The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #1073 Message #3585
Posted By: Murray
28-Mar-97 - 03:25 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Tom o' Bedlam's Song
Subject: RE: Tom O'Bedlam's Song
There's a whole book about this last one called "Loving Mad Tom" by Jack Lindsay (1927).Also an essay by the English poet Robert Graves on the subject--he proves (to his own satisfaction)that there's a great likelihood the original author of the "good" verses at least was none other than Shakespeare, to put into the mouth of his mad Edgar in "King Lear". I think G. Legman says something about it too in his book "The Limerick".You'll notice that these songs are (more or less) in the limerick metre.]