softly, softly ctachy monkey

[Scouse Kenny]

Where on earth does the saying 'Softly, softly catchy Monkey' come from and what EXACTLY does it refer to? What's the best, or right, time to use the expression?

[bobbobley]

question 37396 was asked a couple of weeks ago. Is the AB search facility on the blink again?

[Quizmonster]

It's usually written as 'softly, softly catchee monkey' as if someone, perhaps Chinese, is speaking pidgin English. It first appeared in print in a book of quotations published in 1907. It is just a proverbial phrase recommending caution and the gentle approach as the best way to achieve an objective.

The time to use it is when someone - perhaps younger and/or more hot-headed than yourself - is recommending the immediate, slapdash approach to a problem. Then is when you say: "Softly, softly catchee monkey."

(Bob, I tried your link and my screen just 'hung up'...whether AnswerBank's problem or my computer's I don't know. I suspect one of the answers it would have revealed for the questioner would have been the one I've repeated above, anyway, so I hope you don't mind.)

[Janetex]

I always that that it was supposed to be written/said - "sof'ly, sof'ly'??

[Quizmonster]

Not one of the seven illustrations of the phrase offered by The Oxford English Dictionary omits the 't' of 'softly', Janet, so I imagine that doing so is a regional/dialect thing.

[Janetex]

Probably to do with some region of my brain. I seem to recall a detective series on TV called "Sof'ly Sof'ly"... (probably too old for anyone else to remember).

[Quizmonster]

Janet, Charlie Barlow, played by Stratford Johns, started his career on 'Softly Softly' - after 'Z Cars' - in 1966, according to the website the link will take you to if you click http://www.televisionheaven.co.uk/zcars.htm Both the 'Softlies' have letters 't' in them.

Regarding age, let me just say I was 29 at the time. I am certainly not expecting you - a lady, one presumes - to offer similar information!

[Janetex]

I must have some odd blank regarding the letter "t". I was a mere babe in arms watching that and Maigret, etc. I am in my forties.