Pear Of Anguish
The "Pear Of Anguish" or Poire d'angoisser was a medieval torture device designed to be used on the mouth, rectum or vagina.
Fast Facts:
- Consisted of metal "leaves" which expanded when a key was turned
- Popular during the Spanish Inquisition
- Supposedly used on witches, liars, blasphemers and homosexuals
- Sometimes called a "choke-pear"
Origin and Use
Whether this device was ever actually used is difficult to determine, although in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898), there is mention of it being used among "robbers in Holland" to torture their victims. The action of the device involves a pear-shaped device that would be inserted into an opening in the body of the torturer's choice. Websites devoted to torture claim that the pear would be used in the anus for homosexuals, in the vagina for adulterers and women who aborted their children, and in the mouth for liars. Using a small key, the torturer would slowly open the metallic leaves of the "pear"; as they expanded, they would cut into the insides of the victim near the hole where the pear was placed.
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