The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-24
MOTHER GOOSE MYTH.
Pittsburg Dispatch.)

Lie Boston version OF the MOthel
Goose myth has again been started OF
its rounds through the newspapers
J The germ idea Of these revamped item.
is found in those uncritical books
Whlch purport TO answer all the ode
queries that the inquisitive PROFOUND
IN It's most arrogant and incorrec1
form the myth runs: Mother Goose
was a real character. and not an i'm
aSlhafy parsonage, as has been sup
posed. Her maiden name was Eliza
beth Foster, and she was born in 1861
she married Isaac Goose in 1893. be-
came member of the Old South
Church, in Boston, a few years after
ward, and died in 1857, aged 80 years.
The first edition of her songs, originally
sung to her grandchildren, was printed
by her son-in-law, Thomas Fleet, il
11l9, as some say in derision of the
old lady"
| The amplification of the tradition is
that Elizabeth was the second wife of
Isaac, and contributed six children of
her own to the ten she found in the
! household, and thus sang truly of the
old woman who lived in a shoe.'' etc.
The melodies of Mother Goose will
continue to be heard in the corridors of
time as long as little children gladden.
the home. just as they have been the
lullabies in the centuries gone, but
the Boston legend should be extermi-
mated along with the English sparrow,
against which buccaneer her august
mayor has just inveighed. The Homeric
poems live despite the differentiation
of Homer into several rhapsodieS by
| German critics.
There was family by the name of
! Vergoose in Boston at the beginning of
the eighteenth century and the abbre-
Walton into Goose is traced. There was
a printer and newspaper publisher on
that town plat at about that time
named Thomas Fleet. But the crucial
point is: Did he issue in 1719 II book
entitled Songs for the Nursery, or
Mother Goose's Melodies for Children?"
with the further imprint, Printed by
I. Fleet, at his printing house, Pudding
Lane. Price Two coppers."
8 3 @
This myth, thus outlined, has been
assimilated by most Of the reading
population for many years. but it will.
doubtless, surprise many to read that
1t never had origin until 1856, when a
secretary of a historical society, him
self descendant of the Goose family,
asserted that he had seen in a Wor-
cester library an Imperfect copy of the
Fleet edition, and he had taken note of
its title. There is no section of the
United States which can rival New
England in its fondness for tracing
anceStries back to the Mayfiower, ut
terly reckless of the carrying capacity
of that noble ship. Now the New Eng
land Historical and Genealogical So
ciety at once began an investigation of
this marvellous pretension, and the
search for that copy lasted for many
years-in fact, is yet an open hunt. 1t
hna
some old account books were found
that indicated that Thomas Fleet had
printed some verses for children for a
bookseller named Daniel Henchman,
but there YVES no intimation of the
Mother Goose title
e & @
But the legend can be demolished
easily by invading folklore merely be-
yond its border line. In 1897 Charles
Perrault brought out in France Les
COntes de ma Mere TOye''-or Stories
of Mother Goose" These appeared in
England, translated in 1927. Mother
Goose had long been a popular syn
onym for fairy stories in France. Peau
d Ane-the donkeys sl1in-also meant
childish tales, and was the generic title
for a mass of nursery stories popular
everywhere. The legend of Mother
Goose is traced by some to RENE Pen
dance Queen Goosefoot), said to be
the mother of Charlemagne. Whoever |
studies these ballads of infancy dis |
covers in successive editions gross in |
terpOlations, alterations and CLOSES of
all kinds. Many are of evident Eng |
lish origin, for they sing of London |
bridge, the man from Norwich, of Der !
by and of the Two sticks in an apple: |
ring the bell of Whitechapel," but & |
critical inspection will reveal the songs
Of all nations, and a folklore hoarv !
with the frost of ages. Sun myths run
all through them.
The Sing a-song-of- sixpence" is
manifestly story of the days and the
hours, the rising of the golden sun and !
the shipping off of the moons nose.
the centuries have rung these
croonings, heard perhaps on Asiatic
Dlateaus = adaptations grandmothers
have made. improvisations to vary the
of their recitation to each
new fedgling in the home. But they
lid not emanate from Boston, nor from
he Goose family. In the early eigh-
lourished on gospel food, and knew lit
lie of the delights Of such worldly ly-
les at Toby was a Welshman." Brim-
stone was too terrible q reality thus to
De driven from constant contemplation.
No allusion to these melodies is
ound in contemporary writing. Ben
amin Franklin deigns not a sentence
o what would have been a notable
'ook. When, in 1888, Moore e Francis
ssued an edition, the preface stated
hat the melodies had been known in
england for 200 years. Peace to the
shes of Elizabeth Goose, consort of
saac. She may have made the "bair-
lies cuddle doom at nicht'' by phono-
-raphing these sedative songs, but she
i'd not compose them, nor did her
worthy son-in-law ever collect and {
than !