In 1904, Francis Power, (Grandson to the late Mr. John Newbery, author of the original 1765 edition of Mother Goose's Melody, republished his grandfather's work, adding a wonderfully informative Introduction and Notes by Colonel W.F. Prideaux, C.S.I.. Nothing was taken away from the original work. This is a republication of the 1904 edition, omitting only the advertisements that appeared at the end of the original. The 1765 edition of these delightful nursery rhymes, filled with digital reproductions of the original illustrations, will delight children and parents alike. The rhymes contain hints of the history and culture of 18th Century England, and overflow with generations of tradition. The rhymes are accompanied by maxims and commentary designed to enrich the child's mind and instruct te child's moral development. The second part of the work contains selected verses by William Shakespeare. Read these nursery rhymes with your children, to keep alive the love of literature, and to help them develop skills in reading and speaking. You will find within riddles, stories, alphabets, counting games, and lullabies. From the Preface: "UCH might be said in favour of this colle&ion, but as we have no room for critical disquisitions we shall only observe to our readers, that the custom of singing these songs and lullabies to children is of great antiquity: It is even as old as the time of the ancient Druids. Cara&acus King of the Britons, was rocked in his cradle in the isle of Mona, now called Anglesea, and tuned to sleep by some of these soporiferous sonnets. As the best things, however, may be made an ill use of, so this kind of composition has been employed in a satirical manner; of which we have a remarkable instance so far back as the reign of king Henry the fifth. When that great prince turned his arms against France, he composed the following march to lead his troops to battle, well knowing that musick had often the power of inspiring courage, especially in the mind of good men. ... some of the malecontents adopted ... words to the king's own march, in order to ridicule his majesty, and to shew the folly and impossibility of his undertaking. ... the king is represented as an old woman, engaged in a pursuit the moil absurd and extravagant imaginable; but when he had routed the whole French army at the battle of Agincourt, taking their king and the flower of their nobility prisoners, ... the very men who had ridiculed him before began to think nothing was too arduous for him to surmount, they therefore cancelled the former sonnet, which they were now ashamed of, and substituted [a new song] ... When this was shewn to his majesty he smilingly said, that folly always dealt in extravagancies, and that knaves sometimes put on the garb of fools to promote in that disguise their own wicked designs. " The flattery " in the last (says he) is more insulting than the impudence of the first, and to weak minds might do more mischief." "We cannot conclude without observing, the great probability there is that the custom of making Nonsense Verses in our schools was borrowed from this pra&ice among the old British nurses; they have, indeed, been always the first preceptors of the youth of this kingdom, and from them the rudiments of taste and learning are naturally derived." Caution to parents: The nursery rhymes and songs in this book were written for the children of the 18th Century; 21st Century children may be unsettled or disturbed by some of the images in the rhymes. Parents should read these nursery rhymes with their children, and help them to understand the history, traditions, and cultures of those times. This is a reproduction of a public domain work. The original text and illustrations are in the public domain. Where original text was missing, attempts have been made to replace it as accurately as possible.
About the Author: Debbie Barry lives with her husband in southeastern Michigan with their two cats, Mister and Goblin. They enjoy exploring history through French and Indian War re-enactment and through medieval re-enactment in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). Debbie grew up in southwestern Vermont, where she heard and collected many family stories that she enjoys retelling as historical fiction for young audiences, and as family and local history for genealogists, as well as memory stories of her own life. Debbie graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in dual majors of social sciences with an education concentration and of English in 2013. She is on hiatus from pursuing her master's degree in linguistics, specializing in teaching English as a second language (TESOL), at Oakland University, in Rochester, Michigan, as a result of going blind and battling long-term illness. Debbie went blind suddenly, without obvious cause, on December 15, 2014, at the age of 45. Her family, friends, and doctors expected her to give in to the darkness and become bitter and angry. Instead, Debbie chose to adopt a positive attitude, even when she felt anything but positive, and to find as much light as possible in her life. She wrote an autobiographical account of her first full year of living in the twilight semi-vision of blindness to share her experience with others; it was also therapy to help her face the darkness. Before going blind, Debbie was an avid, even voracious, reader. She enjoyed drawing in many traditional media and painting in acrylic, gouache, and watercolor. She enjoyed sewing, crocheting, needlepoint, embroidery, beadwork, spinning, and weaving. Since going blind, Debbie has turned to audio books from Audible.com, BARD Talking Books Library, and on CDs. She crochets blankets and crochets scarves for charity. She makes paper beads to make rosaries for the missions. She has recently begun exploring resuming drawing and painting with the limitations of her vision. Debbie is an active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). She is a past member of the LEO Club, the Lions Club, the Civil Air Patrol (CAP), the Girl Scouts, the Explorer Scouts, and the Order of the Eastern Star (OES), as well as various academic and social groups in high school, college, and graduate school. She is a member of the National Honor Society, Phi Theta Kappa, and the Golden Key Honor Society. She likes to be active.