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I’ll swing for it!

English Language & Usage Asked on March 3, 2021

I’d like to ask about the sentence below from Red Headed League by Conan Doyle.

Jump, Archie, jump, and I’ll swing for it!

This was uttered by the villain for the episode named John Clay, when he just got out of the secret hole and then found Holmes charging at him.
Can anyone tell me What “and I’ll swing for” means in this sentence? Dictionaries say “swing for it” means “to get the punishment” so..

  1. Jump Archie (his accomplice), run for life without caring about me, because I’m going to be done and I can’t fix that, just give up on me.

  2. Jump Archie, so that I can jump into the hole too, you’ve gotta be quick, otherwise I’ll get arrested and be hanged.

  3. Jump Archie, don’t mind about me, I’ll manage to run away from them by myself. You just do your own thing.

Which is the closest of the three above to what Clay meant?
Thank you.

2 Answers

"Swing for it" is a slang term for execution by hanging:

1.1 informal no object Be executed by hanging.

now he was going to swing for it

Oxford Dictionary

So Clay means that he will do something that will lead him to be executed (presumably, kill Holmes). In other words, your option 1.

If it had been your option 2, then I think it would be "or" not "and".

Answered by user323578 on March 3, 2021

It seems a strange thing for Clay to say. Did he mean: "Run Archie! I'm caught and I'll be hanged." Or "Get away. I'll fight it out." Although ACD was a boxing fan, I think the phrase literally meant "I'll be hanged."

Still, I don't think that even the theft of gold bullion was a capital punishment offense in the 1880s. Clay probably meant to say, "Get away, Archie! It's up with me. (or I surrender.) I'm caught and I'll accept my punishment."

If there is a dictionary of Victorian underworld cant online, I would like the url. I am a Sherlockian and Clay's use of the phrase has puzzled me. I suppose from his responses to Holmes and the police inspector Jones that he was resigned to his arrest, but perhaps "and" was a misprint for "or". Then he might have meant, "Get out of my way or I'll be arrested."

Answered by Marilyn Penner on March 3, 2021

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