The Piper | Page 3

guilders; and his house was full 0' rats!
OLD CLAUS [shaking his stick from the window] You Jade! And I that hoard, and save, And lay by all I have from year to year, To build my monument when I am gone, A fine new tomb there, in Saint Boniface! And I to pay for all your city rats!
OLD URSULA [leaning out, opposite] Right, neighbor, right well said!--Piper, hark here. Piper, how did ye charm the rats away?
PIPER [coming down] The rats were led--by Cu-ri-os-ity. 'Tis so with many rats; and all old women;-- Saving your health!
JACOBUS No thought for public weal, In this base grasping on--
PIPER One thousand guilders.
KURT [contemptuously] For piping!
PIPER Shall I pipe them back again?
WOMEN ( Good Saint Boniface! Merciful heaven! ( Good Saint Willibald! ( Peter and Paul defend us!
HANS the Butcher No, no; no fear o' that. The rats be drowned. We saw them with our eyes.
PIPER Now who shall say There is no resurrection for a mouse?
KURT --Do you but crop this fellow's ears!--
VERONIKA [from the steps] Ah, Kurt!
JACOBUS [to him, blandly] Deal patiently, good neighbor. All is well. [To the PIPER] Why do you name a price so laughable, My man? Call you to mind; you have no claim,-- No scrip to show. You cling upon--
PIPER [sternly] Your word.
JACOBUS I, would say--just--
PIPER Your word.
JACOBUS Upon--
PIPER Your word. Sure, 't was a rotten parchment!
JACOBUS This is a base, Conniving miser!
PIPER [turning proudly] Stand forth, Cheat-the-Devil! [Up steps the DEVIL in red. PEOPLE shrink, and then come closer. Be not afeard. He pleased you all, of late. He hath no sting.--So, boy! Do off thy head.--
[CHEAT-THE-DEVIL doffs his red head-dress and stands forth, a pale and timorous youth, gentle and half-witted.
Michael, stand forth! [MICHAEL comes down, bear-head in hand.
BARBARA [regarding him sadly] That goodly sword-eater!
PIPER [defiantly] So, Michael, so.--These be two friends of mine. Pay now an even third to each of us. Or, to content your doubts, to each of these Do you pay here and now, five hundred guilders. Who gets it matters little, for us friends. But you will pay the sum, friend. You will pay!--
HANS, AXEL, AND CROWD Come, there's an honest fellow. Ay, now, pay! --There's a good friend.--And would I had the same. --One thousand guilders? --No, too much. --No, no.
KURT Pay jugglers?--With a rope apiece!
JACOBUS Why--so--
PIPER They are my friends; and they shall share with me. 'T is time that Hamelin reckoned us for men; --Hath ever dealt with us as we were vermin. Now have I rid you of the other sort-- Right you that score!--
KURT These outcasts!
PIPER [hotly] Say you so? Michael, my man! Which of you here will try With glass or fire, with him?
MICHAEL [sullenly] No, no more glass, to-day!
PIPER Then fire and sword! [They back away.] So!--And there's not one man In Hamelin, here, so honest of his word. Stroller! A pretty choice you leave us.--Quit This strolling life, or stroll into a cage! What do you offer him? A man eats fire-- Swords, glass, young April frogs--
CHILDREN Do it again! Do it again!
PIPER You say to such a man,-- 'Come be a monk! A weaver!' Pretty choice. Here's Cheat-the-Devil, now.
PETER the Cobbler But what's his name?
PIPER He doesn't know. What would you? Nor do I. But for the something he has seen of life, Making men merry, he 'd know something more! The gentlest devil ever spiked Lost Souls Into Hell-mouth,--for nothing-by-the-day!
OLD URSULA [with her ear-trumpet] Piper, why do you call him Cheat-the-Devil?
PIPER Because his deviltry is all a cheat:-- He is no devil,--but a gentle heart! --Friend Michael here hath played the Devil, betimes, Because he can so bravely breathe out fire. He plied the pitchfork so we yelped for mercy,-- He reckoned not the stoutness of his arm!-- But Cheat-the-Devil here,--he would not hurt Why--Kurt the Syndic--thrusting him in hell. [Laughter.
CHEAT-THE-DEVIL [unhappily] No, no--I will not hurt him!
PIPER [soothingly to him] Merry, boy! [To the townsfolk] And,--if ye will have reasons, good,--ye see,-- I want--one thousand guilders.
JACOBUS In all surety, Payment you'll have, my man, But--
HANS the Butcher As to 's friends,-- An that yon Devil be as feat wi' his hands As he be slow o' tongue, why, I will take him For prentice. Wife,--now that would smack o' pride!
PETER the Cobbler I'll take this fellow that can swallow fire, He's somewhat old for me. But he can learn My trade.--A pretty fellow!
PIPER And your trade?
PETER the Cobbler Peter the cobbler.--
MICHAEL I? What, I? Make shoes? [Proudly] I swallow fire.
PIPER Enough.
BARBARA [aside, bitterly] I'll not believe it.
PIPER [to HANS] Your trade?
HANS the Butcher I'm Hans the Butcher.
MICHAEL Butcher?
CHEAT-THE-DEVIL [unhappily] Butcher! Oh, no! I couldn't hurt them.
[Loud laughter.
BUTCHER'S WIFE 'T is a fool!
[The PIPER motions to MICHAEL and CHEAT-THE-DEVIL, who during the following join the other player-folk, strike their tent,