Original subtitles

Good to see you.

You've dawdled, Master Partridge.

No race was ever won by dawdlers.

Your tasks wait upon you.

Evil ways follow the slow.

Honest haste and diligence are the coins of learning.

Master Partridge, hard work is a benefactor.

Whee, Mr. Corbett.

Come in, Mrs. Corbett. A good apothecary is a clean apothecary. Dust and sloth

betoken a dishonest heart.

Perfection is the light of the godly.

The godly, Master Partridge.

An adage in an old miser's mouth is like a nail in the shoe, Mr Corbett.

You're coming, Ben. I can't yet. It's nearly eight.

You know old Corbett.

Make a brew, Ben. Make a bubbling charm. Turn old Corbett into a mouse or a rat.

Turn him into a worm.

Turn him into a snail.

Pink to pink, thumb to thumb. Wish a wish and it's sure to come. Turn old

Corbett into a beetle and stamp on him, Ben.

He'll hear you.

Happy New Year, Ben. Happy New Year.

Finally I could leave a spell.

Where have you been like this night?

Shivering with ague.

Good old mystical wit.

Sharp to be off, Master Partridge.

It's gone eight, sir.

What, eight?

When there's work to be done?

Dust, Master Partridge.

Dust on the bottle tops.

would you leave it so polish the bottles before you go

Not willingly done, Master Partridge.

Too anxious to be out, and wild as a fox.

It's New Year's Eve, Mr. Corbett, sir.

What's New Year's Eve when there's work to be done?

There's a smear, or a stain, on the bench.

Not willingly done, Master Partridge.

Your heart wasn't in him.

Still less your soul.

I want your heart and soul, Master Partridge. It's in the contract. Heart

and soul. I expect them.

I demand them.

I promised my mother I'd be home before... Oh, your mother.

A good woman.

Who paid out £30 for your apprenticeship.

£30 is ten years' hard saving. Ten years of going without.

Would you shortchange her as you would me, Master Partridge? No, sir, but she's

laying up a fine table for family and friends, sir. And I promise that...

Promise must stand in line.

What is your home to me, Master Partridge?

What is your family and friends if I don't have your heart and soul? You're

no use to me if I don't have all of you.

There's damp on this flask.

Wipe it dry.

A customer?

How lucky that you're still about.

Open the door to the gentleman.

Not too late.

Still open for business?

Never too late to be of service, sir.

Me and my apprentice, heart and soul of our trade, no matter the time or the

day. Heart and soul, eh, Master Partridge?

This mixture, then, most important.

Tonight. Can you oblige?

Pleased to oblige, sir.

Will you wait?

Tonight? New Year's Eve?

No, deliver it.

I'll be at supper at Jack Straw's castle.

The other side of the heath.

Not too far.

Eh?

What are these specifics from a shelf, boy?

What kind of strange mixture they are.

It's been years since I've seen the like.

Oh well.

Old ones are the best ones.

In good custom lies some truth.

Borrow me some poppy heads, Master Partridge.

Where's Ben?

He's not back yet.

Is Aileen coming with Emma?

And the sweetmeats.

It's a feast we're going to have.

Was it willingly done, Master Partridge?

Willingly. Most willingly, sir.

And a happy new year to you, sir.

And to you, Master Partridge. And to you.

A most happy new year.

But of course you'll deliver this mixture first, Master Partridge.

But it's all a three mile, sir.

And in this weather it'll be new year before I'm back.

They're waiting on me at home, sir. If they love you heart and soul, they'll

keep on waiting. And the waiting will make warmer your welcome.

But there's thieves and footpads and murderers on there. Stuff and nonsense.

What should such fellas want with a lad in a ragged coat?

Please, sir, I beg of you.

Safe as a coach of four.

Poor clothes give better protection than train men.

There's gibbets and corpses and ghosts.

Ha! Ha!

Ghosts! Ha ha ha ha!

Ghosts, is it? My word!

Here. Take you this extra jar, Master Partridge, and if you're lucky to meet

with a ghost, phantom or spectre, catch a piece of it in the glass and stop it

quick. Ha!

It is said to be exceedingly rare.

We'll take it to the Apothecary's Hall for examination.

Ha, ha, ha.

Ghosts indeed.

Ha, ha.

Now be off. For pity's sake, sir. It's New Year's Eve. Pity?

What's pity when there's work to be done? Be off with you, Master Partridge,

and don't dawdle. It may be a matter of life and death.

Run, Master Partridge, run. Run as if my life depended on it.

Well,

I think we should start.

God curse on you, Mr. Colbert.

May the wind blow through you and fill you with its cold.

Catch a piece of ghost.

I'd like to catch a piece of you in that bottle, Mr. Corbett.

Path of Chris Hart.

Very small, very hard, and very difficult to find.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Year, lads.

I'll keep you from a knife like this.

Ben Partridge!

Ben Partridge!

You old fool, Tom.

You could start the heart right out of a being.

What are you doing up here?

Have you no place out of the cold, Tom?

The moon's my constant mistress.

And the lonely owl, my marrow.

The flaming drake and... Nightcrawl, make me music to my sorrow.

Then go bay at your mistress.

From the hag and hungry goblin that into rags

would rend ye, and the spirit that stands by the naked man in the

Book of Moons defend ye, that of your five sound

senses

You'll never be forsaken.

No wonder from yourself, like me, abroad, to beg your bacon. Get

off! Go find a ditch for your madness.

A mad Tom knows what's in your heart and soul, Ben Partridge.

You can buy the death you want, apprentice, in Blackthorn Hall.

Down there.

Down there.

To Jack Straw's castle there, Blackthorn Hall there, it is your

choice.

When duty and desire quarrel, who shall wear

the final laurel?

Heart and soul.

Heart and soul.

All right, Mr Corbett.

Heart and soul it is.

I thought you'd choose to come here.

Are you sure, young man?

Forgive me, but are you really sure?

I must know.

We don't waste our time, do we?

You hesitate.

Your heart and soul ain't in it.

Why not turn about and leave?

I'll not say anything.

We've never met.

All will be forgotten.

It was a black thought for a black moment.

Let me in, sir.

This way, young man.

Watch your step.

These stairs are dangerous.

I don't want your death on my hands.

Heart and soul.

Remember, all or nothing.

It's heart and soul, all right.

And I'll tell you... Tell me nothing.

No reasons, if you please.

Reasons ain't my concern.

I've had my fill of them.

Reasons. Heavy as tombstones.

Payments my concern.

Nothing now.

I don't aim to beggar you.

My terms are fair.

One quarter of everything you earn from when it's done until... Until

when? Until you die, young man.

Then you're discharged.

Whatever liens and mortgages are against you after that are on my books.

A quarter? No haggling, if you please. This isn't a marketplace.

A quarter of everything you earn.

I always deal in quarters. Always have and always will.

I always put my terms straight young man.

Are they agreeable?

Come in young man.

Don't be afraid.

As you see, everything's as ordinary as sin.

Take a chair, by the fire.

Take a chair.

Your name, please?

Benjamin Partridge.

And the other name?

Colbert.

The pot of Kerry Colbert has got the light.

Sign here.

I've got a thing about you he's touched recently.

Anything will do, so long as it has his touch on it.

Yes.

He touched this.

God rot him.

All in good time.

Is he dead now?

It's in hand.

Nothing can save him now.

If you go directly, you'll witness it.

Hurry!

It's the best part of what you're paying for.

Remember, Benjamin Partridge, one quarter of your life's earnings

beginning momentarily.

Mr. Corbett's time is at all but full stretch.

I didn't do it.

I did... I never touched you.

You made me do it.

As the moon is my witness, you made me do it.

Just one kind word, and I would never have gone to that house.

As the moon is my witness!

They'll have seen him pass.

They'll connect him with me.

Damn the old man.

How did he fetch him up here to give up his dingy ghost?

Why not in his bed?

Why in his apothecary?

Why here?

Rot you, Mr. Corbett. You're as horrible dead as alive.

If I tumble him into the bushes, they'll not find him till tomorrow.

Or the next day.

They'll blame the footpads.

Your bones must be of lead, Mr. Corbett.

Soon it'll be goodbye forever, Mr. Corbett.

Goodbye.

Good night.

And sleep well.

Ain't you the quiet, sly one?

Still warm and hardly a mark on him.

You're a bit of a nifty slicer, lad.

How'd you do that, the old knife or a skewer?

I never touched him.

We all know that one.

It's a cracked bell, lad.

No ring of truth in it.

You want me, Your Honour? He just dropped dead on me feet.

I'm a sainted mother's head.

But the langier, just the same.

Come in with us, child. I think that's where you belong. Neat.

Very neat.

I'm a man who appreciates neat work, lad.

We've seen you drop him, so don't play the innocent.

I can get you five shillings a time for work like that anywhere.

What's that, young'un?

Make a tidy fortune between us.

Never seen a man dropped so neat.

I swear, I never touched him.

Closed mouth too, taintier, precious?

You best come along with us, young'un.

Roll now, Mr Iron Mighty.

Get off.

Don't touch me.

You rudest knight, you grey-faced little rat.

Don't no one help him.

Though his back may break and his heart crack, don't no one help him.

We've got our labours, brothers, and time is short. Go on.

Oh, it makes a man ashamed, it does.

I need to drown my coachman in Whitestone Pond.

And a mere sapling drops them like chestnuts.

Where are you going?

I get graveyard.

Let's not leave our handiwork to rotten betrayers, eh?

We'll bury some deep friend.

Deep is silence.

You'd best come with us.

Otherwise I'll take you and hang you, like old Josh, back on the gibbet there.

His mortal remains make a fine decoration for their festive season.

Careless as old Josh.

Sloppy.

But I've never touched him!

He can't hang me for nothing!

And who would believe me?

Come on, my lads. Make sure the purses are securely cut. They can pay for their

own burial.

Ah, here come the Camden Town and Spitalfields. Come on, my motley crew.

Why so reluctantly? Why so miserly?

Two shillings is the fare.

Two shillings. The gravekeeper will have his due.

Two shillings.

Two shillings to escape the rope.

Pay up.

I'll be hanged.

I have but one shilling, sir.

Your fare's two, lad.

Two. I'll be hanged. Don't no one help him.

I'll send him to hell and pay for him and his cargo. Not that way, Tom.

It's my custom and ordinance.

Even we, beyond the law, have our own laws.

He needs manners taught.

Take a hand, he'll work with you.

Shone them that shone us by the stones!

He just staggered out into the horses. I saw it. No one's to blame. It was an

accident. Pure and simple.

It was an accident. An accident. I saw it all.

Did you indeed, Benjamin Partridge?

Why do you tremble?

Why such anguish?

Why's your faces?

Deathly as the moons.

Why so silent, Benjamin Partridge?

As silent as your quiet friend there.

Mr. Corbett, isn't it?

So you got what you wanted.

I've done my part.

He's all yours now.

Help me, pray help me. I must bury him, hide him. Help me or I'll be hanged.

Very likely, young man.

Most likely indeed.

But I... But what, Benjamin Partridge?

But if I'm taken and hanged, I'll not be able to pay you.

True enough.

Would be the first time.

You'd be surprised, young man, how many gentlemen don't pay me.

Now, if it's Judge Urien Hangman, I don't quarrel with that.

No one's to blame there. That's in the natural order of things, so to speak.

But a surprising number will go to any length to avoid payment.

Hang themselves, shoot themselves, poison themselves, dash out their brains

against the walls of Bedlam.

The world's full of those who fancy it's more honourable to die than pay their

debts.

But you're not one of them, are you, Benjamin Partridge?

No, sir.

You've an honest face, even though it is white as bone.

Help me, please, sir.

He's only mutton.

He can't hurt you now.

He's not a ghost.

If only he was.

It's his dead weight that's dragging me to the gallows. I can't go on. My heart

is on the burst.

If only he was a ghost.

Heart and soul.

Remember Benjamin Partridge.

Now the heart proves too weak.

What of the soul?

Could your soul carry a ghost?

Is it possible?

All things are possible to the willing soul.

Then please.

All I ask is that your soul be willing.

Willing. Most willing.

Coachman, fetch down my trunk.

I take it wherever I go.

Open it up.

The mortgages and liens.

My jewels.

Some clients have broken into my house to retrieve their pledges.

Honors are vagrant in these hard times.

Aye, there it is.

Right on top. How fortunate we are.

Pick it up.

Hold it for me.

Some people tie lovers knots.

But we tie haters knots.

Don't we, Benjamin Partridge?

Behold your ghost, Benjamin Partridge.

No more to him than that?

Mr.

Corbett, sir?

What are you staring at?

I never touched you.

Am I in hell?

No,

you ain't.

You're in Hampstead Heath.

I'm cold.

I'm so cold.

Cold. It's a cold night for the quick and the dead.

Happy New Year to the pair of you!

The Lord be praised.

He took you for a living man.

A living man.

And it's only me that knows you're not.

again, lad.

Worse for the cold, it looks like.

The night's blessings on you too, sir.

I'd have taken my oath that your friend had the death on him when he passed me

before. He was running like the Furies were after him.

He was poorly.

I'd have gone bail that he was as dead as mutton when I saw him collapse near

you.

These eyes don't miss much.

Just poorly.

Poorly, you say.

He does look a bit pale round the chops.

So very cold.

Cold, is it?

Can't say I'm surprised.

He ain't dressed over warm, is he?

Doesn't look like there's much blood in him, either.

If you've got any Christian charity in you, lad, you'll take him into the

Spaniard's Inn and get him a tot of brandy and rum.

Half and half with a sprig of rosemary in it.

That'll put the colour back in his cheeks.

Go on, lad.

Be a Christian on this New Year's Eve.

Would you betray me?

Betray you?

Excuse me?

For revenge?

What would I want with revenge?

I'm in hell.

And all I want is warmth.

Put a hand with your friend.

No. No, thank you, sir.

Then hurry.

Before the cold makes a ghost of him.

Blessed God.

For pity's sake, keep out of the light.

Compromise of the house, sir.

Good God, Mr. Corbett, what are you at? You'll betray us. Not I.

I'll not betray you.

Only give me wounds.

Forgive me.

You are a poor soul.

I'm not betrayed.

Not I.

I thank you.

And I believe you with all my heart.

I cannot hate you from beyond the grave.

I'll go and stand before the fire.

Then come stand behind me and warm yourself.

No one's watching.

Come, sir.

Move as I move, but for mercy's sake, be careful.

Are you warm now, sir?

Fire burns brightly.

I thank you, Master Partridge.

I thank you eternally.

I make it five minutes more.

Thanks, sir. What a hell of a clock.

It is five minutes slow. Only three minutes to midnight. Well, I make it

three. Three minutes.

Come, sir.

Nobody must be left out.

She said to be bad luck.

Don't hang back. The clock is about to strike.

Gotcha, lad.

It was him that brought the ghost.

A murderer.

Murderer. Murderer.

Murderer. Be gone with you before the new year strikes.

I can take your damnation with you. Outcast. Wicked, hateful outcast. How

dare you come amongst us.

Evil.

Happy New Year to you, Mr. Corbett.

I did not betray.

No.

I betrayed you.

Was it willingly done?

Most willingly.

You were so cold.

Hell is so cold.

We were in the Spaniards, Mr. Corbett, not hell.

No tavern, tomb, nor inn of rest for the murdered man.

Only a cold place in his murderous cold mansion of hate.

I don't hate you anymore, Mr. Colbert.

I've had my fill of revenge.

Where must we go, you and I?

Prime yours, Master Partridge. Everywhere you go, I must go.

Where?

Nowhere warm.

Only the darkest corners.

The forsaken places.

There, perhaps.

But before that, might I now bid farewell, see my home,

glimpse my wife and children.

One last look to carry a bright image into the dark.

They'll burst their hearts.

They'll shriek and run distracted.

You are a grim object, sir.

More than a soul can carry.

Do not see me.

I'll peer through the parlor window.

One last glimpse, I implore you, so brief and to last for so long.

I'll not be seen.

Through the window at the back?

And briefly? Briefly.

Then you'll not betray me? Not I.

Not I.

For the sake of our land

They'll be in the back, in the parlor, where I left them before I...

Before what?

Before I left to bring you back.

To bring me back?

I was sorry to have sent you out on such a night.

They're ashamed.

You had spoken of pity, and I had shown none.

I ran and ran and ran.

In the back.

They're in the back.

Alice. Alice.

Alice, my love.

My joy.

My sons.

My little ones.

Come away, for pity's sake, Mr. Corby. Come away.

One last glimpse.

Come away now.

Papa!

Look, Papa's at the window.

He's playing hide and seek.

It's late and bitter cold outside.

Papa, where are you?

He's hiding.

Let's play warm or cold.

Benjamin! Us by Benjamin!

You promised.

Come away, Mr Corbett. Come away.

Tom, stop your nonsense.

The boys will catch cold.

Where did Papa go?

It's one of his tricks.

Come on, let's chase them. All of you, come in the house at once.

Boys, now.

Benjamin Partridge.

Benjamin Partridge.

I'm here for my mixture.

You were so taken up with him back there that you quite forgot about my mixture.

The cold of the night sits in me and the ague shakes my bones. I've got the

chills.

I'm in need of my mixture.

Benjamin Partridge.

There's a wanting for jars, sir.

Hardly enough to go around.

Now, if you were to give me Mr. Corbett's jar, in exchange for this?

Hardly an equitable exchange.

You play me sharp, then, Partridge.

This bottle already has a lean upon it.

A debenture.

A hypothecation.

It has, in a word, accumulated interest.

What more can you pledge?

My heart and soul.

A shifty bargain.

Not yours to give.

It seems your heart and soul is pretty heavily mortgaged already.

I'm not in business for my health, young man.

Then please, sir, take my life. It's all I have to offer.

You're in luck, young man.

I've got just a chill.

You have me over a barrel.

Instead of a quarter of all you'll ever earn, I'll settle for a quarter of your

next week's wages.

I always deal in quarters.

Old habits are like old apothecaries.

Die hard.

Agreed? Agreed.

Plus the cost of the mixture, of course.

The jar, please, sir.

The jar.

Then partridge.

Tom?

Tom, will you be sure?

Come on to me.

Thomas?

Are you there?

Thomas, are you all right?

Happy New Year, Alice Downey.

We should have done this every year. I would have.

But I always thought he was anxious to be off.

Happy New Year, Benjamin.

And to you, sir.

A Happy New Year to the both of you. Happy New Year, Ben.

It was a dream.

Only a dream.

Did you say something?

No, sir.

By the by, Master Partridge, did you deliver that mixture?

Yes, sir.

Did the old man pay you?

I forgot to ask. I'm sorry, sir.

Never mind, Master Partridge.

I'll make it good.

We'll start the new year right.

I'll take it from your wages. Say, a quarter?

A quarter of next week's earnings.

Agreed?