Just about everything these days is controversial, so I suppose Mother Goose shouldn\u2019t 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 \u201crhymes.\u201d 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My extensive research found that the first known Mother Goose book was Charles Perrault\u2019s Contes de Ma Mere L\u2019Oye<\/em> (Tales of My Mother Goose<\/em>) published in France in 1697. Perrault\u2019s book was a collection of fairy tales including Sleeping Beauty<\/em> and Little Red Riding Hood<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mother Goose \u201crhymes\u201d first appeared in England in 1765 in a book called Mother Goose\u2019s Melody, or Sonnets for the Cradle. Around 1785, a pirated edition of the book was reprinted in the United States. Baa Baa, Black Sheep<\/em> \u2014 This verse can be traced back to the Middle Ages. It\u2019s a bitter complaint about an export tax, not about sheep.\u00a0 Humpty Dumpty<\/em> \u2014 This rhyme is an \u201ceggsellent\u201d example of the controversies surrounding Mother Goose.\u00a0 Jack and Jill<\/em> \u2014 It\u2019s probably the most controversial of all the rhymes. The tiny village of Kilmersdon, England, takes first claim, but others say that the village\u2019s ideas are wrong. So\u2026.. 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. 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<\/em> or Mother Goose\u2019s Melodies<\/em>. But \u2014 no such book has ever been found.\u00a0 Just about everything these days is controversial, so I suppose Mother Goose shouldn\u2019t 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 … Continue reading
I found the background, or \u201chistory\u201d of some of Mother Goose verses\u2026. and they don’t seem like kid stuff \u2014 some examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u201cmy master\u201d and another third to the nobility, sneeringly labeled \u201cmy dame.\u201d That left only a third of his income for \u201cthe little boy,\u201d who was the peasant himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the king\u2019s horses and all the king\u2019s men
Couldn\u2019t put Humpty together again.\u00a0
In 1930, Katherine Thomas\u2019s book, The Real Personages of Mother Goose<\/em>, 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 \u201cgreat fall,\u201d was killed. [Richard is the Shakespearean character who cried, \u201cMy kingdom for a horse!\u201d]
Others think Humpty dates back to the English Civil War in 1648, and that Humpty Dumpty refers to King Charles I\u2019s 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 \u2014 the king\u2019s men couldn\u2019t fix it.
Another group believes Humpty Dumpty was Charles himself. When he lost the war, that was his \u201cgreat fall.\u201dHe was beheaded by his enemies and \u2014 obviously \u2014his men couldn\u2019t put him back together. Scholars today continue to debate the identity\u00a0 of the egg. There is no consensus yet on Humpty\u2019s true identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2026.. 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\u2019s son \u2026???)
But \u2014 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 \u2014 not an accident in Kilmersdon \u2014 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\u2019t even human. A \u201cjack and gill\u201d 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\u2026.. and his head.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Old Mother Goose
When she wanted to wander
Would ride through the air,
On a very fine gander.\u00a0
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 \u201ctale from Mother Goose.\u201d By the time Charles Perrault\u2019s Le Conte de Ma Mere L\u2019Oye<\/em> appeared, the French legend of an old woman who entertained children with fascinating stories was well established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So maybe there was a real Mother Goose \u2014 or \u2014 maybe not. But no matter if she was real or not, she\u2019s had her share of imposters\u2026..
\u2014 30 \u2014
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