Then I'll soon be a bride;

Old Roger has gold in his chest: be

But I thought all you wives

Chose a man for your lives,

And trifl'd no more with the rest.

MOLLY MOG:

OR

THE FAIR MAID OF THE INN.
A BALLAD.

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I.

SAYS my uncle, I pray you discover

What hath been the cause of your woes,

*This ballad was written on an inn-keeper's daughter at Oakingham in Berkshire, who in her youth was a celebrated beauty and toast. She lived to a very advanced age, dying so lately, as the month of March 1766.

That you pine and you whine like a lover? ---I have seen Molly Mog of the Rose.

11.

O 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.

TII.

I know that by wits 'tis recited
That women at best are a clog;
But I'm not so easily frighted
From loving of sweet Molly Mog.

IV.

The school-boy's desire is a play-day,
The school-master's joy is to flog;
The milk-maid's delight is on May-day,
But mine is on sweet Molly Mog.

V.

Will-a-wisp leads the traveller gadding
Thro' ditch, and thro' quagmire, and bog;
But no light can set me a madding
Like the eyes of my sweet Molly Mog.

VI.

For guineas in other men's breeches
Your gamesters will palm and will cog;
But I envy them none of their riches,
So I may win sweet Molly Mog.

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VII.

The heart when half wounded in changing,
It here and there leaps like a frog ;
But my heart call never be ranging,
'Tis fix'd on sweet Molly Mog.

VIII.

Who follows all ladies of pleasure,

In pleasure is thought but a hog;

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All the sex cannot give so good measure
Of joys as my sweet Molly Mog.

IX.

I feel I'm in love to distraction,
My senses all lost in a fog,
And nothing can give satisfaction

But thinking of sweet Molly Mog.

x.

A letter when I am enditing,
Comes Cupid and gives me a jog,
And I fill all the paper with writing
Of nothing but sweet Molly Mog.

XI.

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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 of my sweet Molly Mog.

Juno, Venus, and Pallas' merit

Unite in my sweet Molly Mog.

XIII.

Those who toast all the family royal'
In bumpers of Hogan and Nog,

Have hearts not more true or more loyal
Than mine to my sweet Molly Mog.

XIV.

Were Virgil alive with his Phillis,

And writing another eclogue,

Both his Phillis and fair Amaryllis

He'd give up for sweet Molly Mog.

XV.

When she smiles on each guest like her liquor,

Then jealousy sets me agog;

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

And so I shall lose Molly Mog.

BALLAD.

I..

Of all the girls that e'er was seen,
There's none so fine as Nelly,

For charming face, and shape, and mien,

And what's not fit to tell ye.

Oh! the turn'd neck, and smooth white skin

Of lovely, dearest Nelly!

For many a swain it well had been

Had she ne'er been at Calai.

Volume II.

K

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60

The ladies were with rage provok'd

To see her so respected;

The men look'd arch, as Nelly strok'd,

And puss her tail erected.

But not a man did look employ,

Except on pretty Nelly;

Then said the Duke de Villeroy,

Ab! qu'elle est bien jolie!

IV.

But who's that great philosopher
That carefully looks at her?
By his concern it should appear
The fair one is his daughter.
Ma foy! (quoth then a courtier sly)
He on his child does leer too;
I wish he has no mind to try
What some papas will here do.

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