King, slave, and lord, ‘ennobl’d into MAN?’
Are we not equal all?—have you not told me,
Equality is the sacred right of man,
Inalienable, tho’ by force withheld?
John Ball. Even so; but Piers, my frail and fallible judgment
Knows hardly to decide if it be right,
Peaceably to return, content with little,
With this half restitution of our rights,
Or boldly to proceed thro’ blood and slaughter,
Till we should all be equal and all happy.