The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #163454   Message #3900214
Posted By: GUEST,Chris Foster
17-Jan-18 - 04:04 PM
Thread Name: The common and the goose
Subject: Looking for a tune
I am looking for a tune or tunes for the following set of verses. The poem appears multiple times at least as far back as a Pepys diary entry in 1664. I've heard bits of it quoted many times, but don't recall ever hearing it sung.

The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from off the goose

The law demands that we atone
When we take things we do not own
But leaves the lords and ladies fine
Who take things that are yours and mine

The poor and wretched don't escape
If they conspire the law to break
This must be so but they endure
Those who conspire to make the law

The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
And geese will still a common lack
Till they go and steal it back