ABSTRACT
I t is easy to take the existence of 'Bedlam', the world gone mad, for granted. Insanely chaotic though the behaviour of some ofBethlem's inmates may have been, however, that alone would not necessarily have been enough to give 'Bedlam' its particular connotations or to make it so universal an English word for a state or even a world of mindless chaos. What was it that fixed Bethlem's alter ego so firmly in the popular consciousness and vocabulary - so firmly that it is much better-known today than the Hospital itself?
