Kate Greenaway - part 10

Kate Greenaway (Catherine Greenaway) (1846-1901) was a children's book illustrator and writer. Her first book, Under the Window (1879), a collection of simple, perfectly idyllic verses concerning children who endlessly gathered posies, untouched by the Industrial Revolution, was a best-seller. The Kate Greenaway Medal, established in her honour in 1955, is awarded annually by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in the UK to an illustrator of children's books. New techniques of photolithography enabled her delicate watercolours to be reproduced. Through the 1880s and 90s, in popularity her only rivals in the field of children's book illustration were Walter Crane and Randolph Caldecott, himself also the eponym of a highly-regarded prize medal.

Part 10 of a 13-part series on the works of Kate Greenaway.

For more biographical information see part 1, and for earlier works see parts 2 - 9 also.

1888 Almanack:

Front Cover

Frontispiece

Title Page

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

1888 The Pied Piper of Hamelin: 

Front Cover

End Paper

Frontispiece

Title Page

Vignette

The Pied Piper of Hamelin.
1.
Hamelin Town's in Brunswick,
By famous Hanover city:...

Rats!
They fought the dogs and killed the cats,
And bit the babies in their cradles,

And ate the cheeses out pf the vats,

And licked the soup from the cook's own ladles,

Split open the kegs of salted sprats,
Made nests inside men's Sunday hats,

And even spoiled the women's chats,

By drowning their speaking
With shrieking and squeaking
In fifty different sharps and flats.

At last the people in a body
To the Town Hall came flocking:
"Tis clear," cried they, "our Mayor's a noddy;
"And as for our Corporation - shocking

And at the scarf's end hung a pipe;;
And his fingers they noticed were ever straying
As if inpatient to be playing
Upon this pipe, as low it dangled
Over his vesture so old-fangled.

"Yet," said he, "poor Piper as I am.
"In Tartary I freed the cham,
"Last June, from his huge swarm of gnats;....

VII.
Into the street the Piper stept.
Smiling first a little smile,
As if he knew what magic slept
In his quiet pipe the while;...

And the muttering grew to a grumbling;
And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling;
And out of the houses the rats came tumbling...

VIII.
You should have heard the Hamelin people
Ringing the bells till they rocked the steeple....

" Consult with carpenters and builders,
"And leave in our town not even a trace...

XII.
Once more he stept into the street,
And to his lips again
Laid his long pipe of smooth straight cane;

And ere he blew three notes

(such sweet
Soft notes as yet musician's cunning
Never gave the enraptured air)

There was a rustling,

that seemed like a bustling

Of merry crowds justling at pitching and hustling,

Small feet were pattering, wooden shoes clattering,

Little hands clapping and little tongues chattering,

And, like fowls in a farm-yard when barley is scattering.

Out came the children running.

And the little boys and girls,

With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls,

And sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls,

Tripping

and skipping,

ran merrily after

The wonderful music with shouting and laughter.

XIII.
The Mayor was dumb, and the Council stood
As if they were changed into blocks of wood...

XV.
So, Willy, let me and yuu be wipers
Of scores out with all men - especially pipers!...