# Anthony Rowley

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthony-rowley/188488>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 14, 2003, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthony-rowley/188488 "2003-07-14T21:53:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![TresspassersW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@TresspassersW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TresspassersW)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthony-rowley/188488/1 "2003-07-14T21:53:43Z")

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I’ve been looking for the answer to this question for a long time.

Who is “Anthony Rowley” from the children’s song “A Frog He Would A’Wooing Go”? And while we’re at it, what’s with the “Roley, Poley, Gammon and Spinach”?

-M. Goose, Orem UT

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**Author:** ![raygirvan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@raygirvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raygirvan)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthony-rowley/188488/2 "2003-07-15T00:57:09Z")

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I don’t think there’s any sure answer. An online Terry Pratchett concordance, such as [here](http://www.cs.hut.fi/~pno/Fiction/apf/apf7.good-omens.html), alleges it’s the remnant of some English Regency topical song about an Italian opera singer, Antonio Rolli. But that seems a bit too pat for my liking, and it’s not corroborated elsewhere. (Interestingly, there was a Italian opera librettist, Paolo Antonio Rolli, but he died in 1765, 30 years too early for the Regency). This academic study of the song and its many variants, [The History of The Frog’s Courtship](http://cjtm.icaap.org/content/18/v18art6.html), says it’s a mystery why an older refrain - e.g. “howdie, crowdie” - turned into “Anthony Rowley”.