Classic Poem

1

I have reason to fly thee,
And not sit down by thee;
For I hate to behold,
One so sawcy and bold,
To deride and contemn his superiors;
Our Madams and Lords
And such mannerly words,
With the gestures that be
Fit for every degree,
Are things that we and you
Both claim as our due
From all those that are our inferiours
For from the beginning there were Princes we know,
'Tis you Levellers hate 'um 'cause you can't be so.

2

All titles of honours
Were at first in the donours;
But being granted away
With the grantee stay
Where he wear a small soul or a bigger
There's a necessitie
That there should be degree
Where 'tis due we'l afford
A Sir John , and my Lord,
Though Dick, Tom and Jack ,
Will serve you and your pack,
Honest Dick's name enough for a Digger
He that has a strong purse can all things be or do,
He is valiant and wise and religious too.

3

We have cause to adore,
That man that has store,
Though a Bore or a sot,
There's something to be got,
Though he be neither honest nor witty;
Make him high, let him rule,
He'l be playing the fool,
And transgresse, then we'l squeze
Him for fines and for fees
And so we shall gain,
By the wants of his brain,
'Tis the fools-cap that maintains the Citty.
If honour be air, 'tis in common, and as fit,
For the fool and the clown, as for the champion or the wit.

4

Then why mayn't we be
Of different degree?
And each man aspire
To be greater and higher
Then his wiser or honester brother,
Since Fortune and Nature
Their favours do scatter;
This hath valour, that wit,
T'other wealth, nor is't fit
That one should have all,
For then what would befall
Him, that's born not to one nor to t'other?
Though honour were a prize at first, now 'tis a chattle
And as merchantable grown as your wares or your catle.

5

Yet in this we agree,
To live quiet and free,
To drink sack and submit,
And not shew our wit
By our prating, but silence, and thinking;
Let the politick Jewes
Read Diurnalls and Newes,
And lard their discourse,
With a Comment that's worse;
That which pleaseth me best
Is a song or a Jest,
And my obedience I'll shew by my drinking
He that drinks well, does sleep well, he that sleeps well doth think well,
He that thinks well, does do well, he that does well, must drink well.