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‘Curiosity can do more things than kill a cat; and if emotions, well recognized as feminine, are inimical to feline life, then jealousy would soon leave the whole world catless.’
Jakiś czas temu pewien korespondent nauczył mnie pewnego angielskiego superpowiedzonka. ‘Curiosity killed the cat’. Znacie? - to takie polskie ‘Ciekawość to pierwszy stopień do piekła’. Powiedzonko więc znajome. Za to wersji angielskiej bardzo mi się spodobało i wzbudziło moje ‘dalsze zainteresowanie’ ;))) Taaak, oczywiście - właśnie ze względu na moją wrodzoną ciekawość ciekawostek różnych, hihi ;), poszperałam chwilkę w sieci, by dowiedzieć się czegoś więcej - skąd, co i jak? Okazuje się, że ów mój szanowny korespondent, nawet nie będąc tego świadomym, ‘podsumował’ mnie podwójnie, a nawet potrójnie za jednym zamachem! ;))) Po pierwsze przecież - to chyba wiadomo - uwielbiam koty ( a szczególnie pewnego rudego fatałaszka ;), po drugie - ciekawość, przydatna to cecha, choć bilans jej efektów nie zawsze wychodzi mi na plus;), no i po trzecie - w wersji pierwotnej zamiast CURIOSITY w powiedzonku wystepowało CARE (worry) - a przecież ‘troska, zamartwianie się na zapas’ to kolejna moja ewidentna cecha charakterystyczna :))) Aha, i jeszcze coś - w zabawie tym miłym powiedzonkiem o kocie można posunąć się nawet dalej... Moje szperanie w sieci doprowadziło mnie bowiem do całkiem interesującej notatki. Załączam i polecam. Szczególnie wersję z 1909 roku, gdzie w miejscu CURIOSITY pojawia się kolejne ciekawe słówko JEALOUSY. Jeszcze raz więc polecam! :)))Curiosity killed the cat ///// Inquisitiveness can lead one into dangerous situations. /////Origin // Everyone knows that, despite its supposed nine lives, curiosity killed the cat. Well, not quite. The 'killed the cat' proverb originated as 'care killed the cat'. By 'care' the coiner of the expression meant 'worry/sorrow' rather than our more usual contemporary 'look after/provide for' meaning. That form of the expression is first recorded in the English playwright Ben Jonson's play Every Man in His Humour, 1598: ‘Helter skelter, hang sorrow, care'll kill a Cat, up-tails all, and a Louse for the Hangman.’ The play was one of the Tudor humours comedies, in which each major character is assigned a particular 'humour' or trait. The play is thought to have been performed in 1598 by The Lord Chamberlain's Men, a troupe of actors including William Shakespeare and William Kempe. Shakespeare was no slouch when it came to appropriating a memorable line and it crops up the following year in Much Ado About Nothing: ‘What, courage man! what though care killed a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care.’ The proverbial expression 'curiosity killed the cat', which is usually used when attempting to stop someone asking unwanted questions, is much more recent. The earlier form was still in use in 1898, when it was defined in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable: ‘Care killed the Cat. It is said that a cat has nine lives, but care would wear them all out.’ Curiosity hasn't received a good press over the centuries. Saint Augustine wrote in Confessions, AD 397, that, in the eons before creating heaven and earth, God ‘fashioned hell for the inquisitive’. John Clarke, in Paroemiologia, 1639 suggested that ‘He that pryeth into every cloud may be struck with a thunderbolt’. In Don Juan, Lord Byron called curiosity ‘that low vice’. That bad opinion, and the fact that cats are notoriously inquisitive, lead to the source of their demise being changed from 'care' to 'curiosity'. ///// The earliest known printed reference that uses the 'curiosity' form is O. Henry's Schools and Schools, 1909: ‘Curiosity can do more things than kill a cat; and if emotions, well recognized as feminine, are inimical to feline life, then jealousy would soon leave the whole world catless.’ The earliest version that I have found of the precise current form of the proverb in print is from The Portsmouth Daily Times, March 1915, in a piece headed The Height of Curiosity: Mother – ‘Don't ask so many questions, child. Curiosity killed the cat.’ Willie – ‘What did the cat want to know, Mom?’ The frequent rejounder to 'curiosity killed the cat' is 'satisfaction brought it back'. I've not been able to trace the source of this odd reply. The first citation of it that I've found in print is from an Iowan college magazine The Coe College Cosmos, in February 1933./// :)))

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