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Hodge (fl. c.1769) was one of Samuel Johnson's cats, immortalised in a characteristically whimsical passage in James Boswell's ''Life of Johnson''. Although there is little known about Hodge, such as his life, his death, or any other information, what is known is Johnson's fondness for his cat, which separated Johnson from the views held by others of the eighteenth century. ==Life== Most of the information on Hodge comes from Boswell's account. It is in this passage that Johnson is claimed to have an affection for animals in general, or at least the ones that he kept: The latter paragraph is used as the epigraph to Vladimir Nabokov's acclaimed poem/novel ''Pale Fire''.〔Sean R Silver, "Pale Fire and Johnson's Cat: The Anecdote in Polite Conversation," Criticism 53 (2011): 241–264.〕 Johnson bought oysters for his cat. In modern England, oysters are an expensive food for the well-to-do, but in the 18th century oysters were plentiful around the coasts of England and so cheap that they were a staple food of the poor. Johnson refused to send Francis Barber to buy Hodge's food, fearing that it would be seen as degrading to his servant, so he would personally buy the food for Hodge. Boswell also noted how Johnson went out to purchase valerian to ease Hodge's suffering as death approached. Although Hodge was not Johnson's only cat, it was Hodge whom he considered his favourite. Hodge was remembered in various forms, from biographical mentions during Johnson's life to poems written about the cat. On his death, Hodge's life was celebrated in ''An Elegy on The Death of Dr Johnson's Favourite Cat'' by Percival Stockdale (published 1778). In this poem the phrase "sable furr" indicates that Hodge was a black cat; also, the fact that Stockdale was Johnson's neighbour from 1769 onwards suggests that Hodge was alive at that time. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hodge (cat)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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