Note 16 — A BOOK FOR A RAINY DAY
Reading edition
The death of Molly Mogg was thus announced in the Gentleman’s Magazine: “Mrs. Mary Mogg, at Oakingham: she was the person on whom Gay wrote the song of ‘Molly Mogg.’” This song was first printed in Mist’s Weekly Journal of August 27, 1726, with a note stating that “it was writ by two or three men of wit (who have diverted the public both in prose and verse), upon the occasion of their lying at a certain inn at Ockingham, where the daughter of the house was remarkably pretty, and whose name is Molly Mogg.” These “men of wit” were supposed to have been Pope, Swift, and Gay, and it was believed that they had together concocted the song, but the weight of evidence is in favour of Gay’s sole authorship. There is, however, enough doubt to warrant one in holding to the pleasant tradition that the three poets, over their cups at the Rose Inn, made the song which began (original version):—
“Says my Uncle, I pray you discover What has been the cause of your woes, That you pine and you whine like a lover? I’ve seen Molly Mog of the Rose. Oh, Nephew! your grief is but folly, In town you may find better prog; Half a crown there will get you a Molly, A Molly much better than Mog. … The school boys delight in a play-day, The schoolmaster’s joy is to flog; The milk-maid’s delight is in May day, But mine is in sweet Molly Mog.”