Let honest tradesmen now attend
And bear a mournful part with me
It is to you these lines I send
For to console our misery
I See the times which makes me weep
There's nought but poor men's labour cheap
I see the times which makes me weep
There's nought but poor men's labour cheap
The rich they do continually
Run down the poor men's labour still
If he'll not work so straight they cry
Begin, we know another will
And thus the poor in awe they keep
There's nothing but their labour cheap
I see the times which makes me weep
There's nought but poor men's labour cheap
The working man he straight complies
Because of his young children small
For half a loaf of bread he cries
Is better far than none at all
Because he hath a charge to keep
He's forced to work and labour cheap
Because she hath a charge to keep
She's forced to work and labour cheap
Alas too well we understand
What causes all our grief and care
It is the wars by sea and land
Alas, alas who can forbear
In these hard times to sigh and weep
There's nought but poor men's labour cheap
I see the times which makes me weep
There's none but poor men's labour cheap