ness. 1531 and 1556 were dates that, in earlier times, appeared one under the other at Hameln upon its Neuethor,[1] above a legend stating that the gate was erected 272 years after the Outgoing: 272 subtracted from 1531 gives 1259; from 1556, 1284; result, uncertainty. A writer in 1556,[2] speaks of about 180 years ago; another, in 1568,[3] puts it at about 190; while in 1643[4] it is a matter of 250 years since. 1284 has, at present, vogue in Hameln. I fancy Browning's direct authority for 1376 was Verstegan.[5]
I have an impression that I range myself with a very small minority in accepting the account of the Outgoing just given as being approximately true. The explanations that have been offered to make it more credible to the majority may be glanced at. (1) It has been elaborated out of a possible mock-fight on the Koppen, in which earnest succeeded jest, and many young men were slain, and so lost to their parents. (2) An earthquake or a landslip engulfed the 130. (3) Tilo Colup, pretending that he was the Emperor Frederick II returned from the Holy Land, attracted many followers in the latter part of the 13th century, and missing Hameln lads may have been among them. (4) In 1286, Jews are said to have murdered children in a mill at Fulda: Hameln being originally Quern Hameln, the sorrow was possibly imputed to her by error. (5) There was strife in Brunswick in 1281 between Duke Albrecht and his sons. One of them, being arrested and imprisoned without warning, his sudden removal may have
- ↑ Passim; but see Sprenger, pp. 14 and 152. The inscription ran: "Centu ter denos cum magus ab urbe puellos duxerat ante 272 condita porta fui."
- ↑ Fincelius.
- ↑ Hondorff.
- ↑ Howell.
- ↑ A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, 1605 (1634, pp. 85, 86). Mr. Arthur Symons (An Introduction to the Study of Browning, p. 50) says, "North Wanley's Wonders of the Little World, 1678, and the books there cited", were the authorities. Wanley gives 1284, and two out of the three writers on whom he depends, never so much as mention 1376; the third, Schot, Phys. Curios, I have not met with. Wier and Howell are the others.
