(A cemetery. A GRAVEDIGGER and MATE
enter.)
GRAVEDIGGER
Is she to be buried as a Christian, after she has willfully
sought her own salvation as a suicide?
MATE
I tell you she is. The crowner has sat on her case and finds
it Christian.
How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own
defence?
MATE
That's the verdict.
GRAVEDIGGER
If I drown myself willingly, that's an act, and most acts
have three parts: to think it, to design it, and to carry it
out. Here stands the man. Here rests the water. If the man
goes into the water not knowing how to swim, he's dead. And
if the water comes over him by nature or accident, he's dead
too. Two deaths, the one who did not shorten their own life
is not guilty of suicide.
MATE
This is law?
GRAVEDIGGER
Of course it is.
MATE
Do you want the truth? If this had not been a gentlewoman,
she would not be buried as a Christian.
GRAVEDIGGER
Yes, true. And even more a pity that our lords don't use
their privilege to commit suicide more often. My spade,
please?
(Mate hands Gravedigger spade.)
GRAVEDIGGER (CONT'D)
(beginning to dig)
There were no gentlemen at the beginning of history, only
gardeners and gravediggers, and both begun by Adam.
MATE
Was Adam a gentleman?
GRAVEDIGGER
What kind of heathen are you? Don't you know the Bible? It
says he digged. Could he dig without arms?
(Beat.)
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