Mother Courage (German Mutter Courage) is a character from a Grimmelshausen novel Lebensbeschreibung der Ertzbetrügerin und Landstörtzerin Courasche (The Runagate Courage) dating from around 1670. The character had played a cameo role in Der abentheuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch (1668).
The Bertolt Brecht play Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder (Mother Courage and Her Children) gave her currency in the 20th century. Mother Courage is cast as a walking contradiction by Brecht. She is torn between protecting her children from the war and making a profit out of the war.
Cúruisce (Courasche) appears in Ireland as a fictional character in Darach Ó Scolaí's Irish language novel An Cléireach. After travelling from Flanders in the company of a junior officer in the Tyrone regiment she serves in 1650 as a camp follower in the regiment of colonel Edmund O'Flaherty in the Royalist army.
Famous quotes containing the words mother and/or courage:
“I met with virgins seven,
And one of them was Mary mild,
Our Lord’s mother from heaven.”
—Unknown. The Seven Virgins (l. 2–4)
“Men especially need to communicate. To tell people years after the fact that they were the priority is the coward’s way. If men can muster the courage to fire an employee, tell off a boss, or assume financial risk, they can dig deep and say the three little words their wives and children need to hear.”
—Fred G. Gosman (20th century)