Note to King Lear, 2.3.20: "Poor Turlygod! poor Tom!"


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King Lear,
Act 2, Scene 3, line 20

Poor Turlygod: a word of unknown origin. poor Tom: catch phrase of the Bedlam beggars [lunatic patients of Bethlehem Hospital turned out to beg for their bread], who became known as "poor Toms," like Tom O'Bedlam illustration below.

Tom O'Bedlam
Tom O'Bedlam
Source:
by Norman Lindsay