A common nomenclature for traditional rhymes.(Issues)

There presently exist a number of names for the traditional oral rhymes most commonly referred to as "nursery rhymes" and "Mother Goose rhymes." In the present paper I would like to briefly review the history of these nomenclatures, then propose a common nomenclature applicable to rhymes in every language.

Let us begin with the term "Mother Goose rhymes." The name "Mother Goose" does not appear to have originated in England. Most authorities now agree that this grandmotherly figure had her origins in seventeenth-century France (BRIDWATER and KURTZ 1963; NORGAARD 1987; POTTER 1950; BRACY 1965, 1978; SMITH 1986, 5).(1) In 1697 a retired French civil servant, Charles Perrault (1628-1703), published a compilation of popular folktales entitled Histoires ou contes du temps passe, avec des moralites [Stories or tales of times past, with morals] (POTTER 1950, 751). The main title of the book was soon eclipsed, however, by the apparent subtitle on its frontispiece: Contes de la mere l'oye [Tales of Mother Goose]. Some scholars claim that Mother Goose was a sort of mythical fairy bird-mother popular among the French royalty and peasantry much before Perrault published his book (POTTER 1950, 751).(2)

Perrault's book was translated into English by Robert Samber under the title Histories or Tales of Past Times, Told by Mother Goose and published in 1729 by J. Pote and R. Montago in London (DARTON, 1982, 88, 353). Its frontispiece bore a picture similar to that found in Perrault's volume, with the subtitle "Mother Goose Tales." The book soon found a wide readership among the English, who, like the French, knew it best by its subtitle (NORGAARD 1987, 552). Its popularity inspired publisher John Newbury (1713-1767) to issue in 1760 a compilation of English rhymes under the title Mother Goose's Melody, or, Sonnets for the Cradle (POTTER 1950, 752).(3) This link between traditional rhymes and the name of Mother Goose lasted in England for a number of decades.

It was about twenty-five years after Newbury published his book that Mother Goose finally reached the shores of America (POTTER 1950, 752). In 1785 Isaiah Thomas of Worcester published Samber's book under the same title for New World Publisher. The popularity of Mother Goose in America soon surpassed that in England, contributing to an association of this figure with traditional rhymes that …