Rank
.—Kings are persons of the first rank on earth, and very rank indeed they are; so much so, that I know not one who could not conscienciously exclaim with the royal murderer in Hamlet:
“Oh! my offence is rank; it smells to heaven!”
.—Kings are persons of the first rank on earth, and very rank indeed they are; so much so, that I know not one who could not conscienciously exclaim with the royal murderer in Hamlet:
“Oh! my offence is rank; it smells to heaven!”
Entry taken from Political Dictionary, edited by Charles Pigott from prison and printed in 1795.