The Muffin Man

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Muffin Man is a traditional nursery rhyme or children's song with English origins. The lyrics are as follows, or similar:

Do you know the Muffin Man?
The Muffin Man, the Muffin Man.
Do you know the Muffin Man?
He lives in Drury Lane.

Drury Lane is a street in London. Victorian households had many of their fresh foods delivered; muffins would be delivered door-to-door by a muffin man.^[1] The "muffins" were the product known in much of the English-speaking world today as English muffins, not the cupcake-shaped variety.

The Young Lady's Book, from 1888, describes the song in the context of a game:

The first player turns to the one next her, and to some sing-song tune exclaims:

"Do you know the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man?

Do you know the muffin man who lives in Drury Lane?"

The person addressed replies to the same tune:

"Yes, I know the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man;

Oh, yes, I know the muffin man, who lives in Drury Lane."

Upon this they both exclaim:

"Then two of us know the muffin man, the muffin man," &c.^[2]

The Gingerbread Man in the 2001 movie Shrek states he was made by the Muffin Man, though the Muffin Man does not actually appear in the film until its sequel, Shrek 2. The Muffin Man is also the nickname of the criminal who poisoned several people with muffins in the TV series Arrested Development. This person was later found out to be George Bluth Sr. The Muffin Man is also a song performed by the late musician Frank Zappa.

[edit] Notes and references

1. ^ Kiple, Kenneth F and Ornelas, Kriemhild Coneè (2000). The Cambridge World History of Food. Cambridge University Press. p. 1224
2. ^ Mackarness, Matilda Anne Planche (1888) The Young Lady's Book: A Manual of Amusements, Exercises, Studies, and Pursuits. London: George Routledge and Sons. pp. 278–280. Full book from Google Books.

[edit] Misinterpretations

Children often misinterpret the word Drury in the last line for "cherry". This is probably because of a lack of vocabulary or understanding of the word.

There is also a version that stoners sing that goes

Do you know the mushroom man, the mushroom man, the mushroom man?

Do you know the mushroom man who lives on stoner way?

referring to psychedelic mushrooms