The Folk Show Treasure Hunt Song #4

Track 4 "William Frend"

Listen Again: http://www.mixcloud.com/ianfreedman18/

On The Readifolk Radio Show​ with Ian Freedman & Team / Blues and Roots Radio​

Online live link: http://www.bluesandrootsradio.com

The Team:

Ange Hardy (vocals, guitar)
Steve Pledger (vocals)
Steve Knightley (vocals)
Patsy Reid (viola)
Lukas Drinkwater (double bass & vocals).

The Song:

Whilst Coleridge was an undergraduate at Cambridge one of the tutors at the college, William Frend, was put on trial for publishing a leaflet speaking out against the liturgy of the Church. There’s a beautiful story that during that trial Coleridge applauded raucously from the balcony, deliberately to enrage the judge, before quickly switching places with a one-armed man who was blamed instead.

At the time Frend and Coleridge were united by the hope that The French Revolution would echo the success of The Glorious Revolution that preceded it.

The Lyrics:

Oh sweet William Frend
Who can condemn when
Oh sweet William Frend
We stand as equal men. 

Oh as equal men,
Oh as equal men.
Oh as equal men! 

Oh sweet William Frend
They’ll not condemn when
They all glorious rise again
And stand as equal men. 

Oh as equal men,
Oh as equal men.
Oh as equal men! 

Rise and stand for liberty
Applause will sound in the balcony,
So rise and stand for liberty
Applause will sound in the balcony,
So rise and stand for liberty of men.
So rise and stand for liberty of men.

Notes From Coleridge: 

As soon as he had apprehended his man, he said,
‘Sir, you were clapping your hands;’
to which the young gentleman replied, with a smile,
‘Ah! Sir, I wish I could,’
which increased the zealous Proctor’s wrath, 

and it might have gone hard with the luckless undergraduate,
if he had not shewn that his left arm was disabled... 

- Morning Chronicle, 28th May 1793