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Ever in awe of Robin's thoroughness, David! Please thank him heartily from me as well. So many things always to sat about Tom o' Bedlam, but for now I'll just mention that one bit of the following always puzzled me: The moone embrace her shepherd And the queen of Love her warrior, While the first doth horne the star of morne, And the next the heavenly Farrier. Diana and Endymion (Renaissance schemers deciding Selene wasn't goddess enough for the sleeper), Venus and Mars, easily enough for the first two lines. But I lose the antecedents and referents in the cuckolding stated in line 3, though of course line 4 is crystal clear with Vulcan the cuckolded. I wonder whether the yoking (unique sort of zeugma) of line 3 is set up to serve the (very lovely) verse, excused by the addle of the narrator, or whether I'm missing some variant mythic device of the crescent moon's horns embracing the morning star. --Uche On Sun, Sep 9, 2012 at 2:03 PM, David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > Robin Hamilton asked me to forward this, in reply to Max, on the Tom a > Bedlam poems > > > ------------------------------ > Max: > > I've been working on an edition of all of the various Tom a Bedlam poems, > of which this is the earliest. > Below a transcription of the 1610 text, and some notes on the source MSS. > > (Actually, it’s been so long since I last worked on this, that I’m not > quite sure how reliable the text below is. I think it’s someone else’s > edited and punctuated transcription of the 1610 Giles Earle His Booke > version that I was going to use as the basis of a version collated with the > Harley MS and Le Prince d’Amour. I’m pretty sure that somewhere I have a > facsimile of the 1610 MS, but curse me if I can find it at the moment.) > > Robin > > ------------------------------ > > A Tom a Bedlam Song (1610) > > From the hagg and hungrie goblin > That into raggs would rend ye, > And the spirit that stands by the naked man > In the Book of Moones - defend ye! > That of your five sound senses > You never be forsaken, > Nor wander from your selves with Tom > Abroad to beg your bacon. > > Chorus: > While I doe sing "any foode, any feeding, > Feedinge, drinke or clothing," > Come dame or maid, be not afraid, > Poor Tom will injure nothing. > > Of thirty bare years have I > Twice twenty been enraged, > And of forty been three times fifteen > In durance soundly caged. > On the lordly lofts of Bedlam, > With stubble soft and dainty, > Brave bracelets strong, sweet whips ding-dong, > With wholesome hunger plenty. > > With a thought I took for Maudlin > And a cruse of cockle pottage, > With a thing thus tall, skie blesse you all, > I befell into this dotage. > I slept not since the Conquest, > Till then I never waked, > Till the roguish boy of love where I lay > Me found and stript me naked. > > When I short have shorne my sowre face > And swigged my horny barrel, > In an oaken inn I pound my skin > As a suit of gilt apparel. > The moon's my constant Mistrisse, > And the lowly owl my morrowe, > The flaming Drake and the Nightcrow make > Me music to my sorrow. > > The palsie plagues my pulses > When I prigg your pigs or pullen, > Your culvers take, or matchless make > Your Chanticleers, or sullen. > When I want provant, with Humfrie > I sup, and when benighted, > I repose in Powles with waking souls > Yet never am affrighted. > > I know more than Apollo, > For oft, when he lies sleeping > I see the stars at bloody wars > In the wounded welkin weeping, > The moone embrace her shepherd > And the queen of Love her warrior, > While the first doth horne the star of morne, > And the next the heavenly Farrier. > > The Gipsie Snap and Pedro > Are none of Tom's companions. > The punk I skorne and the cut purse sworne > And the roaring boyes bravadoe. > The meek, the white, the gentle, > Me handle touch and spare not > But those that crosse Tom Rynosseros > Do what the panther dare not. > > With a host of furious fancies > Whereof I am commander, > With a burning spear and a horse of air, > To the wilderness I wander. > By a knight of ghostes and shadowes > I summon'd am to tourney > Ten leagues beyond the wild world's end. > Methinks it is no journey. > ________________________________ > > From the Hag and hungry goblin / That into rags would rend you, . . . > > BL Add. 24665, f. 73v (Giles Earle His Booke) > BL Harley 3991, f. 58 > Bod Tanner 465, f. 86v [transcribed Wells] > U. Leeds, Brotherton (Lt q 49), f. 17r-v > Le prince d'amour (1660), p. 167 > Westminster drollery [Pt.2] (1672), p. 15 > Wit and drollery (1682), p. 149 > ______________________________ > > BL1 Add. 24665 (Giles Earle His Booke – 1616+) > From the hag and hungry goblin `Second song of Tom of Bedlam' Methinks it > is no journey. | Yet do I sing any food any feeding...Poor Tom will injure > nothing. BL1 Add. 24665 f. 73v > _________________ > > Title on manuscript Giles Earle his booke / 1615 > Summary description English and Latin songs with music, compiled by Giles > Earle. Many taken from part-songs. Included are various Latin mottoes, > lines in praise of the Roman church, and love verses > Library siglum GB Lbl > Name and location London (Great Britain), British Library > Manuscript no. Add. 24665 > Date of copying between 1610 and 1626 > Physical description 1 ms. score: 84 f. > Dimensions 14 x 18 cm > References See: J. P. Cutts, ''Venus and Adonis' in an early > seventeenth-century song book', Notes and Queries (1963), 302-3; Peter > Warlock (Philip Heseltine), Giles Earle his Booke (London, 1932); S. Wells, > 'Tom O'Bedlam's song and King Lear', Shakespeare Quarterly (1961), 311-16 > Provenance Giles Earle (1615). Purchased by the British Museum from Joseph > Lilly on 17 May, 1862 > _______________ > > EARLE, Giles, Bernard VAN DIEREN, and Peter Warlock. Giles Earle His Booke > (Additional MS. 24, 665 in the British Museum). [A Collection of Lyrics > Made by G. Earle.] Edited by Peter Warlock. [Revised for the Press by > Bernard Van Dieren.]. London: Houghton Publishing Co, 1932. > > Jorgens, Elise Bickford, British Library Manuscripts, Part I (English Song > 1600-1675) (Garland Pub, 1986). Includes facsimile of Add Ms. 24665 (Giles > Earle’s Songbook). > > Jorgens, Elise Bickford, Texts of the Songs (English Song, 1600-1675) > [Music-Garland, 1989]. 608 pp. > Physical Description: xii, 589 p. ; 31 cm. > "The texts of all the songs from the manuscripts in the facsimile > edition are given in this volume..." > > Jack Lindsay, ed. -- Lindsay, Norman, and Graves, Robert, and Lindsay, > Jack, and Warlock, Peter, and Fanfrolico Press. Loving mad Tom : Bedlamite > verses of the XVI and XVII centuries / with five illustrations by Norman > Lindsay ; foreword by Robert Graves ; the texts edited with notes by Jack > Lindsay; musical transcriptions by Peter Warlock Fanfrolico Press, London : > 1927 > -- Text based on a transcript of the 1610 MS provided by Norman Lindsay > [from Peter Warlock, who edited Giles Earle His Booke?]. > -- Contains the first essay Robert Graves wrote on “Tom ‘o Bedlam’s Song”: > Robert Graves, ‘The Rediscovery of "Loving Mad Tom" (pp.9-20). > -- 375 copies of the original edition were published. > > Reprinted: Lindsay, Jack, ed. Loving Mad Tom: Bedlamite Verses of the XVI > and XVII Centuries. New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1970 > > Roger Bourke, "‘The Moon’s my constant mistress’: Robert Graves and the > Elizabethans," Gravesiana: The Journal of the Robert Graves Society, Vol. > 3, no. 1 (2007), pp. 75-85, comments on Loving Mad Tom. > _____________________________________________ > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > -----Original Message----- > From: Max Richards > Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2012 9:35 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: loving mad tom > When I looked this up via google just now, I couldn't quickly find a > version that I could confidently print out and put inside my copy of > Ricks's Oxford Book of English Verse, which strangely lacks any version. > Suggestions please...= > > > > -- > David Joseph Bircumshaw > ** > Website and A Chide's Alphabet > http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk > The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html > Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw > twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave > blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/ > Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.com > -- Uche Ogbuji http://uche.ogbuji.net Founding Partner, Zepheira http://zepheira.com http://wearekin.org http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/author/uogbuji/ http://copia.ogbuji.net http://www.linkedin.com/in/ucheogbuji http://twitter.com/uogbuji