legem pone, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

legem pone n.

also legem ponere

[the first two words of the fifth division of Ps. 119, which begins the psalms at Matins on the 25th day of the month, associated with 25 March, the year’s first quarter day and thus the first major payday of the calendar]

the payment of money, cash down.

1573		T. Tusser Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie (1878) 22: Use (legem pone) to paie at thy daie, but vse not (Oremus) for often delaie.
1592		G. Harvey New Letter of Noteable Contents 18: I cannot but listen unto them with an itching eare, [...] but, without Legem pone, wordes are winde and without actuall performance, all nothing .
1618		G. Mynshul Essayes of Prison n.p.: All their speech is legem pone, or else with their ill custome they will detaine thee.
1641		‘Pecunia praevalens’ in Wardroper (1969) 141: ‘Hands off, sir sauce-box! Think you Mistress Phips / Allows such lobs as you to touch her lips?’ / But then ’tis questioned further: ‘If you bring her / Some legem pone, that’s another thing, sir’.
a.1662		Heylin Voy 292: In bestowing of their degrees here they are very liberal, and deny no man that is able to pay his fees. Legem ponere is with them more powerful than legem dicere [F&H].