Older women did not fare well in nursery rhymes, seeming to be generally unsympathetic characters! There was this one about one with poor housing and very poor mothering skills..
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children, she didn't know what to do.
She gave them some broth without any bread;
And whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.
and Old Mother Hubbard always had a solid ring of truth for me.. our cupboard was
always bare! We'd make sugar sandwiches when those were two of the only ingredients in the house. Only later in life did I discover that we were not the only poverty-stricken children to have come up with that recipe. I saw a comedian telling about it in his act, in the vein of "we were so poor that" ..
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.
She took a clean dish
to get him some tripe;
When she came back
He was smoking his pipe.
She went to the alehouse
To get him some beer;
When she came back
The dog sat in a chair.
She went to the tavern
For white wine and red;
When she came back
The dog stood on his head.
She went to the fruiterer's
To buy him some fruit;
When she came back
He was playing the flute.
She went to the tailor's
To buy him a coat;
When she came back
He was riding a goat.
She went to the hatter's
To buy him a hat;
When she came back
He was feeding her cat.
She went to the barber's
To buy him a wig
When she came back
He was dancing a jig.
She went to the cobbler's
To buy him some shoes;
When she came back
He was reading the news.
She went to the sempstress
To buy him some linen;
When she came back
The dog was spinning.
She went to the hosier's
To buy him some hose;
When she came back
He was dressed in his clothes.
The Dame made a curtsy,
The dog made a bow;
The Dame said, Your servant;
The dog said, Bow-wow.
This wonderful dog
Was Dame Hubbard's delight,
He could read, he could dance,
He could sing, he could write;
She gave him rich dainties
Whenever he fed,
And erected this monument
When he was dead.
Not so much as it gets into the topics of death, and some kind of reincarnation though.. I only ever remembered the first verse or two. But I suppose old Dame Hubbard would be neither the first nor the last to substitute magical thinking for grief.
