[Sca-cooks] Food songs

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Also sprach Elaine Koogler:
>And, if you want to go that route, there's also "Little Miss Muffett"
>(eating her curds and whey).  And Humpty Dumpty is about an egg...which most
>folks consider to be food.......

Note that Little Miss Muffett was the actual daughter of Dr. Thomas
Muffett, as I recall a friend and contemporary (obviously) of Samuel
Pepys, and who had some controversial medical theories about dairy
products. Also, it should be noted that as the Humpty Dumpty text
never actually mentions an egg, it could refer to almost anything,
but the association may be the work of an early illustrator. (Kind of
like Sidney Paget's illustrations for the early Sherlock Holmes
stories, which usually portray him in a certain hat and coat, never
referred to in the stories.) I always think of John Tenniel's
engravings myself.

>Then there's an old song, don't remember the name, which talks about a woman
>planning to kill her husband by blinding him by feeding him eggs and
>marrowbone, then drowning him...but he turns the tables on her and drowns
>her instead.

I know Steeleye Span recorded a similar song called "Marrowbones"
quite a while ago, maybe 25 years ago. I don't know how old it may be
as a legitimate folk song, but it seems likely. Although I don't
recall any mention of eggs there, either. The plan seems to be for
the philandering woman to blind her husband, on the spurious medical
advice of the family doctor, by feeding him sixteen marrowbones. The
husband, having been tipped off by the doctor, feigns blindness and
does indeed toss the wife into the river/stream/pond (I forget.) I
don't recall that the song actually mentions her drowning
specifically. She may simply have gotten a cold, wet, and amusing
comeuppance, which somehow seems more Chaucerian.

Adamantius