| Diggers' Song | |
|---|---|
| by Gerrard Winstanley | |
| Genre | Folk |
| Form | Ballad |
| Language | English |
| Composed | 17th century |
| Published | 1894 |
"The Diggers' Song" (Roud 1521, also known as "Levellers and Diggers") is a 17th-century English ballad by Gerrard Winstanley, a protest song about land rights inspired by the Diggers movement. The lyrics were published in 1894 by the Camden Society. It is sung to a version of the family of tunes later used for "Sam Hall", "Captain Kidd", and "Admiral John Benbow", which according to Roy Palmer was first printed in 1714. The English band Chumbawamba recorded a version of this song on their 1988 album English Rebel Songs 1381–1914 .
According to Leon Rosselson his 1975 song "The World Turned Upside Down", [lower-alpha 1] while a song about the Diggers, is not a version of Winstanley's "Diggers' Song". [1] Sung along with Roy Bailey, this song was one the pieces selected by Tony Benn when he appeared on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs on 15 January 1989. [2] However, Rosselson later recorded a version of "The Diggers' Song" (under the title "You Noble Diggers All") using the traditional lyrics and tune on his album Harry's Gone Fishing .
Chumbawamba also released a version of Rosselson's composition on their 1993 single "Timebomb", sang "The Diggers' Song" in 1988 on their LP English Rebel Songs 1381–1914, and recorded it again in 2003 for the re-made CD English Rebel Songs 1381–1984. In 2007, they sang it on their live CD Get On With It – Live.
You noble Diggers all, stand up now, stand up now,
You noble Diggers all, stand up now,
The wast land to maintain, seeing Cavaliers by name
Your digging does maintain, and persons all defame
Stand 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 town,
But the gentry must come down, and the poor shall wear the crown.
Stand up now, Diggers all. [3]— Stanzas 1 & 2
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The Diggers were a group of religious and political dissidents in England, associated with a political ideology and programme resembling what would later be called agrarian socialism. Gerrard Winstanley and William Everard, amongst many others, were known as True Levellers in 1649, in reference to their split from the Levellers, and later became known as Diggers because of their attempts to farm on common land. Due to this and to their beliefs, the Diggers were driven from one county after another by the authorities.
Gerrard Winstanley was an English Protestant religious reformer, political philosopher, and activist during the period of the Commonwealth of England. Winstanley was the leader and one of the founders of the English group known as the True Levellers or Diggers. The group occupied formerly common land that had been privatised by enclosures and dug them over, pulling down hedges and filling in ditches, to plant crops. "True Levellers" was the name they used to describe themselves, whereas the term "Diggers" was coined by contemporaries.
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