HORE GERMANICE.

No. XX.

SCHILLER'S WILHELM TEll.
(Continued from No. XCVIII. p. 318.)

THE wanton barbarity with which the Austrian Governor, Gessler, required of William Tell, an unnatural, not to say impossible, exhibition of his skill in archery, comes so immediately home to the bosom of every parent, that upon it seems to rest the chief interest of the re-establishment of Swiss liberty. It is, therefore, needless to preface it by any remarks or explanations. We give the scene, which terminates the 3d Act.

The transaction takes place in a meadow at Altdorf, with trees in the foreground, and the memorable Hat fixed upon a high pole at the back of the stage. The prospect is closed by the Bannberg, or consecrated Hill, above which is seen a snow-capped mountain. Two troopers, Friesshardt and Leuthold, are upon guard.

Friess. We watch in vain. Nobody passes here
To pay th' appointed reverence to the Hat.
This meadow formerly was like a fair;

A desert it has seem'd, since yonder scarecrow
Has hung upon the pole.

Leut. Nothing but poor,

Pitiful rabble show themselves, and wave,

For our annoyance, tatter'd caps. Such men
As are of good repute, will rather toil

A weary circuit round about the village,

Than bow their necks before the Hat.

Friess. Perforce

They pass this way, when from the council-house,
At noon, they come. I reckon❜d on a catch of 'em,
For no man thought of honouring the Hat.
Priest Rosselman, as from the sick he came,
Observed it, and stood right before the pole,
Holding the Host on high. The Sacristan
Tinkled his bell, and all, I with the rest,
Knelt to the Holy One, not to the Hat!

Leut. Hark, comrade! I've a shrewd suspicion growing,

That here we stand as in the pillory.

'Tis shameful that a trooper thus should play

The sentinel before an empty Hat!

Sure every honest fellow must despise us.
What! to a Hat pay rev'rence! 'Tis, I trow,
A silly order.

Friess. Why not bow before

An empty Hat? To many an empty pate

None hesitate to bend.

(HILDEGARD, MATILDA, and ELIZABETH, come in with their children, and surround the pole.)

Leut. Ay, ay, thou art

Such an officious rascal! Willingly

Would'st thou bring honest people to mishap,

Pass whoso list the Hat.-My eyes are shut.

Matil. Children, there hangs the Governor! Kneel down,

Pay him due rev'rence!

Eliz. Would to Heav'n he'd go,

Leaving his Hat to rule! 'Twere better for us!

Friesshardt, (driving them away.) Will you begone, you pack of

VOL. XVII.

idle gossips!

3 I

Who cares for you? Go, send your husbands hither,
If they have mettle thus to brave the law.

(The women and children go out on one side, as WILLIAM TELL, carrying his cross-bow, comes in from the other, with his Son WALTER. They pass the Hat without noticing it, and advance to the front of the Stage.

Walter, (pointing to the Bannberg.) Father, is't true, the trees on yonder hill,

If they be wounded with a hatchet, bleed?
Tell. Who says they bleed?

Walter. The master-herdsman says so.
He told me that the trees were consecrated,
And whoso injured them, when he was buried
His hand would never rest within his grave.

Tell. The trees are consecrated, 'tis most true.
See'st thou not yonder ice-peak, those white horns,

That seem to lose themselves in the blue sky?

Walter. Those are the gletschers, that by night so thunder,

And fling such terrible lawines upon us.

Tell. They are; and long ago would those lawines

Have buried Altdorf in their fall, stood not

That wood above, the bulwark of the district.

Walter, (after some consideration.) Are there no countries, father,

free from mountains?

Tell. Those who, descending from our heights, pursue
The rivers' courses, lower and yet lower,

Soon reach a level and extensive plain,
Where mountain cataracts no longer foam,
But, gather'd in fair streams, flow peacefully.
There the eye scans, uninterrupted, free,
Each quarter of the Heavens; there the corn,
In large rich fields, luxuriantly grows,

And all the land shows like a pleasant garden.

Walter. Then, father, why do we not hasten down To this delightful land, instead of here

Enduring toil and trouble?

Tell. True, the land

Is beautiful, and liberal as Heaven;

But those who till it, they do not enjoy
The harvests that they raise.

Walter. Do they not live,

As thou dost, free upon their patrimony?

Tell. The fields belong to Bishops, and the King.
Walter. At least they can hunt freely in their forests?
Tell. The game is all their lords' sole property.

Walter. Yet sure they may fish freely in the streams?
Tell. Rivers and lakes all to the King belong.

Walter. Who is this King, of whom all seem afraid?

Tell. He's the protector, the support of all.

Walter. Have they not courage to protect themselves?
Tell, Nope there dares trust his neighbour.

Walter. I no longer

Like this fair level country.

'Midst gletschers and lawines.

Tell. Aye, boy, less danger

Better live

Threatens from gletschers than bad men.
Walter. Look, father,

Observe the Hat on yonder pole?

Tell. To us,

What matters hat on pole? Come, let us on.

(As he is going, FRIESSHARDT stops him, presenting his pike.)

Friess. Stay, I command you, in the Emperor's name!

Tell, (seizing the pike.) What would you? Wherefore do you intercept me?

Friess. You have transgress'd the law, and must go with us.
Leut. You have not paid due reverence to the Hat.

Tell. Friend, let me pass.

Friess. Away! You must to prison.

Walter. My father go to prison? Help! Oh help!

(Calling towards the side scene.)

Hither, you men! Good people, help! My father

They're dragging him to prison.-Help! help! help!

(ROSSELMAN comes on, with the Sacristan, and three other men.) Sacristan. What's here to do?

Rossel. Why lay'st thou hands on him?

Friess. He is the Emperor's enemy-a traitor!

Tell, (seizing him warmly.) A traitor! I?
Rossel. Friend, thou mistak'st; this man

Is honest, and a worthy citizen.

'Tis William Tell.

(WALTER FURST comes in. WALTER TELL runs to him.) Walter. Grandfather, help! They drag

My father to a prison.

Friess. Take him hence!

Furst. Forbear! I'll be his bail! For God's sake, Tell,

What has occurred? What means this?

Friess. He despises

(STAUFFACHER and MELCHTĦAL come on.)

Lord Gessler's paramount authority,

And disobeys his edict.

Stauff. This of Tell?

Melch. Villain, 'tis false !

Leut. He honour'd not the Hat.

Furst. And, therefore, do you hale him to a prison ?

Take my security, and let him go.

Friess. Give thou security for thine own conduct!

We execute our orders. Take him hence!

Melchthal (to the country people.) 'Tis crying violence! Shall we

endure

That impudently thus, before our eyes,

They seize him.

Sacristan. We're the strongest.-Friends, resist!

Others will back us.

Friess. Dare you then oppose

The Governor's commands?

(Three countrymen hurry on to the Stage.

Three countrymen. We'll help! We'll help!

(HILDEGARD, MATILDA, and ELIZABETH return.)

Tell. Go, go, good people! I can help myself.

Think you, if I were willing to use force,

Their pikes could terrify me?

Melchthal (to Friesshardt.) Aye, attempt

To force him from amongst us!

Stauffacher and Furst. Gently gently!

Friess. (loudly.) Riot! Rebellion!

Women. Here's the Governor!

(Hunting-horns without.)

Friess. (yet louder.) Mutiny! Insurrection!
Stauff. Rascal, cry,

And clamour till thou burst!

Rosselman and Melchthal. Prithee, forbear!

Friess. (yet louder.) Help! Help the servants of the law!

Furst. Here comes

The Governor. Alas! how shall this end?

(GESSLER, with his falcon upon his wrist, rides on to the Stage,
followed by RUDOLPH OF HARRAS, RUDENZ, and BERTHA,
and a train of armed men, who enclose the persons present
with a circle of pikes.)

Rudolph of Harras. Room for my lord the Governor!
Gessler. By force

Drive them apart. Why do the people flock

Together thus? Who was it cried for help?

(General silence.)

Who was it? I will know. Come forward, thou! (To FRIESSHARDT.) Who art thou? Wherefore holdest thou this man?

(Gives his falcon to an attendunt.)

Friess. Dread Lord, I am a soldier of your guard

Placed as a sentinel before the Hat.

This man I seized upon, when he refused
To pay the reverence appointed. I,

As you commanded, took him prisoner,

And forcibly the crowd attempt his rescue.

Gessler, (after a pause.) Thus, Tell, dost thou despise thy Em

peror,

And me, who rule as his vice-regent here,
That thou deny'st thy rev'rence to the Hat,
Placed yonder, as a test of your obedience?
The act betrays thine evil disposition.

Tell. Forgive me, good my Lord, a negligence
That sprang from thoughtlessness, not disrespect.
Were I discreet, I were not William Tell.-

Grant me your pardon, I'll offend no more.

Gessler, (after a pause.) 'Tis said thou art a master of the bow,

And canst defy the skilful'st archer, Tell?

Walter. That is most true, my lord; my father'll shoot

An apple from the bough, a hundred yards off.

Gessler. Is that boy thine?

Tell. He is, my gracious lord.

Gessler. Hast thou more children?

Tell. I've two boys, my lord.

Gessler. And of the two which dost thou love the best?

Tell. My lord, they both alike are dear to me.

Gessler. Well, then, if thou canst hit an apple, Tell,

Upon the bough, an hundred paces distant,

Give me a sample of thine archery:

Take thy crossbow-'tis ready to thy hand,-
Prepare thyself to shoot an apple, placed

On thy son's head.-And perfect be thine aim.-
Observe my counsel, see thou hit the apple

At the first shot, for, should'st thou miss, thy head
Must be the forfeit of thy fault.

Tell. My lord,

(A general murmur.)

What monstrous act do you propose to me?

Who? I from my child's head?- -No, my dear lord,
You meant not such an outrage-God forbid !
You could not from a father seriously

Ask such a deed?

Gessler. Thou'lt strike the apple, placed

On thy boy's head, I ask, and I command it!

Tell. Aim with my cross-bow at the precious head

Of my own child?-No!-Rather let me die!

Gessler. Shoot, or thou diest, and with thee dies the boy.

Tell. What! must I be the murderer of my child? My lord, you have no children, and you know not The feelings of a father's heart.

Gessler. How, Tell,

Art thou upon the sudden grown discreet?

I had been told thou wert a visionary,

Who sought unwonted courses, and who loved
Only the marvellous. Therefore have I
For thee devised an act of special daring.
Another might reflect, and hesitate-

Thou'lt shut thine eyes, and grapple with thy task.

Bertha. Oh jest not, dear my lord, with these poor people! See how they tremble,-note their ashy paleness,

Unused to sportive sallies from your lips.

Gessler. Who tells you that I jest? Here is the apple,

(Gathering one from a bough near him.)

Now, clear the ground, and let him take his distance;

The customary eighty yards I give him,
Nor less nor more. 'Tis said he often boasts,

That at an hundred he could hit his man.

Now, archer, see thou do not miss the mark!

Rudolph of Harras. Heav'ns! This grows serious.-Down, boy, on thy knees,

And beg thy life of the Lord Governor.

Furst (to Melchthal, who can scarcely restrain his impatience.) Command yourself! For pity's sake, be calm!

Bertha. Be satisfied, my lord; it were inhuman

Longer to play upon a father's anguish.

Ev'n if this wretched man have forfeited

Both life and limb, by this small-seeming fault,
He has already suffered thousand deaths!

Dismiss him then, repentant, to his cottage.

He 'as learn'd to know you; and this fearful hour

He and his children's children shall remember.

Gessler. Come, clear the ground; be quick!-Wherefore thus pause? Thy life is forfeited; I might dispatch thee;

And see, I mercifully place thy fate

In thine own able, practised hand. He cannot
Complain of his hard sentence, who is made
The master of his destiny. Thou vauntest
Thy certain eye. Well, then, now is the time,
Archer, to show thy skill! Worthy the mark-
Great is the prize! The bull's-eye in the target?-
That others hit:-He, in his art, is master,
Whose skill is always at his own command,
Whose heart unsteadies neither eye nor hand!

Furst, (falling at his feet.) Lord Governor, we all confess your

power,

But oh! let mercy now take place of justice!

Confiscate half my property, or all,

But spare a father this unnatural horror!

Walter. Grandfather, kneel not to the wicked man! Show me where I must stand;-I'm not afraid ;—

My father hits a bird upon the wing,

And will not miss now, when 'twould hurt his boy.
Stauff: Lord Governor, cannot the innocence

Of the poor infant touch you?

Rossel. Oh, bethink you!

There is a God in Heaven, unto whom

You are accountable for every act!

Gessler. To yonder lime-tree bind the boy.

Walter. Bind me!