Talk:Have His Carcase

flaws in the novel
Wimsey is singularly obnoxious in this novel, more interested in upper-class snobbery than in solving the case. When a character writes the police with crucial information, Wimsey criticizes her writing style. Later when some helpful witnesses ask Wimsey for reassurance that they won't get in trouble, Wimsey intimidates them by quoting some erudite matter that he knows they won't understand. And in the end, he assumes a jury will be too stupid to understand that the implications of the hemophilia (though it took him the whole novel to remember that the Tsaryevitch Alexy had hemophilia). The question is, did Sayers intend for Wimsey to come across as a twerp, or is his behavior representing her own snobbery?

Most of his rudeness was cut out in the TV adaptation. CharlesTheBold (talk) 19:14, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

Origin of title
In the article the origin of the title is given as a quote from the Iliad. However, I don't think it can be as straightforward as that. In the book, the phrase is introduced by Wimsey saying the following (first page of Chapter 4): "You must produce the body, as it says in the Have-His-Carcase Act". This is surely a reference to the Habeas Corpus Act – "have his carcase" is of course very close in meaning to "habeas corpus". I think it must be an established jocular name for the Act, though the only other example I can find is in in Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies.

There is some discussion by Bill Peschel to similar effect here (para 41). Interestingly Peschel notes that "Habeas Corpus has been misinterpreted as believing that there has to be a body produced in order for a murder charge to be filed", which would make it relevant for the novel.

Richard New Forest (talk) 13:47, 14 September 2016 (UTC)


 * The title may derive from Dickens' PICKWICK PAPERS. At one point Mr. Pickwick explains the concept of Habeas Corpus to his valet Sam Weller, who later repeats it but renders the name as  "Have His Carcase".   Wimsey was probably showing off his literary knowledge. 2001:558:6011:1:1CA0:8880:2F90:A2F5 (talk) 05:31, 1 May 2017 (UTC)


 * I haven't been able to find a reliable source, so have changed the wording to the less definite "The novel's title appears in William Cowper's translation ... " MichaelMaggs (talk) 20:32, 6 November 2017 (UTC)

Is this phrase really in the book?
I don't have a copy of the book, but I've seen reference to it having the quote: "Most English people write the day first and the month second. Business people at any rate, though old-fashioned ladies still stick to putting month first."

If so, this could be the first recognition of the UK/US split in date format from %m/%d/%Y to %d/%m/%Y. Can anyone check? Microsiliconinc (talk) 11:56, 7 March 2024 (UTC)


 * You can borrow a free copy of the book from the Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/havehiscarcase0000saye/page/376/mode/2up. The exact quote, on page 376, is "Most English people write the day first and the month second. Business people at any rate, though old-fashioned ladies still stick to putting the month first."  That doesn't suggest mm/dd/yy, though, merely "old fashioned ladies" heading their hand-written letters with dates such as "April 10th". MichaelMaggs (talk) 13:34, 7 March 2024 (UTC)