'A Fellow That Deserves Hanging'

Consider this word in isolation: crack-hemp. Some unlikely new hybrid drug? A wonder of street pharmacology? 

No, remember that English is a marvel of invention and never disappoints. The OED refers us to crack-halter: “one likely to crack or strain a halter, i.e. to die by the gallows; a gallows-bird.” I came upon the word in The Taming of the Shrew, Act V,Scene 1. Vincentio, the father of Lucentio, sees his father’s servant, Biondello, approaching and says: “Come hither, crack-hemp.” It’s that simple – one of Shakespeare’s throwaway lines, spoken to a social inferior. Even a lesser play like Taming of the Shrew contains treasure. Crack is the sound of a neck snapping. Hemp is the rope. Compacted poetry. In his Dictionary, Dr. Johnson’s definition is even terser: “A wretch fated to the gallows; a crack-rope.” He cites Shakespeare.

 

Johnson isn’t above editorializing in his Dictionary. His next entry is the previously mentioned crack-rope: “a fellow that deserves hanging.”