Chapter LXV

[The "foles of Gotham" are mentioned as early as the fifteenth
century in the 'Townley Mysteries;' and, at the commencement
of the sixteenth century, Dr. Andrew Borde made a collection
of stories about them, not however, including the following,
which rests on the authority of nursery tradition.]

Three wise men of Gotham
Went to sea in a bowl:
And if the bowl had been stronger,
My song would have been longer.