Wise Men of Gotham
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William Wallace Denslow's illustrations for Three Wise Men of Gotham, from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose
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Wise Men of Gotham, the early name given to the people of the village of Gotham, Nottinghamshire, in allusion to their reputed simplicity. But if tradition is to be believed the Gothamites were not so very simple.
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[edit] The legend
The story is that King John intended to live in the neighbourhood, but that the villagers, foreseeing ruin as the cost of supporting the court, feigned imbecility when the royal messengers arrived. Wherever the latter went they saw the rustics engaged in some absurd task. John, on this report, determined to have his hunting lodge elsewhere, and the wise men boasted, "we ween there are more fools pass through Gotham than remain in it".[1]
The "foles of Gotham" are mentioned as early as the fifteenth century in the Towneley Mysteries; and a collection of their jests was published in the sixteenth century under the title Merrie Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham, gathered together by A.B. of Phisicke Doctour. The AB was supposed to represent Andrew Borde or Boorde (1490?-1549), famous among other things for his wit, but he probably had nothing to do with the compilation.[2]
As typical of the Gothamite folly is usually quoted the story of the villagers joining hands round a thornbush to shut in a cuckoo so that it would sing all the year.[3] The localizing of fools is common to most countries, and there are many other reputed imbecile centres in England besides Gotham. Thus there are the people of Coggeshall, Essex, the "carles" of Austwick, Yorkshire, the "gowks" of Gordon, Berwickshire, and for many centuries the charge of folly has been made against silly Suffolk and Norfolk (Descriptio Norfolciensium about twelfth century, printed in Wright's Early Mysteries and other Latin Poems).[4]
In Germany there are the "Schildbürger", from the town of "Schilda"; in the Netherlands, the people of Kampen; in Bohemia, the people of Kocourkov; and in Moravia the people of Šimperk. There are also the Swedish Täljetokar from Södertälje. Among the ancient Greeks Boeotia was the home of fools; among the Thracians, Abdera; among the ancient Jews, Nazareth; among modern Jews, Chełm; among the ancient Asiatics, Phrygia.[1]
[edit] The nursery rhyme
The Wise Men of Gotham are recalled in a popular nursery rhyme with a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19695:
Three wise men of Gotham
Went to sea in a bowl.
If the bowl had been stronger
My tale would have been longer.[3]
The rhyme was first recorded in Mother Goose's Melody published around 1765, and from then appeared in many collections.[3]
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b G. Seal, Encyclopedia of folk heroes (ABC-CLIO, 2001), pp. 272-3,
- ^ Gerard T. Koeppel Water for Gotham: a History (Princeton University Press, 2001), p. 103.
- ^ a b c I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 193.
- ^ Alfred Stapleton, All about the Merry Tales of Gotham (Kessinger Publishing, 2005), p. 10.
[edit] References
- WA Clouston, Book of Noodles (London, 1888)
- RH Cunningham, Amusing Prose Chap-books (1889).
[edit] See also
- Simpleton (folklore)
- English folklore
- Ship of fools
- The Praise of Folly
- Feigned madness
- Schildbürger (German)
- Chelm
- Molbo story
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
