What Is a Cat's Paw?

In common parlance, a cat's paw is a person who is used as a dupe to serve someone else's interests, but where did it come from? According to the OED, it refers to “the fable or tale of a monkey (or a fox) using the foot or paw of a cat to rake roasted chestnuts out of the burning coals.” The earliest use in English was in 1657 in a political pamphlet by one Michael Hawke: “These he useth as the Monkey did the Cat’s paw to scrape the nuts out of the fire.” Fans of Fontaine will recognize this as the plot of "Le Singe et le Chat."