“Let the cat out of the bag” is a rhetorical expression for revealing information that until then, has remained undisclosed. The origin of the phrase has been attributed to either cats being sold as pigs or to the punishment of errant sailors by whipping. Snopes disagrees for the simple reason that it is unlikely that cats can be passed on as pigs, and the chronology of the first printed record of "cat-o'-nine-tails" in 1778 and ‘let the cat out of the bag” in 1760.
The following dialogue appears in an illustration in 1860 where the antislavery senator Charles Sumner releases a cat from a "Republican Bag" as Senator Seward watches:
Seward: "What are you doing Sumner! you'll spoil all! she aint to be let out until after Lincoln is elected."
Lincoln: "Oh Sumner! this is too bad!--I thought we had her safely bagged at Chicago, now there will be the old scratch to pay, unless I can drive her back again with my rail!
Sumner: "It's no use talking Gentlemen, I wasn’t mentioned at Chicago, and now I'm going to do something desperate, I can't afford to have my head broken and be kept corked up four years for nothing!"
Seward: "Gentlemen be cautious you don't know how to manage that animal as well as I did, and Im afraid that some of you will get "scratched."
Seward: "What are you doing Sumner! you'll spoil all! she aint to be let out until after Lincoln is elected."
Lincoln: "Oh Sumner! this is too bad!--I thought we had her safely bagged at Chicago, now there will be the old scratch to pay, unless I can drive her back again with my rail!
Sumner: "It's no use talking Gentlemen, I wasn’t mentioned at Chicago, and now I'm going to do something desperate, I can't afford to have my head broken and be kept corked up four years for nothing!"
Seward: "Gentlemen be cautious you don't know how to manage that animal as well as I did, and Im afraid that some of you will get "scratched."
No comments:
Post a Comment