Frog March

By Deane Barker • •

This is a method of forcibly moving someone, roughly defined as them being carried, face-down, with a person holding each limb. Apparently the London police came up with the phrase “frog’s march,” which is how they handled drunken criminals.

The term has evolved to mean the general forcing of someone to move. Either by literally carrying them, or by pinning their arms behind them and pushing them forward. The term implies some level of intentional humiliation.

The classic scenario would be someone forced to appear in front of a court.

Why I Looked It Up

I saw it in Eurostorm, then encountered it again in The Swerve. In discussing the contents of the poem On the Nature of Things, the author writes:

Either [humans] will gather flowers in an paradisal garden where no chill wind every blows, or they will be frog-marched before a harsh judge who will condemn. then…

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This is a book about a poem. It follows a book-hunter in the 15th century named Poggio, while he manages to save the last remaining copy of On the Nature of Things by Lucretius, which is an explanation of Epicurean philosophy. The poem makes lot of secular claims. In the middle of the book, they’re...