Arthur Rackham illustrations: Mother Goose
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Mother Goose, as we know her, originated as folk stories told to children. By the mid-17th century, Mere L'Oye (Mother Goose) was known to French children as a fairy birdmother who told charming tales to children. These were set down as early as 1637 in an Italian collection of stories called Il Penteramone. Perrault is responsible for the first collection of stories to bear her name, in 1697. The frontispiece of an old woman telling stories to children and a cat, titled Conte de ma mere l'oye is reminiscent of Rackham's Old Woman Who Lived Under the Hill. It was Perrault's book that was translated into English in 1729 as Mother Goose's Fairy Tales.
In spite of all this, Mary Goose's grave on Tremont Street in Boston, Massachusetts, is a popular tourist attraction.
For every evil under the sun,
There is a remedy, or there is none.
If there be one, try and find it;
If there be none, never mind it. ~Mother Goose
Bye, baby Bunting,
Daddy's gone a-hunting,
To fetch a pretty rabbit skin
To wrap our baby Bunting in.
Do note stalking rabbits.
13 inches by 19 inches. $108
Little miss Muffet she sat on her tuffet, eating her curds eating and whey
Along came a spider who sat down beside her
And frightened miss Muffet away.
There was an old woman
Lived under a hill;
And if she's not gone,
She lives there still.
And one cat.
13 inches by 19 inches. $108
There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile,
He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile;
He bought a crooked cat who caught a crooked mouse,
And they all lived together in a little crooked house
Do note cat vendor.
13 inches by 19 inches. $108
As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives.
Every wife had seven sacks, every sack had seven cats, every cat had seven kitts.
Kitts, cats, sacks, wives, how many were going to St. Ives?
Answer: One
13 inches by 19 inches. $108
Hey, diddle, diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.
Mother Goose: The Old Nursery Rhymes
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens
