Hangman is a simple spelling game in which the participants try to build a scaffold and execute an evil villain. It’s not exactly politically correct these days, but the game is still as popular as ever.
Forget reality TV – this must have been exciting to watch.
Dating back to Victorian times, it makes sense that a game like this would have developed from a society where executions were a public spectacle. No more violent than The Itchy & Scratchy Show, but somehow equally compelling in its appeal to our voyeuristic tendencies.
The game is a relic of the 19th century, when criminals received the ultimate penalty for committing the ultimate crime. It is used today to make word learning fun and to help people become familiar with a new language.
Hangman can be played in a variety of different ways. The object of the game is to guess a word by inserting letters into a series of blank spaces. With each wrong guess, a new piece of the ‘hangman’ picture is drawn. The game ends when the word has been guessed or the drawing has been completed.
In some versions of the game, the gallows is built first, while in others, the drawing does not begin until the first guess has been made. This latter variety is particularly useful with longer or more difficult words. Once the platform is raised, the next phase includes drawing the hanging man, including the head, torso, and each of the arms and legs.
The precise origins of the game are unclear, although it is mentioned in Alice Bertha Gomme’s 1894 book Birds, Beasts and Fishes.
Being an executioner was not a job for the faint-hearted. Nor was it a particularly popular way of making a living. Executioners or their assistants were often denied entry to public buildings on the grounds of taste and decency. However, the very people who denied them access would be the first in line to see them carry out their despicable but indispensable deeds.
But before you jump on your high horse and revel in the fact that things are much more civilized these days, remember this. The last executions in Britain took place on August 13, 1964 at exactly 8am local time. So have we really come very far?
The writer Charles Dickens was one of many Victorians who called for the abolition of hanging. It took time for the practice to die down, thanks in no small part to the entertainment value it provided. In an era where there were no televisions or iPods, it must have been a relief to have something to do and something for free.
And you can imagine the most infamous killers drawing huge crowds. One such occasion helped bring the phrase ‘money for old string’ into the English language.
It was the execution of the notorious British surgeon William Palmer, accused of murdering his younger gambling partner, John Parsons Cook. His rope was made 30 yards longer than normal, and for many years after the executioner, George Smith, still sold pieces of the ‘rope he hung on Palmer’.