Wilhelm Tell by Friedrich Schiller (classic books for 11 year olds .txt) 📖

the pike). What would ye? Wherefore do ye stop my path?

FRIESSHARDT. You've broke the mandate, and must go with us.

LEUTHOLD. You have not done obeisance to the cap.

TELL. Friend, let me go.

FRIESSHARDT.
Away, away to prison!

WALTER. Father to prison! Help!
[Calling to the side scene.
This way, you men! Good people, help! They're dragging him to prison!

[ROSSELMANN, the priest, and the SACRISTAN, with
three other men, enter.

SACRISTAN. What's here amiss?

ROSSELMANN.
Why do you seize this man?

FRIESSHARDT. He is an enemy of the king - a traitor!

TELL (seizing him with violence). A traitor, I!

ROSSELMANN.
Friend, thou art wrong. 'Tis Tell, An honest man, and worthy citizen.

WALTER (descries FURST, and runs up to him). Grandfather, help! they want to seize my father!

FRIESSHARDT. Away to prison!

FURST (running in).
Stay! I offer bail. For God's sake, Tell, what is the matter here?

[MELCHTHAL and STAUFFACHER enter.

LEUTHOLD. He has contemned the viceroy's sovereign power, Refusing flatly to acknowledge it.

STAUFFACHER. Has Tell done this?

MELCHTHAL.
Villain, thou knowest 'tis false!

LEUTHOLD. He has not made obeisance to the cap.

FURST. And shall for this to prison? Come, my friend, Take my security, and let him go.

FRIESSHARDT. Keep your security for yourself - you'll need it. We only do our duty. Hence with him.

MELCHTHAL (to the country people). This is too bad - shall we stand by, and see them. Drag him away before our very eyes?

SACRISTAN. We are the strongest. Don't endure it, friends. Our countrymen will back us to a man.

FRIESSHARDT. Who dares resist the governor's commands?

OTHER THREE PEASANTS (running in). We'll help you. What's the matter? Down with them!

[HILDEGARD, MECHTHILD, and ELSBETH return.

TELL. Go, go, good people, I can help myself. Think you, had I a mind to use my strength, These pikes of theirs should daunt me?

MELCHTHAL (to FRIESSHARDT).
Only try - Try, if you dare, to force him from amongst us.

FURST and STAUFFACHER. Peace, peace, friends!

FRIESSHARDT (loudly).
Riot! Insurrection, ho!

[Hunting horns without.

WOMEN. The governor!

FRIESSHARDT (raising his voice).
Rebellion! Mutiny!

STAUFFACHER. Roar, till you burst, knave!

ROSSELMANN and MELCHTHAL.
Will you hold your tongue?

FRIESSHARDT (calling still louder). Help, help, I say, the servants of the law!

FURST. The viceroy here! Then we shall smart for this!

[Enter GESSLER on horseback, with a falcon on his wrist;
RUDOLPH DER HARRAS, BERTHA, and RUDENZ, and a numerous
train of armed attendants, who form a circle of lances
around the whole stage.

HARRAS. Room for the viceroy!

GESSLER.
Drive the clowns apart. Why throng the people thus? Who calls for help?

[General silence.

Who was it? I will know.

[FRIESSHARDT steps forward.

And who art thou? And why hast thou this man in custody?

[Gives his falcon to an attendant.

FRIESSHARDT. Dread sir, I am a soldier of your guard, And stationed sentinel beside the cap; This man I apprehended in the act Of passing it without obeisance due, So I arrested him, as you gave order, Whereon the people tried to rescue him.

GESSLER (after a pause). And do you, Tell, so lightly hold your king, And me, who act as his vicegerent here, That you refuse the greeting to the cap I hung aloft to test your loyalty? I read in this a disaffected spirit.

TELL. Pardon me, good my lord! The action sprung From inadvertence, - not from disrespect. Were I discreet, I were not William Tell. Forgive me now - I'll not offend again.

GESSLER (after a pause). I hear, Tell, you're a master with the bow, - And bear the palm away from every rival.

WALTER. That must be true, sir! At a hundred yards He'll shoot an apple for you off the tree.

GESSLER. Is that boy thine, Tell?

TELL.
Yes, my gracious lord.

GESSLER. Hast any more of them?

TELL.
Two boys, my lord.

GESSLER. And, of the two, which dost thou love the most?

TELL. Sir, both the boys are dear to me alike.

GESSLER. Then, Tell, since at a hundred yards thou canst Bring down the apple from the tree, thou shalt Approve thy skill before me. Take thy bow - Thou hast it there at hand - and make thee ready To shoot an apple from the stripling's head! But take this counsel, - look well to thine aim, See that thou hittest the apple at the first, For, shouldst thou miss, thy head shall pay the forfeit.

[All give signs of horror.

TELL. What monstrous thing, my lord, is this you ask? That I, from the head of mine own child! - No, no! It cannot be, kind sir, you meant not that - God in His grace forbid! You could not ask A father seriously to do that thing!

GESSLER. Thou art to shoot an apple from his head! I do desire - command it so.

TELL.
What, I! Level my crossbow at the darling head Of mine own child? No - rather let me die!

GESSLER. Or thou must shoot, or with thee dies the boy.

TELL. Shall I become the murderer of my child! You have no children, sir - you do not know The tender throbbings of a father's heart.

GESSLER. How now, Tell, so discreet upon a sudden I had been told thou wert a visionary, - A wanderer from the paths of common men. Thou lovest the marvellous. So have I now Culled out for thee a task of special daring. Another man might pause and hesitate; Thou dashest at it, heart and soul, at once.

BERTHA. Oh, do not jest, my lord, with these poor souls! See, how they tremble, and how pale they look, So little used are they to hear thee jest.

GESSLER. Who tells thee that I jest?

[Grasping a branch above his head.

Here is the apple. Room there, I say! And let him take his distance - Just eighty paces-as the custom is Not an inch more or less! It was his boast, That at a hundred he could bit his man. Now, archer, to your task, and look you miss not!

HARRAS: Heavens! this grows serious - down, boy, on your knees, And beg the governor to spare your life.

FURST (aside to MELCHTHAL, who can scarcely restrain his impatience). Command yourself - be calm, I beg of you!

BERTHA (to the governor). Let this suffice you, sir! It is inhuman To trifle with a father's anguish thus. Although this wretched man had forfeited Both life and limb for such a slight offence, Already has he suffered tenfold death. Send him away uninjured to his home; He'll know thee well in future; and this hour He and his children's children will remember.

GESSLER. Open a way there - quick! Why this delay? Thy life is forfeited; I might despatch thee, And see I graciously repose thy fate Upon the skill of thine own practised hand. No cause has he to say his doom is harsh, Who's made the master of his destiny. Thou boastest of thy steady eye. 'Tis well! Now is a fitting time to show thy skill. The mark is worthy, and the prize is great. To hit the bull's-eye in the target; that Can many another do as well as thou; But he, methinks, is master of his craft Who can at all times on his skill rely, Nor lets his heart disturb or eye or hand.

FURST. My lord, we bow to your authority; But, oh, let justice yield to mercy here. Take half my property, nay, take it all, But spare a father this unnatural doom!

WALTER. Grandfather, do not kneel to that bad man! Say, where am I to stand? I do not fear; My father strikes the bird upon the wing, And will not miss now when 'twould harm his boy!

STAUFFACHER. Does the child's innocence not touch your heart?

ROSSELMANN. Bethink you, sir, there is a God in heaven, To whom you must account for all your deeds.

GESSLER (pointing to the boy). Bind him to yonder lime tree straight!

WALTER. Bind me? No, I will not be bound! I will be still, Still as a lamb - nor even draw my breath! But if you bind me I cannot be still. Then I shall writhe and struggle with my bonds.

HARRAS. But let your eyes at least be bandaged, boy!

WALTER. And why my eyes? No! Do you think I fear An arrow from my father's hand? Not I! I'll wait it firmly, nor so much as wink! Quick, father, show them that thou art an archer! He doubts thy skill - he thinks to ruin us. Shoot then and hit though but to spite the tyrant!

[He goes to the lime tree, and an apple is placed on his head.

MELCHTHAL (to the country people). What! Is this outrage to be perpetrated Before our very eyes? Where is our oath?

STAUFFACHER. 'Tis all in vain. We have no weapons here; And see the wood of lances that surrounds us!

MELCHTHAL. Oh! would to heaven that we had struck at once! God pardon those who counselled the delay!

GESSLER (to TELL). Now, to thy task! Men bear not arms for naught. 'Tis dangerous to carry deadly weapons, And on the archer oft his shaft recoils. This right these haughty peasant-churls assume Trenches upon their master's privileges. None should be armed but those who bear command. It pleases you wear the bow and bolt; Well, be it so. I will provide the mark.

TELL (bends the bow and fixes the arrow). A lane there! Room!

STAUFFACHER.
What, Tell? You would - no, no! You shake - your hand's unsteady - your knees tremble!

TELL (letting the bow sink down). There's something swims before mine eyes!

WOMEN. Great Heaven!

TELL.