Robert Browning - The Pied Piper of Hamelin

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

From BBC Radio 4. Written by Robert Browning; Read by David Tennant, with Bertie Gilbert as The Boy; Music and songs written and performed by John Harle, lyrics by Joyce Harle, sung by Thomas Platts, head chorister at Canterbury Cathedral with the choir of Wingham School Kent.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin is the subject of a legend concerning the departure of a great many children from the town of Hamelin, Lower Saxony, Germany, in the Middle Ages. The earliest references describe a piper, dressed in pied (multicoloured) clothing, leading the children away from the town never to return. In the 16th century the story was expanded into a full story - that of the poem, in which the piper is a rat-catcher hired by the town to lure rats away with his magic pipe. When the citizens refuse to pay for this service, the piper retaliates, turning his magic on the children, leading them away to the mountains. Only one boy remains behind...