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.
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