In pursuit of the m(o)uses

Rasmussen and West's The Shakespeare First Folios:  A Descriptive Catalogue lists every watermark, ink blot, tear, wrinkle, worm-hole, wine-ring, wax-blob, pipe-burn, annotation, doodle, interloping facsimile, or child's drawing on every page of every known surviving copy of the 1623 masterwork.  Of the Marquess of Northampton's copy, they write:

"Five paw prints appear on signature L3, toward the beginning of Love's Labour's Lost, giving the distinct impression that a cat with dirty paws jumped up onto the volume as it lay open on a table or a lap.  It then appears that before it could take a full step the cat was snatched off of the book and then someone tried to wipe away the paw prints."

Pangur Bán!

Nine