Martin Fone set off to investigate the origins of the saying that cats have nine lives. In the process he discovered something less supernatural, but no less incredible.
‘A cat has nine lives’, the proverb goes, ‘for three he plays, for three he strays and for the last three he stays’. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (Act 3:1), Mercutio goads Tybalt, whom he has already called a rat-catcher, by demanding: ‘Good king of cats, nothing but one of your nine…
