Bedlam (earlier ‘Bedlem’, ‘Bethlem’, ‘Bethlehem’)
1.
the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem in London
used as an asylum for the mentally deranged 2H6 V.
I. 131 “To Bedlam with him;
Tom o' Bedlam,” madman Lr. I. ii. 152.
2.
lunatic, madman
John II. i. 183
“Bedlam, have
done,”
Lr. III. vii. 103.
3.
as adj. mad
H5 V. i. 20
“Art thou
bedlam?,”
2H6 III. i. 51,
V. i. 132
“a bedlam and ambitious
humour.”
