Who Was Mother Goose?
Many she’s and he’s different writers in different times. The term has been traced to Loret’s 1650 La Muse Historique in which appeared the line, Comme un conte de la Mere Oye (“Like a Mother Goose story”). Two French Queen Berthas have been conjectured as a “Mother Goose” but there is no traceable evidence that either was the reference in Loret’s remarks. In 1697 Charles Perrault used the phrase in a published collection of eight fairy tales which included “The Sleeping Beauty,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Cinderella,” “Bluebeard,” and others. Although the book was titled, (translated from French) Histories and Tales of Long Ago, with Morals, the frontispiece showed an old woman spinning and telling stories, with a placard on the page which bore the words Contes de la Mere l’Oye (Tales of My Mother the Goose). Perrault thereby set the stage for the name to become a household word. The first English appearance of the name is sometimes erroneously credited to Robert Powel, who presented
Many she’s and he’sdifferent writersin different times. The term has been traced to Loret’s 1650 La Muse Historique in which appeared the line, Comme un conte de la Mere Oye (“Like a Mother Goose story”). Two French Queen Berthas have been conjectured as a “Mother Goose” but there is no traceable evidence that either was the reference in Loret’s remarks. In 1697 Charles Perrault used the phrase in a published collection of eight fairy tales which included “The Sleeping Beauty,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Cinderella,” “Bluebeard,” and others. Although the book was titled, (translated from French) Histories and Tales of Long Ago, with Morals, the frontispiece showed an old woman spinning and telling stories, with a placard on the page which bore the words Contes de la Mere l’Oye (Tales of My Mother the Goose). Perrault thereby set the stage for the name to become a household word. The first English appearance of the name is sometimes erroneously credited to Robert Powel, who presented pu
Probably not any of the above specifically, but instead a combination of several of them. Sources: Opie, Iona, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1951), Baring-Gould, William S., The Annotated Mother Goose (New York, C.N. Potter, 1962). Related articles: The Possible Origin of Humpty Dumpty, Possible Origins of Jack and Jill, Origins of Two Nursery Rhymes.
