When I was very young I heard this song being played on an LP by Steeleye Span. (For the youngsters -LP means Long Playing vinyl record.) It stuck in my head and many years later came out as part of my inspiration for this second book featuring Fairy Hanny. It is an old English folk song. Bedlam was the name given to Bethlem Royal Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in London. It was deemed a hospital for the insane in the fifteenth century, though these days we would say it deals with people who have extreme mental health issues.
At one time wealthy people would pay to visit the hospital to watch the lunatics, a sad case of modern day car crash addictions. Google Bedlam to find out more.
Bedlam boys
For to see Mad Tom of Bedlam, 10,000 years I’d travel
Mad Magdalene goes on dirty toes, to save her shoes from gravel.
Still I sing bonnie boys, bonnie mad boys,
Bedlam boys are bonnie
For they all go bare and they live by the air,
And they want no Drink nor money.
Her staff has murdered giants; her bag a long knife carries
For to cut mince pies from children’s thighs, with which to feed the Fairies.
Still I sing bonnie boys, bonnie mad boys,
Bedlam boys are bonnie
For they all go bare and they live by the air,
And they want no Drink nor money.
I went down to Steven’s kitchen, for to beg me food one morning
There I got Soles piping hot, all on the spit a turning.
Still I sing bonnie boys, bonnie mad boys,
Bedlam boys are bonnie
For they all go bare and they live by the air,
And they want no Drink nor money.
No gypsy slut nor doxy shall win my Mad Tom from me
I’ll weep all night, the stars I’ll fight, the fray will well become me.
Still I sing bonnie boys, bonnie mad boys,
Bedlam boys are bonnie
For they all go bare and they live by the air,
And they want no Drink nor money.
There I picked up a cauldron, where boiled 10,000 harlots
Though full of flame I drank the same, to the health of all such varlets.
Still I sing bonnie boys, bonnie mad boys,
Bedlam boys are bonnie
For they all go bare and they live by the air,
And they want no Drink nor money.
Spirits white as lightning, shall on my travels guide me
The moon would quake and the stars would shake, when’ ere they espied me.
Still I sing bonnie boys, bonnie mad boys,
Bedlam boys are bonnie
For they all go bare and they live by the air,
And they want no Drink nor money.
It’s when next I have murdered, the Witch King into powder
His staff I’ll break, his dog I’ll bake, there’ll howl no demon louder.
Still I sing bonnie boys, bonnie mad boys,
Bedlam boys are bonnie
For they all go bare and they live by the air,
And they want no Drink nor money.
So, Drink to Tom of Bedlam, he’ll fill the seas in barrels
I’ll Drink it all, all brewed with gall, with Mad Magdalene I will travel.
Fairy Hanny 