<html><head></head><body><div class="ydpe4670d52yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><div></div>
<div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">In my (otherwise excellent) edition of Orlando, muffin and crumpet are defined as 'two different kinds of cake'.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div><br></div>
</div><div id="ydp7db29658yahoo_quoted_7184903971" class="ydp7db29658yahoo_quoted">
<div style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;color:#26282a;">
<div>
On Tuesday, 20 August 2019, 09:34:45 BST, Stuart N. Clarke via Vwoolf <vwoolf@lists.osu.edu> wrote:
</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><div id="ydp7db29658yiv1053949656">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div style="FONT-SIZE:12pt;FONT-FAMILY:'Calibri';COLOR:#000000;">
<div>I ‘as bin readin’ “Counsel’s Opinion”, Bella Sidney Woolf’s jointly-written
privately published one-act play of 1922, presumably written for am.dram.
performances of and for expats in Honkers. Can that be so? It was
printed in HK, but Bella was still in Colombo; she only moved to HK in
1925. So, perhaps it was intended for expats in Colombo, and it is a
coincidence that her husband Tom Southorn’s career took him from Colombo to
HK.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Anyway, the play is set in “A room in the Temple”, belonging to a “Lady
Barrister”. That’s progressive, and even more progressive is that her love
interest (another barrister) finally accepts that he “was old-fashioned enough
to think that men must work and women must housekeep”.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>However, she has a clerk, Jenkins, who is also female: “As the curtain
rises, JENKINS, a quaint person in a black frock is toasting muffins in front of
the fire. She is singing ‘. . .’ [censored, in case the sensitives are
caused distress]”. Jenkins and references to muffins continue throughout
the play. The muffins and the dropped aitches (e.g. “D’yer like yer
muffins ‘alf-toasted or done to a coal-black cinder?”) reminds me of “Orlando”:
“The muffins is keepin’ ’ot in the liberry”.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>As part of the US imperial project, American muffins have invaded the UK
and are gradually taking over. They are advertised as muffins, as if
English muffins didn’t exist. American muffins are the teatime equivalent
of the grey [sic] squirrel.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>It is a sobering thought that generations of Americans have not known what
muffins were in “Orlando”. Some may have wondered why they needed to be
kept ‘ot, or why one should apply butter to them (see “The Importance of Being
Earnest”).</div>
<div> </div>
<div>The new CUP edn of “Orlando” provides info. on the history of the muffin
(and the crumpet) under the quote “The muffin was invented and the crumpet”, but
does not explain what a muffin actually is. Of course, you can look up a
dictionary, but sometimes you don’t know that you *need* to look up a
dictionary. Cf. “street scavengers” in “Jacob’s Room”.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Stuart</div></div></div></div></div>_______________________________________________<br>Vwoolf mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Vwoolf@lists.osu.edu" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Vwoolf@lists.osu.edu</a><br><a href="https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf</a><br></div>
</div>
</div></body></html>