The Bedlam
The Bedlam is a mentally impaired man who is around the age of 20. He dresses in rags and old thrown- out clothes and wears a silver bell around his neck. He is tall and skinny and walks with a limp, dragging his leg behind him. Whilst he is in many ways mysterious in his ability to foretell the plague, he is also a slightly comic figure who is used to bring humour to the early part of the play. When we first meet the Bedlam, he comes to talk to Sir George Saville and William Mompesson. Mompesson is the newly appointed rector of the village of Eyam. The Bedlam asks for a penny from the men; he claims he doesn't buy anything with the money - he just throws them into the stream to see them shimmer as they move in the water.