Twisted Nursery Rhymes

Do You Know the Muffin Man?

A silly little rhyming game or a dire warning?

Have you ever pondered the meanings behind those old nursery rhymes? I have. I’ve actually researched them. More than once, I’ve used that research as inspiration for my own twist on those old nursery rhymes. I categorize my take on these rhymes as “twisted nursery rhymes.” That old muffin man rhyme was one I set about researching for such inspiration.

The original rhyme emerged in the Victoria Era of the 1800s. I found no direct connection with anything dire to the rhyme. Yes, there is a legend, or just pure folklore, of a Drury Lane baker from the 1500s. The baker’s name, Frederic Thomas Lynwood, has come down to us saddled with the sobriquets of the “Drury Lane Dicer” and the “Muffin Man of Drury Lane.” We are expected to believe the rhyme is a warning to children against the Muffin Man.

In the 1500s, Linwood was — that’s the Shakespearean era— rumored to have murdered at least fifteen children and seven bakery competitors. To be clear, though, there are no records or evidence known to actually implicate Linwood in any crimes. There appears to only ever have been rumor and speculation that he was Britain’s first serial killer.

If the rhyme was meant to be a warning against Linwood, I find it suspect that it came three hundred years after the life of the man who is supposed to have been such a threat. Perhaps the rhyme, after all, is said and…