Songs by Robert Burns

Bob Hay & the Jolly Beggars song book
When princes and prelates


      D                   A
When Princes and Prelates and het-headed zealots
    D                    Bm
A' Europe had set in a lowe,
     D                      A
The poor man lies down, Nor envies a crown,
        G        A         D
And comforts himself wi' a mowe -
    D                       A
And why shouldna poor folk mowe, mowe,
    Bm                      G
And why shouldna poor folk mowe:
     D             Bm        F#m      Bm
The great folk hae siler 'n houses 'n lands
       G          A           D
Poor bodies hae naething but mowe

When Brunswick's great prince cam a cruisin' to France,
Republican billies to cowe,
Bauld Brunswick's great prince wadda shawn better sense,
At hame wi' his prinecss to mowe,

By sea an' by shore! The Emperor swore,
At Paris to kick up a row,
But Paris, sae ready, just leugh at the laddie,
And bade him gae take him a mowe. 

But truce with commotions and new-fangled notions,
A bumper I trust you'll allow;
Here's George our gude king and Charlotte his queen,
And lang may they tak a gude mowe!