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, howe the angrye Fureys houle!
Pluto laughes, and Proserpine is gladd
To see poore naked Tom of Bedlam madd.

5

Through the world I wander night and day
To seeke my straggling senses;

10

In angrye moode I mett old Time,

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.

20

25

But Vulcan's temples had the gout,

For his broad horns did so hang in his light
He could not see to aim his blowes aright:

35

Eates powder'd beef, turnip and carret ;
But a cup of old Malaga sack

55

Will fire the bushe at his backe.

XVIII.

The Distracted Puritan,

MAD SONG THE SECOND,

was written about the begining of the seventeenth century by the witty Bishop Corbet, and is printed from the third edition of his Poems, 12mo, 1672, compared with a more ancient copy in the Editor's folio MS.

Aм I mad, O noble Festus,

When zeal and godly knowledge

Have put me in hope

To deal with the Pope

As well as the best in the college?

Boldly I preach, hate a cross, hate a surplice,
Mitres, copes, and rochets!

5

Of the beast's ten horns (God bless us !).

25

I have knock'd off three already;

If they let me alone

I'll leave him none;

But they say I am too heady.

Boldly I preach, &c.

Emanuel College, Cambridge, was originally a seminary of Puritans.

With a flying book 2 between them.

I have been in despair

Five times in a year,

And been cur'd by reading Greenham.3

Boldly I preach, &c.

4

I observ'd in Perkins' tables
The black line of damnation;

Those crooked veins

So stuck in my brains,
That I fear'd my reprobation.
Boldly I preach, &c.

In the holy tongue of Canaan

I plac'd my chiefest pleasure,
Till I prick'd my foot

With an Hebrew root

That I bled beyond all measure.
Boldly I preach, &c.

50

55

Alluding to some visionary exposition of Zech. ch. v. ver. 1; or, if the date of this song would permit, one might suppose it aimed at one (oppe, a strange enthusiast, whose life may be seen in Wood's Athen. vol. ii. p. 501. He was author of a book entitled The Fiery Flying Roll; and afterwards published a recantation, part of whose title is, The Fiery Flying Roll's Wings clipt, &c.

3 See Greenham's Works, fol. 1605, particularly the tract entitled A sweet Comfort for an Afflicted Conscience.

✦ See Perkins's Works, fol. 1616, vol. i. p. 11; where is a large half sheet folded, containing, "A survey, or table, declaring the order of the causes of salvation and damnation, &c.," the pedigree of damnation being distinguished by a broad black zig-zag line.

I appear'd before the Archbishop
And all the high Commission;

I gave him no grace,

But told him to his face

That he favour'd superstition.

5

60

Boldly I preach, hate a cross, hate a surplice,
Mitres, copes, and rochets!

Come hear me pray nine times a day,

And fill your heads with crotchets.

65

is given from an old printed copy in the British Museum, compared with another in the Pepys Collection: both in black-letter.

GRIM king of the ghosts, make haste,

And bring hither all your train ;

See how the pale moon does waste,
And just now is in the wane.

And revelling witches away,

And hug me close in your arms;

Come, you night-hags, with all your charms,

5

To you my respects I'll pay.