[Vwoolf] Muffins

[Jeremy Hawthorn]

If you want some pictures (and recipes) see these links. My preference 
was always for (English) crumpets over (English) muffins, and living 
outside the UK I miss them.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/english_muffins_56640

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crumpet

The UK slang use of crumpet in a sexual sense is discussed in 
Partridge’s Dictionary of British Slang, and apparently dates back to 
the 1880s. I doubt Woolf was aware of it.

Jeremy H


On 20.08.2019 10:34, Stuart N. Clarke via Vwoolf wrote:
> 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.
> 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”.
> 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”.
> 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.
> 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”).
> 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”.
> Stuart
>
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