Freedom of Speech In the Nursery
Canada does not have absolute Freedom of Speech. Our Supreme Court has declared that you are responsible for what you say. In the case of Regina. V. Keegstra you will find the Supreme Courts findings. I would like to go on record as being in complete agreement with the Supreme Court's decision. Lexum website

The technical side of Free Speech has a very interesting past. Medieval times were not the most tolerant of times and one's head had a bad habit of falling off if one spoke against the Crown and/or Gentry.

People of sharp wit ,such as Shakespeare, got their message out through the Theatre. The book Gulliver's Travels by Swift is, of course, a tongue-in-cheek hit at the Crown and Aristocracy or "Yahoos" as he called some of them. Huckleberry Finn showed how a white boy and a black man could be the best of comrades in a world were one is free and the other a slave. Mother Goose was the universal conscience of European society. You will find much the same stories in The Wisdom of China and Asia by Lin Yu Tang. Even when you are not at the top of the ladder, you can still recognize inhumanity or ignorance. Decency and respect for others cannot be hidden either. Mother Goose in the west or The Goldfish in the eastern cultures have spoken to us for ages on these subjects.

We are all products of our various environments and cultures and, when young; look to our elders for guidance and direction. In Medieval times and up to the first part of the last century, schooling was hard to get for any but the well-to-do. Only Mother Goose has been constant over the centuries. She was in the books and newspapers that few could read; on the TV that no one had; and she was the way of passing on contrary or positive views of Society to the next generation.

Let us all sit down over there by the fire place, cuddle up and listen to Mother Goose tell us her Rhymes and Stories but what they really meant or if they still have an applicable meaning today. I will start you off with our WWW Mother Goose, Deanna Anderson, and let her waft you away on an adventure that will thrill adults and children alike. With a bit of imagination you can turn this into an automobile traveling game of "Recites and Meaning." and never again hear "Are we there yet?"

Fasten your seat belts and stand by for take-off of the famous, witty, beguiling, great and graceful "Mother Goose 2000" and see how much change we get when we spend a Gold Fish!


Mother Goose 2000 in Cyber Space. -Original "Solar" By Martin Heitshu.

A Rhyme and A Reason - Deanna Anderson's great Site. A site to Bookmark, you'll visit many times

Mother Goose.
No one is really sure if Mother Goose was real or not. But those that believe she was, have different ideas about who she was. Some ideas of her identity are: 1)The Queen of Sheba of biblical times.
2)Queen Bertha--mother of the medieval military leader Charlemagne. She was nicknamed either "Queen Goose-foot" or "Goose-footed Queen." This may be so because she was web-footed or pigeon-toed. Queen Bertha died in 783.
3)Elizabeth Goose (possibly "Vergoose" or "Vertigoose"). Elizabeth lived in colonial times in Boston. She entertained her grandchildren with rhymes and chants that she remembered from her own childhood. It is said that Thomas Fleet, her son-in-law, made a collection of these rhymes and put them in a book called "Songs for the Nursery" or "Mother Goose's Melodies." But no such book has ever been found or documented as existing. If anyone knows more information about this book let me know, please.
4)There was a book published in France in 1697 called either "Stories and Tales of Past Times with Morals" or "Tales of Mother Goose." This book, however, contained 8 fairy tales. Some of the ones to be found in it are : Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty. These were collected by Charles Perrault. It wasn't until the mid-1700's that "Mother Goose" became synonomous with the phrase "nursery rhymes." This information comes from the "World Book Encyclopedia" (Vol. 14, page 846).
5)Mother Goose is always pictured as old, but other features vary. Sometimes she is seen with a crooked nose and a very large chin. Others say she wears a tall hat, has a magic wand and rides on a goose. She might also be a "witch" (in the folkloric sense)--broom, black cat and all. Sometimes she is seen holding an egg.
6)There are even rhymes written about her, like this one.


Old Mother Goose,
When she wanted to wander,
Would ride through the air,
On a very fine gander.


From Kirsten Sandlin comes some additional information about mother goose: "Concerning Mother Goose, I found a small paragraph in Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia. Copyright © 1994, 1995 Compton's NewMedia, Inc.. It follows: 'The term Mother Goose is far older than the storied Boston grandmother. Some researchers have tried to trace her origin to the 8th-century Goose-Footed Bertha, mother of Charlemagne and patroness of children. There was a Fru Gosen, or Fru Gode, in German folklore. Mother Goose was known in 17th-century France as Ma Mere l'Oye (My Mother Goose). A French poem dated 1650 includes the line 'like a tale from Mother Goose.' Furthermore, it states: 'In 1760 the London publisher John Newbery printed the first edition of Mother Goose as it is now known (see Newbery). It was called 'Mother Goose's Melody: or, Sonnets for the Cradle'. No copy of this 1760 edition exists, but there is a reprint dated 1791. It is a tiny volume, about 2 3/4 inches (7 centimeters) long and 3 3/4 inches (9.5 centimeters) wide. It contains 51 rhymes, each with a small illustration. Isaiah Thomas of Worcester, Mass., published an exact reprint of the Newbery book in about 1785. In 1833 a Boston publishing firm issued an enlarged version. Many of the new jingles are evidently copied from the English book Gammer Gurton's Garland (1784).'" If you are really curious there is a picture of Elizabeth Goose's grave at Find A Grave.

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Now here is the fun part
for more adventures with Mother Goose 2000 in Cyber space. If you're a Granny or Grampa this is worth exploring with the Grand children just click on the Rhyme's name!

Nursery Rhymes
The actual phrase "Nursery Rhyme" did not originate until 1824 in a Scottish periodical called "Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine." Before then these rhymes were referred to as "ditties" or "songs." It is believed that these rhymes are pieces of ballads, prayers, proverbs, street chants, or even tavern songs. Some may have been used for customs or rituals. Some were even based on real people ( Old King Cole) or events ( Mary Had A Little Lamb). These rhymes were mainly used to entertain adults (pre-1800's) and only ones pertaining to the alphabet or counting were meant for children. Many of these rhymes didn't come about until the 1600's, but there is evidence of some being around earlier. There are said to be 8 categories of rhymes: lullabies (Rock-a-bye baby ), singing games (London Bridge), nonsense (Hey Diddle Diddle), riddles (Humpty Dumpty), counting (One, Two, Buckle My Shoe), tongue twisters (Peter Piper), verse stories (Queen of Hearts), and cumulative (House That Jack Built). Source for this information comes from "World Book Encyclopedia" (vol. 13. pages 620-621). The page Encarta Encyclopedia says that the oldest rhymes relate to telling time, counting, or learning the alphabet and that collections of nursery rhymes did not begin to appear until the 18th century. Return to Main Page for more adventures via Deanna's Links



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