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"Tom o' Bedlam" is the title of an anonymous poem in the "mad song" genre, written in the voice of a homeless " Bedlamite". The poem was probably composed at the beginning of the 17th century. In ''How to Read and Why''
Harold Bloom Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world". Af ...
called it "the greatest anonymous lyric in the nglishlanguage." The terms "Tom o' Bedlam" and “Bedlam beggar” were used to describe beggars and vagrants who had or feigned mental illness (see also Abraham-men).
Aubrey Aubrey () is a traditionally male English language, English name. It was quite common in the Middle Ages, but had lost favour for a time before experiencing a resurgence of popularity in the 19th century. In the United States, following the 1973 ...
writes that such a beggar could be identified by “an armilla of tin printed, of about three inches breadth” attached to his left arm. They claimed, or were assumed, to be former inmates of the
Bethlem Royal Hospital Bethlem Royal Hospital, also known as St Mary Bethlehem, Bethlehem Hospital and Bedlam, is a psychiatric hospital in Bromley, London. Its famous history has inspired several horror books, films, and television series, most notably ''Bedlam (194 ...
(Bedlam). It was commonly thought that inmates were released with authority to make their way by begging, though this is probably untrue. If it happened at all, the numbers were small, though there were probably large numbers of mentally ill travellers who turned to begging, but had never been near Bedlam. It was adopted as a technique of begging, or a character. For example, Edgar in ''
King Lear ''The Tragedy of King Lear'', often shortened to ''King Lear'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It is loosely based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his ...
'' disguises himself as mad "Tom o' Bedlam".


Structure and verses

The poem has eight verses of eight lines each, each verse concluding with a repetition of a four-line chorus. The existence of a chorus suggests that the poem may originally have been sung as a ballad. The version reproduced here is the one presented in Bloom's ''How to Read and Why''. Tom o' Bedlam From the hag and hungry goblin That into rags would rend ye, The spirit that stands by the naked man In the Book of Moons defend ye, That of your five sound senses You never be forsaken, Nor wander from your selves with Tom Abroad to beg your bacon, ::While I do sing, Any food, any feeding, ::Feeding, drink, or clothing; ::Come dame or maid, be not afraid, ::Poor Tom will injure nothing. Of thirty bare years have I Twice twenty been enragèd, And of forty been three times fifteen In durance soundly cagèd On the lordly lofts of Bedlam, With stubble soft and dainty, Brave bracelets strong, sweet whips ding-dong, With wholesome hunger plenty, ::And now I sing, Any food, any feeding, ::Feeding, drink, or clothing; ::Come dame or maid, be not afraid, ::Poor Tom will injure nothing. With a thought I took for Maudlin And a cruse of cockle pottage, With a thing thus tall, sky bless you all, I befell into this dotage. I slept not since the Conquest, Till then I never wakèd, Till the roguish boy of love where I lay Me found and stript me nakèd. ::And now I sing, Any food, any feeding, ::Feeding, drink, or clothing; ::Come dame or maid, be not afraid, ::Poor Tom will injure nothing. When I short have shorn my sow's face And swigged my horny barrel, In an oaken inn I pound my skin As a suit of gilt apparel; The moon's my constant mistress, And the lowly owl my marrow; The flaming drake and the night crow make Me music to my sorrow. ::While I do sing, Any food, any feeding, ::Feeding, drink, or clothing; ::Come dame or maid, be not afraid, ::Poor Tom will injure nothing. The palsy plagues my pulses When I prig your pigs or pullen, Your culvers take, or matchless make Your Chanticleer or Sullen. When I want provant with Humphrey I sup, and when benighted, I repose in Paul's with waking souls Yet never am affrighted. ::But I do sing, Any food, any feeding, ::Feeding, drink, or clothing; ::Come dame or maid, be not afraid, ::Poor Tom will injure nothing. I know more than Apollo, For oft, when he lies sleeping I see the stars at bloody wars In the wounded welkin weeping; The moon embrace her shepherd, And the Queen of Love her warrior, While the first doth horn the star of morn, And the next the heavenly Farrier. ::While I do sing, Any food, any feeding, ::Feeding, drink, or clothing; ::Come dame or maid, be not afraid, ::Poor Tom will injure nothing. The gypsies, Snap and Pedro, Are none of Tom's comradoes, The punk I scorn and the cutpurse sworn, And the roaring boy's bravadoes. The meek, the white, the gentle Me handle, touch, and spare not; But those that cross Tom Rynosseros Do what the panther dare not. ::Although I sing, Any food, any feeding, ::Feeding, drink, or clothing; ::Come dame or maid, be not afraid, ::Poor Tom will injure nothing. With a host of furious fancies Whereof I am commander, With a burning spear and a horse of air, To the wilderness I wander. By a knight of ghosts and shadows I summoned am to tourney Ten leagues beyond the wide world's end: Methinks it is no journey. ::Yet will I sing, Any food, any feeding, ::Feeding, drink, or clothing; ::Come dame or maid, be not afraid, ::Poor Tom will injure nothing.


"Mad Maudlin's Search"

The original ballad was popular enough that another poem was written in reply: "Mad Maudlin's Search" or "Mad Maudlin's Search for Her Tom of Bedlam" (she may be meant to be the Maud who seems to be mentioned in the verse "With a thought I took for Maudlin / And a cruise of cockle pottage / With a thing thus tall, Sky bless you all / I befell into this dotage." which apparently records Tom going mad) or "Bedlam Boys" (from the chorus, "Still I sing bonny boys, bonny mad boys / Bedlam boys are bonny / For they all go bare and they live by the air / And they want no drink or money."), whose first stanza is: :For to see Mad Tom of Bedlam, :Ten thousand miles I've traveled. :Mad Maudlin goes on dirty toes, :For to save her shoes from gravel The remaining stanzas include: :I went down to Satan's kitchen :To break my fast one morning :And there I got souls piping hot :All on the spit a-turning. :There I took 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 :For which to feed the fairies. :No gypsy, slut or doxy :Shall win my mad Tom from me :I'll weep all night, with stars I'll fight :The fray shall well become me.
It was apparently first published in 1720 by Thomas d'Urfey in his '' Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy''. "Maudlin" was a form of
Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cr ...
. Because of the number of variants of each poem, and confusion between the two, neither "Tom o' Bedlam" nor "Mad Maudlin" can be said to have definitive texts."minstrel: Tom o' Bedlam, Calino"
The folk-rock band Steeleye Span recorded "Boys of Bedlam", a version of "Mad Maudlin", on their 1971 album '' Please To See The King''. Steeleye recorded a very different arrangement on '' Dodgy Bastards'' (2016), which included a rap section and a bassline that set the song in the
Phrygian mode : The Phrygian mode (pronounced ) can refer to three different musical modes: the ancient Greek ''tonos'' or ''harmonia,'' sometimes called Phrygian, formed on a particular set of octave species or scales; the medieval Phrygian mode, and the m ...
.


In modern culture

* Lin Carter included the poem in his 1969 fantasy anthology '' Dragons, Elves, and Heroes''. * Tom o' Bedlam is the name Edgar gives in
Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
's ''
King Lear ''The Tragedy of King Lear'', often shortened to ''King Lear'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It is loosely based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his ...
'' when he pretends to be a mad vagrant. It is also to be found in a case before Star Chamber in 1632 when a Sussex man complains of being defamed in a set of verses sung in the ale houses of Rye to the tune of Tom o' Bedlam, further indication that it was a ballad. * Kenneth Patchen's
surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...
'' The Journal of Albion Moonlight'' is loosely based on and makes frequent reference to the poem. * Darrell Schweitzer has written a series of fantasy stories featurning Tom O'Bedlam as the protagonist, the first of them published in 1977. The first three were collected in '' Tom O'Bedlam's Night Out and Other Strange Excursions'' (1985). *
Robert Silverberg Robert Silverberg (born January 15, 1935) is a prolific American science fiction author and editor. He is a multiple winner of both Hugo Award, Hugo and Nebula Awards, a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, and a SFWA Grand ...
's
science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
novel '' Tom O' Bedlam'' (1985) includes several quotations from the poem. The main character also calls himself by that name. * John Brunner's 1968 novel '' Bedlam Planet'' prefaces each chapter with entire stanzas from the poem, titling the chapter after the subject of the stanza. *
Mercedes Lackey Mercedes Ritchie Lackey (born June 24, 1950) is an American writer of Fantasy literature, fantasy novels. Many of her novels and trilogies are interlinked and set in the world of Velgarth, mostly in and around the country of Valdemar (fictional co ...
has co-authored a series of books whose titles are taken from verses of the poem. * The mentor of the main character in
Grant Morrison Grant Morrison (born 31 January 1960) is a Scottish comic book writer, screenwriter, and producer. Their work is known for its nonlinear narratives, Humanism, humanist philosophy and counterculture, countercultural leanings. Morrison has writt ...
's '' The Invisibles'' is named and structured after Tom O'Bedlam. * Parts of Derek Walcott's
poem Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
"The Bounty" (1997) are addressed to "mad Tom." *
Folk rock Folk rock is a fusion genre of rock music with heavy influences from pop, English and American folk music. It arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music re ...
band Steeleye Span set the poem to music on the album '' Please to See the King''. * Jolie Holland recorded a version of Maudlin's song titled "Mad Tom of Bedlam" on her 2004 album ''Escondida''. Charlene Kaye also recorded this version for her ''The Brilliant Eyes'' EP. * Old Blind Dogs, a traditional Scottish band, recorded a version titled "Bedlam Boys" on their 1992 debut album ''New Tricks'' and a new arrangement on their 2004 album ''Four on the Floor''. * A recording of the poem sung in the style of a tavern song is included in the soundtrack of the video game '' Stronghold 3''. For unknown reasons, the line "Ten thousand miles I've traveled" was changed to "Ten thousand ''years'' I ''travel''". * An incidental character in Rosemary Sutcliff's '' Brother Dusty-Feet'' is called "Tom o' Bedlam" and sings this poem (anachronistically: ''Brother Dusty-Feet'' is set in the reign of Queen Elizabeth), of which only the last verse (without the refrain) occurs in the text. * In the 2015 video game '' Assassin's Creed Syndicate'', there are 31 hidden music boxes scattered throughout 1868 London's streets. When one goes to the Progression Log and look under "Secrets of London", they can see the locations of each of the 31 music boxes as a screenshot showing the box and whatever is nearby, leaving it up to the player to figure out exactly where it is. Additionally, each entry is accompanied by a four-line quote from "Tom o' Bedlam".


References


Further reading

*''Loving Mad Tom: Bedlamite verses of the XVI and XVII centuries''; with five illustrations by Norman Lindsay; the texts edited with notes by Jack Lindsay; musical transcriptions by Peter Warlock. London: Fanfrolico Press, 1927


External links


Comments by Isaac D'Israeli
in "Curiosities of Literature" {{Authority control 1600s poems Ballads British poems Works of unknown authorship English poems Fictional beggars