The Diggers Song (1649) Lyrics

You noble diggers all stand up now, stand up now
You noble diggers all stand up now
The wasteland to maintain sin [unknown] cavaliers by name
Your digging does maintain and persons all defameStand up now, stand up now
Your houses they pull down stand up now, stand up now
Your houses they pull down, stand up now
Your houses they pull down to fright your men in townBut the gentry must come down and the poor shall wear the crown
Stand up now diggers all
With spades and hoes and plows stand up now, stand up now
With spades and hoes and plows, stand up nowYour freedom to uphold sin [unknown] cavaliers are bold
To kill you if they could and rights from you to hold
Stand up now diggers allThe gentry are all round stand up now, stand up now
The gentry are all round stand up now
The gentry are all round on each side the are found
Their wisdom so profound to cheat us of our groundStand up now stand up now
The lawyers they conjoin stand up now stand up now
The lawyers they conjoin stand up now
To rescue they advise, such fury they devise, the devil in them liesAnd hath blinded both their eyes

Stand up now, stand up nowThe clergy they come in stand up now, stand up now
The clergy they come in stand up now
The clergy they come in and say it is a sin
That we should now begin our freedom for to winStand up now diggers all
'Gainst lawyers and 'gainst priests stand up now stand up now
'Gainst lawyers and 'gainst priests stand up now
For tyrants they are both, even flat against their oathTo grant us they are loathe free meat and drink and cloth
Stand up now diggers all
The club is all their law, stand up now stand up now
The club is all their law, stand up now
The club is all their law, to keep all men in awe
That they no vision saw to maintain such a law
Stand up now diggers all
Songwriters
HUNTER, NIGEL/DUNSTAN, BRUCE/NUTTER, ALICE/WATTS, LOUISEPublished by
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