1When God (who is to mercy most inclined)

2To punish or to

try1

hath once

designed2

3A people, each reptile or insect

4Or basest animal

will not neglect3

,

5But will their habitation so annoy,

6

Without a countermand, they’ll all destroy4

.

7

Thus5

Spain by rabbits,

moles made Thessaly6

,

8Locusts made Africa a desert lie;

9France frogs,

Amyclæ7

serpents, did destroy;

10Flies, lice, and frogs, all Egypt did annoy;

11

Gyaros8

, rats; and too, too many more

12Their sufferings (though not sins) did then

deplore9

.

13This made the town of

Hamelin10

stand in doubt11

,

14’Cause

of those vermin they had such a rout12

.

15They tried all ways,

as13

poisons, traps, and cats,

16Yet still their houses pestered were with rats.

17At last a piper chanced to come that way,

18With whom they bargained, for a certain pay,

19

Their town of these base loathsome beasts to free14

.

20The fruits of curséd avarice now see.

21This fellow piping went to

Weser15

brim,

22And all the rats ran dancing after him;

23Then instantly they skipped into the stream.

24Though some may

think’t16

a fiction or a dream,

25Yet true it is, for drowning was their fate;

26But how ’twas done, no story doth relate.

27For whether a

talisman17

he did take,

28

Five such of gold the Philistines did make18

,

29Or what he did, I think no man can say;

30But when he came and askéd for his pay,

31The

burghers19

in their gravity refused

32To pay the same; the piper, thus abused,

33Did vow revenge; they bid him do his worst.

34Now see how breach of promise is accursed.

35The fellow piping went away again,

36A hundred and thirty children in his train;

37Into a hill he led these

pretty boys20

,

38And thus their parents lost their hopes and joys;

39Which, with sad hearts, they now too late

deplore21

,

40For they, nor he, were ever heard of more.

41By these, their grievous suff’rings, you may see

42That breach of promise punished sure will be.

43Then keep your word, for better or for worse,

44Lest with these

Saxons22

you partake like curse.