Children, as well as their interested parents, will eagerly welcome this
beautiful edition of the one great nursery classic, just as a worthy
edition of Shakespeare is welcomed by discriminating adult readers.
But some may ask what there is in these simple melodies, attributed to
Mother Goose, which gives them so secure and beloved a place in the
home, the school and the public library. Is it the humor, the action,
the rhythm, or the mystery of the theme which appeals so strongly to
critical little minds in each generation of childhood, and even to adult
minds so fortunate as to have retained some of the refreshing naiveté of
early years?
It is useless to try to explain the charm of these nonsense melodies.
The children themselves do not know why they love them. No mother can
tell us the magic of the spell which seems to be cast over her restless
baby as she croons to it a Mother Goose lullaby. No primary teacher
quite understands why the mere repetition or singing of a Mother Goose
jingle will transform her listless, inattentive class into one all
eagerness and attention. But mother and teacher agree that the best of
these verses have an even more potent influence than that of innocently
diverting and entertaining the child. The healthy moral, so subtly
suggested in many of the rhymes, is unconsciously absorbed by the
child's receptive mind, helping him to make his own distinction between
right and wrong, bravery and cowardice, generosity and selfishness.
From a literary standpoint, also, these rhymes have proved of real value
in creating a taste for the truly musical in poetry and song. They train
the ear and stir the imagination of the child as no other verses do.
Many famous poets and writers trace their first inspiration, and love
for things literary, back to the nursery songs and fairy tales of their
childhood.
[Illustration]
Teachers well know that children who have reveled in these rhymes and
stories, at the time of their strongest appeal, step naturally and
appreciatively into the great fields of good literature which are
beyond.
Knowing these things to be true, we do not hesitate to place this
venerable classic on the shelf beside our Shakespeare, and to send our
children there for delight and inspiration. They will understand
Shakespeare the better for having known and loved Mother Goose.
But what about the personality of this classic writer? Was she really
Mistress Elizabeth Goose who is said to have lived in Boston about two
hundred years ago, and who crooned her nonsense jingles to a large and
happy family of grandchildren? We are told that their father, Thomas
Fleet, who was a printer by trade, thought to turn an honest penny with
his mother-in-law's popular verses, so he published them in a small
volume under the title of "Songs for the Nursery: or, Mother Goose's
Melodies." A goose with a very long neck and a wide-open mouth flew
across the title page, at least so the story goes. But we have to
believe that it is only a story, for no copy of the book can be found,
and nothing but tradition identifies Elizabeth Goose, the Boston
grandmother, with the famous rhymester.
We might feel sorry to be obliged to discredit this picturesque story of
Mother Goose, if her real history were not even more mysterious. We know
very little about the beloved patron of childhood, but what we do know
is as follows:
Mother Goose is most certainly of respectable French origin, for in 1697
a distinguished French writer, Charles Perrault, published in Paris a
little book of familiar stories called "Contes de ma Mère l'Oye," or
"Tales of My Mother Goose." Her identity, however, he leaves a mystery,
except that in the frontispiece of his book is pictured an old woman by
her fireside telling stories to an eager little family group.
[Illustration]
This volume contained the only prose tales that have ever been credited
to Mother Goose, and they are still among the most popular stories in
nursery or school room. The titles are as follows: "Little Red Riding
Hood;" "The Sisters Who Dropped From Their Mouths Diamonds and Toads;"
"Bluebeard;" "The Sleeping Beauty;" "Puss in Boots;" "Cinderella;"
"Riquet With the Tuft;" and "Tom Thumb."
It is through her verses, however, that Mother Goose has won her
well-deserved fame. The first collection under her name was published in
London about 1765 by John Newbery. It may be, if Oliver Goldsmith were
living, he could tell us more about the origin of these verses than we
are now ever likely to know. It is more than probable that he himself
edited the little volume for John Newbery, and that he wrote the clever
preface, "By a very Great Writer of very Little Books," as well as the
quaint moral which supplements each rhyme.
About twenty-five years later this book was reprinted in our country by
Isaiah Thomas of Worcester, Massachusetts. Several copies of this
edition are preserved, one of which has been photographed and reproduced
in facsimile by W. H. Whitmore of Boston. Other publishers also
reprinted the English edition, one being done for John Newbery's
grandson, Francis Power, in 1791.
In 1810 another collection of melodies appeared under the title of
"Gammer Gurton's Garland." It was quite evidently a rival of Mother
Goose, though it contained nearly all of her verses, besides many far
less interesting ones gathered from other sources.
[Illustration]
Gammer Gurton's popularity, however, was short, and Mother Goose was
revived about 1825 by a Boston firm, Munroe and Francis. Since that time
her fame has never waned. In spite of the present multiplicity of
beautiful books for children, they are constantly exhausting large
editions of the one universally beloved book of melodies. Some of these
volumes have been collected and edited by men of the highest literary
judgment and ability, such as Goldsmith (with hardly a doubt), Ritson,
Halliwell, Andrew Lang, Charles Eliot Norton, Charles Welsh and Edward
Everett Hale. Certainly there is not another collection of juvenile
literature which can boast such a list of scholarly editors. The deepest
gratitude is due them for their careful and discriminating effort to
preserve for the children of future generations this rich heritage of
nursery melodies.
Many less discriminating editors, however, have ruthlessly mutilated and
adapted many of the rhymes to suit their fancy, thinking, possibly, that
as Mother Goose is only a title, the verses attributed to her belong to
the general public to use as it sees fit. On the contrary, Mother
Goose's melodies belong to the children, and no addition or change
should be made except by those who are in such close sympathy with the
child-heart that they may act with the child's authority.
This present edition of "Mother Goose" preserves the best of the verses
which became so popular in England and America as to first demand their
publication. It is the only truly classic edition that has been
published in modern times. The two authorities which have been followed
are the edition published for John Newbery's grandson in London in 1791,
and probably edited by Oliver Goldsmith, and the edition published in
Boston in 1833 by Munroe and Francis, called "The Only True Mother Goose
Melodies." It is from this copy that the following quaint introduction
by "Ma'am Goose" is quoted.
Not all the favorites among the nursery rhymes are here, only those that
first helped to make the fame of the fictitious but no less worthy
patron of childhood. May her fame and her melodies be lovingly preserved
to give joy and inspiration to many future generations of little
children.