The Washington herald., 1911-04-25
"The Piper"
(By Josephine Preston Peabody
CHARACTERS.

Flugrdth
Hansei Emmett Hampton
Jeanette DlN
Irude- Dorothy DAVIS
Rudi .Winifred Hampton
Burghers. nuns. priests. and children.
Scenes: Hamclin- on Wescr l2s4 A. D.
Act 1.-The market place in Hamelin. Act lin
side the Hollow Hill" Act III-rhe Crossways.
Act Iv-The market PLACE in Hamelin.
One week is supposed to elapse between Acts and
II. Acts II and III occupy one day. Act " con
Germs the following morning.
Weep not. say. First. loose you heart and shoes,
From Hamelin Put off now. the dust. the mold.
The cobbestones. the little prylns windows;
The streets that dream o what the neighbors say
Think you were never born there.
1t stands for all. unto the end OF time,
That this bright world back and the cold.
With hate and boarding; all triumphant greed
That spreads above the roots Of all despair
And misery and rotting Of the soul!
Now shall they learl-if money-hags can learn
What the bright world black and the cold
And what's that creature that they call a child!
And what this winged thing mer name heart
Beating queer rhythms that they long 10 kill
| What is this hunger and this thirst to sing
To laugh. to fght-to hope. be believed!
And what Is truth: And who did make the stars?
In these forceful lines Miss Josephine
Preston Peabody gives clarion voice to
her poetic protest against the human
herds of money grubbers, symbolized by
the people of Hamelin town, in her Won
derfuIly inspiring play. The Piper" pre-
sented al the Belasco Theater last even
| ing by the New Theater Company of
New York with Miss Edith Wynne Mat
thison in the title role. The lines are
! given as the Piper speaks then, for none
| but he, spokesman for Miss Peabodys
genius, could strike the keynote of this
bttingly ironical and tenderly whimsical
| fantasy so well.
! Miss Peabody has taken the central
| figures and incidents from Browning's
The Pied Piper and clothed them in
! the radiance of her own genius. To the
/ Piper she has given the compelling
charm of Peter Pan. glorifying the fig
ure with the suggested spirit of a Christ
reborn. In this tattered traveller of the
| sunit highways and his two companion
strOllers are visualiZed the antithesis OF
those Hamelin dwellers whose eyes are
glued to the CLINT of gold, and whose
souls have rusted with the chains that
bind them. The Piper epitomizes the Joy
of life.
He is as seXess as the stars. which
are his only loves. and herein lies the
proof of that wise choice that brought
Miss Matthison to the role None but a
woman, and no woman known to our
stage but this gifted actress could lend
to the impersonaton this all-necessary
impression of seXlessness. Mis- Matthi-
ons rich. deep voice and boyish slim
ness of form give the proper masculine
touch that. blended with her ineffaceable
womanliness of feature and soul, creates
the vividly to- be-reme embered sense OF
the mystic inspired by this fantastic
figure.
Scene Laid in Hamelin.
The play opens after the Piper has
piped the rates from Hamelin for a prom
:sed reward of 1000 guilders. The scene is
the market place. The people are gath
cred about the strolling players booth. !
Swarms of little children, the only happy
souls in Hamelin. romp about the street f!
Around them tower the gloomy. crum- /!
bling housetops. Even the sunlight is |
shut beyond the great gates of this sor-
did, crafty, boarding city. The contrast |
between the joyous. idealistic Piper and |
these frowning folk of Hamelin deepens |
as the argument over his payment ends J
in the city fathers refusal to pay more
than paltry purse of Is guilders.
The Piper refuses to take less than the
promised sum. not for love of the money,
but to test the word of these worthy
burghers. Mocked and derided and
threatened with Imprisonment unless he
and his felow-p w-players-Michael-th
Sword-Eater and Cheat-the-Devil-qui
the town. The townsfolk go into the
church. smugly Cherishing the delusion
of their mock virtues. Jan, the little
crippled boy. to whom the Piper later
refers so beautifully as "a shipwrecked
star" begs the Piper to play the tune
that charmed the rats. The little Grip
pie sits at the feet of an image of Christ,
whom he has named the Lonely Man."
and whose face he watches by the hour
waiting Ito see him smile
The Piper begins his magically sweet |
music. Out of the dusky doorways and
windows come the children. Singly, in |
pairs, in groups. and by the dozens, they
flock around the figure of the Piper with
eager eyes lifted in wistfui wonder. Sud-
Cenly the tune changes The melody
quickens to a lively dance-such music as
Fan must have played for nymph and
IA un when the world was young indeed
and the Piper skips blithely around the
square. followed by a train of Joyous,
whirling children. Little Jan leaves his
crutch with the Lonely Man." and
dances as nimbly as the rest, out of the
square, through the great gate and upon
the broad highway. Drawn by the cries
of the aged gossip at the window. the
sacristan comes from the church and
pulls nightly upon the bell rope Out
pour the good townspeople to find their
little ones gone with the Piper. perhaps
TO follow him into the river, as did the
rats he freed their city from
But, as the second act discloses, 1t is
only into the cave in the Hollow Hill
hat the Piper leads his new flock. Here
we see the children sleeping contentedly,
over by the Piper and Cheat
Michael has been away three
lays. He returns, bringing word that
he townspeople have determined to put
the burgomaster's daughter in
4 convent as a penance. Michael and
Barbara had met and loved. The Piper
volunteers to save her from the nun
lery.
The third act is laid at the crossroads.
rhe Piper and Michael screen themselves
Is the dolefully chanting procession con-
veying Barbara to the nunnery approaches.
rhe Piper strikes up his lively dance
Priests and choristers break from their
gloomy chant at the strains Of the pipe
md go swirling and dancing down the
Dad, leaving Barbara to fall into the
Welcoming hands of her saviors. In this
ct, too, comes the Piper's trial Of soul.
he mother of Jan, the one real woman
n Hameiin. comes searching for her boy.
he implores the Piper to return all the
hildren. He refuses, but at the closing
( the act, in one Of the most affecting