Curiosity Killed the Cat
Cats are known for their inquisitiveness, and mine are no exception. One of the things I love best about cats, especially curious kittens, is the way they have to sneak up on any new object, observe it from a distance, wiggle their hips, slap in the object’s direction without really touching it, and then jump straight into the air if they perceive any danger at all. I think my cats could leap to the ceiling at times. And, one of those times was Saturday afternoon.
Donnie T always has to play the game of “What did you bring in the house today” when a new purchase comes in the door. I wasn’t quick enough to avoid the curiosity bug Saturday. I left a plastic bag containing a new drill bit on the bed.
About the time I sat down with my lunch, a white streak with something stuck around its body came through the room, circled three times and left in the direction it came as it let out one of the most pitiful wails I’ve ever heard.
The chihuahua leaped to his feet, looked me in the eyes and then took off after the poor cat in an “I want to play that game too” attitude. I took off after both of them—sure somebody was going to need rescuing.
The cat had gone under the bed and had finally escaped its nemesis. The bedspread had pulled off the plastic bag that he had managed to get wrapped around his body and that would not quit following his every move.
Poor thing! He’s normally a white cat with pink ears, nose and eyelids, but at that moment there was nothing pink left. Curiosity had scared all the pink right out of him! He was trembling and breathing irregularly, so I and the dog got him out from under the bed and comforted him until he finally looked like he would survive his scare.
As I was holding him, I began to think about the saying “Curiosity killed the cat.” It sure looked like Donnie T had thought at least one of his nine lives was gone.
As it turns out, the phrase actually didn’t start with curiosity but with care (as in worry or sorrow) in a 1598 play by Ben Jonson, Every Man in His Humour, which was first performed by William Shakespeare. The line read “…Helter skelter, hang sorrow, care will kill a cat, up-tails all, and a pox on the hangman.”
Shakespeare then used the idea in his play Much Ado About Nothing—“ What, courage man! what though care killed a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care. ”
A handbook of proverbs: English, Scottish, Irish, American, Shakesperean, and Scriptural; and Family Mottoes by James Allan Mair (1873) is the first known reference to the phrase using the word curiosity—“curiosity killed the cat.” There it is called an Irish proverb.
Although the meaning has changed through the years, I don’t think curiosity will disappear any time soon. Especially, not as long as curious cats like Donnie T are still around.
Author, writer, radio host, and educator Glenda Cameron has been co-host of TownTalk since 2006. In addition, she serves as Media Producer and contributing writer to www.towntalkradio.com. She began her radio career in Littlefield, Texas, at KZZN, later moving to KJAK and KFRE in Lubbock. Glenda’s hobbies include guitar, piano, and scanography.
