Could someone please explain how they would go about “drawing and quartering” a condemned criminal?
Step 1: Get four horses.
Step 2: Point each horse in a different direction.
Step 3: Tie each limb of the poor sap to a different horse.
Step 4: Make a really loud noise, sending all the horses galloping in different directions.
Of course, the Perfect Master knew you were going to ask this question. 
I saw it done that way (w/ no preliminary cuts, hanging or evisceration) at the beginning of this old Christopher Lee horror movie. (Saw it on the late show, natch.)
But I’m sure the Master is right – the actual punishment was what we saw done to William Wallace at the end of Braveheart.
Uh, not really. This was a punishment, but it isn’t what is commonly meant by drawn and quartering. The execution you describe is more commonly called dismemberment. Wikipedia says that this is sometimes known as “drawn and quartering”, but clearly that’s a confusion between the French method of execution by quartering and the English method of execution.
Or, maybe it is the French method that was named first, and the English stole the term. It wouldn’t be the first time this happened. In medieval England, venereal diseases were collectively called the “French pox”, and in France the “pox anglais”
Thanks for the prompt replies!
To protect their modesty (men drawn and quartered were stripped naked) women were burned at the stake if the were convicted of a crime punishable by D&Q.
Wouldn’t their clothes burn off first?
Aw, how considerate of them.
Learning what “Drawn and Quartered” meant is one of the few things I have learned on the Straight Dope that I truely regret. Not that I learned it from this particular thread. Cheers and Happy Holidays or Happy Sindays for those so inclined.