Where Did Do You Know the Muffin Man Come From
In search of London's famous folkloric baker.
Do you know the muffin human,
The muffin man, the muffin human?
Do you know the muffin homo,
Who lives on Drury Lane?
It's a song known throughout the English-speaking world, with many regional variations. Information technology featured prominently in the first two Shrek films. It namechecks a very real London street (Drury Lane). But who was the legendary muffin human?
Where does the vocal come from?
Was the muffin man simply a playground nonsense vocal, or is there something more to it? Nobody is actually certain, but the clues point towards its origins on the early 19th century phase.
The earliest written tape of the nursery rhyme is from a manuscript of 1820 — or, at least, it is if y'all believe every online account that has rewritten Wikipedia. Really, the vocal can exist readily traced a year before.
A quick search in Google Books throws upward manuscript of 1819 chosen Life High and Low, a curious tome that recounts some of the characters and ballads of the mean solar day. It includes a footnote about "The Dandy Muffin-Human being of Drury Lane", and this prints the lyrics, much as they're still sang today.
The book tells usa something near an anonymous performer closely associated with the song. He is a "migrated coxcomb" and a "leader of manner in attic entertainments and at cellar-balls, at promiscuous clubs, and at gallows hops...".
So, if we're reading it right, it seems The Muffin Man started out every bit a kind of trashy phase song performed in seedy venues.
Indeed, people had been singing about muffin men for quite some time, and in quite rarified circles. A comedic song about the trade was a staple of the phase from 1796, and was even performed to the King in 1802. Its lyrics are entirely dissimilar to those of the plant nursery rhyme, merely it may have had some influence on the anonymous vocalizer mentioned in the 1819 source.
Subsequently 1819, the ditty seems to have caught on in a large way. It became a favourite children's vocal and was adapted into numerous party games. It's still a well-known rhyme 200 years later on.
I thought I'd read something about kid-catching and murder?
The song does have an culling origin story, which often gets an airing in more credulous corners of the internet. The muffin homo, it'due south said, is the nickname of a 16th century child murderer. The ditty was supposedly written to warn kids away from Drury Lane, where a notorious muffin man would lure them to their deaths with sweetness nutrient. The Sweeney-Todd-esque story seems to be a modern invention, but that hasn't stopped numerous websites reporting it as fact.
Was at that place an actual muffin human?
There were hundreds of them. Muffin men could be found all over town in the 19th century, knocking on doors to see if anyone wanted to buy their baked goods and by and large annoying everyone with their loud bells. This was at a fourth dimension when simply wealthy households would have had access to a decent oven, so there was a large market for such hawking.
It's a tradition that continued well into the 20th century. In the 1930s, muffin men were still to be sighted in Covent Garden, and taken as a sign of winter.
What was a muffin back then?
If you're picturing a bulbous confection packed with blueberries or chocolate chips, then you're scraping with a spurious spatula. The denizens of 19th century London would have been more likely to eat English muffins — the savoury crumpet-similar breads still commonly toasted for breakfast.
Return of the muffin man?
You lot probably don't know a muffin man of Drury Lane today, because there is currently no muffin specialist on that famous former street. A couple of cafes at the northern stop no-dubiousness sell prepare-made cupcakes, merely neither plays on the muffin human being link.
So there's a business organisation opportunity right there: open up a shop called The Muffin Man of Drury Lane and watch the tourists flock in.
Meanwhile, the area does retain one link to baked goods. Caput to Leicester Foursquare tube station and, while riding the up escalator, keep an eye out for the behemothic gingerbread human, who resembles the Muffin Man's cosmos Mongo in Shrek ii. In one case you meet him, you'll never sleep again...
Source: https://londonist.com/london/history/muffin-man
0 Response to "Where Did Do You Know the Muffin Man Come From"
Post a Comment