However, last fall I was surprised-perhaps disturbed is a more accurate word-to learn that scholars have good reason to believe the tale, in part at least, is true. Robert Browning’s poem, “The Pied Piper of Hamelin,” is a retelling of an ancient folk legend. The complete poem can be read here or listened to here. Save when at noon his paunch grew mutinousįor a plate of turtle green and glutinous)įor reasons of length, I have included only a fragment of Browning’s poem. “Bless us,” cried the Mayor, “what’s that?” Or, sure as fate, we’ll send you packing!” Rouse up, sirs! Give your brains a racking “Tis clear,” cried they, “our Mayor’s a noddy The speakers in his poems are often musicians or painters whose work functions as a metaphor for poetry.They fought the dogs and killed the cats,Īnd licked the soup from the cook’s own ladles, His poems are known for their irony, characterization, dark humor, social commentary, historical settings, and challenging vocabulary and syntax. Robert Browning (1812-1889) was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, and in particular the dramatic monologue, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets. Using the Verstegan/Wanley version of the tale and adopting the 1376 date, Browning's verse retelling is notable for its humor, wordplay, and jingling rhymes. This version of the story spread as folklore and has also appeared in the writings of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the Brothers Grimm and Robert Browning, among others.
When the citizens refuse to pay for this service, he retaliates by turning his power that he put in his instrument on their children, leading them away as he had the rats.
In the 16th century the story was expanded into a full narrative, in which the piper is a rat-catcher hired by the town to lure rats away with his magic pipe.
The earliest references describe a piper, dressed in multicolored ("pied") clothing, leading the kids away from the town never to return. The Pied Piper of Hamelin is the subject of a legend concerning the disappearance or death of a great number of kids from the town of Hamelin (Hameln), Lower Saxony, Germany, in the Middle Ages.
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