Mother Bunch’s Fairy Tales are known in every nursery.
Mother Carey’s Chickens. The fish-fags of Paris in the first Great Revolution were so called, because, like the “stormy petrel,” whenever they appeared in force in the streets of Paris, they always foreboded a tumult or political storm.
Mother Carey’s Goose, the great black petrel or gigantic fulmar of the Pacific Ocean.
Mother Douglas, a noted crimp, who lived at the north-east corner of Covent Garden. Her house was superbly furnished. She died 1761.
*** Foote introduces her in The Minor, as “Mrs. Cole” (1760); and Hogarth in his picture called “The March to Finchley.”
Mother Goose, in French Contes de Ma Mère l’Oye, by Charles Perrault (1697).
*** There are ten stories in this book, seven of which are from the Pentamerone.
Mother Goose, according to a new exploded story, was a native of Boston, and the author of the nursery rhymes that bear her name. She used to sing her rhymes to her grandson, and Thomas Fleet, her brother-in-law, published the first edition of these rhymes, entitled Songs for the Nursery, or Mother Goose’s Melodies, in 1719.
*** Dibdin wrote a pantomime entitled Mother Goose.
Mother Hubbard, an old lady, whose whole time and attention were taken up by her dog, who was most willful; but the dame never lost her temper, or forgot her politeness. After running about all day to supply Master Doggie,