The fyrst boke of the introduction of knowledge made by Andrew Borde, of physycke doctor : A compendyous regyment; or, A dyetary of helth made in Mountpyllier / compyled by Andrewe Boorde, of physycke doctour. Barnes in the defence of the berde: a treatyse made, answerynge the treatyse of Doctor Borde upon berdes / edited, with a life of Andrew Boorde, and large extracts from his Brevyary, by F.J. Furnivall.

  • Andrew Boorde
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The fyrst boke of the introduction of knowledge made by Andrew Borde, of physycke doctor : A compendyous regyment; or, A dyetary of helth made in Mountpyllier / compyled by Andrewe Boorde, of physycke doctour. Barnes in the defence of the berde: a treatyse made, answerynge the treatyse of Doctor Borde upon berdes / edited, with a life of Andrew Boorde, and large extracts from his Brevyary, by F.J. Furnivall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    The story of the sack of corn and the horse which Mr T. Wright instances from the 13th century, is, in fact, the Second Tale in the Gotham collection attributed to Boorde : There was a man of Gottam did ride to the market with two bushells of wheate; and because his horse should not beare heauy, he carried his corne vpon his owne necke, & did ride vpon his horse, because his horse should not cary to heauy a burthen. Judge you which was the wisest, his horse or himselfe. The Gothamites too were known before The Merie Tales, and if we may trust Mr Collier, the subject was open to any one. Mr J. P. Collier says: “ ‘The foies of Gotham’ must have been celebrated long before Borde made them more ridiculous, for we find them laughed at in the Widkirk Miracle-plays, the only existing MS. of which was •written about the reign of Henry VI. The mention of ‘ the wise men of Gotum ’ in the MS. play of ‘ Misogonus ’ was later than the time of the collector, or author, of the tales as they have come down to us, because that comedy must have been written about 1560 : the MS. copy of it, however, bears the date of 1577. In ‘A Briefe and necessary Instruction,’ &c. by E. D., 8vo. 1572, we find the ‘fools of Gotham ’ in the following curious and amusing company :—‘ Bevis of Hampton, Guy of Warwicke, Arthur of the round table, Huon of Bourdeaux, Oliver of the castle, the foure Sonnes of Amond, the witles devices of Gargantua, Howleglas Esop, Bobyn Hoode, Adam Bell, Frier Bushe, the Fooles of Gotham, and a thousand such other.’ Among the ‘ such other,’ are mentioned ‘ tales of Bobyn Goodfellow,’ ‘ Songes and Sonets,’ ‘ Pallaces of Pleasure,’ ‘ unchast fables and Tragedies, and such like Sorceries,’ ‘The Courte of Venus,’ ‘The Castle of Love.’—This is nearly as singular and interesting an enumeration as that of Capt. Cox’s library in Laneham’s Letter from Kenilworth, printed three years later, although the former has never been noticed on account of the rarity of E. D.’s [possibly Sir Edward Dyer’s] strange little volume.—William Kempe’s ‘ applauded merri- ments,’ of the men of Gotham, in the remarkable old comedy ‘A Knack to know a Knave,’ 1594, consists only of one scene of vulgar blundering; but it was so popular as to be pointed out on the title- page in large type, as one of the great recommendations of the drama.”—Collier’s Bibliographical Account, vol. i. p. 327. I can see nothing in the Merie Tales that is like Boorde’s hand; and if Colwell printed the book after Boorde’s death, why shouldn’t he have put Boorde’s name on its title-page, as he did on the title- page of Boorde’s Dyetary that he printed ? So too with Wikes.