There are many versions of this story which Browning might have used. He
is said to have used directly the account in _The Wonders of the Little
World; or a General History of Man_, written by Nathaniel Wanley and
published in 1678. This poem, however, from whatever source the story
was taken, was deservedly popular long before Browning himself was. It
was written to amuse, during a sickness, the son of William Macready,
the most prominent English actor of his time and a close friend of
Browning's.
[249] 1. =Hamelin=; a town near Hanover, the capital of the province of
Brunswick, Prussia.
[250] 37. =Guilder=; a Dutch coin worth about forty cents.
[251] 68. =Trump of Doom.= The Archangel Gabriel was to blow his trumpet
to summon the dead on the Day of Judgment.
[252] 79. =Pied Piper.= _Pied_ means variegated like a magpie. Cf.
_piebald_.
[253] 89. =Cham.= The Great Cham, or Khan, was the ruler of Tartary.
Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller, gives an account of him. Dr. Johnson
was called the Great Cham of literature.
[254] 91. =Nizam=; a native ruler of Hyderabad, India.
[255] 123, 126. =Julius Cæsar and his Commentary.= Julius Cæsar, the
great Roman general and dictator, who wrote his _Commentaries_ on his
wars in Gaul and Britain.
[256] 169. =Poke=; pocket.
[257] 182. =Stiver=; a small Dutch coin.
[258] 188. =Piebald.= Cf. _pied_, line 79.
[259] 260. =Needle's eye.= Cf. _Matthew_ xix. 24; _Mark_ x. 25; _Luke_
xviii. 25.