Chapter 24
Part 24 of Ancient Ballads and Songs of Lancashire, edited by John Harland. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Contentment, The Happy Workman's Song, by John Byrom. M.A.F.R.S. We copy this song by permission from the miscellaneous poems of this author.
I am a poor workman, as rich as a Jew, a strange sort of tale, but however it is true. Come listen a while, and I'll prove it to you, so as nobody can deny. I am a poor workman you'll easily grant, yet I'm rich as a Jew for there's nothing I want. I have meat, drink, and clothes, and am hearty and cant, which nobody can deny. I live in a cottage and yonder it stands, and while I can work with these two honest
hands, I'm as happy as they that have houses and lands, which nobody can deny. I keep to my workmanship all the day long, I sing and I whistle, and this is my song. Thank God who has made me so lusty and strong, which nobody can deny. I never am greedy of delicate fare, if God give me enough, though it is ever so bare, the more is his love and the less is my care, which nobody can deny.
My clothes on a working day, looking but lean, but when I can dress me, on Sundays I mean, though cheap they are warm, though coarse they are clean, which nobody can deny. Folks cry out hard times, but I never regard, for I ne'er did nor will set my heart upon the ward. So it is all one to me, been they easy or hard, which nobody will deny.
I envy not them that have thousands of pounds that sport o'er the country with horses and hounds. There's naught but contentment can keep within bounds, which nobody can deny. I ne'er lose my time or a pipe or a pot, nor cower in a nook like a sluggardly sot, but I buy what is wanting with what I have got, which nobody can deny.
And if I have more than I want for to spend, I help a poor neighbour or diligent friend, the poor to the lordy doth lend, which nobody can deny. I grudge not the gentle folk dressing so fine, that their gold and their silver I never repine, but I wish all their guts were as hearty as mine, which nobody can deny. With quarrels o' the country and matters of state, with tories and wigs I ne'er puzzle
my pate. There is some that I love, but none that I hate, which nobody can deny. What though my condition be ever so coarse, I strive to embrace it, for better or worse. And my heart, I thank God, is as light as my purse, which nobody can deny. Whatever in short my condition may be, it is God that appoints it as far as I see, and
I'm sure I can never do better than he, which nobody can deny.
