Tom O' Bedlam

Description

Mixed Chorus, Oboe, Headless tambourine, Tabor — Mad Tom – with feathers and ribbon in his hat, his hair long, his clothes rags, the mark of the Bedlamite branded upon him – was one of the many who were let out of the over-crowded asylum of Bethlehem to roam the country as licenced beggars. Singly or in groups, some still shackled, they travelled from village to village singing, sobbing, and dancing for their supper, heralding their approach with the sound of the ox-horn strung around Tom's neck.The building which housed Bedlam, as it came to be called, was originally opened in the thirteenth century as a priory, and was converted to the first asylum for the insane in England in 1547 by order of Henry VIII. One of the earliest printings of the powm appeared in a collection made by Giles Earle; the sanzas used in the present work were selected from the version given in the Oxford Book of Light Verse.