Annotation:Dan Gay

DAN GAY. English, Air (3/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. This tune is apparently the air for the song "Lass of the Mill", which begins:

Dan gay first in vogue bro't the blithe Molly Mogg

The song was printed in John Sadler's The Muses Delight (Liverpool, 1754), on songsheets, and in other pubications. Molly Mogg was in fact a real person, the beautiful eldest daughter of John Mogg, the landlord of the Rose Inn in Workingham (or perhaps in Covent Garden). She is celebrated in the poem "Molly Mogg, or the Fair Maid of the Inn", written by playwright John Gay, with contributions by Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift. It seems that the three were in the inn for longer than they expected due to a fierce storm, and, to pass the time, they composed verses in honor of Molly, a renowned beauty. Molly was born in 1699 and remained unmarried. When she died in 1740 she was able to leave an inheritance due to her thrift and skill.

Additional notes

Printed sources : - Geoghegan (Compleat Tutor for the Pastoral or New Bagpipes), c. 1745-46; p. 28.

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