ABSTRACT
The performativity of madness on the early-modern stage was a fragmented but often spectacular affair featuring lovesick ladies, antic clowns, and melancholic figures. Histories of mental illness note the social understanding of madness was in transition, from a medieval externalized, even supernatural condition, toward a more internalized, embodied understanding of madness as potentially self-inflicted. Singing signifies non-normative behaviors or mental states. Apart from opera or planned musical performances within a play, directing a character to sing usually denotes that a character’s mental state deviates from that of normal. The chapter uses textual-musical analysis of “Tom a Bedlam” to examine period depictions of musical madness—including one that may have a direct connection to the play. In the humoral medicine of the period, the achievement of health came through the proper balance of all four humors—any imbalance could have disastrous effects, and these could be multiplied if the humor was allowed further imbalance.
