CHARACTERS

THE PIPER ) MICHAEL-THE-SWORD-EATER ) Strolling Players CHEAT-THE-DEVIL )

Jacobus the Burgomeister )
Kurt the Syndic )
Peter the Cobbler )
Hans the Butcher )
Axel the Smith ) Men of Hamelin
Martin the Watch )
Peter the Sacristan )
Anselm, a young priest )
old Claus, a miser )
town Crier )

Jan )
Hansel )
Ilse ) Children
Trude )
Rudi )

Veronika, the wife of Kurt
Barbara, daughter of Jacobus
wife of Hans the Butcher
wife of Axel the Smith
wife of Martin the Watch
old Ursula

Burghers, nuns, priests, and children

SCENE:  HAMELIN ON THE WESER, 1284 A.D.

SCENES

Act I. The market-place in Hamelin

Act II.  Scene I. Inside the ‘Hollow-Hill’
          scene II.  The Cross-ways

Act III.  The Cross-ways

Act IV.  The market-place in Hamelin

One week is supposed to elapse between Acts I and II.

Acts II and III occupy one day.

Act IV concerns the following morning.

The Piper

ACT I

Scene:  The market-place of Hamelin.  Right, the Minster, with an open shrine (right centre) containing a large sculptured figure of the Christ.  Right, farther front, the house of Kurt; and other narrow house-fronts.  Left, the Rathaus, and (down) the home of Jacobus.  Front, to left and right, are corner-houses with projecting stories and casement windows.  At the centre rear, a narrow street leads away between houses whose gables all but meet overhead.

It is late summer afternoon, with a holiday crowd.  In the open casements, front (right and left, opposite each other), sit old Ursula and old Claus, looking on at men and things.  —­In the centre of the place now stands a rude wooden Ark with a tented top:  and out of the openings (right and left) appear the artificial heads of animals, worn by the players inside.  One is a Bear (inhabited by Michael-the-sword-eater); one is a large Reynard-the-Fox, later apparent as the piper.  Close by is the medieval piece of stage-property known as ‘Hell-Mouth,’ i.e. a red painted cave with a jaw-like opening into which a mountebank dressed in scarlet (cheat-the-devil) is poking ‘Lost Souls’ with a pitchfork.