Lyr Add: Moll in the Wad

Subject: Lyr Add: Moll in the Wad
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 17 Dec 22 - 05:35 PM

“...It has been the practice, time out of mind, in getting the anchor up on board ship, to have the marine drum and fife play those beautiful airs, “Moll in the Wad,” and “Off she goes,” while the sailors heave round the capstan. This noise serves merely to give a cadence of step to the men, but has small power as an excitement. Give them, in place of this monotonous rattle, a couple of good warlike musical instruments, well played on, and there could be little doubt that the messenger would travel faster.”
[Wilkie, On Military Music, Colburn's United Service Magazine and Naval and Military Journal, Pt.II, Vol.48, 1845]

Note: Lieut.-Colonel David Wilkie was the nephew of Scottish painter Sir David Wilkie.

Moll in the Wad (2) - Traditional Tune Archive
Moll o' the Wood

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Moll in the Wad
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 17 Dec 22 - 05:40 PM

c.1790
Moll in the Wad: a favorite Irish dance, arranged as a rondo for the piano forte or harp by Dale, Joseph, (1750-1821.)

“Dale, Joseph, composer and editor, born in 1750. He was organist of St. Anthony and St. John Baptist, Watling Street, London. He died at Edinburgh, August 21, 1821. Author of “Dale's collection of Sixty Favourite Scotch Songs, taken from the original manuscripts of the most celebrated Scotch authours and composers, properly adapted for the German flute,” Books I., II., and III., n.d. [1794]. Wrote an “Introduction to the Pianoforte, Harpsichord, or Organ,” op. 12, n.d. Thirty organ pieces, op. 11, n.d., and many works for pf., etc. Also a collection of English songs.”
[British Musical Biography, Brown & Stratton, 1897]

https://imslp.org/wiki/J._Dale

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Moll in the Wad
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 17 Dec 22 - 05:42 PM

“Moll in the Wad,
A favorite Dialogue Sung at the Theatres in Dublin.

CLUMP
Mifs Jenny don't think that I care for you,
For all your Freaks and comical Airs,
You fnub at your Betters, I tell you true,
You know full well you're at your laft Pray'rs.

There's Katty McGirk, and Sheelah fo fmirk,
They fwear that I'm the broth of a Lad:
But that for the Two, and Turnips for you,
I'll go and be married to Moll in the Wad.

JENNY.
Pray don't be impudent, Mafter Clump,
For all your Cobling Kite and Gears;
I'll up with my Fift, and give you a Thump,
I'll fmack your Face, and I'll box your Ears.
Your Slippers and Shoes, and you I'd refufe,
Was there no other Man to be Had:
To Mullin-a-hac be off in a Crack,
And go to the Devil with Moll in the Wad.

CLUMP.
Farewell, Mrs. Jane, you'll rue the Day
That you refufed to butter your Bread.

JENNY.
Remember your Laft, poor Clump, I may
Prepare your Sole, and briftle your Thread!

CLUMP. Had I married you __ (JENNY.) Pray what wou'd you do?
CLUMP. I'd made you a Mammy (JENNY.) You'd ne'er been a Dad.
Your Bed full of Thorns. (CLUMP.) My Head full of Horns.

Together:
JENNY. You'd better be married to Moll in the Wad.
CLUMP. I'll go and be married to Moll in the Wad.”
c.1798?
[https://archive.org/details/Moll55261/page/n1/]

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Moll in the Wad
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 17 Dec 22 - 05:46 PM

“MOLL IN THE WAD [2], THE ("Maire Annsa Sop" or "Maire San t-Sop"). AKA – “Moll o’ the Wood.” Irish, English, Scottish; Single Jig. G Major. Standard tuning. AABB. A different tune than “Moll in the Wad [1]." The word ‘wad’ at one time signified (a bundle of) straw, so that the title means “Moll in the straw.” Moll-in-the-straw was also a euphemism for after-childbirth, and as a bawdy term for a harlot. Barry Callagahn (2007) identified Moll i’ the Wad, or Mother Goose, as a popular pantomime figure of the late 18th century. There are nursery rhymes and old songs called “Moll in the Wad.” G.F. Northall’s English Folk Rymes (1892) notes the rhymes were popular in Gloucestershire more than fifty years before, and says that ‘wad’ was pronounced wod locally. They go:
***
Moll-in-the-wad and I fell out,
What do you think it was about?
She had money and I had none,
And that was how the work begun.
***
Moll-in-the-wad and I fell out,
What do you think it was about?
I gave her a shilling , she swore it was bad,
It’s an old soldier’s button says Moll-in-the-wad.
***
Moll-in-the-wad and I fell out,
What do you think it was about?
I gave her a shilling, she wanted a crown,
So I took up my fist and I knock’d her down.
***
Moll-in-the-wad and I fell out,
What do you think it was about?
I gave her a shilling, she said it was bad,
You may go to the devil, said Moll-in-the-wad.
***

Washington Irving wrote a sketch of a going to the theatre in 1802 in New York, where he commented on the habits of the audience who were much more ‘interactive’ in the theatre than today:
***
What I heard of the music, I liked very well (though I was told by one of my neighbors that the same pieces have been played every night for these three years;) but it was often overpowered by the gentry in the gallery, who vociferated ludly for Moll in the wad, Tally ho the grinders, and several other airs more suited to their tastes.
***

There were several racehorses named Moll in the Wad, notabley a thoroughbred mare born in 1810, descended from the great Matchem (1748). Gow labels the tune “Irish," but it was played in Scotland and northern England as well. Breathnach (1996) says in Ireland it is “the tune that the old cow died on, an tiun do mhairbh an tseanbhó.” This is probably the same saying that Samuel Bayard says is derived from the story of a cow so entranced by a farmer's song that she danced herself to death. The title became for a time a phrase characterizing any extremely bad piece of music (see note for “The Tune the Old Cow Died Of”).
***

The melody was transformed by morris dance musicians in the village of Leafield (“Fieldtown”), Oxfordshire, into a common-time piece under the title “Old Molly Oxford” (a corruption or miss-hearing of the title “Moll in the Wad”).
***
The melody appears in a number of publications and musicians’ manuscripts of the late 18th and 19th centuries. It appears in the John Fife (Perthshire) music copybook of 1780-1804, Williams Andrews (Sheepstor, Devon, late 19th c.), John Clare (Helpston, Northants, 1820), Ellis Knowles (see below), William Mittell (New Romney, Kent, 1799) and, in America, in Ira Clark’s (Simsbury, Conncecticut) music copybook c. 1801 and Josiah Adams (Framingham, Massachusetts) copybook of tunes with country dances of 1808-1818. Printed versions are in John Ives’ Twenty-four Figures of the Most Fahsionable Country Dances…Cotillions (New Haven, CT, 1799), the Phinney’s Select Collection of the Newest and Most Favorite Country Dances (Ostego, N.Y., 1808), J. Wilson’s Pocket Preceptor for the Fife (London, 1805-1813), Salator’s Treatise on Dancing (Boston, MA, 1807), Riley’s Flute Melodies, vol. 2 (New York, 1817-1820), James Aird’s Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 5 (Glasgow, 1797), the Cahusac’s Compleat Tutor for the German Fife (London, c. 1798), and others.
***

Source for notated version: the music manuscript book of Ellis Knowles, a musician from Radcliffe, Lancashire, England, written c. 1845-1847 [Plain Brown]. Callaghan (Hardcore English), 2005; pg. 61. Gow (Complete Repository), Part 1, 1799; pg. 18. Johnson (A Further Collection of Dances, Marches, Minuetts and Duetts of the Latter 18th Century), 1998; pg. 5. O’Farrell (Pocket Companion, vol. II), c. 1806; pg. 128. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903/1979; No. 737, pg. 137. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1907/1986; No. 374, pg. 76. Plain Brown Tune Book, 1997; pg. 14. Wilson (Companion to the Ballroom), 1816. Edison 50870 (78 RPM), Joseph Samuels, 1919 (appears as 3rd tune in "St. Patrick's Day Medley").

X:1
T:Moll in the Wadd (sic) [2]
M:6/8
L:1/8
R:Jig
S:Gow – 1st Repository (1799)
Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion
K:G
c|BAB G2F|E2F G2c|BAB G2B|AFD D2c|BAB G2F|E2F G2c|
BcB {^c}d2B|AFD D2:||:c|BGB {Bc}d2c|BGB {Bc}d2c|BGB d2B|
ecA A2c|BGB {Bc}d2c|BGB def|{ef}g>fe dcB|AFD D2:||
X:2
T:Woll in the Wad [2]
M:6/8
L:1/8
K:Am
f|ede ccB|A2B c2d|ede c2e|dBG G2f|ede ccB|
A2B c2d|efe gfe|1 dBG G2:|2 dBG G3|: {f}e>ce g2f|{f}e>ce g2f|
{f}ece gfe|dBG G2f|ece g2f|ece gab|cBA gfe|dBG G2:||
Fiddler's Companion - Moll in the Wad
© 1996-2009 Andrew Kuntz

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Moll in the Wad
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 18 Dec 22 - 03:01 PM

“There is something so peculiarly elegant and appropriate in the names of the fashionable dances, that it is proper to give you a specimen. Moll in the Wad is one; –you must excuse me for not translating this, for really I do not understand it*. Drops of Brandy, another; and two which are at present in high vogue are, The Devil among the Taylors, and Go to the Devil and shake yourself.”
[Letters from England: by don Manual Alvarez Espriella, Vol.3, Southey, 1808]

*Note: Robert Southey (1774-1843) Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. After Blenheim the original Goldilocks and the Three Bears &c &c. Southey's fairy tale character is a near opposite of the better known Goldilocks but is still a “maid in the wood.”

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Moll in the Wad
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 18 Dec 22 - 03:03 PM

Fiddler's Companion: The melody was transformed by morris dance musicians in the village of Leafield (“Fieldtown”), Oxfordshire, into a common-time piece under the title “Old Molly Oxford” (a corruption or miss-hearing of the title “Moll in the Wad”).


“In June, 1826, I observed a company of these "bold peasantry, the country's pride," in Rosoman-street, Clerkenwell. They consisted of eight young men, six of whom were dancers; the seventh played the pipe and tabor; and the eighth, the head of them, collected the pence in his hat, and put the precious metal into the slit of a tin painted box, under lock and key, suspended before him. The tune the little rural-noted pipe played to the gentle pulsations of the tabor, is called

        “Moll in the wad and I fell out,
        And what d'ye think it was abou..”

This may be remembered as one of the once popular street songs of the late Charles Dibdin's composition.”
[The Every-day Book and Table-book, Vol.2, Hone, 1837]

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Moll in the Wad
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 18 Dec 22 - 03:04 PM

“The Ladies' Wigs.
Tune, Moll in the Wad.

YOU'LL pardon me, ma'am, I'm quite a gig,
Is it your hair, or is it a wig?
Upon my life, I mean no quiz,
But is't your own, or the barber his friz?
Because if it is, 'tis a very neat friz,
Whether it's yours-or whether it's his;
But if it's a wig, it's a little too big,
And you'll dance it off in a reel or a jig.

Poft-chaifes, coaches, chairs, and gigs,
Are let as jobs like ladies' light wigs;
And scandal goffips (madam) fay
Yours is a jafey hir'd by the day.
Be that as it may, it's a very cheap way,
Jafeys to lett of all colours but grey;
But, what do I fee, that gives me fuch glee,
You're cocking your cap and your caxon at me.

Now into a fcrape, by love, I'm led,
Your wig, dear ma'am, has twifted my head
My heart too, I feel, goes pitty pat,
But what care you or your jafey for that;
Yet I'm no flat–I know what I'm at,
I'll foon mount a wig of my own to match that:
I care not a fig–the woman I twig
I'll marry, by jafey, in fpite of her wig.

The light or dark, brown, black, or flax,
No jafey pays Pitt's hair-powder tax;
And when with men, maids romp and play,
How cool to throw the wiggy away;
By night or by day, to frifk, romp, or play,
On carpet, bed, fopha, green grafs, or new hay;

Whate'er it's upon, a little crim. Con.,
With a lady's rough jafey's expenfive bon ton.

Pray, ma'am, does the colour of your fcratch
With the hair of your madgery match?
Perhaps as it is the kick and go,
You've mounted, ma'am, a merkin below!

But the merkin you'll find, from water and wind,
Strong torrents before, and stiff breezes behind,
Will not stick at all; but with glue to the cawl,
'Twill stick like a fnug fwallow's neft to the wall!

Ah, happy, happy, happy hour,
When I get your wig in my pow'r;
Then we'll count the coming joys,
Buxom girls, and prattling boys;
Dolls, trinkets, and toys to feast their young eyes,
And lullaby ditties to quiet their noise;
While fweet lolly-pob ftops the figh and the fob,
Sing higgledy, piggledy, jiggummy bob.

CHORUS.
So bibere bob,
Let's all hob and nob,
To the ladies' brown bob,
And fing plenty of money in ev'ry fob.
[Hilaria, the Festive Board, Morris, 1798]

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Moll in the Wad
From: RTim
Date: 18 Dec 22 - 03:31 PM

Old Molly Oxford - Fieldtown....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8alhcFYFPM