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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=506395" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Pied Piper Of Hamelin, The</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">A CHILD'S STORY.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">(_Written for, and inscribed to, W. M. the Younger._)</div><div style="margin:10px 0">	I.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Hamelin Town's in Brunswick,<br> By famous Hanover city;<br>The river Weser, deep and wide,<br>Washes its wall on the southern side;<br>A pleasanter spot you never spied;<br> But, when begins my ditty,<br>Almost five hundred years ago,<br>To see the townsfolk suffer so<br> From vermin, was a pity.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">	II.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Rats!<br>They fought the dogs and killed the cats,<br> And bit the babies in the cradles,<br>And ate the cheeses out of the vats,<br> And licked the soup from the cooks' own ladles,<br>Split open the kegs of salted sprats,<br>Made nests inside men's Sunday hats,<br>And even spoiled the women's chats<br> By drowning their speaking<br> With shrieking and squeaking<br>In fifty different sharps and flats.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">	III.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">At last the people in a body<br> To the Town Hall came flocking:<br>``'Tis clear,'' cried they, ``our Mayor's a noddy;<br> ``And as for our Corporation---shocking.<br>``To think we buy gowns lined with ermine<br>``For dolts that can't or won't determine<br>``What's best to rid us of our vermin!<br>``You hope, because you're old and obese,<br>``To find in the furry civic robe ease?<br>``Rouse up, sirs! Give your brains a racking<br>``To find the remedy we're lacking,<br>``Or, sure as fate, we'll send you packing!''<br>At this the Mayor and Corporation<br>Quaked with a mighty consternation.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">	IV.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">An hour they sat in council,<br> At length the Mayor broke silence:<br>``For a guilder I'd my ermine gown sell,<br> ``I wish I were a mile hence!<br>``It's easy to bid one rack one's brain---<br>``I'm sure my poor head aches again,<br>``I've scratched it so, and all in vain.<br>``Oh for a trap, a trap, a trap!''<br>Just as he said this, what should hap<br>At the chamber door but a gentle tap?<br>``Bless us,'' cried the Mayor, ``what's that?''<br>(With the Corporation as he sat,<br>Looking little though wondrous fat;<br>Nor brighter was his eye, nor moister<br>Than a too-long-opened oyster,<br>Save when at noon his paunch grew mutinous<br>For a plate of turtle green and glutinous)<br>``Only a scraping of shoes on the mat?<br>``Anything like the sound of a rat<br>``Makes my heart go pit-a-pat!''</div><div style="margin:10px 0">	V.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">``Come in!''---the Mayor cried, looking bigger:<br>And in did come the strangest figure!<br>His queer long coat from heel to head<br>Was half of yellow and half of red,<br>And he himself was tall and thin,<br>With sharp blue eyes, each like a pin,<br>And light loose hair, yet swarthy skin,<br>No tuft on cheek nor beard on chin,<br>But lips where smiles went out and in;<br>There was no guessing his kith and kin:<br>And nobody could enough admire<br>The tall man and his quaint attire. <br>Quoth one: ``It's as my great-grandsire,<br>``Starting up at the Trump of Doom's tone,<br>``Had walked this way from his painted tombstone!''</div><div style="margin:10px 0">	VI.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He advanced to the council-table<br>And, ``Please your honours,'' said he, ``I'm able,<br>``By means of a secret charm, to draw<br> ``All creatures living beneath the sun,<br> ``That creep or swim or fly or run,<br>``After me so as you never saw!<br>``And I chiefly use my charm<br>``On creatures that do people harm,<br>``The mole and toad and newt and viper;<br>``And people call me the Pied Piper.''<br>(And here they noticed round his neck<br> A scarf of red and yellow stripe,<br>To match with his coat of the self-same cheque;<br> And at the scarf's end hung a pipe;<br>And his fingers, they noticed, were ever straying<br>As if impatient to be playing<br>Upon this pipe, as low it dangled<br>Over his vesture so old-fangled.)<br>``Yet,'' said he, ``poor piper as I am,<br>``In Tartary I freed the Cham,<br>``Last June, from his huge swarms of gnats;<br>``I eased in Asia the Nizam<br> ``Of a monstrous brood of vampyre-bats:<br>``And as for what your brain bewilders,<br> ``If I can rid your town of rats<br>``Will you give me a thousand guilders?''<br>``One? fifty thousand!''---was the exclamation<br>Of the astonished Mayor and Corporation.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">	VII.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Into the street the Piper stept,<br> Smiling first a little smile,<br>As if he knew what magic slept<br> In his quiet pipe the while;<br>Then, like a musical adept,<br>To blow the pipe his lips he wrinkled,<br>And green and blue his sharp eyes twinkled,<br>Like a candle-flame where salt is sprinkled;<br>And ere three shrill notes the pipe uttered,<br>You heard as if an army muttered;<br>And the muttering grew to a grumbling;<br>And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling;<br>And out of the houses the rats came tumbling.<br>Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats,<br>Brown rats, black rats, grey rats, tawny rats,<br>Grave old plodders, gay young friskers,<br> Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins,<br>Cocking tails and pricking whiskers,<br> Families by tens and dozens,<br>Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives---<br>Followed the Piper for their lives.<br>From street to street he piped advancing,<br>And step for step they followed dancing,<br>Until they came to the river Weser,<br> Wherein all plunged and perished!<br>---Save one who, stout as Julius Csar,<br>Swam across and lived to carry<br> (As he, the manuscript he cherished)<br>To Rat-land home his commentary:<br>Which was, ``At the first shrill notes of the pipe,<br>``I heard a sound as of scraping tripe,<br>``And putting apples, wondrous ripe,<br>``Into a cider-press's gripe:<br>``And a moving away of pickle-tub-boards,<br>``And a leaving ajar of conserve-cupboards,<br>``And a drawing the corks of train-oil-flasks,<br>``And a breaking the hoops of butter-casks:<br>``And it seemed as if a voice<br> ``(Sweeter far than b psaltery<br>``Is breathed) called out, `Oh rats, rejoice!<br>`` `The world is grown to one vast drysaltery!<br>`` `So munch on, crunch on, take your nuncheon,<br>`` `Breakfast, supper, dinner, luncheon!'<br>``And just as a bulky sugar-puncheon,<br>``All ready staved, like a great sun shone<br>``Glorious scarce an inch before me, <br>``Just as methought it said, `Come, bore me!'<br>``---I found the Weser rolling o'er me.''</div><div style="margin:10px 0">	VIII.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">You should have heard the Hamelin people<br>ringing the bells till they rocked the steeple. <br>``Go,'' cried the Mayor, ``and get long poles,<br>``Poke out the nests and block up the holes!<br>``Consult with carpenters and builders,<br>``And leave in our town not even a trace<br>``Of the rats!''---when suddenly, up the face<br>Of the Piper perked in the market-place,<br>With a, ``First, if you please, my thousand guilders!''</div><div style="margin:10px 0">	IX.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A thousand guilders! The Mayor looked blue;<br>So did the Corporation too.<br>For council dinners made rare havoc<br>With Claret, Moselle, Vin-de-Grave, Hock;<br>And half the money would replenish<br>Their cellar's biggest butt with Rhenish. <br>To pay this sum to a wandering fellow<br>With a gipsy coat of red and yellow!<br>``Beside,'' quoth the Mayor with a knowing wink,<br>``Our business was done at the river's brink;<br>``We saw with our eyes the vermin sink,<br>``And what's dead can't come to life, I think.<br>``So, friend, we're not the folks to shrink<br>``From the duty of giving you something for drink,<br>``And a matter of money to put in your poke;<br>``But as for the guilders, what we spoke<br>``Of them, as you very well know, was in joke.<br>``Beside, our losses have made us thrifty.<br>``A thousand guilders! Come, take fifty!''</div><div style="margin:10px 0">	X.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Piper's face fell, and he cried<br>``No trifling! I can't wait, beside!<br>``I've promised to visit by dinnertime<br>``Bagdat, and accept the prime<br>``Of the Head-Cook's pottage, all he's rich in,<br>``For having left, in the Caliph's kitchen,<br>``Of a nest of scorpions no survivor:<br>``With him I proved no bargain-driver,<br>``With you, don't think I'll bate a stiver!<br>``And folks who put me in a passion<br>``May find me pipe after another fashion.''</div><div style="margin:10px 0">	XI.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">``How?'' cried the Mayor, ``d'ye think I brook<br>``Being worse treated than a Cook?<br>``Insulted by a lazy ribald<br>``With idle pipe and vesture piebald?<br>``You threaten us, fellow? Do your worst,<br>``Blow your pipe there till you burst!''</div><div style="margin:10px 0">	XII.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Once more he stept into the street<br> And to his lips again<br> Laid his long pipe of smooth straight cane;<br>And ere he blew three notes (such sweet<br>Soft notes as yet musician's cunning<br> Never gave the enraptured air)<br>There was a rustling that seemed like a bustling<br>Of merry crowds justling at pitching and hustling,<br>Small feet were pattering, wooden shoes clattering,<br>Little hands clapping and little tongues chattering,<br>And, like fowls in a farm-yard when barley is scattering,<br>Out came the children running.<br>All the little boys and girls,<br>With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls,<br>And sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls,<br>Tripping and skipping, ran merrily after<br>The wonderful music with shouting and laughter.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">	XIII.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Mayor was dumb, and the Council stood<br>As if they were changed into blocks of wood,<br>Unable to move a step, or cry<br>To the children merrily skipping by,<br>---Could only follow with the eye<br>That joyous crowd at the Piper's back.<br>But how the Mayor was on the rack,<br>And the wretched Council's bosoms beat,<br>As the Piper turned from the High Street<br>To where the Weser rolled its waters<br>Right in the way of their sons and daughters!<br>However be turned from South to West,<br>And to Koppelberg Hill his steps addressed,<br>And after him the children pressed;<br>Great was the joy in every breast.<br>``He never can cross that mighty top!<br>``He's forced to let the piping drop,<br>``And we shall see our children stop!''<br>When, lo, as they reached the mountain-side,<br>A wondrous portal opened wide,<br>As if a cavern was suddenly hollowed;<br>And the Piper advanced and the children followed,<br>And when all were in to the very last,<br>The door in the mountain-side shut fast.<br>Did I say, all? No! One was lame,<br> And could not dance the whole of the way;<br>And in after years, if you would blame<br> His sadness, he was used to say,---<br>``It's dull in our town since my playmates left!<br>``I can't forget that I'm bereft<br>``Of all the pleasant sights they see,<br>``Which the Piper also promised me.<br>``For he led us, he said, to a joyous land,<br>``Joining the town and just at hand,<br>``Where waters gushed and fruit-trees grew<br>``And flowers put forth a fairer hue,<br>``And everything was strange and new;<br>``The sparrows were brighter than peacocks here,<br>``And their dogs outran our fallow deer,<br>``And honey-bees had lost their stings,<br>``And horses were born with eagles' wings:<br>``And just as I became assured<br>``My lame foot would be speedily cured,<br>``The music stopped and I stood still,<br>``And found myself outside the hill,<br>``Left alone against my will,<br>``To go now limping as before,<br>``And never hear of that country more!''</div><div style="margin:10px 0">	XIV.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Alas, alas for Hamelin!<br> There came into many a burgher's pate<br> A text which says that heaven's gate<br> Opes to the rich at as easy rate<br>As the needle's eye takes a camel in!<br>The mayor sent East, West, North and South,<br>To offer the Piper, by word of mouth,<br> Wherever it was men's lot to find him,<br>Silver and gold to his heart's content,<br>If he'd only return the way he went,<br> And bring the children behind him.<br>But when they saw 'twas a lost endeavour,<br>And Piper and dancers were gone for ever,<br>They made a decree that lawyers never<br> Should think their records dated duly<br>If, after the day of the month and year,<br>These words did not as well appear,<br>``And so long after what happened here<br> ``On the Twenty-second of July,<br>``Thirteen hundred and seventy-six:''<br>And the better in memory to fix<br>The place of the children's last retreat,<br>They called it, the Pied Piper's Street---<br>Where any one playing on pipe or tabor<br>Was sure for the future to lose his labour.<br>Nor suffered they hostelry or tavern<br> To shock with mirth a street so solemn;<br>But opposite the place of the cavern<br> They wrote the story on a column,<br>And on the great church-window painted<br>The same, to make the world acquainted<br>How their children were stolen away,<br>And there it stands to this very day.<br>And I must not omit to say<br>That in Transylvania there's a tribe<br>Of alien people who ascribe<br>The outlandish ways and dress<br>On which their neighbours lay such stress,<br>To their fathers and mothers having risen<br>Out of some subterraneous prison<br>Into which they were trepanned<br>Long time ago in a mighty band<br>Out of Hamelin town in Brunswick land,<br>But how or why, they don't understand.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">	XV.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So, Willy, let me and you be wipers<br>Of scores out with all men---especially pipers!<br>And, whether they pipe us free frm mice,<br>If we've promised them aught, let us keep our promise!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Robert+Browning">Robert Browning</a><div class=q>
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(_Written for, and inscribed to, W. M. the Younger._)

	I.

Hamelin Town's in Brunswick,
 By famous Hanover city;
The river Weser, deep and wide,
Washes its wall on the southern side;
A pleasanter spot you never spied;
 But, when..."></div>
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