A Knack to Know a Knave
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A Knack to Know a Knave is a 1592 play closely associated with the principal performers Edward Alleyn and William Kempe. The play is a comic morality tale designed to highlight the talents of the cele
The title page of a Knack to Know a Knave in its 1594 quarto
Wise Men of Gotham
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Wise Men of Gotham is the early name given to the people of the village of Gotham, Nottinghamshire, in allusion to an incident where they supposedly feigned idiocy to avoid a Royal visit.
A Knack to Know a Knave
…of the piece was likely provided in extemporised passages by Kempe of which we now have no record. The title page highlights the appearance of the Men of Gotham, a village in Nottinghamshire that had become a Tudor folk byword for cunning tax avoidance, after a 1540 chapbook appeared, recounting how their feigned…
Cuckoo Bush Mound is the alleged site for the tale of the Wise Men of Gotham's attempt at fencing in the cuckoo. It is actually a 3,000-year-old Neolithic burial mound, and was excavated in 1847.
Gotham Legends wind vane erected in the centre of village
Wise Men of Gotham 1 WW Denslow Project Gutenberg etext 18546
Wise Men of Gotham 2 WW Denslow Project Gutenberg etext 18546