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The
Pied Piper

of

Hamelin

[Pg 2]

[Pg 3]

THE PIED PIPER

OF

HAMELIN

BY

ROBERT BROWNING

ILLUSTRATED BY

KATE GREENAWAY

LONDON
FREDERICK WARNE AND CO., Ltd.
AND NEW YORK

[Pg 4]

Printed in U.S.A.

[Pg 5]

THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN

And ate the cheeses out of the vats.

[Pg 8]

And licked the soup from the cook's own ladles,

[Pg 9]

Split open the kegs of salted sprats,
Made nests inside men's Sunday hats,

[Pg 10]

And even spoiled the women's chats,

[Pg 11]

By drowning their speaking
With shrieking and squeaking
In fifty different sharps and flats.

[Pg 12]

And at the scarf's end hung a pipe;
And his fingers they noticed were ever straying
As if impatient to be playing
Upon his pipe, as low it dangled
Over his vesture so old-fangled.)

[Pg 16]

"Yet," said he, "poor Piper as I am,
In Tartary I freed the Cham,
Last June, from his huge swarms of gnats,
I eased in Asia the Nizam
Of a monstrous brood of vampyre-bats:
And as for what your brain bewilders,
If I can rid your town of rats
Will you give me a thousand guilders?"
"One? fifty thousand!"—was the exclamation
Of the astonished Mayor and Corporation.

[Pg 17]

And the muttering grew to a grumbling;
And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling;
And out of the houses the rats came tumbling.
Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats,
Brown rats, black rats, grey rats, tawny rats,
Grave old plodders, happy young friskers,
[Pg 19] Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins,
Cocking tails and pricking whiskers,
Families by tens and dozens,
Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives—
Followed the Piper for their lives.
From street to street he piped advancing,
And step for step they followed dancing,
Until they came to the river Weser
Wherein all plunged and perished!
—Save one who, stout as Julius Cæsar,
Swam across and lived to carry
(As he, the manuscript he cherished)
To Rat-land home his commentary:
Which was, "At the first shrill notes of the pipe,
I heard a sound as of scraping tripe,
And putting apples, wondrous ripe,
Into a cider-press's gripe:
And a moving away of pickle-tub-boards,
And a leaving ajar of conserve-cupboards,
And a drawing the corks of train-oil-flasks,
And a breaking the hoops of butter-casks:
And it seemed as if a voice
(Sweeter far than by harp or by psaltery
Is breathed) called out, 'Oh rats, rejoice!
The world is grown to one vast drysaltery!
So munch on, crunch on, take your nuncheon,
Breakfast, supper, dinner, luncheon!'
And just as a bulky sugar-puncheon,
All ready staved, like a great sun shone
Glorious scarce an inch before me,
Just as methought it said, 'Come, bore me!'
—I found the Weser rolling o'er me."

[Pg 20]

The Pied Piper

of