Beware the Cat by WIlliam Baldwin

I picked up this curiosity (published by the Huntington Library Press, ISBN: 0-87328-154-3) in the bookshop of the British Library. It is subtitled 'The first English novel', with an introduction to explain why and also lay out some of the historical context for the work.
The scholars who have prepared this book for publication (William A Ringler Jr and Michael Flachmann) trace the works that precede this to firmly and convincingly stake Beware the Cat's claim as the first real novel in English:

'Until William Baldwin's Beware The Cat, written in the first half of 1553, we can find no original work of English fiction of more than short-story length in which we see consistent character portaryal and a sequence of events that form a coherent plot.'

Having read it, it certainly does have these characteristics of a novel and has a modern feel, despite the slightly archaic language.
The story itself is easy to read and is amusing; it is about a group of men discussing whether animals have feelings and can communicate. A story is told of how cats communicated with each other after Grimalkin the cat was slain and how Grimalkin's death occurred, but then one of the men, Master Streamer who is called a divine but is portrayed as a buffoon, tells of how he decided to try and understand the cats that made a row under his window yowling at each other every night.
There is a detailed explanation of the alchemical process that he follows to enable him to understand the cats' speech, quite disgusting and very funny in parts, such as when the huntsmen who give him the body of a fox and hare then soundly beat him because he offends their superstition about not naming the game they hunt.

'If they say it bringeth ill luck in the game, then are they unlucky, idolatrical, miscreant infidels and have no true belief in God's providence. I beshrew their superstitious hearts, for my buttocks did bear the burden of their misbelief.'

He then listens in to the conversation of the cats who are listening to one purge herself by telling of her life for the crime of refusing a male cat who wished to have his way with her (against the law in the cat society). This cat tells of the people she lived with, especially one 'gentlewoman' who seemed to be a procuress for the young men in the area, but is still a very religious Catholic despite being quite unscrupulous and dishonest.
There is a theme of anti-Catholicism in the piece; it was written early in Bloody Mary's reign by a fervent Protestant who not only managed to escape retribution during her reign but even wrote to the Master of the Revels offering his plays for performance before the Queen (unsuccessfully). In this book Baldwin has several digs at masses, priests and the doctrine of transubstantiation.
The cat tells of how she caused trouble for the various owners, letting out their secrets which she knew because the owners never bothered to hide them from the cats. And this is the moral- your cat will listen to you so beware, especially in case someone learns how to understand them and hears all your secrets as Streamer did and also, more seriously, not only your cat but God will know all your secrets, so you should not live a dishonest life.
The author has little headings in the margins throughout, which are often wry observations on what Streamer is saying, such as 'Here the poetical fury came upon him' as he gives them a long list of the noises he heard after taking his achemical preparations in bad rhyming couplets. Also Master Streamer talks as an authority but is often quite mistaken in his views, such as when he discusses how the tides control the moon and not vice versa, as is more usually thought. Although crude in places, as much humour was in the sixteenth century, this is also an intelligent piece that can appeal to readers on a number of levels.
I enjoyed this for the glimpses of ordinary people's lives in the sixteenth century that are in the story and as an example of Tudor humour, but I also enjoyed it just as an entertaining read. The language is not so far removed from modern English that it is difficult. It is only a short book, but very interesting and well worth looking at.