Commonly Called Masaniello
Imagined to have been delivered by him
at the Revolt of Naples in 1647
Awake! Arise my country’s sons,
Gird on your swords for fight;
For victory or death must soon,
Upon each bosom light
Too long a hateful tyrant crew 5
Have held you all in thrall:
Awake! Arise my country’s sons,
Rouse up both one and all.
So, will you longer thus submit
To lead the life of slaves? 10
Far better let the battle field
Become each of your graves.
For those who die in freedom’s cause,
In heav’n will find a home;Where tyrants and base parasites 15
Can never hope to come.
Say, shall the Neapolitan
Crouch to the Spanish yoke?
Or shall each link of slav’ry’s chain
Asunder now be broke? 20
Though cowards may stand trembling,
And priests may cry “obey,”
God, nature, and our reason,
All three doth answer NAY!
Man ne’er was form’d for bondage, 25
Nor born to be a slave;
He should be free as his thoughts—
Chainless as ocean’s waves!
Yes, as the winds that o’er us sweep
Refuse to be restrained 30
So should mankind spurn slav’ry’s yoke,
Nor be by tyrants chain’d.
Fair freedom is the gift of God,
By him to mortals giv’n:
Then shall so fair, so good a gift, 35
From us be rudely riv’n?
No, no! brave Neapolitans,
We’ll sooner fight and die:
Behold your homes by Spaniards spoil’d,
Your children pine and die! 40
When parents, wives, and little ones,
Aloud for vengeance cry,
How can the sword keep in the sheath?
Draw, draw for liberty.
I, though only a poor fisherman, 45
Will freely lead you on;
I call on you for your support,
Till the good work be done.
Then shout aloud with all your might
Until it rend the sky, 50
“Freedom for Naples and her sons,
Death, death, or liberty!”
George Markham Tweddell
Stokesley ‘Georgius.’
[No. 12, 01.10.1843, p. 99]
"Masaniello (an abbreviation of Tommaso Aniello) (1622 – July 16, 1647) was an Italian fisherman, who became leader of the revolt against the rule of Habsburg Spain in Naples in 1647."
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