Gotham

Gotham, Tales of the Men of, a collection of funny stories in which the inhabitants of Gotham, a village near Nottingham, are held up to ridicule on account of their foolish actions and remarks. The "fools of Gotham" are mentioned in the Towneley miracle plays, written in or before the reign of Henry VI., so that the tales must have existed in some form at that period. The first printed edition, entitled Merrie Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham, Gathered Toyethcr by A.B. of Phisicke Doctour, was published about 1550. It has been conjectured that A.B. is Andrew Boorde, a popular wit, who may or may not have been the real compiler. The Gothamite tales relate how the villagers tried to hedge in a cuckoo so as to make it "sing" during the whole year, and to drown an eel which had devoured the fish in their pond, besides many other equally notable feats. One of the stories - that of the man who, whilst riding, shifted a sack of meal from his horse's back on to his own shoulders, to make things easier for the animal - occurs.in a Latin poem of the 12th century, where u native of Norfolk, instead of a Gothamite, appears as the hero. In fact, it is a characteristic of the popular tales of all countries and periods to attribute exceptional folly to the inhabitants of some particular district. To go no farther than

England, we find the people of Austwick in Yorkshire and those in the neighbourhood of Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire occupying this unenviable position. The close resemblance of such tales in different lands has led some to believe that, they must have been transmitted from one to another Others attribute the similarity to the innate propensities of human nature. The question can hardly be settled till the science of folk-lore has been established on firmer grounds.