Pillory

Definitions

A framework on a post, with holes for the hands and head, used as a means of punishment and humiliation.

Equivalents

Examples

“Maires and Maceris that meanes be betwene / The Kynge and the comon to kepe the lawes / To pũnyſhen on pyleries and pynning ſtoles / Bruſterrs and bakeſters, bochers and cokes / For theſe ar mẽ on this mold þᵉ moſt harme worketh / To the pore people that percel mele byghe[...]”

Mayors and mace-bearers, the means are between / The king and the commons to see the law kept, / To punish on pillories and punishment stools / Brewers and bakers, butchers and cooks, / For these are this world's men that work the most harm / To the poor people that must buy piece-meal.

“Cros·! þou dost no trouþe ; / On a pillori· my fruit to pinne, / He haþ no spot· of Adam sinne ; / Flesch· and veines· nou fleo a-twinne, / Wherfore I· rede of routhe·:”

“The other replied, That for ought they could ſee, the men were quiet, and ſober, and intended no body any harm⟳ ; and that there were many that Traded in their fair, that were more worthy to be put⟳ into the Cage, yea, and the Pillory too, then were the men that they had abuſed.”

CEFR level