| 词汇 | jack ketch |
| 词源 | Jack Ketch. Jack Ketch, appointed public executioner in 1663, was generally regarded as a clumsy, barbaric bungler who had taken several strokes to sever William, Lord Rus- sell’s head after he moved slightly when the axe was falling. He later apologized for his clumsiness, explaining that Rus- sell did not “dispose himself as was most suitable” and that he had been disturbed while taking aim. No one believed him though, and his name became a mark of execration long before he died in 1683—“There stands Jack Kitch, the son of a bitch” went one contemporary rhyme. Of all the public exe- cutioners who hung commoners and beheaded nobles his name would be remembered longest, given, as Macaulay wrote, “to all who have succeeded him in his odious office.” See also h. |
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