AH! YOU APRIL FOOL!
Thirty years ago, when buckles were worn in shoes, a boy would meet a person in the street with—“Sir, if you please, your shoe’s unbuckled,” and the moment the accosted individual looked towards his feet, the informant would cry—“Ah! you April fool!” Twenty years ago, when buckles were wholly disused, the urchin-cry was—“Sir, your shoe’s untied;” and if the shoe-wearer lowered his eyes, he was hailed, as his buckled predecessor had been, with the said—“Ah! you April fool!” Now, when neither buckles nor strings are worn, because in the year 1825 no decent man “has a shoe to his foot,” the waggery of the day is—“Sir, there’s something out of your pocket.” “Where?” “There!” “What?” “Your hand, sir—Ah! you April fool!” Or else some lady is humbly bowed to, and gravely addressed with “Ma’am, I beg your pardon, but you’ve something on your face!” “Indeed, my man! what is it?” “Your nose, ma’am—Ah! you April fool!”
The tricks that youngsters play off on the first of April are various as their fancies. One, who has yet to know the humours of the day, they send to a cobbler’s for a pennyworth of the best “stirrup oil;” the cobbler receives the money, and the novice receives a hearty cut or two from the cobbler’s strap: if he does not, at the same time, obtain the information that he is “an April fool,” he is sure to be acquainted with it on returning to his companions. The like knowledge is also gained by an errand to some shop for half a pint of “pigeon’s milk,” or an inquiry at a bookseller’s for the “Life and Adventures of Eve’s Mother.”
Then, in-door young ones club their wicked wits,
And almost frighten servants into fits—
“Oh, John! James! John!—oh, quick! oh! Molly, oh
Oh, the trap-door! oh, Molly! down below!”
“What, what’s the matter!” scream, with wild surprise
John, James, and Molly, while the young ones’ cries
Redouble till they come; then all the boys
Shout “Ah! you April fools!” with clamorous noise;
And little girls enticed down stairs to see,
Stand peeping, clap their hands, and cry “te-hee!”
Each gibing boy escapes a different way,
And meet again some trick, “as good as that,” to play.
*
Much is written concerning the custom of fool-making on the first of April, but with this result only, that it is very ancient and very general.[56] As a better opportunity will occur hereafter, nothing will be said here respecting “fools” by profession.
The practice of making fools on this day in North Britain, is usually exercised by sending a person from place to place by means of a letter, in which is written
“On the first day of April
Hunt the gowk another mile.”
This is called “hunting the gowk;” and the bearer of the “fools’ errand” is called an “April gowk.” Brand says, that gowk is properly a cuckoo, and is used here metaphorically for a fool; this appears correct; for from the Saxon “geac, a cuckoo,” is derived geck,[57] which means “one easily imposed on.” Malvolio, who had been “made a fool” by a letter, purporting to have been written by Olivia, inquires of her