You can’t really understand English history without a thorough grounding in the English Revolution in the mid 1600s. That this is called the English Civil War in England, and the English Revolution elsewhere, is indicative of numerous attempts to rewrite this period of history to suit the winners and the powers that be.
Christopher Hill is a masterful guide to this period in history and this is a really good place to start understanding the revolution from a far broader perspective than ones you may have picked up from popular culture or school.
Featuring the Diggers, the Ranters, the Levellers, the Quakers and any number of other sects and radicals who survived to become religions or nineties festival bands, it is a portrait not of the bourgeois revolution that won out but of the far more fundamental overturning of society which many were driving for.
We seldom sing this in the show, opting to go for the Leon Rosselson song as it is a bit more of a romp. Lady Maisery’s version is a favourite. Roy Palmer has the full and original lyrics in A Ballad History Of England, which I’ve also included a photo of below as I’m feeling a little too lazy to type them up, sorry.
You noble Diggers all, stand up now, stand up now, You noble Diggers all, stand up now, The waste land to maintain, seeing Cavaliers by name Your digging do disdain and your persons all defame Stand up now, Diggers all.
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 poor men in town, But the gentry must come down and the poor shall wear the crown. Stand up now, Diggers all.
With spades and hoes and ploughs, stand up now, stand up now, With spades and hoes and ploughs, stand up now. Your freedom to uphold, seeing Cavaliers are bold To kill you if they could and rights from you withhold. Stand up now, Diggers all.
Their self-will is their law, stand up now, stand up now, Their self-will is their law, stand up now. Since tyranny came in they count it now no sin To make a gaol a gin and to serve poor men therein. Stand up now, Diggers all.
The 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 they are found, Their wisdom’s so profound to cheat us of the ground. Stand up now, Diggers all.
The lawyers they conjoin, stand up now, stand up now, The lawyers they conjoin, stand up now, To arrest you they advise, such fury they devise, But the devil in them lies, and hath blinded both their eyes. Stand up now, Diggers all.
The 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 win. Stand 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 are they both even flat against their oath, To grant us they are loath 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 poor folk in awe, That they no vision saw to maintain such a law. Glory now, Diggers all.
You can’t really understand English history without a thorough grounding in the English Revolution in the mid 1600s. That this is called the English Civil War in England, and the English Revolution elsewhere, is indicative of numerous attempts to rewrite this period of history to suit the winners and the powers that be.
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