Showing results for "Pied Piper" in Classics

This classic legend, rendered in verse and published in 1842 by the masterful British Victorian poet, Robert Browning (when only 30 years old), tells of what happens to the town of Hamelin when its burghers, desperate to rid the town of the rats that were overrunning it, engage a mysterious man dressed in red and yellow, who promises, for a fee, to cleanse the town of the vermin by the magic in the music he can play on his pipe. But when the burghers refuse to pay him the sum he was promised for his service, the piper uses his magic pipe to get even.

The legend of a garishly-dressed piper who uses his musical skills to rid a town of a plague of rats and then lures the town's children into a mysterious and inaccessible realm when denied payment for his services dates back to the Middle Ages. Browning's colorful retelling of the tale first appeared in 1842 in the collection Dramatic Lyrics. As with many of Browning's monologues, the poem's vivid wordplay and jangling rhymes make it an apt vehicle for recitation.

Masterfully read by award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti, travel to the town of Hamelin suffering from a rat infestation, when a piper dressed in multicolored ("pied") clothing appeared, claiming to be a rat-catcher. He promised the mayor a solution to their problem with the rats. The mayor, in turn, promised to pay him for the removal of the rats (according to some versions of the story, the promised sum was 1,000 guilders). The piper accepted and played his pipe to lure the rats into the Weser River, where they all drowned. The rest is a legend enjoyed for centuries.

BBC Radio dramatisations and readings of Browning’s most famous poems, performed by stars including Anton Lesser, Roger Allam and David Tennant, plus two bonus plays Victorian poet Robert Browning was renowned for his evocative dramatic monologues peopled with vivid, morally ambiguous...