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Title: My Private Menagerie
from The Works of Theophile Gautier Volume 19

Author: Theophile Gautier

Editor: F. C. de Sumichrast

Translator: F. C. de Sumichrast

Release Date: December 26, 2009 [EBook #30760]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. A list of corrections
is found at the end of the text. Oe ligatures have been expanded. Text
originally printed in Greek characters has been transliterated and
surrounded with ~.

THE WORKS OF
THEOPHILE GAUTIER

VOLUME NINETEEN

TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY
PROFESSOR F. C. DE SUMICHRAST
_Department of French, Harvard University_

CAPTAIN FRACASSE

PART THREE

MY PRIVATE MENAGERIE

THE ATHENAEUM SOCIETY
NEW YORK

_Copyright, 1902, by_
GEORGE D. SPROUL

UNIVERSITY PRESS . JOHN WILSON
AND SON . CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.

_Contents_

MY PRIVATE MENAGERIE

I ANTIQUITY _Page_ 283

II THE WHITE DYNASTY " 294

III THE BLACK DYNASTY " 305

IV THIS SIDE FOR DOGS " 318

V MY HORSES " 336

_My Private Menagerie_

MY PRIVATE MENAGERIE

I

ANTIQUITY

I have often been caricatured in Turkish dress seated upon cushions, and
surrounded by cats so familiar that they did not hesitate to climb upon
my shoulders and even upon my head. The caricature is truth slightly
exaggerated, and I must own that all my life I have been as fond of
animals in general and of cats in particular as any brahmin or old maid.
The great Byron always trotted a menagerie round with him, even when
travelling, and he caused to be erected, in the park of Newstead Abbey,
a monument to his faithful Newfoundland dog Boatswain, with an
inscription in verse of his own inditing. I cannot be accused of
imitation in the matter