{"product_id":"2940013488557","title":"Mother Goose in Prose","description":"Contents\u003cbr\u003e    Introduction\u003cbr\u003e    Sing a Song o' Sixpence\u003cbr\u003e    The Story of Little Boy Blue\u003cbr\u003e    Cat and the Fiddle\u003cbr\u003e    The Black Sheep\u003cbr\u003e    Old King Cole\u003cbr\u003e    Mistress Mary\u003cbr\u003e    The Wond'rous Wise Man\u003cbr\u003e    What Jack Horner Did\u003cbr\u003e    The Man in the Moon\u003cbr\u003e    The Jolly Miller\u003cbr\u003e    The Little Man and His Little Gun\u003cbr\u003e    Hickory Dickory Dock\u003cbr\u003e    Little Bo-Peep\u003cbr\u003e    The Story of Tommy Tucker\u003cbr\u003e    Pussy-cat Mew\u003cbr\u003e    How the Beggars Came to Town\u003cbr\u003e    Tom, the Piper's Son\u003cbr\u003e    Humpty Dumpty\u003cbr\u003e    The Woman Who Lived in a Shoe\u003cbr\u003e    Little Miss Muffet\u003cbr\u003e    Three Wise Men of Gotham\u003cbr\u003e    Little Bun Rabbit\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNone of us, whether children or adults, needs an introduction to\u003cbr\u003eMother Goose. Those things which are earliest impressed upon our minds\u003cbr\u003ecling to them most tenaciously The snatches sung in the nursery are\u003cbr\u003enever forgotten, nor are they ever recalled without bringing back with\u003cbr\u003ethem myriads of slumbering feelings and half-forgotten images.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe hear the sweet, low voice of the mother, singing soft lullabies to\u003cbr\u003eher darling, and see the kindly, wrinkled face of the grandmother as\u003cbr\u003eshe croons the old ditties to quiet our restless spirits. One\u003cbr\u003egeneration is linked to another by the everlasting spirit of song; the\u003cbr\u003eballads of the nursery follow us from childhood to old age, and they\u003cbr\u003eare readily brought from memory's recesses at any time to amuse our\u003cbr\u003echildren or our grandchildren.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe collection of jingles we know and love as the \"Melodies of Mother\u003cbr\u003eGoose\" are evidently drawn from a variety of sources. While they are,\u003cbr\u003etaken altogether, a happy union of rhyme, wit, pathos, satire and\u003cbr\u003esentiment, the research after the author of each individual verse\u003cbr\u003ewould indeed be hopeless. It would be folly to suppose them all the\u003cbr\u003ecomposition of uneducated old nurses, for many of them contain much\u003cbr\u003ereflection, wit and melody. It is said that Shelley wrote \"Pussy-Cat\u003cbr\u003eMew,\" and Dean Swift \"Little Bo-Peep,\" and these assertions are as\u003cbr\u003edifficult to disprove as to prove. Some of the older verses, however,\u003cbr\u003eare doubtless offshoots from ancient Folk Lore Songs, and have\u003cbr\u003edescended to us through many centuries.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe connection of Mother Goose with the rhymes which bear her name is\u003cbr\u003edifficult to determine, and, in fact, three countries claim her for\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003etheir own: France, England and America.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAbout the year 1650 there appeared in circulation in London a small\u003cbr\u003ebook, named \"Rhymes of the Nursery; or Lulla-Byes for Children,\" which\u003cbr\u003econtained many of the identical pieces that have been handed down to\u003cbr\u003eus; but the name of Mother Goose was evidently not then known. In this\u003cbr\u003eedition were the rhymes of \"Little Jack Homer,\" \"Old King Cole,\"\u003cbr\u003e\"Mistress Mary,\" \"Sing a Song o' Sixpence,\" and \"Little Boy Blue.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1697 Charles Perrault published in France a book of children's\u003cbr\u003etales entitled \"Contes de ma Mere Oye,\" and this is really the first\u003cbr\u003etime we find authentic record of the use of the name of Mother Goose,\u003cbr\u003ealthough Perrault's tales differ materially from those we now know\u003cbr\u003eunder this title. They comprised \"The Sleeping Beauty,\" \"The Fairy,\"\u003cbr\u003e\"Little Red Riding Hood,\" \"Blue Beard,\" \"Puss in Boots\" \"Riquet with\u003cbr\u003ethe Tuft,\" \"Cinderella,\" and \"Little Thumb\"; eight stories in all. On\u003cbr\u003ethe cover of the book was depicted an old lady holding in her hand a\u003cbr\u003edistaff and surrounded by a group of children listening eagerly. Mr.\u003cbr\u003eAndrew Lang has edited a beautiful English edition of this work\u003cbr\u003e(Oxford, 1888).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmerica bases her claim to Mother Goose upon the following statement,\u003cbr\u003emade by the late John Fleet Eliot, a descendant of Thomas Fleet, the\u003cbr\u003eprinter:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt the beginning of the eighteenth century there lived in Boston a\u003cbr\u003elady named Eliza Goose (written also Vergoose and Vertigoose) who\u003cbr\u003ebelonged to a wealthy family. Her eldest daughter, Elizabeth Goose (or\u003cbr\u003eVertigoose), was married by Rev. Cotton Mather in 1715 to an\u003cbr\u003eenterprising and industrious printer named Thomas Fleet, and in due\u003cbr\u003etime gave birth to a son. Like most mothers-in-law in our day, the\u003cbr\u003eimportance of Mrs. Goose increased with the appearance of her\u003cbr\u003egrandchild, and poor Mr. Fleet, half distracted with her endless\u003cbr\u003enursery ditties, finding all other means fail, tried what ridicule\u003cbr\u003ecould effect, and actually printed a book under the title \"Songs of\u003cbr\u003ethe Nursery; or, Mother Goose's Melodies for Children.\" On the title\u003cbr\u003epage was the picture of a goose with a very long neck and a mouth wide\u003cbr\u003eopen, and below this, \"Printed by T. Fleet, at his Printing House in\u003cbr\u003ePudding Lane, 1719. Price, two coppers.\"","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070089412848,"sku":"2940013488557","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013488557_p0.jpg?v=1763581916","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013488557","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}