Tom O' Bedlam--a mad song
The following post has been edited many times as I worked through the meanings of "Tom O' Bedlam". (Many thanks to Clive Watkins for his useful comments.) Most of the comments that follow it were about earlier postings and not this current version. Please bear that in mind as you read through the thread.
There are many versions of this anonymous song from the very early seventeenth century. It is a regular anthology piece but what interests me is that no one seems to quite understand what this mad song actually is. Basically, it is a song of little riddles. The madman is speaking quite clearly--if you solve his riddles.
The basic story it tells is a proverbial one--a young man at twentyone comes into his majority, proceeds to a whorehouse, falls in love with a whore, and during a year long spree she takes him for everything he has got. He is so obsessed that he is locked up as a madman. Eventually he is released from Bedlam to wander the streets a mad beggar.
The following is taken from Thomas Dekker's "The Honest Whore, part I". Sweeper (an attendent at a madhouse) and the Duke are discussing the occupants of the madhouse.
Duke:Few gentlemen or Courtiers here, ha?
Sweeper:Oh yes! Abundance, aboundance! Lands no sooner fall into their hands, but straight they runne out of their wits! Citizens sons and heires are free of the [mad]house by their father's copy. Farmers sons come hither like geese (in flocks), when they have sold all their corn fields, here they sit and pick the straws.
The version that I will use is the oldest known version from "Giles Earle his booke" (1615). This was a collection of manuscript songs and verses that Giles Earle had collected over a period of years. I take it from "Loving Mad Tom" an essay by Robert Graves from his book called THE COMMON ASPHODEL.
Verse 1
From the hag and hungry Goblin,
that into raggs would rend yee,
and the spirit that stand's by the naked man,
in the booke of moons defend yee
Madness and lunacy were two distinct things--the former caused by witches and evil spirits and the latter by the full moon. "That into rags would rend thee" means to drive you into proverty, having no clothing left but rags.The "book of moons" refers not to an actual book but to the full moon. The full moon contains all partial moons within itself just as a book contains all its chapters. (To refer to the full moon as the "book of moons" is a very Shakespearean type usage--I think Shakespeare wrote this song.) The naked (defenseless) man was susceptible to the spirit that caused lunar madness. Other were not bothered by this malady. Witches and goblins could attack anyone.
That of your five sounde senses
you never be forsaken
Nor travel from your selves with Tom
abroad to beg your bacon
When funds were short or Bedlam too crowded, some of the mad were released to wander the streets as beggers (sometimes still wearing their chains).
Chorus: while I doe sing any food, any feeding,
feedinge---drink or clothing:
Come dame or maid, be not afraid,
poore Tom will injure nothing.
Self-explanatory.
Verse 2
Of thirty bare yeares have I
twice twenty bin enraged,
and of forty bin three tymes fifteen
In durance soundlie caged,
Bare=barely, only. "Twice twenty" is a hyperbolic phrase, an intensifer and means hugely, greatly or totally. The first two lines say--Only thirty years old I have been totally enraged (driven totally mad).
The next line is different--it is simple arithmetic. Fifteen=one fifteenth. Three times fifteen=3x1/15=3/15=1/5 or one fifth. One fifth of forty equals 8.
The stanza says "Of only thirty years of age, I have been driven totally mad and for eight years been continually locked up in Bedlam." Tom is now 30 years old and has been released to wander the streets as a harmless mad beggar. Being thirty years old that means he was locked up at the age of twenty two. The tale of the young rake who turns twenty one, goes "whore mad" and within a year spends all his money was a proverbial one.
On the lordlie loftes of Bedlam
with stubble softe and dainty,
brave braceletts strong, sweet whips ding dong
with wholesome hunger plenty,
and nowe I sing &c.
Self-explanatory. Bedlam had two floors. The upper level was where the madest of the mad were kept. Their only bedding was straw.
Verse 3
With a thought I tooke for Maudline
and a cruse of cockle pottage
with a thing thus tall, sky bless you all:
I befell into this dotage.
Here we learn the reason why Tom is mad. Maudlin was short for Mary Magdalene or prostitute and pottage was a vegetable stew. Cockles were weeds. Stews were what houses of prostitution were called. Cruse=bowl. To satisfy his appetite Tom went looking for a whore. He had a "bowl of cockle pottage" at a "stew". Tall=of a handsome appearance. "Sky bless you all" seems to be the word "skeblous-u-al", a word with a Scottish root meaning "rascally, evil, dispised." Scottish things were something of a vogue when James I took the throne. The whole phrase "with a thing thus tall, skeblousual" is making a sarcastic comparison between the whore's outward desirability and her inward vile nature. Tom went mad over a worthless whore. Dotage has a double meaning. Tom dotes on his whore but dotage also meant mental incompetence.
There is a good possibility that "Thus tall" is actually a phonetic pronounciation of a 16th century Scottish word that I do not recognize.
I slept not since the Conquest
till then I never waked,
Till the rogysh boy of love where I lay
mee found and strip't me naked.
and now I sing &c.
Tom falls in love with his whore and is driven whore mad. Conquest=Tom's conquest by love. Tom cannot sleep i.e. cannot put his love to rest, give it up.----Till then I never waked=this was Tom's first experience with love. The passions of love had never before been woken in him till he met his whore. He was an innocent.----The roguish boy of love=Cupid---stripped me naked=made me defenseless.
Verse 4
When I short have shorne my sowce face
and swigg'd my horny barrel,
In an oaken Inne do I pound my skin
as a suite of guilt apparell.
Basically this says that Tom spends all his money on his whore (cuts his own beard short--we still used the expression "clipped" to mean flimflammed or robbed). Tom, by his extravagence, ruins himself. Sowce=sow's. Short shorn my pig's face--Tom has wasted the money that was to give him his start in the world, like a pig gobbling it up as quickly as possible. Horny barrel=Tom has gotten drunk on his whore--his infatuation and lack of judgment are likened to drunkenness. He is arrested for debts and sadly finds himself in "an oaken Inne"=Stocks. Prisoners for short term were kept in stocks before being taken to court or sent to prison. "Pound my skin"=Pound is short for "compound" which meant to make arrangements to settle debts. Tom's body will have to settle the debts he can't pay. He will go to prison till he pays his debts. "A (law)suite of gilt(guilt) apparrell(ment)" describes the legal condition that will send him to prison. Guilte apparrellment (After the Norman conquest French was the language of the law in England. Queen Elizabeth's reign was a transition period between French and English.) meant "obvious guilt". Back then creditors could file suit against debtors showing evidence of money owed and have the debtors immediately arrested and thrown into prison. But Tom is also obviously mad. Instead of prison he will be sent to Badlam.
The moon's my constant mistresse
and the lowlie owle my marrowe
The flaming Drake and the Nightcrowe make
mee musicke to my sorrowe.
While I doe sing &c.
Eight years later, released from Bedlam, he now wanders the streets, a mad beggar. Marrow=companion. Flaming drake=will-o'-wisp which was thought a mystical night spirit sent to mislead men. Nightcrowe=nightjar, a bird that makes a whirring sound at night and (I suppose) also a deceiver of men lost in the dark.
Verse 5
The palsie plagues my pulses
when I prigg yo' piggs or pullen
your cluvers take, or matchles make
your Chanticleare or sullen
This says that Tom is incapable of stealing. If he tries to steal he is stricken with the palsie and cant go through with it. He is harmless. Pullen=barnyard poultry. Culvers=pigeons. Matchles make=steal either the male or female of a pair. Chanticleare=rooster. Sullen=as Chanticleare is a fanciful name for a prize rooster so (I believe) Sullen is a fanciful name for a Barbary hen, probably the prize hen. That is my considered guess.
When I want provant with Humfrie
I sup and when benighted
I repose in Powles with waking soules
Yet never an affrighted.
But I doe sing &c:
To dine with Lord Humphrey meant to go hungary. Benighted=when the sun goes down. Powles=Paul's Church. Waking souls--probably the ghosts of the dead buried in Paul's Church who were probably considered benefical spirits. I suffer from a lack of knowledge about Paul's Church.
Verse 6
I knowe more than Apollo
for, oft, when hee ly's sleeping
I see the stars att bloudie warres
in the wounded welkin weeping,
Being mad Tom wanders at night. Apollo is the sun god and of course has no knowledge of the nighttime doing of the stars. The earth rotates and moves around the sun causing the night sky to change, prehaps suggesting "war" to stargazing poets. The "weeping" of the stars might be their slow "fall" (like tears drops) to the horizon.
The moone embrace her shepheard
and the queen of love her warryer,
while the first doth horne the star of morne:
and the next ye heavenly Farrier.
While I doe singe &c,
The shepherd is Endymion. The star of morn would be the planet Venus at morning and in Chaucer's "The Complaint of Mars" we find that Venus flees into "Cilenios tour" (Selene's tower--the moon's fortress). Venus flees between the "horns" of a partial moon (behind the moon). Gavin Douglas in his Prologue to Book XII of the Aeneid says--And Venus lost the bewte of hir e, Fleand eschamyt within Cylenyus cave;---calling the partial moon a cave rather than a fortress. (Such a literary reference suggests Tom was no ignorant peasant but well educated before going mad.)
Aphrodite (the queen of love) was married to Hephaestus (the Farrier), the god of forges and metal working but had a renown fling with Ares the god of war. Aphrodite "horns" (cuckolds) her husband Hephaestus by having a fling with Ares
Why "horn" came to mean "cuckold" needs an explanation. The middle English word "horen" and "orn" deriving from old French were similar in sound. "Horen" meant to behave like a whore and "orn" meant "an honor" (we still use the word ornament). So the phrase "your wife is a horen" and "you wife is a orn" sounded alike (the "h" sound not pronounced) but one meant "your wife is a whore" and the other meant "your wife is an honor (an ornament) to you (faithful)". Time passed and the phrase "to horn a man" came to mean to cuckold him (one supposes a man should feel honored to have a wife other men find so attractive) and the origins of the joke nearly lost (In "Love's Labor's Lost" Shakespeare demonstrates that he knew what the original joke was). In Tom O' Bedlam we see both of the early meanings of "horn". Aphrodite horns (horens, cuckolds) her husband Hephaestus and the moon horns (orns, honors) the morning star (Venus).
Verse 7
The Gipsie snap and Pedro
are none of Tom's Comradoes,
the punck I skorne, and the cutpusre sworn
And the roring boyes bravadoes,
"Gipsie snap and Pedro" are unfamilar to me. Gipsie would seem to be gypsy, snap was a name given by Rober Greene to one of the participants in a con game and Pedro is totally unknown to me. If I had to guess I would say these are other names for the con men Robert Greene describes in "Conney-Catching". Punck=punk=prostitute. Cutpurse sworn=denounced the cutpurse. roring boyes=loud intemperate young men.
The meeke the white the gentle
mee handle touch, and spare not
but those that crosse Tom Rynosseross
doe what the Panther dare not
Although I sing &c:
spare not=spar not (one thinks of the gates on toll roads) bar not, doesn't impede or get in the way of. (handle not, touch not and impede not) In the parlance of our time, Tom is not an aggressive panhandler. But Tom will defend himself against those that would have sport with him. Unless provoked he is gentle.
Verse 8
With an hoast of furious fancies
whereof I am comaunder,
with a burning spear, and a horse of aire,
to the wildernesse I wander.
Those in love turned poet. The poet was commander of his poetic fancies and had a burning spear (his pen) and a horse of air (Pegasus). And traditionally poet were shepherds spending their time with the sheep in far fields.
By a knight of ghostes and shadowes,
I sumon'd am to Tourney.
ten leagues beyond the wide worlds end
mee thinke it is no journey.
yet will I sing &c.
The knight is the angel of death. And this is a tourney to which all men are summoned. The tourney is judgment day which is beyond the world's end--it is of course no journey since you lie in a grave waiting for it.
ewrgall
[This message has been edited by ewrgall (edited February 10, 2002).]
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