or candle, circle, cravat, croak, garter, necktie, habeas, subs. (old).—The hangman’s noose; a halter. Also HEMP, and the HEARTY-CHOKE. Cf., ANODYNE NECK-LACE. See quot. 1595.
1570. TURBERVILLE, Of Two Desperate Men [CHALMERS, English Poets, ii. 647].
| A man in deepe despaire with HEMPE in hand, | |
| Went out in haste to ende his wretched dayes. |
c. 1586. MARLOWE, The Jew of Malta, iv., 4. When the hangman had put on his HEMPEN.
1594. SHAKESPEARE, 2 Henry VI., iv. 7. Ye shall have a HEMPEN CANDLE then, and the pap of a hatchet.
c. 1785. WOLCOT (‘Peter Pindar’), The Rights of Kings, Ode xviii. Your HEMP CRAVATS, your pray’r, your Tyburn miser.
1819. SCOTT, The Bride of Lammermoor, ch. xvi. I wad wager twa and a plack that HEMP plaits his CRAVAT yet.
1823. BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v. HEMPEN HABEAS. He will get over it by a HEMPEN HABEAS.
1830. BULWER-LYTTON, Paul Clifford, ch. iv. If ever I know as how you makes a flat of my Paul, blow me tight, but I’ll weave you a HEMPEN COLLAR: I’ll hang you, you dog, I will.
1886. M. E. BRADDON, Mohawks, ch. xxviii. A full confession were perhaps too much to expect. Nothing but the immediate prospect of a HEMPEN NECKLACE would extort that.
