For to see Mad Tom of Bedlam
Ten thousand miles I traveled
Mad Maudlin goes on dirty toes
To save her shoes from gravel
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 all want no drink nor money
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
Chorus
There I took a cauldron
Where boiled ten thousand harlots
Though full of fame I drank the same
To he health of all such varlets
Chorus
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
Chorus
The moon's my constant mistress,
And the lonely owl my marrow
The flaming drake and the night crow make
Me music to my sorrow
Chorus
The spirits white as lightening
Would on my travels guide me
The stars would shake and the moon would quake
Whenever they espied me
Chorus
And then that I'll be moudering
The Man in the Moon to the powder
His staff I'll break, his dog I'll shake
And there'll howl no demon louder
Chorus
The Gipsys, Snap and Pedro
Are none of Tom's comradoes
The pubk I scorn, and the cutpurse sowrm
And the roaring boy's bravadoes
Chorus
The meek, the white, the gentle,
Mu handle not nor spare not
But those that cross Tom Rhinoceros (Rynosseross)
Do what the panther dare not
Chorus
That of your five sound senses
You never be forsaken
Nor wander from your selves with Tom
Abroad to beg your bacon
Chorus
I'll bark against the Dog-Star
I'll crow away the morning
I'll chase the Moon till it be noon
And i'll make her leave her horning
Chorus
I now repent that ever
Poor Tom was so disdain-ed
My wits are lost since him I crossed
Which makes me thus go chained
Chorus
So drink to Tom of Bedlam
Go fill the seas in barrels
I'll drink it all, well brewed with gall
And Maudlin drunk
I'll quarrel