The Piper | Page 5

stay Here with the Lonely Man.
PIPER The Lonely Man? [JAN points to the Christ in the Shrine. VERONIKA crosses herself. The PIPER looks long at the little boy.
VERONIKA He always calls Him so.
PIPER And so would I.
VERONIKA It grieves him that the Head is always bowed, And stricken. But he loves more to be here Than yonder in the church.
PIPER And so do I.
VERONIKA What would you, darling, with the Lonely Man? What do you wait to see?
JAN [shyly] To see Him smile.
[The women murmur. The PIPER comes down further to speak to VERONIKA.
PIPER You are some foreign woman. Are you not? Never from Hamelin!
VERONIKA No.
AXEL'S WIFE [to her child] Then run along. And ask the Piper if he'll play again The tune that charmed the rats.
ANOTHER They might come back!
OLD URSULA [calling from her window] Piper! I want the tune that charmed the rats! If they come back, I'll have my grandson play it.
PIPER I pipe but for the children.
ILSE [dropping her doll and picking it up] Oh, do pipe Something for Fridolin!
HANSEL Oh, pipe at me! Now I'm a mouse! I'll eat you up! Rr--rr!--
CHILDREN Oh, pipe! Oh, play! Oh, play and make us dance! Oh, play, and make us run away from school!
PIPER Why, what are these?
CHILDREN [scampering round him] We're mice, we're mice, we're mice! . . . We're mice, we're mice! We'll eat up everything!
MARTIN'S WIFE [calling] 'T is church-time. La, what will the neighbors say?
ILSE [Waving her doll] Oh, please do play something for Fridolin!
AXEL'S WIFE Do hear the child. She's quite the little mother!
PIPER A little mother? Ugh! How horrible. That fairy thing, that princess,--no, that Child! A little mother? [To her] Drop the ugly thing!
MARTIN'S WIFE Now, on my word! and what's amiss with mothers? Are mothers horrible? [The PIPER is struck with painful memories.]
PIPER No, no. But--care And want and pain and age. . . [Turns back to them with a bitter change of voice] And penny-wealth,-- And penny-counting.--Penny prides and fears-- Of what the neighbors say the neighbors say!--
MARTIN'S WIFE And were you born without a mother, then?
ALL Yes, you there! Ah, I told you! He's no man. He's of the devil.
MARTIN'S WIFE Who was your mother, then?
PIPER [fiercely] Mine!--Nay, I do not know. For when I saw her, She was a thing so trodden, lost and sad, I cannot think that she was ever young, Save in the cherishing voice.--She was a stroller; My father was a stroller.--So, you have it! And since she clave to him, and hunger too, The Church's ban was on her.--Either live, Mewed up forever,--she! to be a nun; Or keep her life-long wandering with the wind; The very name of wife stript from her troth. That was my mother.--And she starved and sang; And like the wind, she roved and lurked and shuddered Outside your lighted windows, and fled by, Storm-hunted, trying to outstrip the snow, South, south, and homeless as a broken bird,-- Limping and hiding!--And she fled, and laughed, And kept me warm; and died! To you, a Nothing; Nothing, forever, oh, you well-housed mothers! As always, always for the lighted windows Of all the world, the Dark outside is nothing; And all that limps and hides there in the dark; Famishing,--broken,--lost! And I have sworn For her sake and for all, that I will have Some justice, all so late, for wretched men, Out of these same smug towns that drive us forth After the show!--Or scheme to cage us up Out of the sunlight; like a squirrel's heart Torn out and drying in the market-place. My mother! Do you know what mothers are?-- Your children! Do you know them? Ah, not you! There's not one here but it would follow me, For all your bleating!
AXEL'S WIFE Kuno, come away!
[The children cling to him. He smiles down triumphantly.
PIPER Oho, Oho! Look you?--You preach--I pipe! [Reenter the men, with KURT and JACOBUS, from the Rathaus, murmuring dubiously. [The PIPER sets down JAN and stands forth, smiling.
JACOBUS [smoothly] H'm! My good man, we have faithfully debated Whether your vision of so great a sum Might be fulfilled,--as by some miracle. But no. The moneys we administer Will not allow it; nor the common weal. Therefore, for your late service, here you have Full fifteen guilders, [Holding forth a purse] and a pretty sum Indeed, for piping!
KURT [ominously] Take them!
JACOBUS Either that, Or, to speak truly, nothing! [The PIPER is motionless] Come, come. Nay, count them, if you will.
KURT Time goes!
PIPER Ay. And your oath?
KURT No more; Enough.
[There is a sound of organ music from the Minster.]
VERONIKA [beseechingly] Ah, Kurt!
KURT [savagely to the crowd] What do ye, mewling of this fellow's rights? He hath none!--Wit ye well, he is a stroller, A wastrel, and the shadow of a man! Ye waste the day