![]() VIIĪnd green and blue his sharp eyes twinkled, “One? fifty thousand!”-was the exclamation Last June, from his huge swarms of gnats 90 To match with his coat of self-same cheque:Īnd his fingers, they noticed, were ever straying, ![]() ![]() Had walked his way from his painted tombstone!” VIĪnd, “Please your honors,” said he, “I’m able, ![]() With sharp blue eyes, each like a pin, 60 “Come in!”-the Mayor cried, looking bigger: Save when at noon his paunch grew mutinous 50įor a plate of turtle, green and glutinous) “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 30 “‘Tis clear,” cried they, “our Mayor’s a noddy They fought the dogs and killed the cats,Īnd licked the soup from the cooks’ own ladles, THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN A CHILD’S STORY ![]() The eldest son of William Macready, the actor, was confined to the house by illness, and Browning wrote this jeu d’esprit to amuse the boy and to give him a subject for illustrative drawings. See Brewer’s Reader’s Handbook, Baring-Gould’s Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, Grimm’s Deutsche Sagen, and the Encyclopaedia Britannica. The poem is based on an old myth found in many forms, all turning upon the attempt to cheat a magician out of his promised reward. Illustration by Kate Greenway, as engraved by Edmund Evans, from The Pied Piper of Hamelin, 1888, via Wikimedia Commons.
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