174 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[a^d S. VIII. Aug. 27. '59. 



" I feel I'm in love to distraction, 

 My senses are lost in a fog ; 

 And in nothing csmfind satisfaction, 

 But in thoughts of jny sweet Molly Mog. 



10. 

 " If I would not give up the three graces, 

 I wish I were hang'd like a dog. 

 And at court all the drawing-room faces, 

 For a glance at my sweet Molly Mog. 



11. 



*' For those faces want nature and spirit. 

 And seem as cut out of a log, 

 Juno, Venus, and Pallas's merit 

 Unite in my sweet Molly Mog. 



12. 

 " Were Virgil alive with his Phillis, 

 And writing another Eclogue, 

 Both his Phillis and fair Amaryllis, 

 He'd give for mi/ sweet Molly Mog. 



13. 

 " When Molly comes up with the liquor,* 

 Then Jealousy sets me a gog. 

 To be sure she's a bit for the Vicar, 

 And so I shall lose Molly Mog." 



In the same day's paper, Mr. Mist informs his 

 readers, that " one of our correspondents sends, 

 l)y way of advice, the following lines to the gen- 

 tlemen that are so enamoured with pretty Molly 

 Mog : — 



" ' When to woman you make your address. 

 Remember the old Decalogue ; 

 And take heed that you never transgress 

 With that beautiful toast Molly Mog.' " 

 The song became exceedingly popular, so that 

 Mr. Mist found himself overwhelmed with paro- 

 dies and imitations, which elicited the following 

 editorial warning in his paper of Sept. 10, 1726: — 

 " As the praise of the celebrated Molly Mog has set all 

 the wits in town at Crambo, we shall present the pub- 

 lick with a few more stanzas upon this ' fair Maid of the 

 Inn,' after which we shall have done with her, lest the 

 town should think she grows stale upon their hands. 



" Mn. Mist. — Your poetry upon sweet Molly 3Iog has 

 inspired all the town and country rhymers, yet to my 

 great wonder, have they omitted one rhyme so obvious, 

 that I think no real admirer of that charming girl could 

 have overlooked it, since to see her, and not to toast her 

 is impossible : — 



" Boj', bring us the best in your cellar : 

 Sir, that is a glass of old Nog ; 

 Then fill me a bumper ; and tell her. 

 Here's a health to sweet Molly Mog." 



" Sir. — I believe the wits have not thought of these 

 two stanzas and rhymes (which I much wonder at, they 

 being so plain to be thought on), therefore recommend 

 them to your Journal, if you think them worth your while 

 to insert : — 



" Who follows all women of pleasure 

 In love, has a taste like a hog ; 

 For no girl can give better measure 

 Of joj's, than my sweet Molly Mog. 



* The corrected version reads : — 



" When she smiles on each guest, like her liquor." 



" Those who toast all the family Royal 

 In bumpers of Hogan andrNog, 

 Can't have hearts more true, nor more loyal, 

 Than mine is for sweet Mollj' Mog." 

 [These two stanzas were added to the song in Pope and 

 Swift's Miscellanies, 1727, as the eighth and thirteenth.] 



" Sir. — Since by publishing 3Iolly 3Iog you've set the 

 whole town to Crambo, I presume you'll not take amiss 

 the following lines, remembering in excuse of the sense, 

 what Hudibras somewhere says, 



" ' And they who wrote in rhj'me still make 

 The one verse for the other's sake ; 

 For, one for sense, and one for rhyme, 

 I think's sufficient at one time.' 



" Sir, your admirer and humble servant, 

 «'J. C." 

 " Honest Nat, I prithee review 

 The poetical decalogue 

 Between an Uncle and Nephew 

 On the charms of sweet Molly Mog. 



" It was strange when they pump'd for rhyme. 

 They should miss in their long catalogue 

 Of a word whose sounding would chime 

 With the name of sweet Molly Mog. 



" I suppose the authors will stare ; 

 But the word I mean is a hog, 

 The flesh of which, I dare swear, 

 Has oft fed vour fair MoUv Mog." 



" Mr. Mist. — If the following lines may gain admit- 

 tance in your next journal, you will highly oblige some 

 of j'our constant readers, and particularly your humble 

 servant, T. H. 



" ' The lovely fair Phillis I prize, 



I'll be bound to be stuck like a hog. 

 Has charms in her wondrous eyes 

 That are wanting in fam'd Molly Mog. 



" ' Then Phillis my toast shall be still. 

 In a glass of the best Norwich Nog; 

 For whatever befal me, I will 

 Prefer Phillis before MoUj' Mog.' " 



Molli/ Mog was printed as Swift's in the edition 

 of his Worhs edited by Thomas Sheridan and 

 John Nichols, 1801, vol. xvi. p. 438.; but omitted 

 in Faulkner's edition, 1735, and Sir Walter 

 Scott's, 1824. It is not to be found in any edi- 

 tion of Gay's Wo7-ks anterior to the year 1773 ; 

 nor can I discover any allusion to him as its author 

 before its appearance in his collected Works, pub- 

 lished by John Bell, near Exeter Change, in the 

 Strand, 1773. On the publication of this edition, 

 a writer in The Monthly Review (xlix. 337.), find- 

 ing it contained several poems attributed to Gay 

 which had never before appeared in his Worhs, 

 cavilled at the bookseller for having reprinted 

 these fugitive anonymous pieces. The maledic- 

 tion invoked on the hapless publisher may be 

 quoted as a warning to others : — 



" The industry of the bookseller, his great love and 

 affection for whatever was the production of men of ge- 

 nius, must plead his excuse, while he ransacks, if not 

 their verj' urns, at least the dormitories of their departed 

 offspring, and out of the purest and most disinterested 

 zeal, drags into day- light what they would have wished 



