1. Death Revenge Overture

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2. Defenders Of The Grave

"Resurrection men, your fate deplore,
Retire with fore vexation,
Your mystery's gone, your art's no more,
No more your occupation:
Surgeons no more shall ye ransack
The grave with feelings callous
Tho' on the Old Bailey turn'd your back,
Your only hopes the gallows" – Mr. Diben The Patent Cof in 1818

Stalk through hallowed headstones
For notes and coin, trade flesh and bone
Your eternal rest may, become nocturnal wrest

The newly deceased, still bereaved
Snatched from their peace, taken without leave
Truncated repose, for the decomposed

Adamantine clasp of the mortsafe, the muddy bonds of earth
Patent coffins do not vouchsafe, calm repose beneath the turf

Stone walls do not a prison make, nor six feet of sod a grave
Pray the lord your soul to take, you'll need defenders of the –

Graves' occupants, so dearly prized
But to butcher, not to eulogize
To rest they were laid, now sold under the blade

Who turns the key to the mortsafe, when the sexton stuffs his purse?
Nightwatchmen cannot vouchsafe, calm repose beneath the turf

Stone walls do not a prison make, nor six feet of sod a grave
So pray the lord your soul to take, you'll need defenders of the grave
Defenders of the grave, hallmarks of this ghoulish age
Defenders of the grave, defenders of the –

Solo – Matthew Harvey
Solo – Michael Burke

Stone walls do not a prison make, nor shovels full of sod a grave
So pray the lord your soul to take, you'll need defenders of the grave
Defenders of the grave, hallmarks of this ghoulish age
Defenders of the grave, defenders of the – grave

3. Lifeless

Dr. Knox:? Mem'ry haunts me clearly
The winter of my thirteenth year
Wind moaned through headstones dreary
A siren song only I could hear
A fevered brain infected
Where terrors spawned each night
A young man grew dejected
A waking dream, a fright amongst frights

Dr. Knox:?Though my symptoms at last abated
And the coughing fits did surcease
An insalubrious nature gestated
Breeding malaise, a subtle disease

Narrator:?Then with each passing breath
In life, he dwelt in death
Dr. Knox:?This truth I now confess:

Dr. Knox:? A morbid mind obsessed
Unhealthy thoughts depressed
By cryptic dreams possessed
To ever dwell among, the lifeless

Lifeless!

Hare:? A casket-builder's low-born boy
Child of the grave in name and fact
Grey days and nights in dark employ
Set destiny 'pon its deathly path

Hare:?Dismissed as morbid youth
Obsessions quite uncouth
Led to unpleasant truths

Hare / Dr. Knox:? A morbid mind obsessed
Unhealthy thoughts depressed
By cryptic dreams possessed
To ever dwell among, the lifeless
As all life ends in death
So with each passing breath
My destiny professed
To ever dwell among, the lifeless

Dr. Knox:? Into the family crypt, I stealthily crept
Knowing not what I sought 'mongst the mold and the rot
A sight that was not soon forgot
And as I lay in the grave, finding the solace I'd craved
At peace there with the decayed, though they called me depraved
It was there a dark path was paved

Dr. Knox / Hare:? A morbid mind obsessed
Unhealthy thoughts depressed
By cryptic dreams possessed
To ever dwell among, the lifeless
As all life ends in death
So with each passing breath
A destiny professed
To ever dwell among, the lifeless

4. Dead End

Dr. Knox:?My occupation was a'calling, like a tumor, it within me swelled
A path some found appalling, that I would come to know so well
A cadaverous career awaited, the filthy task I'd undertake
With a gruesome thirst for knowledge, that only the dead could slake
My studies dismissed as morbid, incurring the headmaster's scorn
My deathly imagination derided, and into the darkness borne
From clandestine forays into graveyards, to the operating theater's grisly scenes

My bloody studies dug ever deeper into the obscene and the unclean

Narrator:?For in death's sleep what dreams may come?
And in death's name, what deeds must be done –

Dr. Knox:?As an anatomist, a necrologist
But I'll never be an apologist
My chosen path, to carve up stiffs
A career dismissed??as a dead end
A surgeon's trade, a butcher's blade
You mourn a rest to which you won't be laid
To serve my much derided trade
Your legacy will fade to a dead end

Hare:?The pounding of my father's coffin-nails beat a dolorous refrain
But by staving in those caskets, a richer living could be gained
My heart beat time with the hammer-falls, I learned to pluck men from the grave

And earned the name of "resurrection-man," plying that reviled trade

Narrator:?For in death's sleep what dreams may come?
And in death's name, what deeds must be done –

Hare:?As a resurrectionist, a necrologist
But I'll never be an apologist
My chosen path, to dig up stiffs
A career dismissed as a dead end

Dr. Knox:? A surgeon's trade,?Hare:? a wooden spade

Dr. Knox / Hare:?You mourn a rest to which you won't be laid
?To serve our much benighted trades
Your legacy will fade to a dead end

5. Night Work

Hare:?Welcome to our nocturnal vocation
Disembalming we grimly extract the expired
Disinterring by lanthorn illumination
To fulfill anatomists' cadaverous desires

Dr. Knox:?Giving Nightwatchmen fits with the mortsafes you've picked
Finding fresh graves to dig, I must say it's a hell of a gig

?Night work be done, the lifeless made graveless, our prize to be won
Exhumed by torchlight, dead weight dead to rights
This night work, an unholy sight, undertaken tonight

Hare:?A livelihood in death we scrape
Your casket vacant, corpse taken forthwith
From our fell spades you will not escape
Second coming ignominious, unclean and sick

Dr. Knox:?Wooden shovels and picks, from your tomb you'll be nicked
Sink to new depths of sick, compunction cut to the quick

?Night work be done, the lifeless made graveless, our prize to be won
Exhumed by torchlight, dead weight dead to rights
This night work, an unholy sight, undertaken tonight

Dr. Knox:?It's a dirty job, finding fresh graves to rob
Solo – Michael Burke

Dr. Knox:?These are dirty deeds, six feet of dirt, dug dirt cheap

Dr. Knox:?It's a dirty job, finding fresh graves to rob
Toil as the casket's slaves, death is our living wage

?Night work be done, the lifeless made graveless, our prize to be won
Exhumed by torchlight, dead weight dead to rights
This night work, an unholy sight, undertaken this

Night work be done, the lifeless made graveless our prize to be won
Exhumed by torchlight, dead weight dead to rights
This night work, an unholy sight, undertaken tonight

6. Unspeakable

Dr. Knox:?Cold stiffs may fetch five sovereigns
Warmer bodies a few schilling more
Trade in death to make a living
Ghastly currency of gore
Your cadaveric chores, so

Chorus:?Unspeakable!

Dr. Knox:?The freshest of corpses through most heinous courses

Chorus:?Unspeakable!

Dr. Knox:?The warmer the corpse The more rich the reward
In this foul trade of flesh, bone and gore

Dr. Knox:?Fresher specimens are ever needed
The scalpel thirsts for still-warm death
Law and decorum should go unheeded
When prices soar for a pound of flesh
So I may slice up what's left

Chorus:?Unspeakable!

Hare:?Just think what we'll gain
When we harvest the slain

Chorus:?Unspeakable!

Hare:?And the throats we would slit
Would never be missed

Chorus:?Unspeakable!

Burke:?And so business is furthered
By cold-blooded murder?

Chorus:?Unspeakable!

Dr. Knox:?The demand has increased
For the freshly deceased
And so now the living you'll reap

Hare:?The cemeteries crawl with sentries
The sexton demands his bribe
Graveyard gates ensure their entries
Remain inhumed inside
Yet another source of bodies
Surrounds us every day
Is not every soul but a corpse to be?
And should we not just speed them on their way?

Chorus:?Unspeakable!

Burke:?Compunction be dashed
Though this course may seem rash

Chorus:?Unspeakable!

Hare:?There's so much more profit
When we fill the coffins

Chorus:?Unspeakable!

Hare:?The tramps and the urchins
We'll make fodder for surgeons

Chorus:?Unspeakable!

Dr. Knox:?They live lives without worth
Death cannot be much worse
Wretched ways to make your purse burst

Chorus:?Unspeakable!

7. Gravemakers Of Edinburgh

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8. The Harrowing

"'Knowst thou not any, whom corrupting gold
Would tempt unto a close exploit of death?'
'I know a discontented Irishman,
whose humble means match not his haughty mind.
Gold were as good as twenty orators,
and will, no doubt, tempt him to do any thing'" –? Richard III,? William Shakespeare

"In Edina town, where your friend you may meet
At morning, in health, walking forth in the street
And, at evening, decoy'd and depriv'd of life
His corpse fresh and warm is laid out for the knife" –?Edinburgh Broadsheet 1832

Hare:?The first corpse was mere happenstance
But the second was no accident
The end soon followed pitiably
Choking out curses 'til his life was spent

Dr. Knox:?Each morrow the kill comes easier
Murder grown precise
Axphyxiated bodies bear testament
To your mastery – of this most deadly device

Dr. Knox:?A corpse is but a corpse
How they are obtained, is not my concern
So long as they come to my door

Hare:?With coppers o'er blind eyes, like the one you've turned

Dr. Knox:?Death is the last fact of life, scrawled out by dissecting knives

Hare:?As I'm taking your life

Chorus:?You won't survive the harrowing

Hare:?So gasp your last breath as you choke, incomprehension, of life's final joke

Dr. Knox:?At the end of your rope

Chorus:?Now your hope is narrowing
You won't survive the harrowing

Hare:? At first I felt revulsion
Which then gave way to fear
Finally came apathy
And at last I came to see things clearly

Dr. Knox:?A reaver that hunts by gaslight
The stranglehold comes grim and cold
But your wallet filled with notes and coins
Weighs more 'pon you,?t?hen all of the dead you have sold

Dr. Knox:?A corpse is but a corpse
How they are obtained, is not my concern
So long as they come to my door

Hare:?With coppers o'er blind eyes, like the one you've turned

Dr. Knox:?Death is the last fact of life, scrawled out by dissecting knives

Hare:?As I'm taking your life

Chorus:?You won't survive the harrowing

Hare:?So gasp your last breath as you choke, incomprehension, of life's final joke

Dr. Knox:?At the end of your rope

Chorus:?Now your hope is narrowing
Death is overpowering
You won't survive the harrowing

Solo – Michael Burke

Duet – Michael Burke / Matthew Harvey

Dr. Knox:?Death is the last act of life, post-scripted by dissecting knives

Hare:?To which I'm giving your life

Chorus:?You won't survive the harrowing

Hare:?Gasp your last breath as you choke, incomprehension, of life's final joke

Dr. Knox:?At the end of your rope

Chorus:?Now your hope is narrowing
Death is overpowering
Life's but time you're borrowing
You won't survive the harrowing

9. A Funeral Party

"Up the close and doun the stair
But and been with Burke and Hare
Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief
Knox the boy that buys the beef" –?19t? h? century Edinburgh skipping rhyme

Hare:?Follow me to my humble lodging
What's mine is yours, such as it may be

Dr. Knox:?Enjoy the hospitality, soon you'll be cold dead anatomy

Hare:?Along the narrow, crooked wynd
Then through the close, this house you'll find

Dr. Knox:?So many honored guests to fete, always an empty bed to let

Chorus:?A funeral party

Hare:?Drink up, the hour is growing late

Chorus:?A funeral party

Dr. Knox:?The fete will end when you meet your fate

Hare:?Here you may rest from your journeys
And warm your bones with a dram of whiskey

Dr. Knox:?Drink to what's left of your health, soon you'll be another corpse to sell

Hare:?Intoxicated, the room starts to spin
And at that moment our night work begins

Dr. Knox:?Quietly asphyxiate, you see your end, but far too late

Chorus:?A funeral party

Burke:?Drink up, the hour is growing late

Chorus:?A funeral party

Dr. Knox: S? tuff the carcass in a crate

Narrator:?All revels must come to their end
So for the constable the tenants send
False friends meet most unpleasant ends
The corpus delicti now made evident

Chorus:? A funeral party

Burke:?Step inside and have a quaff

Chorus:?A funeral party

Hare:?Where guests soon shuffle off

Chorus:?A funeral party

Narrator:?Protests of innocence rebuffed

Chorus:?A funeral party

Narrator:?The life of the party – snuffed

10. The Anatomy Act Of 1832

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11. Incarnadined Hands

"But woe to the riches and skill thus obtained,
Woe to the wretch that would injure the dead
And woe go his portion whose fingers are stained
With the red drops of life that he cruelly shed" –?Ballad of William Burke?circa 1829

"[had] the receiver of these sixteen strangled bodies been punishable as well as the murderer, the crimes, which have
cast a stain on the character of the nation and of human nature, would not have been committed" – Thomas Wakely?The
Lancet? newspaper 21s? t? March, 1829

Dr. Knox:?What is a man? Is he the sum of his beliefs?
Or is he measured by the depths of his misdeeds?
Is he but flesh and bone? The sum of component parts?
Is he what he has wrought? Or what he has torn apart?

Hare:?Our abhorrent enterprise, so deeply despised
But evidence, I'll provide, to spare my own hide

Hare:?I'll send Burke to his grave
To be betrayed??by incarnadined hands

Dr. Knox:?Am I a butcher uncouth?
The telltale truth??are these incarnadined hands

Dr. Knox:?Am I a slaughterer or a surgeon? A taker or giver of life?

Hare:?A thief or a murderer? For which crime am I to be tried?

Dr. Knox:?So many I've anatomized, truly I was desensitized I never failed to edify,?Hare:? nor to brutalize

Dr. Knox:?The stain of the grave
I am betrayed by incarnadined hands

Burke:?The meager length of the noose
The punishment due for incarnadined hands

Dr. Knox:?Please tell me who I am – Please tell me who I am!

Dr. Knox:?What is a man? Is he the end or is he the means?

Burke:?For lucre's gleam, undertaking hideous misdeeds

Dr. Knox:?I once thought I knew, but now I see it true
When you look into death, it looks back into you

Dr. Knox:?The stain of the grave
I am betrayed??by incarnadined hands

Burke:?The meager length of the noose
The punishment due??for incarnadined hands

Dr. Knox / Hare:?Please tell me who I am

12. Death Revenge

"The mob, which was immense... received with shouts the solitary wretch who found his way to the gallows out of the
five or six who seem not less guilty than he." – Sir Walter Scott, 28t? h? of January 1829

"...The town of Edinburgh was filled with an immense crowd of spectators, from all places of the surrounding country,
to witness the execution of a Monster, whose crime stands unparalleled in the annals of Scotland." – Edinburgh
Broadsheet 1829

"Every effort [had been] employed to convert my misfortune into positive and intended personal guilt of the most
dreadful character..." – Dr. Robert Knox 1829

"The sickly and the hale
Were murder'd, pack'd up, and sent off
To Knox's human sale
That man of skill, with subjects warm
Was frequently supplied
Nor did he question when or how
The persons brought had died!" – Edinburgh children's verse circa 1829

"That his class received him, in consequence of these horrid disclosures, with three cheers... that savage yell within
those blood-stained walls is no more, to the voice of the public, than so much squeaking and grunting in a pig-sty
during a storm of thunder.... and instead of serving to convince anyone... of their lecturer's innocence, it has had...
the very opposite effect – exhibiting a ruffian recklessness of general opinion and feeling on a most appalling
subject." – Christopher North?Blackwood,? 1829

Dr. Knox:?A "noxious" butcher, a name they will rue When their carcasses yield postmortem truths Although Burke and
Hare, have their usefulness proved From their sordid acts, I stand far removed
But now from the grave's final jape

I shan't emerge wholly unscathed From this calumny there's no escape
A lifetime of work that may all go to waste A gentleman born, now stained by disgrace Once a surgeon, now a ghoul in
his place

Dr. Knox:?Death and life forever intertwined
And within their vulgar minds
The penny dreadful they seek they will find, they'll have their death revenge I plied my trade bound to the grave
Now they've labeled me depraved
My name and my work bear their stain, this is their death revenge

Hare:?Burke alone stands judged for both our transgressions
The hangman awaits him, then postmortem dissection
Yet all that peers back from the looking glass
Are the ghosts of my past, screaming to their last

Hare:?And now my grave, final jape
Is writ large on Burke's cadaverous face
From the noose he shall have no escape
Why let both of our lives go to waste?
In my confession the blame lay misplaced
Once a man, soon a corpse in his place

Hare:?Forfeit his life to extend mine
Thus ends our partnership in crime
Lady justice though said to be blind, still takes her??death revenge

Burke:?I earned my living from the grave
And committed acts depraved
Life ends unsaved and betrayed, the price paid: Death Revenge

Dr. Knox / Hare:?Death and life forever intertwined
And within the morbid mind
There's only darkness left to find, the final??death revenge
We lived our lives within the grave
And in turn became depraved
And now naught remains to be saved, the final??death revenge

13. Death Revenge Underture

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14. A Lesson In Violence

оригинал: Exodus

If you got something to say
Then come my way
I'm guarded by Satan
I'm riding on Baphomet
I'll teach you a lesson in violence
You won't soon forget

The pleasure of watching you die
Is what I will get

Fight – for what you believe to be right
Crushing with all your might
I laugh at their pitiful cries
They run from the fire in my eyes

Nothing can save them now

You've learned a lesson in violence
Get on your knees and bow
Or learn a lesson in violence
I love to stab my victims
Until they're dead
A knife to the throat
Or a smashing blow to the head
I'm judge and jury
My sentence has just been passed
Step into the circle of hell
If you think you can last

Fight for what you believe to be right
Crushing with all your might
I laugh at their pitiful cries
They run from the fire in my eyes

Nothing can save them now
You've learned a lesson in violence
Get on your knees and bow
Or learn a lesson in violence