Editing Old Mother Hubbard (section)

==Words==
[[File:Old Mother Hubbards Cottage, Yealmpton.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Old Mother Hubbard's Cottage, said to be where the rhyme's original lived]] 
[[File:Kitley-House 1829-print-60512-p (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Kitley House, residence of the Pollexfen Bastard family, in 1829]]
The first published version of ''The Comic Adventures of Old Mother Hubbard and her Dog'' is attributed to [[Sir Henry Martin, 1st Baronet#Sarah Catherine Martin|Sarah Catherine Martin]] (1768–1826) and associated with a [[cottage]] in [[Yealmpton]], Devon,<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo_Z5bMr6eA British Pathe, 1960]</ref> close by where she was staying at Kitley House. The book was "illustrated with fifteen elegant engravings on copper plate" and had a dedication to her host "[[John Pollexfen Bastard|J.B. Esq MP]], at whose suggestion and at whose House these Notable Sketches were design’d", signed S. C. M.<ref>Illustrations at [https://www.bromer.com/pages/books/27789/sarah-catherine-martin/the-comic-adventures-of-old-mother-hubbard-and-her-dog Bromer Books]</ref>
The poem begins 
{{poem quote|
Old Mother Hubbard
Went to the Cupboard,
To give the poor Dog a bone;
When she came there,
The Cupboard was bare,
And so the poor Dog had none.

She went to the Baker’s
To buy him some Bread;
When she came back
The Dog was dead!

She went to the Undertaker’s
To buy him a coffin;
When she came back
The Dog was laughing.}}

This is followed by a series of quatrains in similar format relating to the pair’s further activities, the number of stanzas varying in later publications. However, there is evidence to suggest that only the continuation after the first three stanzas was the work of Miss Martin. A review of her work that appeared in ''[[The Guardian of Education]]'' praised "this little book, the poetry of which is of ancient date ... We can recollect, at this distance of time, that in our infant days the Story of this renowned woman, though full of inconsistencies we confess, afforded us much entertainment."<ref>Delaney 2012, p.120</ref> Since the reviewer, [[Sarah Trimmer]], was born in 1741, that would date back the rhyme's earlier version fifty years or more.

A musical variant of the introductory verses was set by [[Samuel Arnold (composer)|Samuel Arnold]] in his ''Juvenile Amusements'' (1797), except that it is not the dog but "the poor Children" who are the object of Mother Hubbard's charity.<ref>Opie 1997, p.177</ref> Another song in Arnold's work was "[[There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe]]", which had been given two final lines:

<blockquote><poem>Then out went th’ old woman to bespeak ’em a coffin,
And when she came back, she found ’em all a-loffeing.<ref>Opie 1997, p.522</ref></poem></blockquote>

On the basis of the coffin/laughing rhymes (which could date from Shakespearean times), [[James Orchard Halliwell]] was led to believe that "the tale of "Old Mother Hubbard" is undoubtedly of some antiquity".<ref>James Orchard Halliwell, Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales, 1849, [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/35707/35707-h/35707-h.htm#i-nursery-antiquities "Nursery Antiquities" section]</ref>

Another nonsense song with a similar template had been published two years before the appearance of Miss Martin’s Mother Hubbard variations. During the course of ''Old Dame Trot and her Wonderful Cat'' (1803), the Dame looks in the cupboard for fish but finds none, "for puss had been there before". Two more suggestive stanzas follow:<ref>''The Moving Adventure of Old Dame Trot and Her Comical Cat'', Darton 1807, [https://books.google.com/books?id=_YgyAQAAMAAJ pp.3-5]</ref>

{{poem quote|
She went to the butcher’s
To buy her some meat,
When she came back
She lay dead at her feet.

She went to the undertaker’s
For a coffin and shroud,
When she came back
Puss sat up and mewed}}

Thereafter the cat continues to perform household chores and comic feats and the two exchange courtesies in the final stanza, much as do Mother Hubbard and her dog at the end of Miss Martin’s work. But while Mother Hubbard’s dog goes on to perform similar feats to Dame Trot’s cat, such as smoking, playing a musical instrument and riding another animal, he also shows his superior cleverness by sometimes anticipating what his mistress has brought on her return. He greets beer by sitting ready at table; he receives wine by exuberantly standing on his head; when linen comes, he is spinning; when stockings arrive, he is dressed already.