Gotham

Many villages in England were mocked for the alleged stupidity or madness of their residents, but Gotham in Nottinghamshire exceeds all others in its reputation. A brief reference to the “foles of Gotham” appears in a 15^th century play, ‘The Wickirk Play’, whose author remains unknown (Earp, n.d.). Around 1540 further mention was made in the chapbook Merrie Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham (Simpson & Roud, 2000), written by ‘A.B. of Phisicke Doctor’, a collection of around twenty tales of madness exhibited by the villagers of Gotham (Stapleton, 1900). Some authorities have deemed that this anonymous author was in fact one Andrew Borde, a popular humorist and writer of the time, although Borde himself never confirmed nor denied that he was the author. Whoever wrote the chapbook appears to have merely collected into one volume a series of stories about the men of Gotham, all of which may have predated the chapbook itself, with at least one story dating back to the 12^th century (Earp, n.d.). This concerns King John, who was making his way towards Nottingham (Clouston, 1888; Halliwell, 1840; Stapleton, 1900), with his route taking him directly through land owned by the village of Gotham. At this time it was believed that wherever the King made his way would become a public highway. The people of Gotham did not want to pay for the upkeep of the new King’s Highway, and, as madness was said to be contagious, when the King’s herald arrived in the village and found the inhabitants engaged in various acts of apparent insanity, the news soon reached the ears of the king. As a result John changed direction to avoid the village of ‘mad men’. A second version of the story also concerns King John, who was about to build a hunting lodge or castle near Gotham. Again, his herald visits the village to find the villagers apparently mad, resulting again in a change of plans for the king. Another story tells of a man who carried his sacks of grain around his own neck while still riding his horse - the idea being to relieve the animal of the extra burden of the weight of the sacks (Halliwell, 1840; Stapleton, 1900). In all the stories the question remains whether the villagers of Gotham were really mad or idiotic, or whether they merely feigned madness in order to further their own ends.

The original Merry Tales of the Mad-Men of Gotham

References:


Clouston, W.A. (1888). The book of noodles: Stories of simpletons; or, fools and their follies. London, England: Elliot Stock.

Earp, F.E. (n.d.). The wise men of Gotham. Retrieved from http://www.indigogroup.co.uk/edge/Gotham1.htm

Halliwell, J.O. (1840). The merry tales of the wise men of Gotham. London: John Russell Smith. Retrieved from http://www.presscom.co.uk/gotham.html

Simpson, J., & Roud, S. (2000). A dictionary of English folklore. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Stapleton, A. (1900). All about the merry tales of Gotham. Nottingham, England: R.N. Pearson.