Muffin Man, The

DESCRIPTION: "Do you know the muffin man Who lives in Drury Lane?" "Yes I know...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1837 (Hone); c.1820 (Bodleian Douce Adds. 134(8), according to Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty food commerce
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,West)) US(MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 104, "The Muffin Man" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 158, "Do You Know the Muffin Man?" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Emelyn E. Gardner, "Some Play Party Games in Michigan," Vol. XXXIII, No. 128 (Apr 1920), #32 p. 113 "The Muffin-Man" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Frank Bellew, The Art of Amusing (New York, 1866 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 245-246, ("Do yaw know the muffin man") (1 text)
Charlotte Sophia Burne, Shropshire Folk-Lore: A Sheaf of Gleanings (London, 1883 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 571, ("Don't you know the Muffin man!") (1 text)
Roud #7922
NOTES [188 words]: "In Bath, before Sally Lunas were so fashionable, ... muffins were cried with a song beginning -- 'Don't you know the muffin man! Don't you know his name! And don't you know the muffin man! That lives in Bridewell-lane! &c'" (source: William Hone, The Every-Day Book and Table Book (London, 1837 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II, [October 26] p. 1355 footnote) ).
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame cites a broadside Bodleian, Douce Adds. 134(8) that is not in the Bodleian online catalog. The date is c.1820 and begins "Don't you know the muffin man?" - BS
According to Arnold Kellett, The Yorkshire Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition, and Folklore, revised edition, Smith Settle, 2002, p. 119, "In Yorkshire, muffins were commonly sold in the streets by the muffin man, who advertised his wares by ringing a bell." Kellett adds on p. 206 that the muffin man also sold yeast.
I am amazed to realize that I know (in a substantially different form from that cited here) a song which seems to be so obscure. I remember only a few words, however, and do not know whether I learned it in Michigan or Minnesota. The latter is more likely. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: OpGa104

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