I must confess, I selected today's story because of the town's name.
"A certain man who was living in a town called Gotham went to a fair four miles away to buy sheep. And as he came over a bridge he met one of his neighbours and told him where he was going. And the neighbour asked him which way he meant to bring them back. He said he would bring them over the same bridge.
'No,' said the other man, 'but you won't.'
'By God,' said he, 'but I will.'
The other again said he would not. And he again said he would bring them over in spite of him, and so they fell to words, and at last to blows, so that each one knocked the other badly about the head with his fists.
A third man came up to them, a miller, with a sack of meal upon a horse. He was a neighbour of theirs, and parted them, and asked them the cause of their quarrel, which they made clear to him, as you have heard. This third man, the miller, thought he would rebuke their foolishness with a familiar example, and took his sack of flour from his horse's back and opened it and poured all the flour in the sack over the bridge into the running river, so all the flour was lost. And he said as follows:
'By my truth, neighbours, because you fight about driving over the bridge sheep which haven't yet been bought, and you don't know where they are, it seems to me that there is as much sense in your heads as there is flour in my sack.'
This tales shows you that some men take it upon themselves to point out good sense to other men, while they are but fools themselves."
Notes
The notes for this story state that 'Gotham' should be pronounced 'Gottam'.
Shakespeare's Jest Book, A Hundred Mery Talys, ed. H. Oesterley (London: John Russel Smith: 1866), XXII
Printed in Medieval Comic Tales, ed. D. Brewer (Cambridge, Boydell & Brewer Press: 1973) p. 72
"A certain man who was living in a town called Gotham went to a fair four miles away to buy sheep. And as he came over a bridge he met one of his neighbours and told him where he was going. And the neighbour asked him which way he meant to bring them back. He said he would bring them over the same bridge.
'No,' said the other man, 'but you won't.'
'By God,' said he, 'but I will.'
The other again said he would not. And he again said he would bring them over in spite of him, and so they fell to words, and at last to blows, so that each one knocked the other badly about the head with his fists.
A third man came up to them, a miller, with a sack of meal upon a horse. He was a neighbour of theirs, and parted them, and asked them the cause of their quarrel, which they made clear to him, as you have heard. This third man, the miller, thought he would rebuke their foolishness with a familiar example, and took his sack of flour from his horse's back and opened it and poured all the flour in the sack over the bridge into the running river, so all the flour was lost. And he said as follows:
'By my truth, neighbours, because you fight about driving over the bridge sheep which haven't yet been bought, and you don't know where they are, it seems to me that there is as much sense in your heads as there is flour in my sack.'
This tales shows you that some men take it upon themselves to point out good sense to other men, while they are but fools themselves."
Notes
The notes for this story state that 'Gotham' should be pronounced 'Gottam'.
Shakespeare's Jest Book, A Hundred Mery Talys, ed. H. Oesterley (London: John Russel Smith: 1866), XXII
Printed in Medieval Comic Tales, ed. D. Brewer (Cambridge, Boydell & Brewer Press: 1973) p. 72
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