The Listening Grove · Fifty Famous Stories Retold
Chapter 11: Other Wise Men of Gotham
A Charlotte Mason read-aloud lesson. Press play, with the lesson.
What is Fifty Famous Stories Retold Chapter 11, Other Wise Men of Gotham, about?Parent review
Fifty Famous Stories Retold Chapter 11, Other Wise Men of Gotham, is another comic tale from the village of foolish wise men, and this time their folly is on purpose. The people of Gotham hear that a cruel king means to pass through their town, and they fear that if he likes it he may settle there. So they hit on a clever plan: they will all act like fools. When the king's men arrive, they find the townsfolk busy at ridiculous tasks, like trying to rake the moon out of a pond or wall in a cuckoo to keep the spring. The king decides Gotham is too mad a place to bother with, and leaves them in peace. It is a merry story of feigned folly outwitting a king.
Say what you remember!
Tell what you remember from the last chapter.
What happened in Fifty Famous Stories Retold Chapter 10, Three Men of Gotham?Have a look
In the last chapter, Three Men of Gotham, two men of the village met on the road, one coming home from market and one going to buy sheep. They fell to quarreling over which way the sheep should be driven, though not a single sheep stood between them. A third neighbor came along carrying a sack of meal, and to show the two how much sense their argument held, he calmly poured all his meal out into the river. It was a short, funny tale that poked gentle fun at quarreling over nothing at all, in the old tradition of the wise men of Gotham.
Read the previous lesson: Three Men of Gotham →Show what you know!
Use your printable Lesson Guide. Fill in the vocabulary you know, then click to check your work and learn some new words today.
What are the difficult or advanced vocabulary words in Fifty Famous Stories Retold Chapter 11, Other Wise Men of Gotham?wits, lodging, cuckoo, strayingHave a look
- wits: the power of quick thinking and cleverness
- lodging: a place to stay and sleep for a time
- cuckoo: a bird known for its call, sometimes heard as cuck-oo
- straying: wandering away from where it should be
Locate it on the map!
Use your printable Lesson Guide. Use an atlas and fill in the blank map if you can find the geographic location, then click to check your work.
What important geographic location connects with Fifty Famous Stories Retold Chapter 11, Other Wise Men of Gotham?
- Find Gotham Village (Nottinghamshire, England).
See it on the mapHave a look
This matches the map in your Lesson Guide.
The Books come Alive!
Read or listen to Chapter 11 of Fifty Famous Stories Retold, the Kindred Thicket Enhanced Edition, read by Laura Caldwell.
Read by Laura Caldwell for LibriVox (public domain), professionally adjusted and trimmed by Kindred Thicket.
What do the Teacher’s Notes tell us about Chapter 11 of Fifty Famous Stories Retold?Parent review
This is a Kindred Thicket Enhanced Edition. Baldwin’s 1896 words are read exactly as he wrote them, and we add Teacher’s Notes with historical and literary context.
- About the whole bookFifty Famous Stories Retold gathers real history together with well-loved legends and traditions. These notes tell you, story by story, which is which.
- This chapterGotham's foolish wise men are a real, centuries-old English folklore tradition.
- This chapterBy tradition the king was King John, and the Gotham folk feigned foolishness to be left alone; it is a legend, not history.
- This chapterThe silly tasks, like rolling stones to raise the sun or walling in a cuckoo, are classic Gotham jests, not real events.
Memory becomes Action!
Use the Response Resource* to remember and spell tricky names. Choose one way to narrate.
*Materials in the Lesson Guide.
What is the list of names, people, characters, and places that are important in Chapter 11 of Fifty Famous Stories Retold?The Men of Gotham, The King, GothamHave a look
- The Men of Gotham: The townsfolk who played the fool on purpose so the cruel king would think them mad and leave their town alone.
- The King: The cruel ruler whose coming the men of Gotham dreaded and cleverly turned aside.
- Gotham: The English village whose people acted foolish on purpose to keep the king from settling among them.
Chapter 11 Q & A
This is a Kindred Thicket Enhanced Edition. Baldwin’s stories mingle real history with beloved legend, and here is what to know about this one.
Is the story of the wise men of Gotham true?
No, it is a legend, not history. The tale of the townsfolk playing the fool to send a king away is a classic Gotham jest. But Gotham's foolish wise men are a real, centuries-old English folklore tradition, and the silly tasks in the story, like walling in a cuckoo, are the kind of comic invention those old tales are full of.
Why did the men of Gotham act foolish?
They did it on purpose to protect their town. They heard that a cruel king meant to pass through, and they feared that if he liked the place he might settle there. So they decided to seem so mad that he would want nothing to do with them. Their feigned folly was really a clever plan to be left in peace.
Who was the king in the story?
By tradition the king was King John, who ruled England from 1199 to 1216 and had a name for cruelty. The Gotham folk pretended to be fools so he would leave them alone, and their trick worked. Since the tale is a legend rather than history, we cannot be sure any real king ever truly turned away from Gotham this way.
What is the lesson of the story?
The tale enjoys the idea that plain folk can outwit a powerful king by their wits. The men of Gotham only seem foolish, while in truth they are shrewd enough to save their town. For a young learner it is a merry reminder that cleverness can wear a foolish face, and that there is often more to people than meets the eye.