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 Myths of the Middle Ages”; John Fiske, “Myths and Myth-makers”; Cox, “Myths of the Aryan Races.”  —­Hamlin, or Hamelin, is a town in the province of Hanover, Prussia.

THE FLIGHT OF THE DUCHESS

I

You’re my friend: 
        I was the man the Duke spoke to;
        I helped the Duchess to cast off his yoke, too;
So here’s the tale from beginning to end,
My friend!

II