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Wise Men of Gotham is the early name given to the people of the village of Gotham, Nottinghamshire, in allusion to their reputed simplicity. If tradition is to be believed, the people of Gotham were not so very simple. ==Legend== The story goes that King John intended to travel through the neighbourhood. At that time in England, any road the king travelled on had to be made a public highway and the people of Gotham did not want a public highway through their village. The villagers feigned imbecility when the royal messengers arrived.〔Noodles, Nitwits and Numbskulls by Kurt Werth, Dell Pub Co, 1979. 〕 Wherever the messengers went, they saw the rustics engaged in some absurd task. Based on this report, John determined to have his hunting lodge elsewhere, and the wise men boasted, "We ween there are more fools pass through Gotham than remain in it."〔G. Seal, ''Encyclopedia of folk heroes'' (ABC-CLIO, 2001), pp. 272–3 〕 According to the 1874 edition of Blount's ''Tenures of Land'', King John's messengers "found some of the inhabitants engaged in endeavouring to drown an eel in a pool of water; some were employed in dragging carts upon a large barn, to shade the wood from the sun; others were tumbling their cheeses down a hill, that they might find their way to Nottingham for sale; and some were employed in hedging in a cuckoo which had perched upon an old bush which stood where the present one now stands;〔 in short, they were all employed in some foolish way or other which convinced the king's servants that it was a village of fools, whence arose the old adage, "the wise men of Gotham" or "the fools of Gotham".〔 Tenures of Land, by Thomas Blount and edited by W. Carew Hazlitt, p. 133. London, 1874. (The Wise Fools of Gotham )〕〔 Thomas Blount, (Tenures of land & customs of manors ) 〕 The ''Towneley Mysteries'' mentioned the "foles of Gotham" as early as the fifteenth century, and a collection of their jests was published in the sixteenth century under the title ''Merrie Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham, gathered together by A.B. of Phisicke Doctour''. The "A.B." was supposed to represent Andrew Borde or Boorde (1490?–1549), famous among other things for his wit, but he probably had nothing to do with the compilation.〔Gerard T. Koeppel ''Water for Gotham: a History'' (Princeton University Press, 2001), p. 103.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wise Men of Gotham」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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