Dead End - Exhumed

«It is disgusting to talk of anatomy as a science, whilst it is cultivated by a

means of practices which would disgrace a race of cannibals» — ​The​ ​Lancet

newspaper​ ​editorial 1832

«Anatomy is the basis of surgery… it informs the head, guides the hand,

and familiarizes the heart to a kind of necessary inhumanity» — William

Hunter’s introductory lecture to anatomy students 1780

«The outcasts of society, who, being pointed out as resurrection men,

unable to maintain themselves by any honest employment and are driven to

become thieves and housebreakers…» — Benjamin Brodie ​Observations ​1832

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

Solo — Michael Burke

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