To find Mad Tom of Bedlam,
Ten thousand years I'll travel.
Mad Maudlin goes with dirty toes,
To save her shoes from gravel.

      Yet will I sing, Bonny Boys, bonny Mad Boys,
      Bedlam Boys are Bonny.
      They still go bare and live by the air
      And want no Drink, nor Money.

I now repent that ever
Poor Tom was so disdainèd.
My wits are lost since him I crost,
Which makes me go thus chainèd.

My staff hath murder'd giants,
My bag a long knife carries,
To cut mince pyes from children's thighs,
With which I feast the Faries.

My horn is made of thunder,
I stole it out of Heaven.
The Rainbow there is this I wear,
For which I thence was driven.

I went to Pluto's kitchin,
To beg some food one morning.
And there I got souls piping hot,
With which the spits were turning.

Then took I up a Cauldron,
Where boyl'd ten thousand harlots.
'Twas full of flame, yet I drank the same
To the health of all such varlets.

And when that I have beaten
The Man i'th' Moon to powder,
His dog I'll take, and him I'll make
As could no dæmon louder.

A Health to Tom of Bedlam,
Go fill the seas in barrels.
I'll drink it all, well brew'd with gall,
and Maudling-drunk, I'll quarrel.

The original words of this ballad were published in Wit and Drollery (1656), indicated as being "to the tune of Tom of Bedlam". This version, an altered form, appeared in D'Urfey's Pills to purge Melancholy (1701).