Robert Browning - The Complete Poems of Robert Browning - 22 Poetry Collections in One Edition

“And leave in our town not even a trace

“Of the rats!” — when suddenly, up the face

Of the Piper perked in the market-place,

With a, “First, if you please, my thousand guilders!”

IX.

A thousand guilders! The Mayor looked blue;

So did the Corporation too.

For council dinners made rare havock

With Claret, Moselle, Vin-de-Grave, Hock;

And half the money would replenish

Their cellar’s biggest butt with Rhenish.

To pay this sum to a wandering fellow

With a gipsy coat of red and yellow!

“Beside,” quoth the Mayor with a knowing wink,

“Our business was done at the river’s brink;

“We saw with our eyes the vermin sink,

“And what’s dead can’t come to life, I think.

“So, friend, we’re not the folks to shrink

“From the duty of giving you something for drink,

“And a matter of money to put in your poke;

“But as for the guilders, what we spoke

“Of them, as you very well know, was in joke.

“Beside, our losses have made us thrifty.

“A thousand guilders! Come, take fifty!”

X.

The Piper’s face fell, and he cried

“No trifling! I can’t wait, beside!

“I’ve promised to visit by dinnertime

“Bagdat, and accept the prime

“Of the Head-Cook’s pottage, all he’s rich in,

“For having left, in the Caliph’s kitchen,

“Of a nest of scorpions no survivor —

“With him I proved no bargain-driver,

“With you, don’t think I’ll bate a stiver!

“And folks who put me in a passion

“May find me pipe after another fashion.”

XI.

“How?” cried the Mayor, “d’ye think I brook

“Being worse treated than a Cook?

“Insulted by a lazy ribald

“With idle pipe and vesture piebald?

“You threaten us, fellow? Do your worst,

“Blow your pipe there till you burst!”

XII.

Once more he stept into the street

And to his lips again

Laid his long pipe of smooth straight cane;

And ere he blew three notes (such sweet

Soft notes as yet musician’s cunning

Never gave the enraptured air)

There was a rustling that seemed like a bustling

Of merry crowds justling at pitching and hustling,

Small feet were pattering, wooden shoes clattering,

Little hands clapping and little tongues chattering,

And, like fowls in a farmyard when barley is scattering,

Out came the children running.

All the little boys and girls,

With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls,

And sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls,

Tripping and skipping, ran merrily after

The wonderful music with shouting and laughter.

XIII.

The Mayor was dumb, and the Council stood

As if they were changed into blocks of wood,

Unable to move a step, or cry

To the children merrily skipping by —

And could only follow with the eye

That joyous crowd at the Piper’s back.

But how the Mayor was on the rack,

And the wretched Council’s bosoms beat,

As the Piper turned from the High Street

To where the Weser rolled its waters

Right in the way of their sons and daughters!

However he turned from South to West,

And to Koppelberg Hill his steps addressed,

And after him the children pressed;

Great was the joy in every breast.

“He never can cross that mighty top!

“He’s forced to let the piping drop,

“And we shall see our children stop!”

When, lo, as they reached the mountain-side,

A wondrous portal opened wide,

As if a cavern was suddenly hollowed;

And the Piper advanced and the children followed,

And when all were in to the very last,

The door in the mountain-side shut fast.

Did I say, all? No! One was lame,

And could not dance the whole of the way;

And in after years, if you would blame

His sadness, he was used to say, —

“It’s dull in our town since my playmates left!

“I can’t forget that I’m bereft

“Of all the pleasant sights they see,

“Which the Piper also promised me.

“For he led us, he said, to a joyous land,

“Joining the town and just at hand,

“Where waters gushed and fruit-trees grew

“And flowers put forth a fairer hue,

“And everything was strange and new;

“The sparrows were brighter than peacocks here,

“And their dogs outran our fallow deer,

“And honey-bees had lost their stings,

“And horses were born with eagles’ wings:

“And just as I became assured

“My lame foot would be speedily cured,

“The music stopped and I stood still,

“And found myself outside the hill,

“Left alone against my will,

“To go now limping as before,

“And never hear of that country more!”

XIV.

Alas, alas for Hamelin!

There came into many a burgher’s pate

A text which says that heaven’s gate

Opes to the rich at as easy rate

As the needle’s eye takes a camel in!

The mayor sent East, West, North and South,

To offer the Piper, by word of mouth,

Wherever it was men’s lot to find him,

Silver and gold to his heart’s content,

If he’d only return the way he went,

And bring the children behind him.

But when they saw ’twas a lost endeavour,

And Piper and dancers were gone for ever,

They made a decree that lawyers never

Should think their records dated duly

If, after the day of the month and year,

These words did not as well appear,

“And so long after what happened here

”On the Twenty-second of July,

“Thirteen hundred and seventy-six:”

And the better in memory to fix

The place of the children’s last retreat,

They called it, the Pied Piper’s Street —

Where any one playing on pipe or tabor

Was sure for the future to lose his labour.

Nor suffered they hostelry or tavern

To shock with mirth a street so solemn;

But opposite the place of the cavern

They wrote the story on a column,

And on the great church-window painted

The same, to make the world acquainted

How their children were stolen away,

And there it stands to this very day.

And I must not omit to say

That in Transylvania there’s a tribe

Of alien people who ascribe

The outlandish ways and dress

On which their neighbours lay such stress,

To their fathers and mothers having risen

Out of some subterraneous prison

Into which they were trepanned

Long time ago in a mighty band

Out of Hamelin town in Brunswick land,

But how or why, they don’t understand.

XV.

So, Willy, let me and you be wipers

Of scores out with all men — especially pipers:

And, whether they pipe us free from rats or from mice,

If we’ve promised them aught, let us keep our promise.

Table of Contents

How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix

Pictor Ignotus

The Italian in England

The Englishman in Italy

The Lost Leader

The Lost Mistress

Home-Thoughts, From Abroad

Home-Thoughts, from the Sea

Nationality in Drinks

The Bishop Orders his Tomb at Saint Praxed’s Church Rome

Garden-Fancies

I. — The Flower’s Name

II. — Sibrandus Schafnaburgensis.

The Laboratory

The Confessional

The Flight of the Duchess

Earth’s Immortalities

Fame

Love

Song

The Boy and the Angel

Meeting at Night

Parting at Morning

Saul

Time’s Revenges

The Glove