Cackle Cackle Mother Goose

History & Origin

"Cackle, Cackle, Mother Goose" is a self-referential nursery rhyme in which Mother Goose herself — the legendary figure associated with children's rhymes across the English-speaking world — is the subject. It is a playful, circular joke: Mother Goose, the source of nursery rhymes, is asked for something practical and provides exactly that.

The figure of Mother Goose has a complex history. In France, she appears as "Ma Mère l'Oye" in Charles Perrault's 1697 collection of fairy tales — one of the earliest and most influential collections of European folk tales, which includes Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Little Red Riding Hood. The image of an old woman telling stories to children by firelight was central to the book's framing narrative.

In the English-speaking world, "Mother Goose's Melody" — the collection that gave the figure her enduring association with nursery rhymes — was published by John Newbery around 1765, though it survives only in later reprints. The name "Mother Goose" became so associated with nursery rhymes that American publishers used it for collections well into the nineteenth century.

There is a persistent legend, originating in Boston, that "Mother Goose" was a real person — a Mrs Elizabeth Foster Goose who supposedly composed rhymes for her grandchildren. This story is almost certainly apocryphal, invented by a local publisher named Isaiah Thomas, but it has proved remarkably durable.

The rhyme itself is a charming minor piece, made memorable by its conversational structure and the image of a comfortable goose sharing her down.