Songs from The Beggar’s Opera: Air XXVII-“Green Sleeves”
By John Gay
Act III, Scene xiii, Air XXVII—“Green Sleeves”
Since laws were made, for every degree,
To curb vice in others, as well as me,
I wonder we han’t better company
Upon Tyburn tree.
But gold from law can take out the sting;
And if rich men, like us, were to swing,
’Twould thin the land, such numbers to string
Upon Tyburn tree.