TO claim for any collection of nursery rhymes the title of the "true" Mother Goose, is to throw a glove to the antiquarians, for over the origin and authenticity of these hits of ageless nonsense, as over that of other great classics, lances have splintered and savants have disagreed.
It is not, however, the purpose of the present pages to trace the genesis of this inconsequent anthology, some of whose quatrains reach back to the twilight of minstrelsy, but rather to state briefly the various claims of the collectors of these delicious drolleries, and the authority for the present edition.