Ragged but Right, pt. 6 ("bufay", i. e., "ofay")

Thu Feb 9 23:50:03 UTC 2012

On 2/8/2012 3:02 AM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
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> Subject:      Re: Ragged but Right, pt. 6 ("bufay", i. e., "ofay")
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>
> On 2/7/2012 1:34 AM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
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>> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson"<douglas at NB.NET>
>> Subject:      Re: Ragged but Right, pt. 6 ("bufay", i. e., "ofay")
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>>
>> On 2/6/2012 11:50 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
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>>> Poster:       Ben Zimmer<bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
>>> Subject:      Re: Ragged but Right, pt. 6 ("bufay", i. e., "ofay")
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>>>
>>> On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 9:44 PM, George Thompson wrote:
>>>> The OED has "ofay" from 1899, and from the Indianapolis Freeman, at that.
>>>>     Here is a variant form, "bufay", from the Freeman of 1903.
>>>>
>>>>        In 1903 P. B. R. Hendrix reported from Chicago that, "Irving Jones,
>>>> for the past two weeks playing our leading vaudeville houses, cleaned up
>>>> everything.  The Bufays [i. e., white performers (note by Abbott&    Seroff)]
>>>> hate for him to be on the bill with them for they have to work so hard to
>>>> make a hit with the audience."
>>>>
>>>>        "P. B. R. Hendrix's Chicago Notes", *Indianapolis Freeman*, September
>>>> 26, 1903
>>>>
>>>>        Lynn Abbott&    Doug Seroff. * Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows,
>>>> "Coon Songs," and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz*.  University Press of
>>>> Mississippi, 2007*, *p. 35; fn. 70, p. 386
>>> The Scott Joplin scholar Edward A. Berlin notes another use of "bufay"
>>> in that very same issue of the Freeman (9/26/03, p. 5):
>>>
>>> ---
>>> "We are sorry to note the misfortune Mr. Scott Joplin met with his
>>> Ragtime Opera company while filling an engagement in Springfield, Ill.
>>> He has been doing big business, but his Bufay representative embarks
>>> with the receipts, leaving them in a hole. They are in Chicago for the
>>> present."
>>> quoted in: _King of Ragtime_ (OUP 1994), p. 126
>>> http://books.google.com/books?id=akWdAVXFmAsC&pg=PA126
>>> ---
>>>
>>> In a footnote, Berlin speculates about "ofay" and "bufay":
>>>
>>> ---
>>> The term "Bufay" is problematic. "Ofay," pig latin for "foe" and a
>>> term referring to whites, was in common use by blacks of this time. I
>>> suggest that "Bufay" means "black foe," as a black thief would have
>>> been in this case. See discussion in my article "On Ragtime:
>>> Understanding the Language," _CBMR Digest_ 3/3 (Fall 1990), 6-7.
>>> ---
>>>
>>> Leaving aside the highly suspect Pig Latin explanation of "ofay", I'm
>>> not sure Berlin is correctly interpreting "bufay" here -- Abbott&
>>> Seroff may be right in thinking that "ofay" and "bufay" were
>>> interchangeable. But it would be nice to see examples beyond a single
>>> issue of a newspaper.
>> --
>>
>> If no other example can be found, one can consider the possibility of
>> typographical error. If I had the requisite databases, I would look (in
>> the _Freeman_ and elsewhere) for "Aufay" (meaning "Ofay"), and I would
>> examine the newspaper issue in question for possible examples of capital
>> "B" where capital "A" should be.
> --
>
> Looks like I do have the "Freeman" available after all.
>
> The above two instances of "Bufay" are not only in the same issue, they
> are in the same column, "P. B. R. Hendrix's Chicago Notes", a regular
> item. In fact, there is a third instance in the same column: immediately
> following the above item ending "... hit with the audience."
>
> <<He sends regards to all -- Mr. Charles Small and wife are meeting with
> great success in the cast of the "Moonshiner's Daughter." They are as
> prominent in the cast as any of the Bufay's [sic] characters.>>
>
> What this means, I don't know. Surely "Bufay" could = "Ofay" here. Or
> maybe not. On what do the above authors base their interpretations?
--

Here is an alternative hypothesis.

Note that "the Bufay's characters" is probably not strictly consistent
with "Bufay" = "Ofay" (which would call for "the Bufay characters")
(however this sort of error is far from unknown in newspapers).

But if we take "bufay" to mean "[dramatic/opera] company", all three
instances are fine: the Companies hate to share the bill with Jones, the
Smalls are as prominent as any of the Company's characters, Joplin is
robbed by his [Opera] Company representative.

Why "bufay"? From "Opera Bouffé", I guess (taken to mean "Opera
Company") [This mispronunciation seems to me virtually certain to occur.]

(Limited support for plausibility argument only: "opera bouffé" = "opera
company" in a humorous poem in the [San Jose CA] "Evening News" [31
March 1894]: <<She wance ran away wid an operay bouffay>> [calling for
"bouffay" to rhyme with "away"].)

Why don't we see other examples of this "Bufay" in the "Freeman"?
Because Hendrix (or his informant) soon became aware that "Bouffe"
doesn't mean that, and isn't pronounced that way? [Hendrix was
apparently a volunteer correspondent.]

This is just a casual notion. But I wonder whether there is any good
reason to presume "Bufay" is related to "Ofay".

Anybody see any more instances of this "bufay"?

-- Doug Wilson

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