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
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
Still I sing bonny boys, bonny mad boys
Bedlam boys are bonny
For they all go bare & they live by the air
And they want no drink or money
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
Still I sing bonny boys, bonny mad boys
Bedlam boys are bonny
For they all go bare & they live by the air
And they want no drink or money
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
Of thirty bare years have I
Twice twenty been enraged
And of forty been three times fifteen
Endurance soundly caged
Still I sing bonny boys, bonny mad boys
Bedlam boys are bonny
For they all go bare & they live by the air
And they want no drink or money
The moon's my constant Mistrisse
And the lowly owl my morrowe
The flaming Drake and the Nightcrow make
Me music to my sorrow
I know more than Apollo
For oft, when he lies sleeping
I see the stars at bloody wars
In the wounded welkin weeping
Still I sing bonny boys, bonny mad boys
Bedlam boys are bonny
For they all go bare & they live by the air
And they want no drink or money
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 ghostes and shadowes
I summon'd am to tourney
Ten leagues beyond the wild world's end
Methinks it is no journey
Still I sing bonny boys, bonny mad boys
Bedlam boys are bonny
For they all go bare & they live by the air
And they want no drink or money
