The Piper | Page 3

no signs
of famine hereabout. The rats are gone, even to the nethermost tail:
And I've fulfilled my bargain. Is it granted?

[Murmurs, then cheers of "Ay, Ay, PIPER!" from the crowd.
Thank 'ee.--My thousand guilders, an you please.
JACOBUS One thou--Come, come! This was no sober bargain.-- No
man in reason could--
PIPER One thousand guilders.
KURT One thousand rogueries!
JACOBUS [to PIPER] You jest too far.
AXEL Lucky, if he get aught!--Two hundred traps, And nine, and
thirty! By Saint Willibald, When was I paid?
AXEL'S WIFE Say, now!
PIPER . . . One thousand guilders.
PETER the Cobbler Give him an hundred.
HANS the Butcher Double!
HANS' WIFE You were fools To make agreement with him.--Ask old
Claus. He has the 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.