Who Is Behind The Plot Of The Muffin Man?

Drury Lane was never a really rough part of London. That honour went to the other side of Covent Garden where you found St Giles’ rookery. Drury Lane was an older part of London. The lane itself dated from before Tudor times and was ‘famed’ for a pub that’s now called The White Hart (Henry VIII is recorded as taking one of his doxies there). When the Earl of Bedford, John Russell, was developing Covent Garden to be an upscale gated community for the wannabe posh, Drury Lane was regarded as something of a charming and ‘respectable’ thoroughfare in the 17th century. By the 18th century, the area had become decidedly lower-rent as fruit sellers moved into Covent Garden and more taverns, brothels and theatres sprung up on Drury Lane and the surrounding streets (think of it as 18th-century Netflix and Chill). But it was by no means a slum – it’d probably be closer to New York’s Time Square before it was cleaned up. Prostitution was a major industry in the area – there used to be printed guides informing gentlemen (and ladies) as to where the best brothels were, which courtesans were rated highest by patrons, what their specialities were, how much they cost in addition to listing the actresses who dabbled in prostitution and the prostitutes who dabbled in acting. (It also listed the whores who’d indulge in lesbian acts – aka ‘the game of flats’.) Because of this, I’d suspect the likeliest occupation of the Muffin Man was either a pimp or a local guide to the best of bawdiness the neighbourhood had to offer.

Having lived on the periphery of the film industry and known that most actors have second jobs and having been aware of Drury Lane theater, it occurred to me that this man could have been an actor bunking in the theater and baking when not acting. The ‘muffin man’ song would make a perfect advertising jingle and most actors are also musical.

“English muffins” are almost impossible to find in the UK. I’ve never seen them. They look similar to crumpets, but they taste different and they have a different texture. There is some debate as to whether or not the muffins that the muffin men used to hawk were actually like the “English muffins” found in America, or not. I looked at all pictures of them online, from the 19th century, but I couldn’t tell. I actually think the rhyme is about an actual muffin man selling actual muffins. Not the most exciting idea. But likely

Just a comment on the “lives in Drury Lane” line: I’ve heard that in British English, it’s common to say someone lives in a street to mean the same thing as saying they live on a street in US English. I actually looked this up on a few different forums about differences between UK and US English. I do like the idea of someone making his home in the theater and becoming a local celebrity, though.

I think it’s most likely a playful song about the way people would banter about other townsfolk and share stories. “Hey do you know Joe?” “Joe?” “Yea, Joe. You know, lives down 1st street?” “Oh yea I know Joe!” Que some bit of juicy gossip about Joe. This would also lend to it becoming a children’s game wherein they go around asking people if they know this person or that.

Honestly, I half-expected the “real” muffin man to end up being some kind of cannibalistic baker who pulled off some Sweeny Todd-style muffin selling stuff or something along those lines, so the serial killer angle doesn’t surprise me. It seems like a lot of various seemingly innocent things at least have theories about them being somehow related to serial killers and the like.

I would LOVE to see a article on Valkyries (Norse mythology) and/or the Amazons (Greek Mythology)! I have a soft spot for Norse mythology, and I love your series on it thus far! I absolutely LOVE your articles, and as an aspiring author, it’s so refreshing to hear the true origins of where our stories come from! Keep up the amazing work! Edit: the topic of what the Norse Vikings were actually like also sounds interesting! How they dressed, culture, etc. I’ve heard that Hollywood gets it wrong most of the time (surprising no one lol), but I haven’t done much research myself.

I thought it was something to do with homelessness.. like the ragamuffin man 😂 and I’ve never heard of the term “coxcomb” which you mentioned.. 😆 but there is a term called “Cock Scum” meaning Penis Scum or Filth😆 Referring to the dead skin under a mans foreskin that’s not been cleaned.. I’m from East London, land of the cockney.. and I can confirm, “coxcomb” is definitely not how it was spelled 😂 And I thought “Dreary Lane” meant a dark lane.. because Dreary means dark or dull.

Given its a children’s nursery rhyme, some have been hinted as WARNINGS, I speculate perhaps the most believable and likely scenario was that it was a warning of either a food seller in a low income neighborhood selling crappy quality food or perhaps someone dangerous to children like a slave trafficker (which from ancestry stories I read about from this time period and in England did actually happen); a pervert type criminal; or perhaps a killer of young victims. It’s hard to say which of the three (or the previous one about bad food) but given that I already know of some actual stories and examples, I’d lean towards the slave trafficker for money of unsupervised children. There’s historical stories of some bad neighborhoods where children were in fact kidnapped and sold as slaves or taken onto ships to other countries as indentured servants to pay for the cost of the trip like a kind of fraud or scam.

Nearby the crimson district, the Muffin Man is a specialty shop that sells pastries. The size, color, flavoring, toppings, and the interesting shape of them are significant. Upon purchasing at least one, the customer is escorted to a oddly decorated dining room to enjoy their treat. Coincidentally, they will find people in that room, whose appearance and character resembles the muffin. In this way, a pleasant time is had with good company. Customers who buy a mussel are permitted to stay overnight as honored guests. /false lore

I like the simpler theory of it being a way to verify that a food vendor wasn’t adulterating his wares to save money/extend his output. It had never occurred to me that this was a time when food purity wasn’t regulated and all sorts of terrible practices were extant. It would make sense that word of mouth and neighborhood recommendations would matter. I also think it’s reasonable to assume that the specificity of muffins and Drury Lane would become the default simply because of their sing-ability.

I know I’m 9 months late to the party, but I used to live near Scheveningen! It’s the beachy area in the Hague. It’s super popular with tourists, so it makes sense for there to be a “mussels man” right off the beach in a spa town. Whether that mussel seller was also a pimp is another matter entirely, but hey, tourists come to the Netherlands for more than just legal weed, amirite?

I gotta say, your attemp at saying Scheveningen made my week. However, although in English, clam is a euphemism, in Dutch, mussels isn’t a euphemism for vagina. So that one doesn’t work. It’s much more likely that the Dutch version is simply a derivative of the English version, as there was a lot of common trade between the two countries, etc. This doesn’t explain why Scheveningen – although a fishing town, they don’t fish for mussels there, and the big places (back then) that did could’ve easily fitted the rhyme.

And it always helps to keep in mind what the eminent Classicist Edith Hamilton said about ancient literature, that very little actually comes down to us, and we have no way of knowing whether even that which survives was the best or most representative, so we have to resign ourselves to the fact that we probably never know…

Ha! I know the Druery Lane theater you went to, I used to pass it everyday on my way home from work when I worked up in Woodale and Itasca (I work from home now). Funny, I never expect ppl I listen to on YouTube to live near or somewhat near me (Durery Lane is about 40 mins to an hr from my home in NW Indiana depending on traffic, but even my corner of IN is considered the “Chicagoland” area) 😅 Sometimes it’s a small world after all lol

Actually bread has been highly regulated since the Roman era. In the 1700’s and 1800’s a baker would be a member of a guild. Why were bakers so important? A wood fired earthen oven was expensive to fire and required a lot fuel and effort. They didn’t have gas or electric stoves. It was a specialty profession. It was so important in ancient history that the Roman’s setup near industrial levels of bread production. Archeologist have found water powered milling operations that took up the side of a mountain with multiple layers of flour production. Bakers were required to place there mark on the bread and identify the type of bread. If you got caught putting chalk in your bread you would be either fined or arrested and likely imprisoned without trial.

I believe there were earlier versions of the Muffin Man that nobody but historical societies would be in possession of now … My grandmother sang an old version she learned as a child in England, around 1918., and according to stories at the time, he was a real person, and lived on Drury Lane… His was the last surviving business on the whole street (lane), and he gained attention by refusing to shut up shop when his building, along with the derelict ones, were condemned and ordered to be demolished. The locals apparently admired and supported him during his “sit in” until there was a mysterious fire and the baker was never seen again…. Whether he did it himself and retired to the coast, or there were dirty dealings going on to flush him out, ( or worse!) wasn’t known, and that led to so much speculation that his legend lives on… Some believed he perished in the fire and his ghost haunts the former bakery… Either way, the song circulated as a result of the mystery surrounding his sudden departure… ( Do you know him? Have you seen him?) I doubt they found his remains though, or the song would be darker – unless the truth was covered up? … But it was, never-the-less, a mystery…. Personally, I think mothers would warn their children of what happens when you don’t obey orders, so made an example of the muffin man … Or his ghost – to keep their kids in at night. The song does have a creepy vibe to it… It’s a shame most folk only referred to him as The Muffin Man, as London was so over – populated that, as you point out, it was easier to identify people by their profession.

ok sorry but your pronunciation of Scheveningen was the funniest thing ever. The sch is famously difficult to pronounce though and rather unique to the Dutch language so don’t feel bad. You just gave me a really good chuckle. (fun fact words like Scheveningen were used in the second world war to flush out German spies because the Germans could not pronounce the word and would give themselves away with that)

you are forgetting that ages ago songs, dances and stories were a way of keeping records of events that occurred and people felt should be remembered, but as with many records the meaning has been lost over time and also due to meanings of words and phrases changing over time, the story is no longer understud the way it used to be…….

Muff, an article of clothing, has long (1600s) been used as slang for the female pudendum and “muffin” as a diminutive appears to be much the same. Also the environs of Drury Lane (the theatre) were infamous for prostitution and also actresses of from the 1700s through the 1800s were often regarded as little better than prostitutes. Hence the “Muffin Man” could have been either a pimp or a theatre manager