Mother Goose Lore
“Billy Shakespeare and I—
We two great poets were born together,
And we shall go out of the world together.
No, no, my melodies will never die,
While nurses sing and babies cry!”
The nursery rhymes of La Mere L’oye (Mother Goose) have traveled far! From southern France in the Middle Ages, they took the route of the Troubadours, ever northward, soothing, cautioning and educating the young. They sailed with the Huguenots across the English Channel translating into Anglo-Saxon and mixing with Celtic rhymes and tunes from Ireland, Scotland and Wales. They then traveled over to the New World where they were published for the first time in Boston by Josiah Thomas in 1719 as The Only True Mother Goose.
We two great poets were born together,
And we shall go out of the world together.
No, no, my melodies will never die,
While nurses sing and babies cry!”
The nursery rhymes of La Mere L’oye (Mother Goose) have traveled far! From southern France in the Middle Ages, they took the route of the Troubadours, ever northward, soothing, cautioning and educating the young. They sailed with the Huguenots across the English Channel translating into Anglo-Saxon and mixing with Celtic rhymes and tunes from Ireland, Scotland and Wales. They then traveled over to the New World where they were published for the first time in Boston by Josiah Thomas in 1719 as The Only True Mother Goose.
