Where the thief represents egalitarian attitudes in his treatment of the joker, by contrast the princes and the women represent privilege and repression. The images are of luxurious living and unnecessary poverty – princes, women who came and went (but apparently didn’t do anything worth mentioning), contrasting with servants whose wages aren’t enough to buy shoes. The final four lines tell us what is wrong with life – why it might be dismissed as a joke. ‘The hour is getting late’ shows the thief’s awareness of life’s brevity and the need to act appropriately before the opportunity is lost. The thief characterises their previous attitude as false, suggesting that the only proper approach is to recognise true values. Seeing life as a joke will achieve nothing, but there’s no need for them to continue being negative. been through a lot) as well as having seen through the idea that complaining is likely to be purposeful. The expression he uses is ‘we’ve been through that’ which perhaps captures the idea of having suffered (i.e. Now, he says, they are both ‘through that’, meaning presumably that they see there’s no point in complaining – or getting ‘excited’- about things being wrong. Previously it seems both he and the joker had dismissed what life had in store for them as a joke, but no longer. It could, for all we know, be the selfish attitude of the better off, rather than his own inclination, which has forced him to become a thief (see below). He may be dismissed as a thief by those who determine society’s attitudes, but his values are in fact sound. It also, by way of contrast, emphasises the very unegalitarian attitudes of those about whom the joker is complaining. His use of the phrase ‘You and I’, putting the joker on a level with himself, seems deliberately unpatronising. He calms the joker down and speaks ‘kindly’ to him. Like the joker, the thief is also presented positively. He sees that true values are going unappreciated – and in particular that certain sections of society (‘businessmen’) are benefiting at the expense of others (‘ploughmen’). Like Lear’s fool, he is a wise joker, understanding the true state of the world. Nevertheless the joker’s criticisms seem serious. In that the narrator seems to speak dismissively of the main characters in describing them as ‘the joker’ and ‘the thief’ respectively, he may be ironically representing society’s attitudes to those who fail to accept its norms. Essentially the song is about attitudes towards corruption and privilege.
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