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    The Piper A Play in Four Acts
    The Piper A Play in Four Acts
    The Piper A Play in Four Acts
    Ebook181 pages1 hour

    The Piper A Play in Four Acts

    By Josephine Preston Peabody

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    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateJun 1, 2004
    The Piper A Play in Four Acts

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      Book preview

      The Piper A Play in Four Acts - Josephine Preston Peabody

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

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

      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. The rats are gone.

      The man is gone. And there is nought to pay,

      Save peaceful worship.

      [Pointing to the Minster.]

      REYNARD [sarcastically] Oh, indeed,—Meaow! [Sudden chorus of derisive animal noises from the Ark, delighting PEOPLE and CHILDREN.]

      KURT

      Silence,—you strollers there! Or I will have you

      Gaoled, one and all.

      PEOPLE

        No, Kurt the Syndic, no!

      BARBARA

      [to Jacobus]

      No; no! Ah, father, bid them stay awhile

      And play it all again.—Or, if not all,

      Do let us see that same good youth again,

      Who swallowed swords—between the Ark Preserved

      And the Last Judgment!

      REYNARD

        Michael-the-Sword-Eater,

      Laurels for thee!

      [The BEAR disappears: MICHAEL puts out his own head, and gazes fixedly at BARBARA.

      CHILDREN

      Oh,

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