The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Piper, by Josephine Preston Peabody

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Title: The Piper

Author: Josephine Preston Peabody

Release Date: March 22, 2004 [EBook #11661]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PIPER ***

Produced by Al Haines

The Piper

A PLAY IN FOUR ACTS

By JOSEPHINE PRESTON PEABODY

BOSTON and NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

The Riverside Press Cambridge 1910

COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY JOSEPHINE PEABODY MARKS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Published November 1909

SEVENTH IMPRESSION

TO

LIONEL S. MARKS

Anno 1284
Am Dage Johannis et Pauli
War der 26 Junii
Dorch einen piper mit allerlei farve bekledet
Gewesen CXXX kinder verledet binnen Hamelen geboren
To Calvarii bi den koppen verloren

[THE HAMELIN INSCRIPTION]

CHARACTERS

THE PIPER )
MICHAEL-THE-SWORD-EATER ) Strolling Players
CHEAT-THE-DEVIL )

JACOBUS the Burgomeister )
KURT the Syndic )
PETER the Cobbler )
HANS the Butcher )
AXEL the Smith ) Men of Hamelin
MARTIN the Watch )
PETER the Sacristan )
ANSELM, a young priest )
OLD CLAUS, a miser )
TOWN CRIER )

JAN )
HANSEL )
ILSE ) Children
TRUDE )
RUDI )

VERONIKA, the wife of Kurt
BARBARA, daughter of Jacobus
WIFE of HANS the Butcher
WIFE of AXEL the Smith
WIFE of MARTIN the Watch
OLD URSULA

Burghers, nuns, priests, and children

SCENE: HAMELIN ON THE WESER, 1284 A.D.

SCENES

ACT I. The market-place in Hamelin

ACT II. SCENE I. Inside the 'Hollow-Hill' SCENE II. The Cross-ways

ACT III. The Cross-ways

ACT IV. The market-place in Hamelin

One week is supposed to elapse between Acts I and II.

Acts II and III occupy one day.

Act IV concerns the following morning.

The Piper

ACT I

SCENE: The market-place of Hamelin. Right, the Minster, with an open shrine (right centre) containing a large sculptured figure of the Christ. Right, farther front, the house of KURT; and other narrow house-fronts. Left, the Rathaus, and (down) the home of JACOBUS. Front, to left and right, are corner-houses with projecting stories and casement windows. At the centre rear, a narrow street leads away between houses whose gables all but meet overhead.

It is late summer afternoon, with a holiday crowd. In the open casements, front (right and left, opposite each other), sit OLD URSULA and OLD CLAUS, looking on at men and things. —In the centre of the place now stands a rude wooden Ark with a tented top: and out of the openings (right and left) appear the artificial heads of animals, worn by the players inside. One is a Bear (inhabited by MICHAEL-THE-SWORD-EATER); one is a large Reynard-the-Fox, later apparent as the PIPER. Close by is the medieval piece of stage-property known as 'Hell-Mouth,' i.e. a red painted cave with a jaw-like opening into which a mountebank dressed in scarlet (CHEAT-THE-DEVIL) is poking 'Lost Souls' with a pitchfork.

BARBARA loiters by the tent. VERONIKA, the sad young wife of KURT, watches from the house steps, left, keeping her little lame boy, Jan, close beside her.

Shouts of delight greet the end of the show, a Noah's Ark miracle-play of the rudest; and the Children continue to scream with joy whenever an Animal looks out of the Ark.

Men and women pay scant attention either to JACOBUS, when he speaks (himself none too sober)—from his doorstep, prompted by the frowning KURT,—or yet to ANSELM, the priest, who stands forth with lifted hands, at the close of the miracle-play.

ANSELM
And you, who heed the colors of this show,
Look to your laughter!—It doth body forth
A Judgment that may take you unaware,—
Sun-struck with mirth, like unto chattering leaves
Some wind of wrath shall scourge to nothingness.

HANS, AXEL, AND OTHERS
Hurrah, Hurrah!

JACOBUS
  And now, good townsmen all,
Seeing we stand delivered and secure
As once yon chosen creatures of the Ark,
For a similitude,—our famine gone,
Our plague of rats and mice,—

CROWD
  Hurrah—hurrah!

JACOBUS
'Tis meet we render thanks more soberly—

HANS the Butcher
Soberly, soberly, ay!—

JACOBUS
  For our deliverance.
And now, ye wit, it will be full three days
Since we beheld—our late departed pest.—

OLD URSULA [putting out an ear-trumpet] What does he say?

REYNARD [from the Ark] —Oh, how felicitous!

HANS' WIFE
He's only saying there be no more rats.

JACOBUS
[with oratorical endeavor]
Three days it is; and not one mouse,—one mouse,
One mouse, I say!—No-o-o! Quiet. . . as a mouse.

[Resuming]
And now. . .

CROWD
  Long live Jacobus!—

JACOBUS
  You have seen
Noah and the Ark, most aptly happening by
With these same play-folk. You have marked the Judgment.
You all have seen the lost souls sent to—Hell—
And, nothing more to do.—

[KURT prompts him]
  Yes, yes.—And now. . .

[HANS the Butcher steps out of his group.]

HANS the Butcher
Hath no man seen the Piper?—Please your worships.

OTHERS
Ay, ay, so!
  —Ay, where is he?
    —Ho, the Piper!

JACOBUS
Piper, my good man?

HANS the Butcher
—He that charmed the rats!

OTHERS
Yes, yes,—that charmed the rats!

JACOBUS
[piously]
  Why, no man knows.—
Which proves him such a random instrument
As Heaven doth sometimes send us, to our use;
Or, as I do conceive, no man at all,—
A man of air; or, I would say—delusion.
He'll come no more.

REYNARD [from the Ark] Eh?—Oh, indeed, Meaow!

JACOBUS
'Tis clearest providence.