[866] [very fat bellied.]
XVIII.
THE DISTRACTED PURITAN,
Mad song the second,
Was written about the beginning of the seventeenth century by the witty bishop Corbet, and is printed from the 3d edition of his Poems, 12mo. 1672, compared with a more ancient copy in the Editor's folio MS.
[This song was printed in Le Prince d'Amour, 1660, with three other songs entitled Tom of Bedlam. It was also printed in the Rump Songs, 1662, but not in the edition of 1660.
The copy in the folio MS. (ed. Hales and Furnivall, vol. iii. p. 269) has several alterations. Stanza 5 was taken by Percy from the MS., where it occurs as stanza 8.
Richard Corbet, successively Bishop of Oxford and Norwich, was born at Ewell in Surrey in 1582. He died in 1635. He was a humorous man, and many pleasant stories are told of him, but Aubrey describes his appearance as "grave and venerable."