Night Watch

17

Vimes’ speech here resonates with the kind of speech Judge Roy Bean used to make. Bean was a barkeeper turned hanging judge and self-proclaimed “Law West of the Pecos”, who set up court in Texas, and was known for his colourful (‘dubious’ and ‘arbitrary’ would also be good words here…) judgements. He famously fined a corpse $40 for carrying a concealed weapon, for instance.

When asked if Vimes’ speech was inspired by Roy Bean, Terry said:

“I’ve seen several variations on the quote, but I was certainly after the same general cadence, yes.

To the best of my recollection the quote does not appear in The Life and Times of JRB movie (1972) but may have turned up somewhere else.

[later] Ah…the only version of the quote I can find in my books here is different in details and rather more poetic. It’s also on the Web:

‘You have been tried by twelve good men and true, not of your peers but as high above you as heaven is of hell, and they have said you are guilty. Time will pass and seasons will come and go. Spring with its wavin’ green grass and heaps of sweet-smellin’ flowers on every hill and in every dale. Then sultry Summer, with her shimmerin’ heat-waves on the baked horizon. And Fall, with her yeller harvest moon and the hills growin’ brown and golden under a sinkin’ sun. And finally Winter, with its bitin’, whinin’ wind, and all the land will be mantled with snow. But you won’t be here to see any of ’em; not by a damn sight, because it’s the order of this court that you be took to the nearest tree and hanged by the neck til you’re dead, dead, dead, you olive-colored son of a billy goat.’ "