Old Mother Goose,
When she wanted to wander,
Would ride through the air
On a very fine gander.
The Ageless Charm of the Verses
 Although the verses are as British as plum pudding, the name, Mother Goose, actually made
its way into England from France. Perrault's collection of eight famous folk tales in 1697
was called "Contes de ma mère l'Oye" or "Tales of Mother
Goose," in short, tall tales or tales of make-believe.
These stories were translated into English in 1729. But long after that, when John
Newbery and his firm had discovered that such publications for children as their Little
Pretty Pocket-Book were profitable, they decided to publish a collection of traditional
verses and jingles. They gave it the appropriate nonsense name of Mother Goose's Melody.
This 1791 Newbery edition is one of the rarest of rare books. It contained fifty-two verses,
each with an amusing but irrelevant moral added, and each illustrated with a tiny woodcut.
This small book concluded with the astonishing addition of sixteen songs from Shakespeare.
For centuries children from eighteen months to six
years and more have listened to them. Children laugh at the cow
jumping over the moon, at Peter's wife sitting cozily in a pumpkin shell, at the funny sounds
of higgledy, piggledy, sing a song of sixpence, or Peter's peck of pickled peppers. In short
they laugh at absurd situations and the bouncy rhymes of the verses. Jack
jumps over the candlestick, the dish runs away with the spoon, a cat comes fiddling out of
the barn, and there is a fearless old woman tosscd up in a basket "seventeen times
high as the moon.".
It is certainly the
illustrations which have always accompanied these old verses that help to spellbind each
new generation of children.
Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet
Eating her curds and whey;
Along came a spider,
Who sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away.
Mary had a little lamb,
little lamb,
little lamb.
Mary had a little lamb,
Its fleece was white as snow.
Everywhere that Mary went,
Mary went,
Mary went.
Everywhere that Mary went,
The lamb was sure to go.
It followed her to school one day,
school one day,
school one day.
It followed her to school one day,
Which was against the rules.
It made the children laugh and play,
laugh and play,
laugh and play.
It made the children laugh and play,
To see a lamb at school.
Ding, dong bell, Pussy's in the well;
Who put him in? Little Johnny Green;
Who pulled him out? Big Tommy Stout;
What a naughty boy was that
To try to drown our pussy cat,
Who ne'er did any harm,
But killed all the mice in father's barn,
Pease porridge hot,
Pease porridge cold,
Pease porridge in the pot
Nine days old.
Some like it hot,
Some like it cold,
Some like it in the pot
Nine days old.
To market, to market, to buy a fat pig,
Home again, home again, jiggety jig.
To market, to market, to buy a fat hog,
Home again, home again, jiggety jog.
To market, to market, to buy a plum bun,
Home again, home again, market is done.
Featured Music:  "Happy Hearts"
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