Boys of Bedlam

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

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 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 a spit a-turning.

My staff has murdered giants / And my bag a long knife carries
To cut mince pies from children's thighs / With which to feed the fairies.

My spirit's white as lightning / Would on my travels guide me
The moon would shake and the stars would quake / Whenever they espied me.

And when that I have murdered / The man in the moon to a powder
His staff I'll break and his doct I'll shake / and there howl no demon louder.

For to see mad Tom of Bedlam / Ten thousand years I travelled
Mad Maudlin goes on dirty toes / For to save her shoes from gravel.