Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats – Cats




The following is a brief history of the poems, which is found in the souvenir brochure for the 4th National Touring Company of Cats:

“In an early poem, ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’, T.S. Eliot likened the yellow fog of St. Louis to a cat:

    ‘that rubs its back upon the window-panes,

  • The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes
    Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening
    Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains
    Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys

    Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap
    And seeing that it was a soft October night
    Curled once about the house, and fell asleep…’

There are other references to cats in his work, but it was to his Godchildren, particularly Tom Faber and Alison Tandy in the ‘thirties, that he first revealed himself as Old Possum.

Writing to Tom in January 1931 he described and drew his Lilliecat called Jellylorum whose ‘one idea was to be USEFUL…and yet it is so little and small that it can sit on my ear!…I would tell you about our Cus Cus…except that I can’t Draw Dogs so well as Cats, Yet; but I mean to…’ When Tom was four TSE suggested that all Pollicle Dogs and Jellicle Cats should be:

    ‘INVITED to Come

  • With a Flute & a Fife & a Fiddle & Drum

    With a Fiddle, a Fife, & a Drum & a Tabor
    To the Birthday Party of THOMAS ERLE FABER!’

Then there was ‘a very Grand Cat…a Persian Prince and it is Blue because is has Blue Blood, and its name was MIRZA MURAD ALI BEG but I said that was too Big a Name for such a Small Flat, so its name is WISKUCAT. But it is sometimes called The MUSICAL BOX because it makes a noise like singing and sometimes COCKALORUM because it looks like one. (Have you ever seen a Cockalorum? Neither have I).’ In April 1932 Tom learnt that ‘the Porpentine cat has been in bed with Ear Ache so the Pollicle Dog stopped At Home to Amuse it by making Cat’s Cradles’. Both children were sent ‘The Naming of Cats’ in January 1936.