Bedlam boys are bonny

To see mad Tom o' Bedlam
Ten thousand miles I'd travel
Mad Maudlin goes on dirty toes
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 and no money

I went down to Satan's kitchen
To break my fast one morning
And there I got souls piping hot
That on the spit were turning
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 and no money

There I took up a cauldron
Where boiled ten thousand harlots
Though full of flame, I drank the same
To the health of all such varlets
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 and no money

My staff has murdered giants
My bag a long knife carries
For to cut mince pies from children's thighs
On which to feed the fairies
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 and no money

No gypsy, slut, nor doxy
Shall win my mad Tom from me
I'll weep all night, the stars I'll fight
And the fray, it will become me
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 and no money

From the hag and the hungry goblin
That into rags would rend ye
All the sprites that stand by the naked man
In the book of moons, defend ye
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 and no money

That of your five sound senses
You never be forsaken
Nor wander from yourselves with Tom
Abroad to beg your bacon
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 and no money

With a thought I took for Maudlin
And a cruse of cockle pottage
With a thing thus tall, sky bless you all
I befell into this dotage
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 and no money

I slept not since the Conquest
Till then, I never waked
Till the roguish boy of love where I lay
Me found, and stripped me naked
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 and no money

I know more than Apollo
For oft when he lies sleeping
I see the stars at mortal wars
In the wounded welkin weeping
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 and no money

The moon embrace her shepherd
And the queen of love her warrior
While the first doth horn the star of the morn
And the next the heavenly farrier
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 and no money

Of thirty bare years have I
Thrice twenty been enraged
And of forty, been three times fifteen
In durance soundly caged
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 and no money

On the lordly lofts of Bedlam
With stubble soft and dainty
Brave bracelets strong, sweet whips' ding-dong
With wholesome hunger plenty
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 and no money

When I short have shorn my sow's face
And swigged my horny barrel
In an oaken in I pound my skin
As a suit of gilt apparel
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 and no money

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
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 and no money

The spirits white as lightning
Did on my travels guide me
The stars would shake and the pale moon quake
Whene'er they did espy me
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 and no money

And when that I'll be murdering
The man in the moon to a powder
His staff I'll break and his dog I'll shake
Till there howls no demon louder
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 and no money

With a host of furious fancies
Whereof I am commander
With a burning spear and a horse of air
To the wilderness I wander
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 and no money

By a knight of ghosts and shadows
I summoned am to tourney
Ten leagues beyond the wide world's end
Methinks it is no journey
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 and no money

The palsy plagues my pulses
When I prig your pigs or pullen
Your culvers take or matchless make
Your Chanticleer or Sullen
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 and no money

When I want provant with Humphrey
I sup, and when benighted
I repose in Paul's with waking souls
Yet never am affrighted
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 and no money

The gypsies, Snap and Pedro
Are none of Tom's comradoes
The punk I scorn and the cutpurse sworn
And the roaring boy's bravadoes
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 and no money

The meek, the white, the gentle
Me touch and handle spare not
But those that cross Tom Rhinoceros
Do what the panther dare not
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 and no money

I'll bark against the dog-star
I'll crow away the morning
I'll chase the moon till it be noon
And make her leave her horning
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 and no money

I now repent that ever
Poor Tom was so disdained
My wits are lost since him I crossed
Which makes me thus go chained
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 and no money

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
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 and no money

 - Anonymous, early modern English folk song.

"Tom o' Bedlam" is a poem with many of these verses and a different refrain which first appeared in broadside in the early 17th century and tells of the delusions of an insane person. (The title is a generic name for an inmate at the Bethlehem Royal Hospital, the first hospital established with the intent of treating the mentally ill.) Another similar ballad, "Mad Maudlin's Search," followed on its popularity, and is narrated by one Maudlin, who is enamored of Tom. Verses from the one migrated into the other and they rapidly became one song (now often known as "Bedlam Boys"); the most abundant refrain, given here, originates in "Maudlin." (This version includes all the verses with which I am familiar, including all of the verses found in the earliest known version of "Tom.")

The first known tune is in D'Urfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy in the 18th century. Modern folk musicians almost always use an entirely different tune, a Breton folk melody first applied to "Bedlam Boys" in the 20th century by the band Steeleye Span.