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The Poor Man Pays For All

from Monkfish Mix​-​Up At Farmers' Market by Paul Carbuncle

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This is but a dream which shall ensue, but the Author wishes his words were not true... (1630)

lyrics

As I lay musing all alone
Upon my resting bed
Full many a cogitation
Did come into my head
And, waking from my slumber,
My dream I did recall -
Methought I saw before my eyes
How the poor man pays for all.

Methought I saw how wealthy men
Did grind the poor men’s faces
And greedily did prey on them,
Not pitying their cases.
They make them toil and labour sore
For wages too too small.
The rich men in the tavern roar
But the poor man pays for all.

’Tis the weakest to the wall, and the poor man pays for all,
And the poor man, and the poor man,
The poor man pays for all.

I thought me in the countryside
Where poor men take great pains
And labour hard continually
Only for rich men’s gains.
Like the Israelites in Egypt
The poor are kept in thrall.
The task-masters keep playing
While the poor man pays for all.

Methought I saw two lawyers
And one to the other say,
‘We’ve had in hand this poor man’s case
A twelvemonth and a day,
And yet we’ll not contented be
To let the matter fall.
Bear thou with me and I’ll bear with thee
While the poor man pays for all.’

’Tis the weakest to the wall, and the poor man pays for all,
And the poor man, and the poor man,
The poor man pays for all.

Methought I saw a red-nose host
As fat as he could wallow
Whose carcass, if it should be roast,
Would drop ten stone of tallow.
He grows rich out of measure
With filling measure small.
He lives in mirth and pleasure
But the poor man pays for all.

And so likewise the brewer stout,
The chandler and the baker,
The maltman also, without doubt,
And the tobacco-taker.
Though they be proud and stately grown
And bear themselves so tall
Yet to the world it is well known:
The poor man pays for all.

’Tis the weakest to the wall, and the poor man pays for all,
And the poor man, and the poor man,
The poor man pays for all.

credits

from Monkfish Mix​-​Up At Farmers' Market, released September 20, 2020
Tune by Paul Carbuncle. Lyrics traditional.

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Paul Carbuncle Nottingham, UK

You can take the lad out of Pluckley but he'll still sing about hops.

Profile photo by Hugh Miller.

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