| 词汇 | hanged drawn and quartered |
| 词源 | hanged, drawn, and quartered. At first this punishment for high treason and other crimes in England was called drawn, hanged, and quartered—that is, the criminal sentenced to death was drawn (dragged) through the streets behind a horse to the gallows, hanged, and then his head was cut off and his body torn into four pieces, often by horses. In the 15th century a further barbaric penalty was added and drawn, hanged, and quartered became hanged, drawn, and quartered. In this case the victim was hanged and drawn (eviscerated) before he was torn to pieces. Often he was only partially hanged, his body cut down, and his “bowels burnt before his face.” There was even a legal term in Latin for the perversion: detrahatur (“drawn, dragged”), suspendatur (“hanged”), devellatur (“disembow- eled”), decolletur et decapitetur (“beheaded and quartered”). |
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