Talk:Mother Goose

Married to Isaac Goose?
...i read somewhere that Mother Goose(there was no name for her) was married to Isaac Goose.

As a slang term?
The term 'Mother Goose' has been adopted as a slang term in the United Kingdom, and refers to a neurotic woman who fusses too much over those who are in her charge.

Never heard of it, and Newsbank doesn't confirm. The slang term for a neurotic overprotector is "mother hen" (e.g. Mother hen parenting is no way to nurture, Daily Mail, The (London, England) November 16, 2005. Tearlach 03:34, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Iona Opie
It says that Iona Opie disagrees with the only two origins presented in the article, but it doesn't offer Opie's explanation. Seems kind of like it should if Opie is really the world authority on this subject... Vesperal 19:40, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

I find this comment (and in the article itself where it says "In spite of evidence to the contrary,[5]") interesting. Benton (of footnote 5) presents no evidence for or against Fleet's possible printing of Mother Goose songs/stories. He says he has no evidence, which is not the same as "evidence to the contrary." He also repeatedly insists that it can't be true. Dick Kimball's evidence seems to be an appeal to authority [it "is a complete fraud. Boston is my home town"). Both Benton and Kimball seem to be saying that since Mother Goose (more accurately mère l'oye, or maybe even Queen Goosefoot) has been around far before Fleet of Boston, that Fleet (or his mother-in-law) couldn't be the originator of Mother Goose (I'll agree to that).  Therefore Fleet couldn't have published a collection of Mother Goose.  Uhm, how does that follow?  He could well have published a collection of Mother Goose stories even if he did not have a Goose/Vergoose/etc tie.  Having such a tie, and knowing of the Mother Goose stories just makes it more likely that he would have.  Benton indicates that people in Mother England wouldn't have used some printing from Daughter America [not true].  [A side note: I've seen Fleet's detractors refer to a book that they think he didn't print. The oldest reports I know of refer to something smaller (pamplet, broadsheet, ...). Any reference to a book appears to me to come from his detractors. Could someone please reference the oldest known mention of any of these: book, broadsheet, pamphlet, etc, here in the discussion?] Accordingly, I do not have evidence for the Fleet/Goose story, neither do I have evidence against it, nor have I ever been able to find any evidence against it, nor does this article present any evidence against it. Therefore the article should be changed to be more accurate to fit the facts, not the beliefs of either side. (For instance, instead of "In spite of evidence to the contrary,[5]", more accurate would be, "In spite of beliefs [or use a word such as claims, writings, information] to the contrary, [5] no evidence has been offered either way.") — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.176.90.25 (talk) 13:14, 2 July 2011 (UTC)

Mother Goose of Boston
The whole concept of Boston's Mother Goose is a complete fraud. Boston is my home town. After Mary Goose died, hed children and other descendants spread the false story that she was the original "Mother Goose" just for the publicity. Her name was Goose and she was a mother, but she had absolutely NOTHING to do with the fictional Mother Goose to whom fairy tales for children had been attributed. Most of those stories originated in France with Perrault. Dick Kimball 04:14, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

For corroboration please follow this external link for [| Mother Goose]. Dick Kimball 04:14, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Contradiction of Information re. Burial Site
This page contains information about the burial site of Mother Goose, however there is a contradiction with the Wiki Page "St Olave Hart Street". Nmmilner (talk) 07:48, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

Can this article be locked, please?
... and then reverted to the last version of Feb. 20, 2010, which seems to be the last serious version?

Most of the article was lost in the first of two vandalistic edits made in rapid succession on Feb 23, by a kid who knew that the undo bots can only undo one edit, which kinda legitimizes the first (and more damaging) edit. Since then there have been dozens of vandalistic edits, coming in bursts of up to 8 at a time, swamping the undo bots. But the major loss of the first 23-Feb. edit remains.

As a part of the "WikiProject Children's literature," this article is both highly visible to families, and an attractant to unruly little boys. ---Randall 208.66.124.31 (talk) 01:56, 23 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I did the revert and requested page protection.--''' SabreBD  (talk ) 08:01, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

Mother Goose appears in two familiar rhymes, not one
Article indicates that Mother Goose is the subject of only one nursery rhyme, but there are two that mention the name.

The first is the familiar "Old Mother Goose, when she wanted to wander, would ride through the air on a very fine gander", which appears to refer to the human character.

The second is "Cackle, cackle, Mother Goose, have you any feathers loose?", which would appear to refer to an actual goose. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.60.115.150 (talk) 12:49, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

Political Satire?
The political satire section seems to be based on only one source (an undergraduate honors thesis) and rather speculative. Note the articles on many of the nursery rhymes mentioned as being satirical make no mention of their being satires.

I would recommend either highly editing this section or deleting it, but I am not sure if it is appropriate to do so with no discussion first. 63.152.124.184 (talk) 23:12, 28 February 2017 (UTC)Anonymous internet guy

Custom in Utah?
My family has lived in Utah since the 1840s and I had never heard of Mother Goose giving good children presents on New Year's Eve. The article cites two interviews done at BYU Provo, indicating that at least those two families had such a custom. People who read the article might get the mistaken impression it's common here. --204.14.239.107 (talk) 20:49, 13 July 2018 (UTC)
 * having a quick look at this, i believe this ip has a valid point, the 2 references cited are customs collections notes by a couple of BYU folklore students, i did find this in a gsearch, a family blog that a few southern Utah families may carry out this tradition, but is this enough to have it included? Coolabahapple (talk) 06:55, 17 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Two families doesn't really establish a sufficiently widespread tradition to justify inclusion in an article. --tronvillain (talk) 18:50, 17 July 2018 (UTC)
 * If it appears in a reliable source somewhere, then I think it's relevant enough to include. However, we'll need to do better than a Blogspot post. &#58;bloodofox: (talk) 23:36, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

Inconsistencies
Lead reads: I have no idea what this means:
 * As a character, she appeared in a song, the first stanza of which often functions now as a nursery rhyme. This, however, was dependent on a Christmas pantomime, a successor to which is still performed in the United Kingdom.
 * What does "as a character" mean? Is this in distinction to her role as the notional author of the fairy tales?
 * Does this mean that she first appeared in a song (before Perrault)? I see no discussion of an early song in the article.
 * What is the "this" that is dependent on a Christmas pantomime? The song? The first stanza? The nursery rhyme?
 * What does it mean that it is "dependent on a Christmas pantomime"? How can a song/stanza/nursery rhyme "depend on" a pantomime?

Paragraph 2 says but then paragraph 3 says: Which is it? 17th or 18th century? Or was the name "Mother Goose" applied retrospectively to the 17th century stories? If so, that needs to be clarified.
 * The term's appearance in English dates back to the early 18th century
 * Mother Goose's name was identified with English collections of stories and nursery rhymes popularised in the 17th century.

Thanks, --Macrakis (talk) 21:38, 3 August 2020 (UTC)

Etymology
It doesn't take much imagination (and it is all the more surprising that this hypothesis hasn't come up anywhewre yet) to conjecture that the figure of "Mother Goose" may have originated in or near Brittany, at the interface between the English, Bretonic and French languages, originally as just a generic storytelling grandmother - Bretonic "mamm-gozh", pronounced pretty much exactly like "mum goose" - that over time got personified into the figure of "Mother Goose" as it is known today. In that region, such a figure could have easily spread into the French culture as well, where Perrault would have picked it up. 2A0A:A546:754F:0:4185:B1A9:6094:4350 (talk) 23:24, 14 April 2021 (UTC)