TELL.
Here 'tis not good to be. Let us proceed.
STAUFF.
Am I in Uri,-Uri, freedom's home?
MAS. M.
O, sir, if you could only see the vaults
Beneath these towers. The man that tenants them
Will ne'er hear cock crow more.
STAUFF.
O God! O God!
MASON.
Look at these ramparts and these buttresses,
That seem as they were built to last for ever.
TELL.
What hands have built, my friend, hands can destroy.
[Pointing to the mountains.]
That home of freedom God hath built for us.
[A drum is heard. People enter bearing a cap upon a pole, followed by
a crier. Women and children thronging tumultuously after them.]
1ST W.
What means the drum? Give heed!
MASON.
Why, here's a mumming!
And look, the cap-what can they mean by that?
CRIER.
In the Emperor's name, give ear!
WORK.
Hush! silence! hush!
CRIER.
Ye men of Uri, ye do see this cap!
It will be set upon a lofty pole
In Altdorf, in the market place: and this
Is the Lord Governor's good will and pleasure;
The cap shall have like honour as himself,
All do it reverence with bended knee,
And head uncovered; thus the king will know
Who are his true and loyal subjects here;
His life and goods are forfeit to the crown
That shall refuse obedience to the order.
[The people burst out into laughter. The drum beats and the procession
passes on.]
1ST W.
A strange device to fall upon indeed:
Do reverence to a cap! A pretty farce!
Heard ever mortal anything like this?
MAS. M.
Down to a cap on bended knee, forsooth!
Rare jesting this with men of sober sense!
1ST W.
Nay, an it were the imperial crown! A cap!
Merely the cap of Austria! I've seen it
Hanging above the throne in Gessler's hall.
MASON.
The cap of Austria? Mark that! A snare
To get us into Austria's power, by Heaven!
WORK.
No freeborn man will stoop to such disgrace.
MAS. M.
Come-to our comrades, and advise with them!
[They retire up.]
TELL (to Stauffacher).
You see how matters stand.
Farewell, my friend.
STAUFF.
Whither away? Oh, leave us not so soon.
TELL.
They look for me at home. So fare ye well.
STAUFF.
My heart's so full, and has so much to tell you.
TELL.
Words will not make a heart that's heavy light.
STAUFF.
Yet words may possibly conduct to deeds.
TELL.
Endure in silence! We can do no more.
STAUFF.
But shall we bear what is not to be borne?
TELL.
Impetuous rulers have the shortest reigns.
When the fierce Southwind rises from its chasms,
Men cover up their fires, the ships in haste
Make for the harbour, and the mighty spirit
Sweeps o'er the earth, and leaves no trace behind.
Let every man live quietly at home;
Peace to the peaceful rarely is denied.
STAUFF.
And is it thus you view our grievances?
TELL.
The serpent stings not till it is provoked.
Let them alone; they'll weary of themselves,
When they shall see we are not to be roused.
STAUFF.
Much might be done-did we stand fast together.
TELL.
When the ship founders, he will best escape,
Who seeks no other's safety but his own.
STAUFF.
And you desert the common cause so coldly?
TELL.
A man can safely count but on himself!
STAUFF.
Nay, even the weak grow strong by union.
TELL.
But the strong man is strongest when alone.
STAUFF.
So, then, your country cannot count on you,
If in despair she rise against her foes.
TELL.
Tell rescues the lost sheep from yawning gulfs:
Is he a man, then, to desert his friends?
Yet, whatsoe'er you do, spare me from council!
I was not born to ponder and select;
But when your course of action is resolved,
Then call on Tell: you shall not find him fail.
[Exeunt severally. A sudden tumult is heard around the scaffolding.]
MASON (running in).
What's wrong?
FIRST WORKMAN (running forward).
The slater's fallen from the roof.
BERTHA (rushing in).
Heavens! Is he dashed to pieces?
Save him, help!
If help be possible, save him! Here is gold.
[Throws her trinkets among the people.]
MASON.
Hence with your gold,-your universal charm,
And remedy for ill! When you have torn
Fathers from children, husbands from their wives,
And scattered woe and wail throughout the land,
You think with gold to compensate for all.
Hence! Till we saw you, we were happy men;
With you came misery and dark despair.
BERTHA (to the Taskmaster, who has returned).
Lives he?
[Taskmaster shakes his head.]
Ill-omened towers, with curses built,
And doomed with curses to be tenanted!
[Exit.]
SCENE IV.
The House of Walter Furst. Walter Furst and Arnold von Melchthal enter
simultaneously at different sides.
MELCH.
Good Walter Furst.
FURST.
If we should be surprised!
Stay where you are. We are beset with spies.
MELCH.
Have you no news for me from Unterwald?
What of my father? 'Tis not to be borne,
Thus to be pent up like a felon here!
What have I done so heinous that I must
Skulk here in hiding, like a murderer?
I only laid my staff across the fists
Of the pert varlet, when before my eyes,
By order of the governor, he tried
To drive away my handsome team of oxen.
FURST.
You are too rash by far. He did no more
Than what the Governor had ordered him.
You had transgress'd, and therefore should have paid
The penalty, however hard, in silence.
MELCH.
Was I to brook the fellow's saucy gibe,
"That if the peasant must have bread to eat,
Why, let him go and draw the plough himself!"
It cut me to the very soul to see
My oxen, noble creatures, when the knave
Unyoked them from the plough. As though they felt
The wrong, they lowed and butted with their horns.
On this I could contain myself no longer,
And, overcome by passion, struck him down.
FURST.
O, we old men can scarce command ourselves!
And can we wonder youth breaks out of bounds?
MELCH.
I'm only sorry for my father's sake!
To be away from him, that needs so much
> My fostering care! The Governor detests him,
Because, whene'er occasion served, he has
Stood stoutly up for right and liberty.
Therefore they'll bear him hard-the poor old man!
And there is none to shield him from their gripe.
Come what come may, I must go home again.
FURST.
Compose yourself, and wait in patience till
We get some tidings o'er from Unterwald.
Away! away! I hear a knock! Perhaps
A message from the Viceroy! Get thee in!
You are not safe from Landenberger's[*] arm
In Uri, for these tyrants pull together.
[*] Berenger von Landenberg, a man of noble family in Thurgau, and
Governor of Unterwald, infamous for his cruelties to the Swiss,
and particularly to the venerable Henry of the Halden. He was
slain at the battle of Morgarten, in 1315.
MELCH.
They teach us Switzers what we ought to do.
FURST.
Away! I'll call you when the coast is clear.
[Melchthal retires.]
Unhappy youth! I dare not tell him all
The evil that my boding heart predicts!
Who's there? The door ne'er opens, but I look
For tidings of mishap. Suspicion lurks
With darkling treachery in every nook.
Even to our inmost rooms they force their way,
These myrmidons of power; and soon we'll need
To fasten bolts and bars upon our doors.
[He opens the door, and steps back in surprise as Werner Stauffacher
enters.]
What do I see? You, Werner? Now, by Heaven!
A valued guest, indeed. No man e'er set
His foot across this threshold, more esteem'd,
Welcome! thrice welcome, Werner, to my roof!
What brings you here? What seek you here in Uri?
STAUFF. (shakes Furst by the hand).
The olden times and olden Switzerland.
FURST.
You bring them with you. See how glad I am,
My heart leaps at the very sight of you.
Sit down-sit down, and tell me how you left
Your charming wife, fair Gertrude? Iberg's child,
And clever as her father. Not a man,
That wends from Germany, by Meinrad's Cell,[*]
To Italy, but praises far and wide
Your house's hospitality. But say,
Have you come here direct from Fluelen,
And have you noticed nothing on your way,
Before you halted at my door?
[*] A cell built in the 9th century, by Meinrad, Count of
Hohenzollern, the founder of the Convent of Einsiedeln,
subsequently alluded to in the text.
STAUFF. (sits down).
I saw
A work in progress, as I came along,
I little thought to see-that likes me ill.
FURST.
O friend! you've lighted on my thought at once.
STAUFF.
Such things in Uri ne'er were known before.
Never was prison here in man's remembrance,
Nor ever any stronghold but the grave.
FURST.
You name it well. It is the grave of freedom.
STAUFF.
Friend, Walter Furst, I will be plain with you.
No idle curiosity it is
That brings me here, but heavy cares. I left
Thraldom at home, and thraldom meets me here.
Our wrongs, e'en now, are more than we can bear
And who shall tell us where they are to end?
From eldest time the Switzer has been free,
Accustom'd only to the mildest rule.
Such things as now we suffer ne'er were known,
Since herdsman first drove cattle to the hills.
FURST.
Yes, our oppressions are unparallel'd!
Why, even our own good lord of Attinghaus,
Who lived in olden times, himself declares
They are no longer to be tamely borne.
STAUFF.
In Unterwalden yonder 'tis the same;
And bloody has the retribution been.
The imperial Seneschal, the Wolfshot, who
At Rossberg dwelt, long'd for forbidden fruit-
Baumgarten's wife, that lives at Alzellen,
He tried to make a victim to his lust,
On which the husband slew him with his axe.
FURST.
O, Heaven is just in all its judgments still!
Baumgarten, say you? A most worthy man.
Has he escaped, and is he safely hid?
STAUFF.
Your son-in-law conveyed him o'er the lake,
And he lies hidden in my house at Steinen.
He brought the tidings with him of a thing
That has been done at Sarnen, worse than all,
A thing to make the very heart run blood!
FURST. (attentively).
Say on. What is it?
STAUFF.
There dwells in Melchthal, then,
Just as you enter by the road from Kerns,
An upright man, named Henry of the Halden,
A man of weight and influence in the Diet.
FURST.
Who knows him not? But what of him? Proceed.
STAUFF.
The Landenberg, to punish some offence
Committed by the old man's son, it seems,
Had given command to take the youth's best pair
Of oxen from his plough; on which the lad
Struck down the messenger and took to flight.
FURST.
But the old father-tell me, what of him?
STAUFF.
The Landenberg sent for him, and required
He should produce his son upon the spot;
And when the old man protested, and with truth,
That he knew nothing of the fugitive,
The tyrant call'd his torturers.
FURST. (springs up and tries to lead him to the other side).
Hush, no more!
STAUFF. (with increasing warmth).
"And though thy son," he cried, "has 'scaped me now,
I have thee fast, and thou shalt feel my vengeance."
With that they flung the old man to the ground,
And plunged the pointed steel into his eyes.
FURST.
Merciful Heaven!
MELCH. (rushing out).
Into his eyes, his eyes?
STAUFF. (addresses himself in astonishment to Walter Furst).
Who is this youth?
MELCH. (grasping him convulsively).
Into his eyes? Speak, speak!
FURST.
Oh, miserable hour!
STAUFF.
Who is it, tell me?
[Stauffacher makes a sign to him.]
It is his son! All-righteous Heaven!
MELCH.
And I
Must be from thence! What! Into both his eyes?
FURST.
Be calm, be calm; and bear it like a man!
MELCH.
And all for me-for my mad willful folly!
Blind, did you say? Quite blind-and both his eyes?
STAUFF.
Ev'n so. The fountain of his sight is quench'd,
He ne'er will see the blessed sunshine more.
FURST.
Oh, spare his anguish!
MELCH.
Never, never more!
[Presses his hands upon his eyes and is silent for some moments : then
turning from one to the other, speaks in a subdued tone, broken by
sobs.]
O, the eye's light, of all the gifts of Heaven,
The dearest, best! From light all beings live-
Each fair created thing-the very plants
&nbs
p; Turn with a joyful transport to the light,
And he-he must drag on through all his days
In endless darkness! Never more for him
Wilhelm Tell Page 3
