‘People of England, ye who toil and groan’

These lines are roughly drafted, without title, in a mixture of pencil and ink on ff. 57^v rev.−59^r rev., 60^v rev.−61^r rev. of Nbk 10. Mary transcribed twelve lines only (all on ff. 57^v rev.−58^r rev.) from the draft into Mary Copybk 2 but did not include them in any of her editions. Her transcription, disposed as heroic couplets, comprises ll. 1–5, 7, 9–10 and 11–14 of the text presented here. Richard Garnett later transcribed six and a half lines from f. 58r rev. which he published in Relics (81) as number XX in the section headed Fragments. Forman 1876–7 iv (7–8) combined under the title Fragment: To the People of England the lines from Relics with the nine lines (ten were drafted) of What men gain fairly, that should they possess (no. 282) which Mary had included in 1840, asserting that ‘I think there can be little if any doubt that the whole sixteen lines, hitherto printed apart, belong together’. This seems unlikely, despite prosodic similarities and their proximity in Nbk 10: see headnote to What men gain fairly. They are treated as separate texts in this edition. The draft appears to authorise the division into four stanzas, each renewing the direct address, and each of which S. begins on a new page, though in this as in other matters the construction of a text from a draft which in places is very rough, and which S. did not complete, is necessarily provisional. The principal concerns of the poem, the order in which they appear, and even some of its phrases S. recuperated from this draft and incorporated into Song: To The Men of England (see headnote to no. 291). This is no doubt the reason why Mary did not publish the lines she transcribed from People of England, which is one of a number of poems in which following Peterloo S. treats the hardship, injustice and oppression endured by English labourers and artisans. See headnote to MA (no. 231). The draft is written on either side of What men gain fairly, which probably preceded it in the nbk. As that poem seems to date from the period December 1819–January 1820, the composition of this poem may also be assigned to that period, very likely shortly after What men gain fairly, though it may have been composed at any time before 1 May 1820 when S. 254wrote to Leigh Hunt proposing a small volume of popular songs on political topics and asking Hunt's help in finding a publisher for it: see headnote to Song: To the Men of England.