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Page 6
An ill-starred town in England seems to have enjoyed so unenviable a
reputation for some centuries for the folly and stupidity of its
inhabitants, that I am induced to send you the following Query (with the
reasons on which it is founded) in the hope that some of your readers may
be able to help one to a solution.
Query: Why have the men of _Gotham_ been long famous for their extreme
folly?
My authorities are,--
1. The Nursery Rhyme,--
"Three wise men of _Gotham_
Went to sea in a bowl;
If the bowl had been stronger,
My story would have been longer."
2. _Drunken Barnaby's Journal_ (edit. London, 1822, p. 25.), originally
printed 1774, London:
"Veni _Gotham_, ubi multos
Si non omnes, vidi stultos,
Nam scrutando reperi unam
Salientem contra lunam
Alteram nitidam puellam
Offerentem porco sellam."
"Thence to _Gotham_, where, sure am I,
If, _though_ not all fools, saw I many;
Here a she-bull found I prancing,
And in moonlight nimbly dancing;
There another wanton mad one,
Who her hog was set astride on."
{477} 3. In the "Life of Robin Hood" prefixed to Ritson's _Collection of
Ballads concerning Robin Hood_ (People's edit. p. 27.), the following
story, extracted from _Certaine Merry Tales of the Madmen of Gottam_, by
Dr. Andrew Borde, an eminent physician, temp. Hen. VIII. (Black letter), in
Bodleian Library, occurs:--
"There was two men of __Gottam_, and the one of them was going to the
market to Nottingham to buy sheepe, and the other came from the market;
and both met together upon Nottingham bridge. Well met, said the one to
the other. Whither be yee going? said he that came from Nottingham.
Marry, said he that was going thither, I goe to the market to buy
sheepe. Buy sheepe? said the other, and which way wilt thou bring them
home? Marry, said the other, I will bring them over this bridge. By
Robin Hood, said he that came from Nottingham, but thou shalt not. By
Maid Marrion, said he that was going thitherward, but I will. Thou
shalt not, said the one. I will, said the other. Ter here! said the
one. Shue there! said the other. Then they beat their staves against
the ground, one against the other, as there had been an hundred sheepe
betwixt them. Hold in, said the one. Beware the leaping over the bridge
of any sheepe, said the other. I care not, said the other. They shall
not come this way, said the one. But they shall, said the other. Then
said the other, and if that thou make much to doe, I will put my finger
in thy mouth. A t..d thou wilt, said the other. And as they were at
their contention, another man of _Gottam_ came from the market with a
sack of meale upon a horse, and seeing and hearing his neighbours at
strife for sheepe, and none betwixt them, said, Ah, fooles, will you
never learn wit? Helpe me, said he that had the meale, and lay my sacke
upon my shoulder. They did so and he went to the one side of the
bridge, and unloosed the mouth of the sacke, and did shake out all his
meale into the river. Now, neighbours, said the mall, how much meale is
there in my sacke now? Marry, there is none at all, said they. Now, by
my faith, said he, even as much wit as in your two heads, to strive for
that thing you have not. Which was the wisest of all these three
persons, judge you?"
4. Tom Coryat, in an oration to the Duke of York (afterwards Chas. I.),
called _Crambe, or Colwarts twice sodden_ (London, 1611), has this
passage:--
"I came to Venice, and quickly took a survey of the whole model of the
city, together with the most remarkable matters thereof; and shortly
after any arrival in England I overcame any adversaries in the Town of
Evill, in my native county of Somersetshire, who thought to have sunk
me in a bargain of pilchards, as the _wise men of Gottam_ went about to
drown an eel."
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