282 



APPENDIX TO THE 



TOM OF BEDLAM. 



(From Percy's Reliques, vol. ii. p. 357.) 



FORTH from my sad and darksome cell, 



Or from the deepe abysse of hell, 

 Mad Tom is come into the world againe 

 To see if he can cure his distempered 

 braine. 



Feares and cares oppresse my soule ; 

 Harke, how the angrye Fureys houle ! 

 Pluto laughes, and Proserpine is gladd 

 To see poore naked Tom of Bedlam madd. 



Through the world I wander night and 

 day 



To seeke my straggling senses : 

 In an angrye moode I mett old Time, 



With his pentarchye * of tenses : 



When me he spyed, 



Away he hyed, 

 For Time will stay for no man : 



In vain with cryes 



I rent the skyes, 

 For pity is not common. 



Cold and comfortless I lye : 

 Helpe, oh helpe, or else I dye I 



Harke ! I heare Apollo's teame, 



The carman 'gins to whistle ; 

 Chast Diana bends her bpwe, 



The boare begins to bristle. 



Come, Vulcan, with tools and with tackles, 

 To knocke off my troublesome shackles ; 

 Bid Charles make ready his waine 

 To fetch me my senses againe. 



Last night I heard the dog-star bark 

 Mars met Venus in the darke ; 

 Limping Vulcan het an iron barr, 

 And furiouslye made at the god of warr ; 



Mars with his weapon laid about, 



And Vulcan's temples had the gout, 



For his broad horns did so hang in bis 



light, 

 He could not see to aim his blowes 



aright : 



Mercurye the nimble post of heaven, 

 Stood still to see the quarrell ; 



Gorrel-bellyed Bacchus, gyant-like, 

 Bestryd a strong-beere bariell. 



To me he dranke, 



I did him thanke, 

 But I could get no cyder ; 



He dranke whole butts, 



Till he burst his gutts, 

 But mine were ne'er the wyder. 



Poore nnked Tom is very drye, 

 A little drinke for charuye ! 



Harke, I hear Acteon's home ! 



The huntsmen whoop and hallowe ; 

 Ringwood, Royster, Bowman, Jowler, 



All the chase do followe. 



The man in the moone drinkes clarret, 

 Eates powder'd beef, turnip, and carret, 

 But a cup of old Malaga sack 

 Will fire the bushe at his backe. 



. P. 89. Besides the above songs, William Basse was the author of verses 

 "On William Shakespeare, who died in April 1616," which are printed 

 in Malone's edition of Shakespeare, vol. i. p. 470 ; and another poem by 

 him will be found in the " Annalia Dubrensia, upon the yearely cele- 

 bration of Mr Robert Dover's Olympic Games upon Cotsvvold Hills," 410, 

 1636. He was also the author of a poem called the Sword and Buckler, 

 printed in 8vo, in 1602, which is supposed to be in Malone's Collection in 

 the Bodleian Library ; and of a poem on the Death of Prince Henry, 

 printed in I2mo, in 1613, of which a fragment only is known to exist, 

 which is in the possession of J. Payne Collier, Esq. A quarto volume, 

 in manuscript, entitled " Polyhymnia," a poem by William Basse, was in 

 Mr Heber's collection. Vide " Bibliotheca Heberiana," Part xi. No. 70. 

 Anthony Wood (Athen. Oxon. edit. Bliss, iv. 222) states that Basse was 

 of Moreton near Thame, in Oxfordshire, and was sometime a retainer of 

 Lord Wenman, of Thame Park, i.e., Richard Viscount Wenman in the 

 Peerage of Ireland. 



P. 87. Since the Memoir of Walton was printed, a presentation copy 

 of Walton's Lives, ed. 1670, has been discovered in the possession of the 

 Rev. W. Cotton, of Newgate Street, in which Walton wrote "For my 

 brother Chalkhill, Iz. WA." but the connection between them has not been 

 ascertained. See, however, the Memoir of Walton, p. xciii., and the Pedi- 

 * Pentateuch. 



