Citations:softly, softly, catchee monkey

English citations of softly, softly, catchee monkey and softly, softly caught the monkey

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• 1840, Archer Polson, James Grant, Law and Lawyers; or, Sketches and Illustrations of Legal History and Biography, London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green & Longmans, →OCLC:

  "Prudens qui patiens," was the motto of our great Coke : a motto which the negro pithily paraphrases — "Softly, softly, catch monkey."

• 1865, Richard Francis Burton, Wit and Wisdom from West Africa, London: Tinsley Brothers, →OCLC, page xiii:

  "La pointe de l'aiguille doit passer la première;" [...] I should rather explain this by our kindred expression, "introduce the sharp edge of the wedge first;" or, as the West Africans say, "Softly! Softly caught the monkey."

• 1873, William Winwood Reade, The African Sketch-book, London: Smith, Elder & Co., →OCLC:

  I had not seen a single head of game, and expressed my contempt of African sport in no measured terms. ‘Softly, Softly, and we go catch monkey,’ said Mongilomba.

• 1873, George Temple, Letters from Jamaica: The Land of Streams and Woods, Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, →OCLC, Negro Proverbs, page 179:

  Saftly (softly) saftly catch monkey. ¶ Salt neber say himself sweet.

• 1920, John Hargrave, The Wigwam Papers and Totem Talks, London: C. Arthur Pearson, →OCLC, page 33:

  the really important part of Scouting is to become good Scouts — "wise old birds," in fact. "Softly, softly, catchee monkey!" Not by making a row, but by cunning and kindness

• 1930, Sidney De La Rue, The Land of the Pepper Bird: Liberia, New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, →OCLC, page 70:

  The natives told the foreigners on the coast, "softly softly catch monkey", meaning, actually, that the potto, being carnivorous, catches and kills monkeys. The foreigners, not knowing anything about a "softly softly", seized on the phrase as something clever—the way to catch someone or do something was to go about it quietly.

• 1950, “Conference Conundrums”, in The Journal – Institute of Journalists, volume 38, page 148:

  Having failed to secure a Press Council of the sort they wanted, they are now trying, in a small way, to get something established — on the old principle of ‘Softly, softly, catchee monkey.’

• 1982, Loreto Todd, Cameroon, Heidelberg: J. Groos, →ISBN, page 119:

  Collection of Pigin proverbs [...] 6. Sɔfri sɔfri kash mɔnki ¶ Go softly softly and you'll catch the monkey i.e. if you take your time, you'll succeed in achieving your ambitions.

• 1991, Philip Ward, South India: Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa, Cambridge: Oleander, →ISBN, page 162:

  My favourite, with the first lights of Goan territory winking offshore, was ‘Zhanktam zhanktam ganvkar zalo’, which I guessed meant ‘Softly softly catchee monkey’, but actually means ‘By shouting he won the village rights’; that is by persistence he attained his goal.

• 2007, Ralphina A. Phillott-Almeida, Poems, Stories and Krio Proverbs, Kanifing: Fullau, →ISBN, page 44:

  "Softly, softly catch a monkey," his granny used to say to him when he was an impulsive boy.

• 2013 March 31, Gina Hoisington, “The Logic of My Anger: A Sociopath's Tale of Vengeance”, in BDSM Library‎^[1]:

  Softly, softly, catchee monkey, I thought to myself....slow and sure was the way with a woman like this.