DOI article:
Garnett, Richard: Alexander the ratcatcher
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25498#0225
Alexander the Ratcatcher
By Richard Garnett, C.B., LL.D.
“Alexander Octavus mures, qui Urbem supra modum vexabant,
anathemate perculit.”—Palatius. Fasti Cardinalium, tom. 5, p. 46.
I
« P) ome and her rats are at the point of battle ! ”
IV This metaphor of Menenius Agrippa’s became, history
records, matter of fact in 1689, when rats pervaded the Eternal
City from garret to cellar, and Pope Alexander the Eighth
seriously apprehended the fate of Bishop Hatto. The situation
worried him sorely ; he had but lately attained the tiara at an
advanced age—the twenty-fourth hour, as he himself remarked in
extenuation of his haste to enrich his nephews. The time vouch-
safed for worthier deeds was brief, and he dreaded descending to
posterity as the Rat Pope. Witty and genial, his sense of humour
teased him with a full perception of the absurdity of his position.
Peter and Pasquin concurred in forbidding him to desert his post;
and he derived but small comfort from the ingenuity of his
flatterers, who compared him to St. Paul contending with beasts
at Ephesus.
It wanted three half-hours to midnight, as Alexander sat amid
traps
By Richard Garnett, C.B., LL.D.
“Alexander Octavus mures, qui Urbem supra modum vexabant,
anathemate perculit.”—Palatius. Fasti Cardinalium, tom. 5, p. 46.
I
« P) ome and her rats are at the point of battle ! ”
IV This metaphor of Menenius Agrippa’s became, history
records, matter of fact in 1689, when rats pervaded the Eternal
City from garret to cellar, and Pope Alexander the Eighth
seriously apprehended the fate of Bishop Hatto. The situation
worried him sorely ; he had but lately attained the tiara at an
advanced age—the twenty-fourth hour, as he himself remarked in
extenuation of his haste to enrich his nephews. The time vouch-
safed for worthier deeds was brief, and he dreaded descending to
posterity as the Rat Pope. Witty and genial, his sense of humour
teased him with a full perception of the absurdity of his position.
Peter and Pasquin concurred in forbidding him to desert his post;
and he derived but small comfort from the ingenuity of his
flatterers, who compared him to St. Paul contending with beasts
at Ephesus.
It wanted three half-hours to midnight, as Alexander sat amid
traps