of my woes,
They rise and vanish in oblivious host,
Like shades in love and death’s oblivion lost;
And yet I am! and live with shadows tost
Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,
Into the living sea of waking dreams,
Where there is neither sense of life nor joys,
But the vast shipwreck of my life’s esteems;
And e’en the dearest–that I loved the best–
Are strange–nay, rather stranger than the rest.
I long for scenes where man has never trod;
A place where woman never smil’d or wept;
There to abide with my creator, God,
And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept:
Untroubling and untroubled where I lie;
The grass below–above the vaulted sky.
John Clare
Really interesting post – thank you. I sing in a choir that has just performed Britten’s “Rejoice in the Lamb” which contains part of this poem, in a number of concerts celebrating 100 years since Britten’s birth. But interestingly, the final line of the setting of the poem that Britten uses is: “For I am possessed of a cat surpassing in beauty, for which I have occasion to bless almighty God” and I can’t see this line in the full text of the poem given above. I wonder if Britten altered the poem slightly in his setting? Would be interesting to find out!
Ali, the part known as For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry is just an excerpt from Smart’s Jubilate Agno – Rejoice in the Lamb.
Another part of it goes as follows:
“For I am possessed of a cat,
Surpassing in beauty,
From whom I take occasion
To bless Almighty God.
For the Mouse is a creature
Of great personal valour.
For this is a true case–
Cat takes female mouse,
Male mouse will not depart,
but stands threat’ning and daring.
If you will let her go,
I will engage you,
As prodigious a creature as you are.
For the Mouse is a creature
Of great personal valour.
For the Mouse is of
An hospitable disposition”
I saw this the first time around and loved it. A great poem and superb pictures.
I so love cats. I love the artwork and the beautiful “considerations” to Jeoffrey.
It makes you want to travel back in time and give Mr Smart a big hug and tell him that he’s not mad and that he will bring joy in abundance to future cat lovers everywhere. Lovely post…
A most touching and thorough story with the oh so talented Paul Bommer paying homage to the man and his cat in his inimitable way. Excellent historical context and good to see Mr Pussy getting a mention – no doubt his part was invaluable for the various poses. Particularly like ‘For he know that God is his saviour’ expression…
I love this artwork and the story that goes with it. The artwork is so charming. I think it would make a great book too.
Please make this into a book so we mere common folk can afford it! And to whom does the authorship for the lovely poem about fat cat on the mat go?
Isnt that lovely & like cats through the ages.His life is as sad as John Clares & was almost the same,yet they both loved nature & animals.I think most animals are preferable to humans!
When we lost Finbar, our dear lurcher last year, I wrote a poem aka Christopher Smart:
For Finbar
For I will consider our dog Finn.
For I loved him and am still bereft.
For he was kind and never hurt one soul.
For he had a golden coat, a pure, soft, honeyed caramel.
For his nutbrown eyes were deep and wise.
For he read my thoughts.
For I read his mind.
For he understood my words.
For he had such powers to wrap himself around me.
For he was a healer of the sick, a friend and guardian of our home.
For he would howl if ever I would weep.
For he held a mirror to my soul and shared my pain.
For he was brave and thought he was a man.
For he was cunning, like a gypsy’s dog.
For he was full of joys and jokes and loved to dance.
For he loved to run and race and play in snow.
For he loved to eat and lived for food.
For he would watch and wait for my return and know when I was close.
For he was kind to young ones: kitten, pup or child.
For the cat and he were friends, cwched up before the fire, they washed each other’s coats.
For he was tolerant to a tiny fault.
For he treated my son as a brother.
For he considered himself one of us, a human.
For he suffered stoically at the end and was so brave.
For he is buried by the riverbank.
For his grave is marked by heavy stones of white.
For I still greet him as I pass and always wipe a tear.
For he loved me
For I loved him.
For he still waits for us.
Cait O’Connor
Dear Gentle Author
How delighted I was when a friend sent me this blogsite, as I am working on the Benjamin Britten setting of a few lines of the poem for a little recital next week, and am planning to incorporate it into a longer performance of stories and songs about “Holy Cats. I only wish the print was still available.
Thank you for this delightful stroll around Jeoffrey’s world.
I had a beautiful black cat named Tanuis, but he left us 2 years ago.
Elinor Benjamin, Storyteller, Nova Scotia, Canada
Lovely – thank-you. I’ve always been entranced by this poem but had no idea of its history. I love the art-work by Paul Bommer. Is a print only available in red?
I have 5 cats and I love all of them dearly each day they bring peace and happiness into my life.
A friend directed me to this post and I am so glad. The history is fascinating, the poem delightful and the illustrations by Paul Bommer enchanting. Thank you.
Please could I order a print of the poster ‘For I will consider my cat Jeoffry’? Thanks
Dear Gentle Author, is the print available anywhere? I would dearly love a copy