Episode 278: Pay the Piper

This week Shauna and Dan explore the phrase, Pay the Piper. Bonus: Multicolored musicians, English History, and Horror Stories

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Bunny Trails: A Word History Podcast
Episode 278: Pay the Piper
Record Date: May 18, 2025
Air Date: May 28, 2025

Intro

Shauna:
Welcome to Bunny Trails, a whimsical adventure of idioms and other turns of phrase.

I’m Shauna Harrison

Dan:
And I’m Dan Pugh

Each week we take an idiom or other turn of phrase and try to tell the story from its entry into the English language, to how it’s used today.

Opening Hook
As we record this, I spent yesterday installing a rain barrel platform, putting in a barrel, and installing the diverter in the downspout. Then I went to a friend's house and dug up several plants to move them. I helped install a series of lattice work and some climbing plants for his backyard and then planted those climbing plants. We ended up doing physical labor all day in the hot sun. Despite getting a ton of stuff done, today, I’m feeling the aches and pains. You might say that today’s pain is paying the piper for the progress made yesterday.

Meaning
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, to pay the piper means:

Quote
to pay the price of something; to answer for one's actions.
End Quote
https://www.oed.com/dictionary/piper_n1?tab=meaning_and_use#77685077  

It’s a common story on the internet that this phrase originates from the story of the pied piper of Hamelin. A quick synopsis is that in 1284, the town of Hamelin had a rat problem. The Mayor offered a ton of wealth to whoever removed them. A piper played his tune and led the rats away, but the Mayor refused to pay. So the piper came back and played another tune, leading away all the children.

The University of Pittsburgh has a website with many of these stories over the centuries and you can explore that as you wish. We’ll link to it on patreon Patreon.com/bunnytrailspod and on our website bunnytrailspod.com
https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/hameln.html

The difficulty here is there is no direct reason to attach this story to the phrase. While the story was told and spread in Hamelin, in modern day Germany, there isn’t any evidence to show how the phrase would have spread to the English speaking world in the United Kingdom where we see the idiomatic phrase originate. There were, of course, Germans in the UK throughout history, and at one point the House of Hanover ruled England for almost two centuries. But that started with George I in 1714.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-I-king-of-Great-Britain
And we see the phrase in use almost a century before that. So let’s jump into the phrase and we’ll come back to the Pied Piper.

1621
The first time I found our phrase in print is from a book of plays called The Workes of Benjamin Jonson, the second volume. Our phrase is found in the play A Masque of the Metamorphos’d Gypsies. The book itself was written in 1640, but the play in the book is dated as August 1621.

In it, three characters have just been robbed of their purses and one is complaining about it.

Quote
What was there i’thy purse, thou keep’st such a whining; was the lease of the house in it.

Or they Grannams silver ring.

No, but a mill sixe-pence I love’d as dearly, and a 2 pence I had to spend over and above; besides, the Harper that was gathered amongst us, to pay the Piper.
End Quote
https://archive.org/details/workesofbenjamin00jons/page/n325/mode/2up?q=masque

1681
The next one is in the August 16, 1681 work Heraclitus Ridens: A Dialogue between Jest and Earnest, concerning the Times, Issue 29. This was a weekly newspaper that had an unusual theme, where two characters would speak to each other, one named Earnest, presumably the more serious of the two, and one named Jest, a witty wisecracking type.

This work is referencing the battle between the Whigs (a protestant group) and the Tories (a catholic group) in England during the waning years of Charles II’s reign. I’m not certain who the subject is in this piece, whether it be someone like protestant activist Stephen College who was executed at the end of August, or Lord Shaftesbury who was arrested for treason in early July and was, at this point, in the Tower of London. Or perhaps the piece was referencing the King or one of his supporters. I just don’t have a depth of knowledge of the ins and outs of politics in 1681 England. And I don’t think it matters much for our phrase.

To the work, I’ll start Earnest first.

Quote
And yet, he inwardly trembles at the approaching 17th of Aug as the day of Doom, and though he knows he shall be there apparently convicted, yet he seems to pluck up a good heart and sets the best foot forward, in hopes he shall still persuade the People to believe only what he pleases.
End Quote
https://archive.org/details/sim_heraclitus-ridens-at-a-dialogue-between-jest-and_1681-08-16_29/page/n1/mode/2up?q=piper

And Jest’s response:

Quote
And therefore like a true Hocus, he calls all the mists he can before mens Eyes, knowing that if all his Tricks, Juggles, Wheedles, and Intrigues come to be discovered, after all this Dance he has led the Nation, he must come to pay the Piper himself.
End Quote
https://archive.org/details/sim_heraclitus-ridens-at-a-dialogue-between-jest-and_1681-08-16_29/page/n1/mode/2up?q=piper

1691
One more from this general timeframe is the title of a 1691 pamphlet titled:

Quote
England Must Pay the Piper. Being a seasonable discourse about raising of money this session.
End Quote

This pamphlet spoke on the need to raise funds following what is known as the Glorious Revolution in England, which saw James, who became King after Charles’ death, deposed in favor of James’ daughter, Mary and her husband, William the Orange.
https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_england-must-pay-the-pip_1691/mode/2up?q=%22pay+the+piper%22

So the phrase was well in use in the 1600s. And the popular tale of the Pied Piper didn’t hit larger markets until 1803 with Johann van Goeth’s German language poem, the Rat-Catcher,
https://www.johann-wolfgang-goethe.net/gedichte-der-rattenfaenger.shtml
and later the publication of the Brothers Grimm Children and Household Tales in 1812
https://www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/publication-grimms-fairy-tales

So I’m not saying the story of the pied piper of Hamelin is NOT the origin of this idiomatic phrase, but we just do not have any evidence to say that it is, either. Still, the popularity of these two works certainly could have brought that story to a broader audience and would have cemented why you should always pay the piper his due. We will look more into the real events of 1284 Hamelin in our behind the scenes video, which airs every Friday on our Patreon, patreon.com/bunnytrailspod. But for now, let’s pick back up with our phrase.

1731
This is from The Gentleman’s Magazine, dated April 1731. And this entry is April 3. It is likely referencing the Treaty of Vienna, which was signed March 16. It effectively ended the Anglo-French Alliance that had been in place since 1713 and replaced it with an Anglo-Austrian Alliance which included George II of Great Britain and Charles VI who was the Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria. Spain would later sign on, too, but had not at the time of this publication.
https://kids.kiddle.co/Treaty_of_Vienna_(1731)

The poem is introduced with this line “As to the common saying, Who is to Pay the Piper? and the insinuation which Mr. D’anvers has put into the following metre: ‘Tis but by way of SIMILE”

Quote
Have you not seen as Country Wake,
A crew of Dancers merry make?
They figure in, and figure out,
Go back to back, and turn about;
They set, take hands, they cross, change sides;
Each Movement a serub minstrel guides,
Around the measur’d Lab’rinth trace,
‘Till each regains the former place.
So certain Potentates (two couple)
Leag’d in alliance, hight Quadruple,
After a Maze of Treaties run,
Are e’en just where they first begun.
I won’t affirm who led the Dance,
Yet, for the Rhyme, suppose it France:
But this I dare at least to say,
Old England must the Piper Pay.
End Quote
https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Gentleman_s_Magazine_Or_Trader_s_Mon/82XPAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22pay+the+piper%22&pg=PA148&printsec=frontcover

1802
Here’s one from the 1800s, January 2, 1802 to be exact. This is out of the Alexandria Advertiser and Commercial Intelligencer, Virginia, USA. It is referencing a discussion surrounding the war between Napoleon's France and George III’s Great Britain and the thought of the US joining.

Quote
Where an enterprize is undertaken, with a view to individual benefit, it does not comport with my ideas of justice, or the principles of our social compact, that the government should run the risk, or indemnify if the adventure should miscarry. “They who dance should pay the piper.”
End Quote
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024011/1802-01-02/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1756&sort=date&date2=1963&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&index=6&words=pay+piper&proxdistance=5&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=pay+the+piper&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1

1910
Now we’ll look at the 1900s, with this poem published in The Palisadian out of New Jersey, USA dated November 1, 1910. The poem is called, Paying the Piper by T. Brunswick Huestis. And highlights the disparity in America between those with wealth and those without.

Quote
Every day we hear the clatter of the shoon upon the way
Every day the piper shrilling devil’s music asks his pay
Every day go down in anguish and dishonor, those who fall
‘Neath the baneful lure insistent of the piper’s piercing call.

All who wander from the pathway, all who hookey play from school
Soon or late must feel the pinching of the piper’s changeless rule;
Soon or late must pay the piper, if they join or pleasure take,
In the maze of giddy dancers, that are whirling in his wake.

Some who riches have in plenty, often times, with golden spell,
Keep the urgent piper silent, tho’ they dance a dance of hell;
Slinking back into the schoolroom, stealing back into the path,
As the golden shield protects them, from the menace of his wrath.

But to those whose flattened purses cannot stay the piper’s tongue, -
Unto those, disgrace, dishonor, by the world are swiftly flung;
For the saying, tho’s most ancient, yet is strictly, sternly true,
“Those who dance must pay the piper” -Who are dancing? Friend, are you?
End Quote
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84020438/1910-11-01/ed-1/seq-20/#date1=1756&sort=relevance&date2=1963&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&index=1&words=pay+Paying+piper+Piper&proxdistance=5&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=pay+the+piper&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1

1940
One more for before the break. This one comes from a syndicated article  called “Kathleen Norris Says:” I found this version in the Ely Miner out of Minnesota, USA dated March 21, 1940. I’ll read the title and the first paragraph:

Quote
We all have to pay the piper for our mistakes

When we are young we call the tune, and when we are old we pay the piper. It’s a terrifying thing to think of, but it’s one of the inescapable facts of life. The cross you make for yourself in youth you must carry in old age, nobody else can carry it for you, and there’s no putting it down.
End Quote
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90059182/1940-03-21/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1756&index=3&rows=20&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&words=pay+Pay+paying+pays+piper+Piper&proxdistance=5&date2=1963&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=pay+the+piper&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1

The message in 1940 is clear. We will pay for our actions. And our decisions can have lasting consequences in our lives.

With that, it’s time to move to our more modern uses but first we need to say thank you to our sponsors.

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Modern Uses

1956
We’ll start our modern uses with the February 1956 edition of Worlds of IF by Galaxy Publishing. This is where we find the James Blish work, To Pay the Piper, a short science fiction story. I’ll read from a summary on the Project Gutenberg site:

Quote
…Set against the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic Earth ravaged by biological warfare, the story delves into themes of survival, societal breakdown, and the consequences of human actions on both personal and global scales. The narrative centers around a re-education project aimed at adapting humans to the toxic surface environment, exploring the moral quandaries associated with such an initiative.
…The novel culminates in a tense resolution that forces the characters to confront the price of survival in a world transformed by war.
End Quote
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/59415

Free Ebook (pdf): https://ia801605.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/33/items/GutenbergENzip/39.zip&file=To%20Pay%20the%20Piper%20-%20James%20Blish%2C%202019%20%2815p%29.pdf

1970
Pay to the Piper by the Chairmen of the Board is a 1970 Detroit Soul song. It opens with two repetitions of this line:

Quote
If you dance to the music, don't you know
you've got to pay to the piper
ask your mama!
End Quote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGQizt8o6gU

1975
Pay the Piper by Barry McGuire is a song off the 1975 album Lighten Up. Pay the Piper is the 3rd track on the album and has a rockabilly vibe with a mean organ background played by Larry Knechtel.
https://greatest70salbums.blogspot.com/2015/02/63-lighten-up-by-barry-mcguire-1975.html
Each verse ends with the admonition that someday you have to pay the piper. Here is the last verse.

Quote
Now the show is ending
And everybody's going home
Well, some are gonna go with Jesus
And some are gonna go alone
Yes, and for every song you've sang
And every scene you've blown
Well, did you know someday
You're gonna have to pay the piper
End Quote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-KyAQB5wr0

1990
Pay the Piper is a pop song by Lolita Pop off the 1990 album Blumenkraft. The chorus ends with these lines:

Quote
You can’t keep the money
I’m leaving with the morning train
Pay the Piper, cut the chain
End Quote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1HKh3ai5V8

2005
Pay the Piper: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Fairy Tale, is a 2005 short novel by Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple. Here’s the synopsis from the publisher:

Quote
A rock 'n' roll band to die for? Callie is about to find out.... Not much happens in fourteen-year-old Callie McCallan's sleepy Massachusetts town. So when the famous rock 'n' roll band, Brass Rat, schedules a concert in the Valley, it's big news. As a reporter for her school paper, Callie scores the scoop of a lifetime--a backstage pass to interview the lead singer of Brass Rat! Her friends are so jealous. But Callie isn't sure what the fuss is all about...until she meets the band. Lead singer Peter Gringras and his band mates are so cool. Especially Peter. When he plays his flute, it's as if he has some kind of hypnotic power. But there is something strange about the band, something Callie can't quite put her finger on. Maybe she's just being weird, but it's as if they're from here--but not from here--at the same time.

It's when, on Halloween night, Callie's little brother Nicky disappears--along with all the other children of Northampton--that she begins to wonder if her suspicions are so weird after all. It's crazy, but Callie thinks she knows why the children have disappeared--and who took them. To prove it--and to rescue Nicky and the other children--Callie will be forced down a road that will lead to her to a mythical world filled with fantastical creatures. A world from which there may be no return....
End Quote
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Pay_the_Piper/Trp2CSju9IAC?hl=en&gbpv=0

2022
Pay the Piper is a 2022 english language opera composed by Anna Appleby, Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade, Cecilia Livingston and Ailie Robertson, who together make up the inaugural participants of The Glyndebourne’s Balancing the Score program. Here is a little about the opera from the Glydebourne’s website:

Quote
Based on the fairy tale of The Pied Piper of Hamelin, this new opera was composed by our Balancing the Score composers.

The town of Hamelin had a problem with rats. It was completely over-run; they were making nests in people’s clothes and eating all the food. The people of Hamelin looked to the Mayor for a solution and then a stranger came into town offering to get rid of the rats, for a price.

Pay the Piper features a chorus of 70 young people, plus three professional singers and its unique staging will transform the Glyndebourne auditorium.

Why you shouldn’t miss it:

It’s a tale you know well – or think you do! – but our version encourages you to consider the way you see the world and challenges you to question how reliable narrators are. How does someone’s perception change the story? Just how accurate is memory and how much is it coloured by who we are and what we want to be true?
End Quote
https://www.glyndebourne.com/introducing/introducing-pay-the-piper/

The opera was a critical success and even won the Best Opera at the YAM (Young Audiences Music) Awards. We’ll link to the website where you can watch the full opera, which has a run time of just over an hour.
https://www.glyndebourne.com/opera-archive/explore-our-operas/explore-pay-the-piper/

2024
Pay the Piper is a 2024 novel by George Romero and Daniel Kraus. Yes, that George Romero. According to the publisher, this is “A terrifying tale of supernatural horror set in a cursed Louisiana bayou, from the minds of legendary director George Romero and bestselling author Daniel Kraus.

In 2019, while sifting through University of Pittsburgh Library System’s George A. Romero Archival Collection, novelist Daniel Kraus turned up a surprise: a half-finished novel called Pay the Piper, a project few had ever heard of. In the years since, Kraus has worked with Romero’s estate to bring this unfinished masterwork to light.”
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Pay_the_Piper/jmMGEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

And here is the synopsis of this book, again, from the publisher:

Quote
Alligator Point, Louisiana, population 141: Young Renée Pontiac has heard stories of “the Piper”—a murderous swamp entity haunting the bayou—her entire life. But now the legend feels horrifically real: children are being taken and gruesomely slain. To resist, Pontiac and the town’s desperate denizens will need to acknowledge the sins of their ancestors—the infamous slave traders, the Pirates Lafitte. If they don’t . . . it’s time to pay the piper.

Perfect for fans of George A. Romero’s pioneering horror movies or his previous collaboration with Daniel Kraus, The Living Dead, Pay the Piper is a thrilling tale of dark folklore, grisly murders, and the horrors that manifest when a community must confront its shadowy past. Readers looking for gothic horror books will enjoy the chilling supernatural elements and haunting Southern setting, and anyone who enjoys scary books for adults will appreciate the chance to dive into this lost work by a celebrated horror icon
End Quote
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Pay_the_Piper/jmMGEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0


Wrap Up
This phrase is one I’ve always enjoyed because it’s one that I’ve understood from a young age. There is no free ride. Actions have consequences. And at some point we all must pay the piper.

And that concept doesn’t really bother me. I’m the kind of person who does a risk analysis of everything I do. Yes, it is exhausting sometimes. So recognizing possible outcomes before they happen has long helped me be more successful in life. The thing that gets me most, though, is when I miss something. I do the quick risk analysis and I fail to recognize a possible outcome. And paying that particular piper is always the one I most dislike.

Dan:
That’s about all we have for today. If you have any thoughts on the show, or pop culture references we should have included,
reach out to us on Patreon, patreon.com/bunnytrailspod or comment on our website bunnytrailspod.com

Shauna:
It’s poll time!

Recently we asked our patrons, would you prefer to get a bonus equal to a week's pay, or would you rather get a week off, fully paid?

This one was evenly split.

Mary said:
Quote
I would vote for the week off. People need time. That said, I gave my employees bonuses at the end of the year since they are all part-time.
End Quote

Jan added:
Quote
A bonus would be nice, but the university would likely never do that, so I’ll just take some paid time off.
End Quote

Dan:
Emily said:
Quote
My vote is paid bonus
End Quote

I’m with Emily, I'm voting for a bonus. But I understand the opportunity to have time off. I could see why folks might choose the time off instead.

Shauna:
I’m in the time-off camp. I have plenty of leave but have trouble finding the right time to use it. So if I just have the week off… perfect!

As a reminder, our silly polls mean absolutely nothing and are not scientifically valid. And patrons of all levels, including our free tiers, can take part. Head over to patreon.com/bunnytrailspod to take this week’s poll!

Outro

Shauna:
Thanks for joining us. We’ll talk to you again next week. Until then remember,

Together:
Words belong to their user