Boys Of Bedlam - Maddy Prior

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