GOTHAM, WISE MEN OF, the early name given to the people of the village of Gotham, Nottingham, in allusion to their reputed simplicity. But if tradition is to be believed the Gotham ites were not so very simple. 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, deter mined to have his hunting lodge elsewhere, and the "wise men" boasted, "We ween there are more fools pass through Gotham than remain in it." The "foles of Gotham" are mentioned as early as the 15th century in the Towneley Mysteries; and a collection of their "jests" was published in the i6th century under the title Merrie Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham, gathered together by A.B., of Phisicke Doctour. 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. The localizing of fools is common to most countries.
See W. A. Clouston, Book of Noodles (1888) ; R. H. Cunningham, Amusing Prose Chap-books (1889) .