The Fluidity of Muffin Man

Gender Norms & Racial Bias in the Study of the Modern “Muffin Man”

 “The Muffin Man” is a traditional nursery rhyme, children’s song, or children’s game of English origin. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 7922. Lyrics The most widely known lyrics are as follows: Do you know the muffin man, The muffin man, the muffin man. Do you know the muffin man, Who lives on Drury Lane? Yes, I know the muffin man, The muffin man, the muffin man, Yes, I know the muffin man, Who lives on Drury Lane. Origins and meaning The rhyme was first recorded in a British manuscript circa 1820, that is preserved in the Bodleian Library with lyrics very similar to those used today: Do you know the muffin man? The muffin man, the muffin man. Do you know the muffin man Who lives in Drury Lane? Drury Lane is a thoroughfare bordering Covent Garden in London. The rhyme and game appear to have spread to other countries in the mid-nineteenth century, particularly the US and the Netherlands. In Volume 5 of his contemporary account of the London Prize Ring, Boxiana, published in 1829, Pierce Egan writes of an attempted fix of a match scheduled for October 18, 1825, between Reuben Marten and Jonathan Bissel . Young Gas refused to take the bribe and one week later identified the person who offered him £200 to throw the fight as a “Mr. Smith, a muffin-baker in Gray’s Inn Lane.” Young Gas also identified the “gentlemen” who employed the muffin-baker to act as go between, but those gentlemen denied involvement claiming they did not have “the slightest knowledge of the muffin-man.” Game Iona and Peter Opie observed that, although the rhyme had remained fairly consistent, the game associated with it has changed at least three times including: as a forfeit game, a guessing game, and a dancing ring. Verses beyond those described in the book have been sung. For example, the song may be concluded, “We all know the Muffin Man …”