Good king of cats, nothing but one of your nine lives; that I mean to make bold withal, and as you shall use me hereafter, drybeat the rest of the eight.
– William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 1. Mercutio wants to fight and kill Tybalt and he uses a cat metaphor to insult him. He says that he will take one of Tybalt’s nine lives from him and beat the other eight out of him too, depending on how he behaves.