Typed by Brett Fishburne Proofed by Reina Hosier and Kestrell.



The Only True Mother Goose Melodies

An exact reproduction of the text and illustrations of the original
edition.


With introduction by Rev. Edward Everett Hale, D.D.





Introduction.




The editor of the new edition of Mother Goose's Melodies knows much
more about the curious history of the Boston edition than I do. And
the reader will not need, even in these lines of mine, any light
on the curious question about Madam Vergoose, or her son-in-law
Mr. Fleet, or the Contes de Ma Mere l'Oye, which are so carefully
discussed in the preface. All this is admirably discussed
also in Mr. William Whitmore's paper published in Albany in 1889,
and reprinted in Boston in 1892. In that paper he reproduced in
facsimile Isaiah Thomas's edition of Mother Goose published first