Wilhelm Tell by Friedrich Schiller (best books for students to read .txt) 📕

soul of valor flashed With joyful lustre, as I spoke those names, Sacred to every peasant in the mountains, Your own and Walter Fuerst's. Whate'er your voice Should dictate as the right they swore to do; And you they swore to follow e'en to death. So sped I on from house to house, secure In the guest's sacred privilege - and when I reached at last the valley of my home, Where dwell my kinsmen, scattered far and near - And when I found my father stripped and blind, Upon the stranger's straw, fed by the alms Of charity - -

STAUFFACHER.
Great heaven!

MELCHTHAL.
Yet wept I not! No - not in weak and unavailing tears Spent I the force of my fierce, burning anguish; Deep in my bosom, like some precious treasure, I locked it fast, and thought on deeds alone. Through every winding of the hills I crept - No valley so remote but I explored it; Nay, even at the glacier's ice-clad base, I sought and found the homes of living men; And still, where'er my wandering footsteps turned, The self-same hatred of these tyrants met me. For even there, at vegetation's verge, Where the numbed earth is barren of all fruits, There grasping hands had been stretched forth for plunder. Into the hearts of all this honest race, The story of my wrongs struck deep, and now They to a man are ours; both heart and hand. Great things, indeed, you've wrought in little time.

MELCHTHAL. I did still more than this. The fortresses, Rossberg and Sarnen, are the country's dread; For from behind their rocky walls the foe Swoops, as the eagle from his eyrie, down, And, safe himself, spreads havoc o'er the land. With my own eyes I wished to weigh its strength, So went to Sarnen, and explored the castle.

STAUFFACHER. How! Risk thyself even in the tiger's den?

MELCHTHAL. Disguised in pilgrim's weeds I entered it; I saw the viceroy feasting at his board - Judge if I'm master of myself or no! I saw the tyrant, and I slew him not!

STAUFFACHER. Fortune, indeed, has smiled upon your boldness.

[Meanwhile the others have arrived and join MELCHTHAL
and STAUFFACHER.

Yet tell me now, I pray, who are the friends, The worthy men, who came along with you? Make me acquainted with them, that we may Speak frankly, man to man, and heart to heart.

MEYER. In the three Cantons, who, sir, knows not you? Meyer of Sarnen is my name; and this Is Struth of Winkelried, my sister's son.

STAUFFACHER. No unknown name. A Winkelried it was Who slew the dragoon in the fen at Weiler, And lost his life in the encounter, too.

WINKELRIED. That, Master Stauffacher, was my grandfather.

MELCHTHAL (pointing to two peasants). These two are men belonging to the convent Of Engelberg, and live behind the forest. You'll not think ill of them, because they're serfs, And sit not free upon the soil, like us. They love the land, and bear a good repute.

STAUFFACHER (to them). Give me your hands. He has good cause for thanks, That unto no man owes his body's service. But worth is worth, no matter where 'tis found.

HUNN. That is Herr Reding, sir, our old Landamman.

MEYER. I know him well. There is a suit between us, About a piece of ancient heritage. Herr Reding, we are enemies in court, Here we are one.

[Shakes his hand.

STAUFFACHER.
That's well and bravely said.

WINKELRIED. Listen! They come. Hark to the horn of Uri!

[On the right and left armed men are seen descending
the rocks with torches.

MAUER. Look, is not that God's pious servant there? A worthy priest! The terrors of the night, And the way's pains and perils scare not him, A faithful shepherd caring for his flock.

BAUMGARTEN. The Sacrist follows him, and Walter Fuerst. But where is Tell? I do not see him there.

[WALTER FURST, ROSSELMANN the Pastor, PETERMANN the Sacrist,
KUONI the Shepherd, WERNI the huntsman, RUODI the Fisherman,
and five other countrymen, thirty-three in all, advance and
take their places round the fire.

FURST. Thus must we, on the soil our fathers left us, Creep forth by stealth to meet like murderers, And in the night, that should their mantle lend Only to crime and black conspiracy, Assert our own good rights, which yet are clear As is the radiance of the noonday sun.

MELCHTHAL. So be it. What is woven in gloom of night Shall free and boldly meet the morning light.

ROSSELMANN. Confederates! listen to the words which God Inspires my heart withal. Here we are met To represent the general weal. In us Are all the people of the land convened. Then let us hold the Diet, as of old, And as we're wont in peaceful times to do. The time's necessity be our excuse If there be aught informal in this meeting. Still, wheresoe'er men strike for justice, there Is God, and now beneath his heaven we stand.

STAUFFACHER. 'Tis well advised. Let us, then, hold the Diet According to our ancient usages. Though it be night there's sunshine in our cause.

MELCHTHAL. Few though our numbers be, the hearts are here Of the whole people; here the best are met.

HUNN. The ancient books may not be near at hand, Yet are they graven in our inmost hearts.

ROSSELMANN. 'Tis well. And now, then, let a ring be formed, And plant the swords of power within the ground. [16]

MAUER. Let the Landamman step into his place, And by his side his secretaries stand.

SACRIST. There are three Cantons here. Which hath the right To give the head to the united council? Schwytz may contest the dignity with Uri, We Unterwaldeners enter not the field.

MELCHTHAL. We stand aside. We are not suppliants here, Invoking aid from our more potent friends.

STAUFFACHER. Let Uri have the sword. Her banner takes In battle the precedence of our own.

FURST. Schwytz, then, must share the honor of the sword; For she's the honored ancestor of all.

ROSSELMANN. Let me arrange this generous controversy. Uri shall lead in battle - Schwytz in council.

FURST (gives STAUFFACHER his hand). Then take your place.

STAUFFACHER.
Not I. Some older man.

HOFE. Ulrich, the smith, is the most aged here.

MAUER. A worthy man, but he is not a freeman; No bondman can be judge in Switzerland.

STAUFFACHER. Is not Herr Reding here, our old Landamman? Where can we find a worthier man than he?

FURST. Let him be Amman and the Diet's chief? You that agree with me hold up your hands!

[All hold up their right hands.

REDING (stepping into the centre). I cannot lay my hands upon the books; But by yon everlasting stars I swear Never to swerve from justice and the right.

[The two swords are placed before him, and a circle formed;
Schwytz in the centre, Uri on his right, Unterwald on his left.

REDING (resting on his battle-sword). Why, at the hour when spirits walk the earth, Meet the three Cantons of the mountains here, Upon the lake's inhospitable shore? And what the purport of the new alliance We here contract beneath the starry heaven?

STAUFFACHER (entering the circle). No new alliance do we now contract, But one our fathers framed, in ancient times, We purpose to renew! For know, confederates, Though mountain ridge and lake divide our bounds, And every Canton's ruled by its own laws, Yet are we but one race, born of one blood, And all are children of one common home.

WINKELRIED. Then is the burden of our legends true, That we came hither from a distant land? Oh, tell us what you know, that our new league May reap fresh vigor from the leagues of old.

STAUFFACHER. Hear, then, what aged herdsmen tell. There dwelt A mighty people in the land that lies Back to the north. The scourge of famine came; And in this strait 'twas publicly resolved, That each tenth man, on whom the lot might fall Should leave the country. They obeyed - and forth, With loud lamentings, men and women went, A mighty host; and to the south moved on, Cutting their way through Germany by the sword, Until they gained that pine-clad hills of ours; Nor stopped they ever on their forward course, Till at the shaggy dell they halted, where The Mueta flows through its luxuriant meads. No trace of human creature met their eye, Save one poor hut upon the desert shore, Where dwelt a lonely man, and kept the ferry. A tempest raged - the lake rose mountains high And barred their further progress. Thereupon They viewed the country; found it rich in wood, Discovered goodly springs, and felt as they Were in their own dear native land once more. Then they resolved to settle on the spot; Erected there the ancient town of Schwytz; And many a day of toil had they to clear The tangled brake and forest's spreading roots. Meanwhile their numbers grew, the soil became Unequal to sustain them, and they crossed To the black mountain, far as Weissland, where, Concealed behind eternal walls of ice, Another people speak another tongue. They built the village Stanz, beside the Kernwald The village Altdorf, in the vale of Reuss; Yet, ever mindful of their parent stem, The men of Schwytz, from all the stranger race, That since that time have settled in the land, Each other recognize. Their hearts still know, And beat fraternally to kindred blood.

[Extends his hand right and left.

MAUER. Ay, we are all one heart, one blood, one race!

ALL (joining hands). We are one people, and will act as one.

STAUFFACHER. The nations round us bear a foreign yoke; For they have yielded to the conqueror. Nay, even within our frontiers may be found Some that owe villein service to a lord, A race of bonded serfs from sire to son. But we, the genuine race of ancient Swiss, Have kept our freedom from the first till now, Never to princes have we bowed the knee; Freely we sought protection of the empire.

ROSSELMANN. Freely we sought it - freely it was given. 'Tis so set down in Emperor Frederick's charter.

STAUFFACHER. For the most free have still some feudal lord. There must be still a chief, a judge supreme, To whom appeal may lie in case of strife. And therefore was it that our sires allowed For what they had recovered from the waste, This honor to the emperor, the lord Of all the German and Italian soil; And, like the other freemen of his realm, Engaged to aid him with their swords in war; And this alone should be the freeman's duty, To guard the empire that keeps guard for him.

MELCHTHAL. He's but a slave that would acknowledge more.

STAUFFACHER. They followed, when the Heribann [17] went forth, The imperial standard, and they fought its battles! To Italy they marched in arms, to place The Caesars' crown upon the emperor's head. But still at home they ruled themselves in peace, By their own