"Sing Tantararara Rogues all," &c.—The above is the chorus of many satirical songs written to expose the malpractices of peculators, &c. Can any of your readers point out who was the author of the original song, and where it is to be found?
A Subscriber.
Meaning of "Cauking."—An old dame told me the other day, in Cheshire, that her servant was a good one, and among other good qualities "she never went cauking into the neighbours' houses." Unde derivatur "cauking?"
Chas. Paslam.
REPLIES.
THE WISE MEN OF GOTHAM.
(Vol. ii., p. 476.)
The proverb, "As wise as the men of Gotham." is given in Fuller's Worthies (ed. 1662, pp. 315, 316.). Ray, in his note upon this, observes
"It passeth for the Periphrasis of a fool, and an hundred fopperies are feigned and fathered on the townsfolk of Gotham, a village in this county [Nottinghamshire]. Here two things may be observed:
"1. Men in all ages have made themselves merry with singling out some place, and fixing the staple of stupidity and solidity therein. So the Phrygians in Asia, the Abderitæ in Thrace, and Bœotians in Greece, were notorious for dulmen and blockheads.
"2. These places thus slighted and scoffed at, afforded some as witty and wise persons as the world produced. So Democritus was an Abderite, Plutarch a Bœotian, &c.
"As for Gotham, it doth breed as wise people as any which causelessly laugh at their simplicity. Sure I am Mr. William de Gotham, fifth Master of Michael House in Cambridge, 1336, and twice Chancellor of the University, was as grave a governor as that age did afford."—3d. ed. p. 258.