August 17, 2006
Ghosts, Gravestones, & Mother Goose
My mom was in town a couple of weekends back, which gave me the opportunity to do the whole tourist thing. Mom wanted to go on some guided tours, so we bought tickets for the 7 pm Ghosts & Gravestones Tour, offered by Old Town Trolleys. Our guide aboard the “trolley of the doomed” was a 17th century wench hanged in the Boston Common for being a witch. The trolley stopped at both Copps Hill Cemetery in the North End and the Old Granary Burying Ground near Boston Common. Although we learned a lot during the 90 minute tour, I can only remember three things: Benjamin Franklin’s parents, not Ben himself, are buried in Boston; cute kids with flashing lights on their sneakers can EASILY upstage any tour guide; Mother Goose is buried in the Old Granary. Well. Maybe.
What our guide did tell us is that Boston’s claim to Mother Goose is based on John Fleet Eliot’s argument that Mother Goose had been the invention of Thomas Fleet, an American printer and Eliot’s great-grandfather. Eliot claimed that Fleet had printed a collection of nursery rhymes in 1719, and that Fleet had invented Mother Goose off the top of his head, basing her on his mother-in-law, Elizabeth Foster Goose. Unfortunately, although Elizabeth Goose did exist, no one has ever been able to locate a copy of Fleet’s book.
What our guide didn’t tell us is that several other countries also lay claim to Mother Goose. And in fact, it seems that France has the strongest claim to being the birthplace of Mother Goose:
The name Mother Goose originated in a French poem published in 1650, “La Muze historique.” Her first association with literature for children occurred in 1697, when Charles Perrault incorporated her into the frontispiece for his collection, “Histoires, ou Contes du temps pass,” a book intended for adults. The title translated into English in 1729, marked the entrance of Mother Goose into English. Despite some claims that Mother Goose first appeared in a compilation of nursery rhymes in a 1719 American Edition, copies of this edition were never found. Thus, Mother Goose was initially associated with a compilation of nursery rhymes in 1780, in London, and Mother Goose’s first appearance in American literature occurred with Isaiah Thomas’s reprint of this title in 1786.
Mama Lisa writes that Mother Goose’s French origins reach back even further in time:
Some people believe Berthe de Laon (726 to 783), the Mother of Charlemagne, was Mother Goose. She became queen of the Francs when she married Pépin le Bref. One of her feet was bigger than the other, and so she was known by her subjects as Berthe au grand pied (in English “big-footed Bertha”). Berthe may also be the original model for la Reine Pédauque (in English “Queen Goosefoot”), a figure of French legend, whose statue is found in front of some churches in France. This could be the origin of the legendary French figure, Goose-footed Bertha, who always has children around her listening to her stories.
Which just goes to show that you can’t believe everything a tour guide tells you and that history is easily manipulated for purposes other than reconstructing the past. By the way — if you’ve glanced at the photo below — you didn’t read that gravestone wrong. Mary Goose (Thomas Fleet’s first wife) is buried in the Old Granary under Mother Goose’s tombstone, not Elizabeth. Ah, it’s all in the imagination!
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Garden variety North American Nomad. Born in the Midwest; lived and worked on the West Coast and abroad; studied in the South. Recently spotted putting down roots in New England.