MIRANDA THE GREAT

With a mew-mew here, and an lo there, Miranda, a cat at the sack of Rome, rounds up the lost and frightened kittens of the burning city and leads them to the Colosseum, persuades a roaring lion to give them milk, and routs the famished dogs that threaten them. When her wealthy family returns, she renounces the easy life and elects to retain her new responsibility as Queen of the Colosseum, keeper of stray cats. For a rousing finale, the assembled felines sing of great deeds done, of dangers overcome--a cantata that continues to this day. In English or animalese or cat Latin, a discordant disappointment from a respected writer.