Preface
p.iiix
"PREFACE."
IKE popular tales in general, the
original sources of stories of simpletons are for the most part not traceable. The old Greek jests of this class had
doubtless been floating about among different peoples long before they were reduced to writing. The only tales and
apologues of noodles or stupid folk to which an approximate date can be assigned are those found in the early
Buddhist books, especially in the "Játakas" or Birth-stories, which are said to have been related to his
disciples by Gautama, the illustrious founder of Buddhism, as incidents which occurred to himself and others in
former births, and were afterwards put into a literary form by his followers. Many
p.iix
of the "Játakas" relate to silly men and women, and also to stupid animals, the latter being, of
course, men re-born as beasts, birds, or reptiles. But it is not to be supposed that all are of Buddhist invention;
some had doubtless been current for ages among the Hindus before Gautama promulgated his mild doctrines. Scholars
are, however, agreed that these fictions date at latest from a century prior to the Christian era.
Of European noodle-stories, as of other folk-tales, it may be said that, while they are numerous, yet the
elements of which they are composed are comparatively very few. The versions domiciled in different countries exhibit
little originality, farther than occasional modifications in accordance with local manners and customs. Thus for the
stupid Brahman of Indian stories the blundering, silly son is often substituted in European variants; for the brose
in Norse and Highland tales we find polenta or macaroni in Italian and Sicilian versions. The identity of
p.ix
incidents in the noodle-stories of Europe with those in what are for us their oldest forms, the Buddhist and
Indian books, is very remarkable, particularly so in the case of Norse popular fictions, which, there is every reason
to believe, were largely introduced through the Mongolians; and the similarity of Italian and West Highland stories
to those of Iceland and Norway would seem to indicate the influence of the Norsemen in the Western Islands of
Scotland and in the south of Europe.
It were utterly futile to attempt to trace the literary history of most of the noodle-stories which appear to
have been current throughout European countries for many generations, since they have practically none. Soon after
the invention of printing collections of facetiĉ were rapidly multiplied, the compilers taking their material from
oral as well as written sources, amongst others, from mediĉval collections of "exempla" designed for the
use of preachers and the writings
p.x
of the classical authors of antiquity. With the exception of those in Buddhist works, it is more than probable
that the noodle-stories which are found among all peoples never had any other purpose than that of mere amusement.
Who, indeed, could possibly convert the "witless devices" of the men of Gotham into vehicles of moral
instruction? Only the monkish writers of the Middle Ages, who even "spiritualised" tales which, if
reproduced in these days, must be "printed for private circulation"!
Yet may the typical noodle of popular tales "point a moral," after a fashion. Poor fellow! he follows
his instructions only too literally, and with a firm conviction that he is thus doing a very clever thing. But the
consequence is almost always ridiculous. He practically shows the fallacy of the old saw that "fools learn by
experience," for his next folly is sure to be greater than the last, in spite of every caution to the contrary.
He is generally very honest, and does
p.xi
everything, like the man in the play, "with the best intentions." His mind is incapable of
entertaining more than one idea at a time; but to that he holds fast, with the tenacity of the lobsters claw: he
cannot be diverted from it until, by some accident, a fresh idea displaces it; and so on he goes from one blunder to
another. His blunders, however, which in the case of an ordinary man would infallibly result in disaster to himself
or to others, sometimes lead him to unexpected good fortune. He it is, in fact, to whom the great Persian poet Sádí
alludes when he says, in his charming "Gulistán," or Rose Garden, "The alchemist died of grief and
distress, while the blockhead found a treasure under a ruin." Men of intelligence toil painfully to acquire a
mere "livelihood"; the noodle stumbles upon great wealth in the midst of his wildest vagaries. In brief, he
is--in stories, at least--a standing illustration of the "vanity of human
life"!
p.xii
And now a few words as to the history and design of the following work. When the Folk-lore Society was formed,
some nine years since, the late Mr. W.J. Thorns, who was one of the leading men in its formation, promised to edit for
the Society the "Merry Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham" furnishing notes of analogous stories, a task which
he was peculiarly qualified to perform. As time passed on, however, the infirmities of old age doubtless rendered the
purposed work less and less attractive to him, and his death, after a long, useful, and honourable career, left it
still undone. What particular plan he had sketched out for himself I do not know; but there can be no doubt that had
he carried it out the results would have been most valuable. And, since he did not perform his self-allotted task,
his death is surely a great loss, perhaps an irreparable loss, to English students of comparative folk-lore.
"More than five years ago, with a view of urging Mr. Thorns to set about the"
p.xiii
work, I offered to furnish him with some material in the shape of Oriental noodle-stories; but from a remark in
his reply I feared there would be no need for such services as I could render him. That fear has been since realised,
and the present little book is now offered as a humble substitute for the intended work of Mr. Thorns, until it is
displaced by a more worthy one.
Since the "Tales of the Men of Gotham" ceased to be reproduced in chap-book form, the first reprint
of the collection was made in 1840, with an introduction by Mr. J. O. Halliwell (now Halliwell-Phillipps); and that
brochure is become almost as scarce as the chap-book copies themselves: the only copy I have seen is in the Euing
collection in the Glasgow University Library. The tales were next reprinted in the "Shakespeare Jest-books"
so ably edited and annotated by Mr. W. Carcw Hazlitt, in three volumes (1864). They were again reproduced in Mr.
John
p.xiv
"Ashtoris "Chap-books of the Eighteenth Century" (1882)."
It did not enter into the plan of any of these editors to cite analogues or variants of the Gothamite Tales;
nor, on the other hand, was it any part of my design in the present little work to reproduce the Tales in the same
order as they appear in the printed collection. Yet all that are worth reproducing in a work of this description will
be found in the chapters entitled "Gothamite Drolleries" of which they form, indeed, but a small
portion.
My design has been to bring together, from widely scattered sources, many of which are probably unknown or
inaccessible to ordinary readers, the best of this class of humorous narratives, in their oldest existing Buddhist
and Greek forms as well as in the forms in which they are current among the people in the present day. It will,
perhaps, be thought by some that a portion of what is here presented might have been omitted with-
p.xv
out great loss; but my aim has been not only to compile an amusing story-book, but to illustrate to some extent
the migrations of popular fictions from country to country. In this design I was assisted by Captain R. C. Temple,
one of the editors of the "Indian Antiquary" and one of the authors of "Wide-awake Stories," from
the Punjáb and Kashmír, who kindly directed me to sources whence I have drawn some curious Oriental parallels to
European stories of simpletons.
W.a.c.
\"While my "Popular Tales and Fictions was passing through the press, in" 1886, I made
reference (in vol. i., p. 65) to the present work, as it was purposed to be published that year, but Mr. Stock
has had unavoidably to defer Us publication till now.
W. A. C.
Glasgow, \"March," 1888.
"PREFACE."
IKE popular tales in general, the
original sources of stories of simpletons are for the most part not traceable. The old Greek jests of this class had
doubtless been floating about among different peoples long before they were reduced to writing. The only tales and
apologues of noodles or stupid folk to which an approximate date can be assigned are those found in the early
Buddhist books, especially in the "Játakas" or Birth-stories, which are said to have been related to his
disciples by Gautama, the illustrious founder of Buddhism, as incidents which occurred to himself and others in
former births, and were afterwards put into a literary form by his followers. Many
p.iix
of the "Játakas" relate to silly men and women, and also to stupid animals, the latter being, of
course, men re-born as beasts, birds, or reptiles. But it is not to be supposed that all are of Buddhist invention;
some had doubtless been current for ages among the Hindus before Gautama promulgated his mild doctrines. Scholars
are, however, agreed that these fictions date at latest from a century prior to the Christian era.
Of European noodle-stories, as of other folk-tales, it may be said that, while they are numerous, yet the
elements of which they are composed are comparatively very few. The versions domiciled in different countries exhibit
little originality, farther than occasional modifications in accordance with local manners and customs. Thus for the
stupid Brahman of Indian stories the blundering, silly son is often substituted in European variants; for the brose
in Norse and Highland tales we find polenta or macaroni in Italian and Sicilian versions. The identity of
p.ix
incidents in the noodle-stories of Europe with those in what are for us their oldest forms, the Buddhist and
Indian books, is very remarkable, particularly so in the case of Norse popular fictions, which, there is every reason
to believe, were largely introduced through the Mongolians; and the similarity of Italian and West Highland stories
to those of Iceland and Norway would seem to indicate the influence of the Norsemen in the Western Islands of
Scotland and in the south of Europe.
It were utterly futile to attempt to trace the literary history of most of the noodle-stories which appear to
have been current throughout European countries for many generations, since they have practically none. Soon after
the invention of printing collections of facetiĉ were rapidly multiplied, the compilers taking their material from
oral as well as written sources, amongst others, from mediĉval collections of "exempla" designed for the
use of preachers and the writings
p.x
of the classical authors of antiquity. With the exception of those in Buddhist works, it is more than probable
that the noodle-stories which are found among all peoples never had any other purpose than that of mere amusement.
Who, indeed, could possibly convert the "witless devices" of the men of Gotham into vehicles of moral
instruction? Only the monkish writers of the Middle Ages, who even "spiritualised" tales which, if
reproduced in these days, must be "printed for private circulation"!
Yet may the typical noodle of popular tales "point a moral," after a fashion. Poor fellow! he follows
his instructions only too literally, and with a firm conviction that he is thus doing a very clever thing. But the
consequence is almost always ridiculous. He practically shows the fallacy of the old saw that "fools learn by
experience," for his next folly is sure to be greater than the last, in spite of every caution to the contrary.
He is generally very honest, and does
p.xi
everything, like the man in the play, "with the best intentions." His mind is incapable of
entertaining more than one idea at a time; but to that he holds fast, with the tenacity of the lobsters claw: he
cannot be diverted from it until, by some accident, a fresh idea displaces it; and so on he goes from one blunder to
another. His blunders, however, which in the case of an ordinary man would infallibly result in disaster to himself
or to others, sometimes lead him to unexpected good fortune. He it is, in fact, to whom the great Persian poet Sádí
alludes when he says, in his charming "Gulistán," or Rose Garden, "The alchemist died of grief and
distress, while the blockhead found a treasure under a ruin." Men of intelligence toil painfully to acquire a
mere "livelihood"; the noodle stumbles upon great wealth in the midst of his wildest vagaries. In brief, he
is--in stories, at least--a standing illustration of the "vanity of human
life"!
p.xii
And now a few words as to the history and design of the following work. When the Folk-lore Society was formed,
some nine years since, the late Mr. W.J. Thorns, who was one of the leading men in its formation, promised to edit for
the Society the "Merry Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham" furnishing notes of analogous stories, a task which
he was peculiarly qualified to perform. As time passed on, however, the infirmities of old age doubtless rendered the
purposed work less and less attractive to him, and his death, after a long, useful, and honourable career, left it
still undone. What particular plan he had sketched out for himself I do not know; but there can be no doubt that had
he carried it out the results would have been most valuable. And, since he did not perform his self-allotted task,
his death is surely a great loss, perhaps an irreparable loss, to English students of comparative folk-lore.
"More than five years ago, with a view of urging Mr. Thorns to set about the"
p.xiii
work, I offered to furnish him with some material in the shape of Oriental noodle-stories; but from a remark in
his reply I feared there would be no need for such services as I could render him. That fear has been since realised,
and the present little book is now offered as a humble substitute for the intended work of Mr. Thorns, until it is
displaced by a more worthy one.
Since the "Tales of the Men of Gotham" ceased to be reproduced in chap-book form, the first reprint
of the collection was made in 1840, with an introduction by Mr. J. O. Halliwell (now Halliwell-Phillipps); and that
brochure is become almost as scarce as the chap-book copies themselves: the only copy I have seen is in the Euing
collection in the Glasgow University Library. The tales were next reprinted in the "Shakespeare Jest-books"
so ably edited and annotated by Mr. W. Carcw Hazlitt, in three volumes (1864). They were again reproduced in Mr.
John
p.xiv
"Ashtoris "Chap-books of the Eighteenth Century" (1882)."
It did not enter into the plan of any of these editors to cite analogues or variants of the Gothamite Tales;
nor, on the other hand, was it any part of my design in the present little work to reproduce the Tales in the same
order as they appear in the printed collection. Yet all that are worth reproducing in a work of this description will
be found in the chapters entitled "Gothamite Drolleries" of which they form, indeed, but a small
portion.
My design has been to bring together, from widely scattered sources, many of which are probably unknown or
inaccessible to ordinary readers, the best of this class of humorous narratives, in their oldest existing Buddhist
and Greek forms as well as in the forms in which they are current among the people in the present day. It will,
perhaps, be thought by some that a portion of what is here presented might have been omitted with-
p.xv
out great loss; but my aim has been not only to compile an amusing story-book, but to illustrate to some extent
the migrations of popular fictions from country to country. In this design I was assisted by Captain R. C. Temple,
one of the editors of the "Indian Antiquary" and one of the authors of "Wide-awake Stories," from
the Punjáb and Kashmír, who kindly directed me to sources whence I have drawn some curious Oriental parallels to
European stories of simpletons.
W.a.c.
\"While my "Popular Tales and Fictions was passing through the press, in" 1886, I made
reference (in vol. i., p. 65) to the present work, as it was purposed to be published that year, but Mr. Stock
has had unavoidably to defer Us publication till now.
W. A. C.
Glasgow, \"March," 1888.
