a lost endeavour,
And Piper and dancers were gone for ever,
They made a decree that lawyers never
Should think their records dated duly 270
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. 280
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 290
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 300
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!

NOTES:
"The Pied Piper of Hamelin." This clever versification of
a well-known tale was written for the little son of the
actor William Macready. According to Dr. Furnivall,
the version used directly by Browning is from "The
Wonders of the Little World: or A General History of
Man," by Nathaniel Wanley, published in 1578. There
are, however, more incidents in common between the
poem and the version given by Verstigan in his "Restitution
of Decayed Intelligence" (1605). There are many
other sources for the story, and it is not improbable that
Browning knew more than one version. Tales similar to
it occur also in Persia and China. For its kinship to
myths of the wind as a musician, and as a psychopomp or
leader of souls, see Baring-Gould, "Curious