Mad Tom of Bedlam

Another one picked up at a renaissance faire.

As always, there seem to be a million versions of this, some with different verses than others. My version notes that "Maudlin" may be a corruption/contraction of Magdalene.


Mad Tom of Bedlam


For to see Mad Tom of Bedlam,
Ten thousand miles I've travelled.
Mad Maudlin goes on dirty toes,
For to save her shoes from gravel

Chorus

Still I sing bonney boys, Bonney mad boys,
Bedlam boys are bonney,
For they all go bare, and they live by the air,
And they want no drink nor money.


I went down to Satan's Kitchen
For to get me food one morning
And there I got souls piping hot
All on the spit a-turning

There I took up a cauldron
Where boiled ten thousand harlots
Though full of flame I drank the same
To the health of all such varlets

My staff has murdered giants
My bag a long knife carries
To cut mince pies from children's thighs,
And feed them to the faeries

The spirits white as lightening
Will on my travels guide me
The stars would shake and the moon would quake
Whenever they espied me

And when that I'll be murdering
The man in the moon to a powder
His staff I'll break and his dog I'll shake
And there'll howl no demon louder

For to see Mad Tom of Bedlam,
Ten thousand miles I've travelled.
Mad Maudlin goes on dirty toes,
For to save her shoes from gravel



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