Do you know the muffin man? The muffin man, the muffin man. Do you know the muffin man Who lives in Drury Lane?
Many of us may remember this little childhood jingle. A lot of us may remember the interrogation scene of the Gingerbread Man in Shrek. But...did you know that the Muffin Man jingle is based on a serial killer in England? I hope you enjoyed a few moments of happy childhood memories singing the muffin man jingle in your head, because I'm going to go down a dark road. Happy moment over...sorry!
Frederic Thomas Lynwood was born in 1563, died in 1612, and became known as the Drury Lane Dicer. He was a baker, working in his bakery but also delivering baked goods to people. It was a common thing for families to have fresh food delivered to their homes, kind of like a lot of Americans used to have a Milk Man deliver their milk back in the day.
The story goes that Frederic would lure children by pulling a muffin on a string and the kids would playfully chase it. This trick led the kids to Frederic's bakery where he would beat the kids with wooden spoons to unconsciousness, torture them and then kill them. Word is that he also killed seven other bakers because he didn't like the competition. Makes me think he didn't think of other options, maybe like having sales or lowering his prices a bit to entice people to chose his bakery over the others.
Reports say that between the years 1589 and 1598, Frederic murdered 15 children. His bakery shop was a popular spot for kids to visit, where they would run and cause havoc. I remember taking my kids to our local bakery when they were younger. They never really ran around and caused havoc, but it was definitely a great treat for them. Luckily our bakery was not run by a demented killer!
It is said that Frederic did not want the children around his bakery, so he devised the plan to lure them to his bakery with a muffin on a string in order to kill them. What doesn't make sense to me (at least one thing) is if he didn't want the kids hanging around his bakery, why would he want to bring them their to kill them? Some sort of twisted "justice" in his head? Maybe he didn't have anywhere else to take them? How about he just shoo-shoo them out of his bakery with a broom? Call the local police? So many questions!!!
Now back to the rhyme that was actually created to warn kids to stay away from the bakery on Drury Lane:
Do you know the muffin man? The muffin man, the muffin man. Do you know the muffin man Who lives in Drury Lane?
Not as sweet an innocent as you may have originally thought, right? Beware of the Muffin Man!
-- Audre
Photo by: London Cries: A Muffin Man by Paul Sandby (c. 1759)
Sources:
media.com
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