1580324471 / AE500129
The following account comes from Nicolas Contat, Anecdotes typo-
graphiques ou I'on voit la description des coutumes, moeurs et usages singu-
Hers des compagnons imprimeurs, ed. Giles Barber (Oxford, 1980), pp.
51-53. After a day of exhausting work and disgusting food, the
two apprentices retire to their bedroom, a damp and draughty lean-
to in a corner of the courtyard. The episode is recounted in the
third person, from the viewpoint of Jerome:
He is so tired and needs rest so desperately that the shack looks
like a palace to him. At last the persecution and misery he has
suffered throughout the day have come to an end, and he can relax.
But no, some bedeviled cats celebrate a witches' sabbath all night
long, making so much noise that they rob him of the brief period
of rest allotted to the apprentices before the journeymen arrive for
work early the next morning and demand admission by constant
ringing of an infernal bell. Then the boys have to get up and cross
the courtyard, shivering under their nightshirts, in order to open
the door. Those journeymen never let up. No matter what you do,
you always make them lose their time and they always treat you as
a lazy good-for-nothing. They call for Leveille. Light the fire un-
der the cauldron! Fetch water for the dunking-troughs! True, those
jobs are supposed to be done by the beginner apprentices, who live
at home, but they don't arrive until six or seven. Thus everyone is
soon at work—apprentices, journeymen, everyone but the master
and the mistress: they alone enjoy the sweetness of sleep. That
makes Jerome and Leveille jealous. They resolve that they will not
be the only ones to suffer; they want their master and mistress as
associates. But how to turn the trick?
Leveille has an extraordinary talent for imitating the voices and
the smallest gestures of everyone around him. He is a perfect actor;
that's the real profession that he has picked up in the printing shop.
He also can produce perfect imitations of the cries of dogs and cats.
He decides to climb from roof to roof until he reaches a gutter next
to the bedroom of the bourgeois and the bourgeoise. From there he
can ambush them with a volley of meows. It's an easy job for him:
102Workers Revolt
he is the son of a roofer and can scramble across roofs like a cat.
Our sniper succeeds so well that the whole neighborhood is
alarmed. The word spreads that there is witchcraft afoot and that
the cats must be the agents of someone casting a spell. It is a case
for the cure, who is an intimate of the household and the confessor
of Madame. N o one can sleep any more.
Leveille stages a sabbath the next night and the night after that.
If you didn't know him, you would be convinced he was a witch.
Finally, the master and the mistress cannot stand it any longer.
"We'd better tell the boys to get rid of those malevolent animals,"
they declare. Madame gives them the order, exhorting them to
avoid frightening la grise. That is the name of her pet pussy.
This lady is impassioned for cats. Many master printers are also.
One of them has twenty-five. He has had their portraits painted
and feeds them on roast fowl.
The hunt is soon organized. The apprentices resolve to make a
clean sweep of it, and they are joined by the journeymen. The
masters love cats, so consequently they must hate them. This man
arms himself with the bar of a press, that one with a stick from the
drying-room, others with broom handles. They hang sacks at the
windows of the attic and the storerooms to catch the cats who
attempt to escape by leaping outdoors. The beaters are named, ev-
erything is organized. Leveille and his comrade Jerome preside
over the fete, each of them armed with an iron bar from the shop.
The first thing they go for is la grise, Madame's pussy. Leveille
stuns it with a quick blow on the kidneys, and Jerome finishes it
off. Then Leveille stuffs the body in a gutter, for they don't want
to get caught: it is a matter of consequence, a murder, which must
be kept hidden. The men produce terror on the rooftops. Seized by
panic, the cats throw themselves into the sacks. Some are killed on
the spot. Others are condemned to be hanged for the amusement
of the entire printing shop.
Printers know how to laugh; it is their sole occupation.
The execution is about to begin. They name a hangman, a troop
of guards, even a confessor. Then they pronounce the sentence.
In the midst of it all, the mistress arrives. What is her surprise,
when she sees the bloody execution! She lets out a scream; then her
voice is cut, because she thinks she sees la grise, and she is certain
103THE GREAT CAT MASSACRE
that such a fate has been reserved for her favorite puss. The work-
ers assure her that no one would be capable of such a crime: they
have too much respect for the house.
The bourgeois arrives. "Ah! The scoundrels," he says. "Instead
of working, they are killing cats." Madame to Monsieur: "These
wicked men can't kill the masters, so they have killed my pussy.
She can't be found. I have called la grise everywhere. They must
have hanged her." It seems to her that all the workers' blood
would not be sufficient to redeem the insult. The poor grise, a
pussy without a peer!
Monsieur and Madame retire, leaving the workers in liberty.
The printers delight in the disorder; they are beside themselves
with joy.
What a splendid subject for their laughter, for a belle copie! They
will amuse themselves with it for a long time. Leveille will take
the leading role and will stage the play at least twenty times. He
will mime the master, the mistress, the whole house, heaping ridi-
cule on them all. He will spare nothing in his satire. Among print-
ers, those who excel in this entertainment are called jobeurs: they
provide joberie.
Leveille receives many rounds of applause.
It should be noted that all the workers are in league against the
masters. It is enough to speak badly of them [the masters] to be
esteemed by the whole assembly of typographers. Leveille is one of
those. In recognition of his merit, he will be pardoned for some
previous satires against the workers.