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My Tweets
Archive for the 'Mother Goose' Category
Contents
Posts
A Rain Rhyme that Involves Baking a Cake
Thursday, November 12th, 2009Here’s a rain rhyme from Northumberland that reminds us that rainy weather is a good opportunity to stay indoors and cook!
Rain, rain, go away,
And come again another day,
When I brew and when I bake,
I’ll give you a little cake.Stay dry!
Mama Lisa
PS You can tell it’s raining where I am and that I’m considering baking something yummy!
Old Mother Goose Cartoon
Saturday, August 22nd, 2009Here’s a cartoon from 1950 called Little Audry: Goofy Goofy Gander. It’s a strange mixture of Mother Goose, comic books, jazz and Hollywood, with the goose that lays the golden eggs thrown in…
A Collection of Nursery Rhymes
Thursday, August 6th, 2009I’ve embedded this lovely book of nursery rhymes for you to enjoy! It’s A Collection of Nursery Rhymes… Nurse Lovechild’s Legacy (1916). Many of the illustrations are from the 18th and early 19th century Chapbooks. The book has been embellished by one of my favorite nursery rhyme illustrators: C. Lovat Fraser (1890 – 1921). You can click the arrow below to turn the pages or scroll with the other arrows on the side.
If you prefer to have it on your own computer, you can download A Collection of Nursery Rhymes from Internet Archive ! Just go to the link and choose “PDF” to download it.
Enjoy!
Mama Lisa
PS You can also come visit Mama Lisa’s House for a HUGE collection of Nursery Rhymes… many including illustrations, mp3s, midis and scores!
A Collection of Nursery Rhymes
A Nursery Rhyme Story and Illustration
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009Young nursery rhyme lovers will enjoy this little story featuring Mother Goose characters. Kids who aren’t familiar with a lot of nursery rhymes can learn new ones. I made each character linkable to a page where you can read that character’s rhyme. At the end of the story is an illustration that includes many of these beloved nursery rhyme characters.
MOTHER GOOSE’S MAY PARTY.
BY AGNES CARR.
It was May-day, and the sun popped out of bed early that morning to wake up the little birds and flowers, that they might clear their throats, and wash their bright faces in dew, by the time the old woman had swept the cobwebs from the sky, and left a beautiful blue roof over Gooseneck village; for they knew it was the 1st of May, and that dear old Mother Goose, who taught the Kindergarten, or infant school, was going with all her little scholars to have a May party under the trees in the merry green wood.
And the children knew it too, and they were all on hand bright and early- Tommy Green and Johnny Stout, Humpty Dumpty and Little Bo-peep, Jack and Jill, Little Boy Blue in a brand-new suit of clothes, and Goldilocks with her yellow hair flying in the wind, Tom, the Piper’s son, and poor Simple Simon, the dunce of the school, with many others that we have known and loved-and all brought baskets filled with good things for their dinner.
"Oh, won’t we have fun!" said Margery Daw to Jacky Horner. "I hope you have got something nice in that big basket of yours."
"Yes, indeed," said Jack. "Cook made me a lovely pie, and stuffed it just full of plums. I will try and pull one out for you;" and he lifted up the napkin over the basket, and was trying to break a hole in the pie-crust, when Mother Goose came in, and seeing him, said, "Here, here, Master Jack! keep your fingers out of the pie. I never saw such a boy. He sticks his thumb into everything, from Christmas pies to inkstands."
"Oh, Mother Goose, do let us start!" shouted the children.
"Yes, yes, my dears, very soon. We are only waiting for Contrary Mary. I have sent Nimble Dick for her; and here they come now."
Sure enough, there was heard a jingling of bells, and in danced Mary, quite contrary, with her fingers covered with rings, and her apron filled with flowers from her garden, with which to make a wreath for the May-Queen.
And now they all started, walking two and two, with Mother Goose at the head, holding the youngest scholar, Baby Bunting, tight by the hand, for fear he should fall down and tear his new rabbit-skin overcoat, while Tom, the Piper’s son, played "Over the hills and far away" on his pipe, and all the little folks danced and skipped along to the gay tune.
When they reached the pleasant wood, they were all glad to sit down on the green moss and rest awhile; and Mother Goose said, "The first thing is to choose a May-Queen: now who shall it be?"
"Goldilocks!" "Goldilocks!" shouted the children, for they all loved the dear little girl with pretty hair and sweet blue eyes.
"Oh, no, no!" said Goldilocks, and she hid behind Tommy Tucker.
But they made her come out and sit on a throne formed of Miss Muffet’s tuffet, scattered over with wild violets and May-flowers, which grew all around; and Contrary Mary put a beautiful crown of "roses and lilies and daffadown-dillies" on her golden curls, and she looked just the dearest little May-Queen in all the world.
Then all the children joined hands, and danced round the throne, singing,
"Hail to the Queen of May
On this our festal day!
Gay flowers we’ll bring,
Sweet blossoms of spring,
To crown our Queen of May."The little Queen then gave each one a flower, and let them kneel and kiss her tiny white hand; and then they scattered through the woods, and played "Oats, peas, beans," tag, and other games, until Little Boy Blue blew a blast on his horn, which meant "Come to dinner"; and when they all came running back at the call, they found Mother Goose had a table-cloth spread on the grass, and all the biscuits, cake, and fruit from their baskets set out on green leaves, while in the centre stood Jack Horner’s pie, a bowl of curds and whey that Miss Muffet brought, and a plate of strawberry tarts sent by the Queen of Hearts; and Jack and Jill were bringing a pail of nice cold water from the spring.
How hungry they all were, too, and how good everything tasted! while they had such a laugh at little Miss Muffet, who screamed and ran away when a great daddy-long-legs walked across the table.
They ended the feast with the plum pie, which the little Queen cut, and gave every one a piece; and they all said it was so nice. Jack Horner felt quite proud, and thought he was a bigger boy than ever.
After everything was eaten up, Margery Daw and Little Bo-peep washed the dishes, while Little Boy Blue went fast asleep under the fence, and Mother Goose told all the little ones a story, until the cobwebs began to come over the sky, and the sun whispered to the little birds and flowers it was time to shut their peepers for the night, when they started for home, Goldilocks the Queen riding in the middle of the procession on big John Stout’s shoulder; and when they bade their teacher a tired but happy good-night, all said they had had the nicest kind of a day, and hoped next year Mother Goose would give them another May party.
GOING HOME FROM THE PICNIC.-Drawn by Jessie Curtis.
This seems to be the order of characters in the illustration above: Simple Simon, Contrary Mary, Tommy Tucker, Little Bo-peep, Tommy Green or Johnny Stout, Humpty Dumpty, Nimble Dick holding Goldilocks, Little Boy Blue, Tom, the Piper’s son, Jack and Jill, and Mother Goose carrying Baby Bunting
Enjoy!
Mama Lisa
Chenodia – Mother Goose in Dead Languages
Sunday, May 10th, 2009Chenodia, The Classic Mother Goose (1871) by John Bigelow was just released online. It appears to be the traditional English nursery rhymes translated into Latin and Ancient Greek.
If anyone knows anything else about this text, please let us know in the comments below.
Mama Lisa
In April’s Sweet Month: A Nursery Rhyme
Sunday, April 5th, 2009Here’s a sweet little nursery rhyme about April, that can be found in The Only True Mother Goose Melodies (c. 1843)…
In April’s Sweet Month
Nursery RhymeIn April’s sweet month,
When the leaves ‘gin* to spring,
Little lambs skip like fairies
And birds build and sing.*begin
Enjoy the delights of Springtime!
Mama Lisa
Swan – A Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme
Wednesday, April 11th, 2007The illustration below is from The Real Mother Goose which was illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright and published in 1916. The whole book is available to download for free from Project Gutenberg. Just click the link on the book title to download it. I’ll be posting much of it on my Nursery Rhyme site over time – with French and Spanish translations. I’ll also post some here from time to time – along with some other public domain rhymes.
SWAN
Swan, swan, over the sea;
Swim, swan, swim!
Swan, swan, back again;
Well swum, swan!
Does Anyone Know a Book with the Lines “”To Sup Like a Pup, To Gulp it All Up”"
Tuesday, March 20th, 2007Kevin wrote:
Hello My name is Kevin Dahl, and I am looking for a book title to a children’s book my wife and I used to read to our son. We read this book so many times we both have it memorized many years later.
The words are…
To sup like a pup
To gulp it all up
no napkin, no fork no spoon and no cup
But to gulp it all up with your tongue in deliciable laps what luck.Then the second part I think is a Mother Goose from the same book:
Bow woo woo
Whose dog art thou
Little Tommy Tinkers dog
Bow wow wowWe purchased that book over 12 years ago and we read it until it was so warn out we had to throw it away. Now we both regret throwing it out and want to buy another copy.
Thank you
Kevin DahlIf anyone can help identify this book, and/or provide any other useful info, please comment below.
Thanks!
Lisa
Where is Mother Goose from? Is she from France? From Germany?
Saturday, October 1st, 2005As mentioned in my previous blog entry…
“Some people believe Berthe de Laon (726 to 783), the Mother of Charlemagne, was Mother Goose. She became queen of the Francs when she married Pépin le Bref . One of her feet was bigger than the other, and so she was known by her subjects as ‘Berthe au grand pied’ (in English ‘big-footed Bertha’). Berthe may also be the original model for la ‘Reine Pédauque’ (in English ‘Queen Goosefoot’), a figure of French legend, whose statue is found in front of some churches in France.”
As I read more, I have found that some people believe Mother Goose was another Berthe. This Berthe married King Robert II of France (Robert the Pious 970-1013), despite the fact that they were cousins. Pope Gregory V excommunicated Robert II for this. I keep coming across references in French about the couple giving birth to a goose. Perhaps they gave birth to a deformed child that people thought looked a little like a goose?
Meanwhile, if we switch to mythology, we find other instances of Bertha, often associated with children. Bertha is the Norse goddess of spinning. In German mythology, Bertha, is also known as Berchta. I found different references to Berchta as being: the goddess of growing things, the guardian of the souls of unborn babies, a fertility goddess. Sometimes she has a goosefoot and other times she has a golden spindle. At times she’s called Berta, dressed in white, who soothes babies while their caretakers sleep.
To confuse matters ever further, the goddess Bertha is also sometimes called Fru Gode and, it’s possible that she’s connected with Fru Gosen, which might be the German name for Mother Goose. *
Could the truth be that Mother Goose is a combination of one of the Queen Bertha’s of France, combined with the borrowed mythology of the goddess Bertha?
This could explain the origin of the legendary French figure, Goose-footed Bertha, who is usually portrayed as having children surrounding her, listening to her stories while she’s at the spinning wheel. Her foot got flattened from working the treadle for years.
*I originally read this in several places. Since then I’ve read that “Fru Gosen” may have been a mistranslation into English. Or it’s possible that it’s an old figure who didn’t make into into current folklore. If any knows more about Fru Gosen, please write me. Thanks! Lisa – UPDATE: Since then I’ve checked with several people from Germany, none of them were familiar with a German Mother Goose figure.
Many thanks to Monique for helping with the French connections. Monique is my partner in Mother Goosedom at Mama Lisa’s World en français.
Who was Mother Goose?
Friday, September 30th, 2005Everyone knows Mother Goose, the jolly woman of legend who represents the beloved collection of English nursery rhymes. But who was Mother Goose really? Where did the name originate? Here are three of the best known theories…
The French Connection – Was Mother Goose Really French?
Some people believe Berthe de Laon (726 to 783), the Mother of Charlemagne, was Mother Goose. She became queen of the Francs when she married Pépin le Bref . One of her feet was bigger than the other, and so she was known by her subjects as “Berthe au grand pied” (in English “big-footed Bertha”). Berthe may also be the original model for la “Reine Pédauque” (in English “Queen Goosefoot”), a figure of French legend, whose statue is found in front of some churches in France.
This could be the origin of the legendary French figure, Goose-footed Bertha, who always has children around her listening to her stories.
In 1650, the first published mention of the name Mother Goose, is in French, in Loret’s La Muse Historique. The book contains the line “comme un conte de la Mère Oye” (in English “like a Mother Goose story”).
In 1697, Charles Perrault published Les Contes de ma Mère l’Oye, (in English “The Stories of Mother Goose”). Unlike later English language usage, here Mother Goose was a teller of stories, not a reciter of nursery rhymes. The book contains 8 fairy tales, including Little Red Riding Hood.
The American Connection – Could Mother Goose Have Been American?
Eliza Goose of Boston (probably short for Vertigoose or Vergoose) was the mother-in-law of a printer named Thomas Fleet. The story says that she often told nursery rhymes to her grandchildren. Supposedly, her son-in-law printed a book entitled Songs of the Nursery; or, Mother Goose’s Melodies for Children in 1719. There’s no proof that this book actually existed, except for the word of 3 people in the 19th century.
Did Mother Goose Actually Come from England?
Martha Gooch was a nursemaid who lived in Sussex in the early 1700’s. When people overheard her singing rhymes to the children in her care, she struck them as a bit odd. They began to tease her by calling her Mother Goose after Queen Goosefoot, the mother of Charlemagne.
Supposedly, one of Gooch’s employers overheard her reciting rhymes. He wrote them down and made a book of them in 1712 called Ye Melodious Rhymes of Mother Goose. This book however has never been proven to have existed.
The first printed edition of nursery rhymes collected under the name Mother Goose (as opposed to the fairy tales of Perrault, collected under the same name in 1697) was called Mother Goose’s Melody and was printed around 1765 in England.
I guess we’ll never know for sure who Mother Goose really was, but it’s fun to try to find out!
________
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