Death Revenge - Exhumed

«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 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

Solo — Matthew Harvey

Solo — Michael Burke

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