Paws for Thought

I admit that I had never heard this particular phrase before.

It was drawn to my attention in the dialogue of a radio dramatisation of PG Wodehouse's "Ring for Jeeves" which was first published in 1953.

The principal character feels that he has been duped into an action by another and describes his role as being "a cats paw".

As they say curiosity killed the cat or in my case the feline reference caught my attention and imagination and I just had to find out where it came from.

Its most well known origins are generally attributable to a famous French fable of the late 17th Century by Jean de La Fontaine although there is some debate about it being even earlier than that. There are 15th Century tales along the same theme and later in the sixteenth century where the protagonists are a monkey and a puppy.

The sight of a monkey will have been very rare to the majority of the population throughout Europe in those periods excepting of course a seaport or other trading centre where the creatures will have been introduced as pets or for entertainment and commercial gain. This gave them a sort of demonic association helped by their colouration and humanesque character traits with any sinister or corrupt doings not therefore being a surprise. Legend has it that the townspeople of Hartlepool on the North East coast of England found a monkey, dressed in military clothes as the mascot of a French ship which had washed up on the shore. It was a time of heightened tension between the two nations with Napoleon threatening invasion. Unsure of what they had captured , a Frenchman or a monkey they held a trial and executed the poor animal by hanging.

Wherever a fable features a challenge or conflict involving animals then it can have even more potentially ancient sources as in Greek or Egyptian literature. The fable may even have been by the slave and master of storytelling, Aesop who was around between 620 and 564 BC.

The Fontaine tale has a monkey, Bertrand, who fancies a snack of delicious chestnuts which are enticing him as they cook slowly in the embers of a fire. Not wanting to risk being scorched or burnt the monkey looks around for a way to get the feast.

Here the storyline varies a bit depending upon the date of the version.

In one Bertrand promises the cat, Raton, a share of the spoils if he pulls the chestnuts out of the radiant heat of the hearth with his paws. The other more horrifying one is where Bertrand manipulates the paw of the cat whilst it sleeps to the same end.

In both scenarios there is a clear winner and an unfortunate and no doubt smouldering victim.

Over the ages this dramatic scene has led to the popular French idiom of "Tirrer les marrons du feu" translated very crudely as grasping the chestnuts from the fire and meaning to benefit from the dirty work of others.

Once embedded in popular culture the basic scenario can be adapted for many purposes, one of these in the 18th century being political in nature.

In England satirists and pamphleteers used illustrations in cartoon form to show the cats paw influence of, for example. the Lord Chancellor, Henry Brougham in his manipulation of the monarch of the time, William the 4th to pass the 1832 Reform Act inspite of opposition by heavyweights such as the then Prime Minister and national hero, Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington.

The same characterisation was cited in the political turmoil of Napoleonic France and in Holland.

As for that loveable but feckless Bertie Wooster, the "Cats Paw" label suits him superbly.