... and other people have been editing the article since I looked last (*gasp!*) including linking to a great folk version of the poem, available on the fediverse no less! https://makertube.net/w/f4GR9veH279QGhYVFLwEck

The commons circle completes, hi @helenbellmusic ! 👋 😄

@douginamug that's awesome, great article too ^.^

I think it's also likely that now the article exists, even more people will reference it in media and also in regular conversation

@douginamug I think this goes back further than you found. I posted on Facebook about it a couple of years ago: https://www.facebook.com/558151070/posts/pfbid02ZT9snBof15AzuNfUXJvvhAU6psALiNv2abFx5ZFQtoCYuBKbtJE2ufK1vEtsQv4Dl/?app=fbl

"That dolt's hung who steals geese from a heath for his use,
Yet those laugh who steal common and all from the goose." (1797)

"It's a shame in man or woman,
To steal a goose from off a common;
But sure that man's without excuse,
Who steals the common from the goose." (1854)

"The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from the goose." (Henry Fielding, 1903)

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This folk rhyme / song relates to a story recounted by William Sanderson in his 1656 history of King James, in which the king is going to dinner at a Berkshire nobleman's house in 1608 and comes across a man in stocks on the common. The man quips that it is the lord who is the greater thief and the king refuses to dine with Sir Thomas until access to the common is restored.