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For the 1970's musical group known as Mother Goose, see Mother Goose (band)

For the school known as Mother Goose Playskool and Gradeschool, see Mother Goose Playskool and Gradeschool

Mother Goose is a well-known figure in the literature of fairy tales and nursery rhymes.

Who was Mother Goose?

Mother Goose is the name given to an archetypical country woman, who is supposedly the originator of the Mother Goose stories and rhymes. Yet no specific writer has ever been identified with such a name, and the first known mention of which appears in an aside in a versified chronicle of weekly happenings, that appeared regularly for several years, Jean Loret's La Muse Historique (in 1660): comme un conte de la Mere Oye ("Like a Mother Goose story").

Many tourists to Boston, Massachusetts have been told that the original Mother Goose was named Elizabeth Goose and is interred at the Granary Burying Ground. This belief is considered wholly erroneous by scholars, as the individual's life post-dates prior use of the term elsewhere and no evidence exists that she collected any tales into a book.

In her 1930 book The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Katherine Elwes Thomas submits that the image and name "Mother Goose", or "Mere L'Oye", may be based upon ancient legends of the wife of King Robert II of France. "Goose-Footed Bertha" is often referred in French legends as spinning incredible tales that enraptured children.

The world authority on the Mother Goose tradition is Iona Opie, who does not give any credence to either the Elwes Thomas or the Boston suppositions.

Mother Goose's stories

The Contes de ma mère l'Oye (Mother Goose Tales), edited in 1697 by French author Charles Perrault, is made of eight tales:

• La Belle au bois dormant (Sleeping Beauty)
• Le Petit Chaperon rouge (Little Red Riding Hood)
• Barbe Bleue (Bluebeard)
• Le Chat botté (The Master Cat; or, Puss in Boots)
• Les Fées (The Fairies) often translated as Diamonds and Toads
• Cendrillon (Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper)
• Riquet à la houppe (Ricky of the Tuft)
• Le Petit Poucet (Little Thumb) often translated as Hop o' My Thumb

Many of Perrault's Mother Goose tales were adapted for the theater or major feature films, especially by Walt Disney Pictures or by Jim Henson.

Mother Goose in music and rhymes

In 1765, John Newbery's Mother Goose's Melody switched the focus from fairy tales to nursery rhymes, and in English this was the prime connotation for Mother Goose until recently. Most people in the UK now only know the name as a title for a Christmas pantomime - the tales have formed the basis for many classic British pantomimes, including one called "Mother Goose".

The name is now used as a generic title for collections of nursery rhymes, especially ones of a previous age.

French composer Maurice Ravel wrote an opus named Ma Mère l'Oye, a suite for the piano, which was then orchestrated and became a ballet.

As a slang term

The term 'Mother Goose' has been adopted as a slang term in the United Kingdom, and refers to a neurotic woman who fusses too much over those who are in her charge.

Other examples

• Books by L. Frank Baum and illustrator W.W. Denslow in the late 1890s featured Mother Goose and Father Goose.

• "Mother Goose" is also the nickname of a character of the movie Mad Max (George Miller, 1979), Jim Goose.

• "Mother Goose" is also the title of a song on the album Aqualung from the progressive rock band Jethro Tull.

• Roberta Williams produced the Mixed-Up Mother Goose series of computer games (now called edutainment) for young children.

See also

• List of children's songs
• List of children's stories

External links

• "Who was Mother goose?"
• The Real Mother Goose
• Baby's Mother Goose from Golden Books Publishing
• At Project Gutenberg:
  • The Tales of Mother Goose by Charles Perrault translated by Charles Welsh
  • The Real Mother Goose illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright
  • The Only True Mother Goose Melodies by Anonymous
  • Mother Goose in Prose by L. Frank Baum
• Mother Goose Clip Art Public domain illustrations of Mother Goose rhymes

• Poetry collections