Just about everything these days is controversial, so I suppose Mother Goose shouldn’t be any different. Mother Goose stories are basically folk tales that were originally told to children to entertain them. I remember reading some of them to our kids when they were small. I think they mostly appealed to them, not because of their content, but because of their “rhymes.” But Mother Goose contains some rhymes that were never meant for children. Some of the innocent counting verses and tips for learning the ABCs are old songs from the taverns and streets, or war songs, romantic ballads and political satires based on scandals among the ruling classes.
My extensive research found that the first known Mother Goose book was Charles Perrault’s Contes de Ma Mere L’Oye (Tales of My Mother Goose) published in France in 1697. Perrault’s book was a collection of fairy tales including Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood.
Mother Goose “rhymes” first appeared in England in 1765 in a book called Mother Goose’s Melody, or Sonnets for the Cradle. Around 1785, a pirated edition of the book was reprinted in the United States.
I found the background, or “history” of some of Mother Goose verses…. and they don’t seem like kid stuff — some examples:
Baa Baa, Black Sheep — This verse can be traced back to the Middle Ages. It’s a bitter complaint about an export tax, not about sheep.
Baa baa,
Black Sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes, marry, have I. Three bags full:
One for my master,
One for my dame,
And one for the little boy
That lives in the lane!
The hard working peasant in this rhyme gave a third of his income to the king, called “my master” and another third to the nobility, sneeringly labeled “my dame.” That left only a third of his income for “the little boy,” who was the peasant himself.
Humpty Dumpty — This rhyme is an “eggsellent” example of the controversies surrounding Mother Goose.
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.
In 1930, Katherine Thomas’s book, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, explained that Humpty Dumpty was about King Richard III of England. At the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, Richard commanded a hilltop (the wall in the rhyme.) In spite of all the efforts of his horses and men, Richard fell from his horse, and after this “great fall,” was killed. [Richard is the Shakespearean character who cried, “My kingdom for a horse!”]
Others think Humpty dates back to the English Civil War in 1648, and that Humpty Dumpty refers to King Charles I’s huge cannon mounted on the wall of a church tower. When the wall was blown up, the cannon tumbled to the ground, where it lay, broken and useless — the king’s men couldn’t fix it.
Another group believes Humpty Dumpty was Charles himself. When he lost the war, that was his “great fall.”He was beheaded by his enemies and — obviously —his men couldn’t put him back together. Scholars today continue to debate the identity of the egg. There is no consensus yet on Humpty’s true identity.
Jack and Jill — It’s probably the most controversial of all the rhymes. The tiny village of Kilmersdon, England, takes first claim, but others say that the village’s ideas are wrong.
Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after.
Kilmersdon, 200 miles west of London, formed a Jack and Jill committee to renovate the hill where they claim Jack broke his crown in the 15th century. Some say that Jack and Jill went up the hill, not to get water, but to….. be alone. Jill supposedly died of a broken heart after she gave birth to their son. Many people living nearby have the last name of Gilson (Jill’s son …???)
But — the Scandinavians cite a myth that dates back to the 13th century. Two children went to steal a bucket of dew from the moon god. The moon captured them, and the images of the children with a bucket suspended between them can be viewed on the surface of a full moon. Some people say that this myth — not an accident in Kilmersdon — is the origin of the rhyme. In yet another interpretation, there was never any female Jill and the rhyme mocks two boys, Jack and Gill, who were actually Cardinal Wolsey and Bishop Tarbes, who were hated for trying to raise an unpopular war tax. Other people are sure that Jack and Jill aren’t even human. A “jack and gill” were liquid measurements, and drinking was taxed by jacks and gills. According to some historians, Charles I tried to increase taxes by making the actual measurement of jacks and gills smaller while taxing them at the same rate. Remember, as explained in Humpty Dumpty, Charles lost his crown….. and his head.
So….. was there a real Mother Goose and was she actually based on a real person? As you might guess, even Mother Goose herself is controversial.
Old Mother Goose
When she wanted to wander
Would ride through the air,
On a very fine gander.
Some folklorists trace Mother Goose to an 8th-century French noblewoman, Bertrada II of Loan. Queen Bertrada was the mother of Emperor Charlemagne, who united much of Europe. The empress-mum may have been pigeon-toed, and was apparently known by the unflattering title of Queen Goosefoot. Eight centuries later, a French poem includes a line about a “tale from Mother Goose.” By the time Charles Perrault’s Le Conte de Ma Mere L’Oye appeared, the French legend of an old woman who entertained children with fascinating stories was well established.
Eventually Mother Goose became well known to American children as a rhyme-reciting granny riding a goose. In Boston, Massachusetts, there is a Tremont Street grave of Mistress Elizabeth Foster VerGoose. Tourists are told the widow entertained her grandchildren with rhymes and that her son-in-law, Thomas Fleet, published the rhymes as Songs for the Nursery or Mother Goose’s Melodies. But — no such book has ever been found.
So maybe there was a real Mother Goose — or — maybe not. But no matter if she was real or not, she’s had her share of imposters…..
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