Main lyrics, taken from extracts of C17 poetry

Good people you that pity have

Pity help now or ne’er

Mark me not to endless pain

I am condemnéd e’er

Or come the shipwreck of the world

The heavy states of night

Happy they, that in hell

Feel not the world’s despite

Ground bass, taken from Orcadian trial statements

Be this thread red

And foale’s footstaide

Heart, tongue, and eye almost

Three things sail thee mend againe