Was Mother Goose, the famous narrator of children's tales, nursery rhymes, and riddles, a real person who entered the world of fictional characters?
In short - no. Absolutely not.
Yet we have a bunch of very interesting candidates. So it's up to you to decide.
Solomon and the Queen of Sheba by Giovanni De Min (1786-1856)
We can find her in the Bible, Talmud, Koran, and other important religious books. She supposedly lived about ten centuries before Jesus Christ and met with Solomon, one of the wisest men in history. Sheba was very smart as well. She tested Solomon with 'hard questions' (riddles) and was impressed by his answers. This love for riddles and her immense thirst for knowledge associate her with Mother Goose. Another common characteristic is magic - some documents claim that Queen Sheba was able to shapeshift. That claim probably comes from the fact that she was a pagan who worshiped the Sun. Her biographers portray her as a woman of great sexual appeal and often forget to mention her great diplomatic skills by which she saved many lives that would otherwise be lost in wars.
Bertrada of Laon, unknown painter, 19th century
She was a queen of the Franks, married to Pepin the Short, and mother to Charlemagne (and seven other kids). Like the queen of Sheba, she was also praised for her diplomatic skills which she intensely exercised when her husband died and her eldest sons started fighting for the kingdom. She was supposedly a great storyteller who liked to spin and entertain her numerous children with stories. Her nickname Goose-footed Bertha is first mentioned only in documents written several centuries after her death, and nobody knows why she got it. One possible explanation would be the confusion with another queen with the same name, living in roughly the same area two centuries later - Bertha of Burgundy.
Robert II and Bertha of Burgundy by Jean Paul Laurens (1838-1921)
Bertha was first married to Count Odo I and had several children with him. When she met Robert II, he had already annulled his first marriage because his wife was too old to give him a male successor. Robert and Bertha immediately fell in love despite the fact she was still married and they were close relatives - their grandmothers were sisters. When Odo I died, they married and got into trouble with Pope Gregory V who demanded their separation. They didn't obey and had a stillborn child. People rumored that he was born with a head of the goose, which was a punishment for the sins of his parents. The next Pope, Sylvester II, made another demand for separation, and that actually happened, very likely because Bertha wasn't able to give more births and Robert II was in desperate need of a male son.
It's interesting to note that Bertha's nickname was Bertha the Spinner because she supposedly loved to tell stories to children even if they were not hers. Spinners were often great storytellers and deformed feet were among their characteristics. On the other hand, we'll probably never know what was true for one and what for the other Bertha, and what was simply a result of imagination. We shall also add that people in France still sometimes describe things that happened very long ago as 'from times when Bertha spun'.
Bertha the Spinner, Albert Anker (1831-1910)
Please note!
The term 'conte de la Mere Oye' (Tale of Mother Goose) was already widely recognized in France in the middle of the 17th century, a few decades before the official birth of a fairy tale happened with the first book signed by her name.
Portrait of Charles Perrault by Charles Le Brun (1619-1690)
He published Tales of Past Times subtitled Tales from My Mother Goose under the pseudonym (he used the name of his son Pierre). This book featured eight fairy tales including some of the greatest fairy tales of all time: Red Riding Hood - first version with a red hood, Cinderella - first version with the glass slipper, Puss in Boots, and Bluebeard, but for us is even more interesting the translation to the English language, where only the subtitle was used. The catchy Mother Goose from then on slowly entered the cultural environment. In a way, we can say that Charles Perrault was closest to a real Mother Goose.
Images from Mother Goose by Chester H. Loomis
Mother Goose crossed the Atlantic Ocean with English editions. The emigrants brought the songs with their memories from childhood and probably some books. It's hard to prove which edition came first to the New World. The first publishers reprinted English editions and compiled their own books. An interesting story started in 1860 with John Fleet Eliot who claimed that his great-grandmother was the real Mother Goose. Her name was Elizabeth. She married Isaac Goose, who was a widower with ten children. They had six more kids when he died at the age of 63 and left her alone with huge offspring.
Her eldest daughter married Thomas Fleet, a printer from Pudding Lane, and Elizabeth moved in with them. She lived there, entertaining their children with nursery rhymes. Some of them were well-known before, and some she supposedly coined herself. John Fleet Eliot said that Thomas eventually published them in a book but never provided any proof for the existence of such publication.
A whole series of books is set on Pudding Lane, with Mother Goose as one of the major characters (credit)
Still, the legend about Boston Mother Goose survived. Hundreds of people visit her grave every year. Unfortunately, the grave of Elizabeth Foster Goose is unmarked, so people pay tribute to the headstone of Mary, Isaac's first wife at the Old Granary Burial Grounds.
Today, scholars agree that real Mother Goose never existed but at least a few people contributed to her legend. One thing is for sure. Her character will still be popular when nobody of us will be around anymore.
