Meaning
The book was immediately popular, possibly in part because it was believed to be a political commentary, but it is not clear exactly what readers thought was being satirised. It has been suggested that the character of Mother Hubbard may have its origins in St. Hubert, the dogs' saint. It has also been suggested that the rhyme refers to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey refusing Henry VIII's divorce from Queen Catherine of Aragon, but the connection is based on speculation.
Read more about this topic: Old Mother Hubbard
Famous quotes containing the word meaning:
“Out in Hollywood, where the streets are paved with Goldwyn, the word sophisticate means, very simply, obscene. A sophisticated story is a dirty story. Some of that meaning was wafted eastward and got itself mixed up into the present definition. So that a sophisticate means: one who dwells in a tower made of a DuPont substitute for ivory and holds a glass of flat champagne in one hand and an album of dirty post cards in the other.”
—Dorothy Parker (18931967)
“By day, Structuralists constructed the structure of meaning and pondered the meaning of structure. By night, Deconstructivists pulled the cortical edifice down. And the next day the Structuralists started in again.”
—Tom Wolfe (b. 1931)
“More significant than the fact that poets write abstrusely, painters paint abstractly, and composers compose unintelligible music is that people should admire what they cannot understand; indeed, admire that which has no meaning or principle.”
—Eric Hoffer (19021983)