The heights are athund'ring, now trembles the bridge, Nor feareth the archer on dizzying ridge, He strideth undaunted O'er ice-covered fields, No spring there is flaunted, No shoot there green yields; And under the footsteps a mist-covered sea, No longer the cities of man doth he see, Through the rift of clouds only He glimpses the world, Deep under the water Green fields are unfurl'd.
(The landscape is altered, one hears a muffled crack from the mountains, shadows of clouds move across the region. RUODI the fisherman comes out of the hut WERNI the hunter climbs from the rocks. KUONI the herdsman comes, with the milkpail on his shoulder. SEPPI his handyman, follows him.)
RUODI: Be speedy, Jenni. Haul the boat ashore. The grizzled Vale-Lord comes, dull roars the glacier, The Mythenstein is drawing on his cap, And from the weather cleft a cold wind blows, The storm, I think, will be here, ere we know't.
KUONI: Rain's coming, Ferryman. My sheep are eating The grass with greed, and Watcher paws the earth.
WERNI: The fish are springing, and the waterfowl Dives down below. A storm is now approaching.
KUONI (to his boy): Look, Seppi, that the cattle have not strayed.
SEPPI: I recognize brown Liesel by her bell.
KUONI: So we are missing none, she goes the farthest.
RUODI: A pretty peal of bells there, Master Herdsman.
WERNI: And handsome cows -- They're yours, compatriot?
KUONI: I'm not so rich -- they are my gracious Lord's, Of Attinghausen's, and to me entrusted.
RUODI: How fair the band appears on that cow's neck.
KUONI: That knows she too, that she doth lead the herd, And took I it from her, she'd cease to feed.
ROUDI: That makes no sense! A cow devoid of reason --
WERNI: That's easy said. The beast hath reason too, That's known to us, we men who hunt the Chamois, Who shrewdly post, when they to pasture go, A sentinel, who pricks his ears and warns With piercing whistle, when the hunter nears.
RUODI (to the herdsman): You drive them home?
KUONI: The Alp is grazed quite bare.
WERNI: Safe journey home, my friend!
KUONI: That wish I you, Not all your trips are ended in return.
ROUDI: There comes a man who rushes with great haste.
WERNI: I know him, it is Baumgart of Alzellen.
(KONRAD BAUMGARTEN rushing in breathless.)
BAUMGARTEN: May God be willing, Ferryman, your boat!
RUODI: Now, now, what is the hurry?
BAUMGARTEN: Cast off now! You must save me from death! Set me across!
KUONI: Compatriot, what's wrong?
WERNI: Who follows you?
BAUMGARTEN (to the fisherman): Haste, haste, e'en now they're close upon my heels! The Gov'rnor's troopers are in hot pursuit, I am a man of death, if I am seized.
RUODI: Why are the troopers in pursuit of you?
BAUMGARTEN: First rescue me, and then I'll talk to you.
WERNI: You are defiled with blood, what hath occurred?
BAUMGARTEN: The Emperor's cast'llan, who at Rossberg sat --
KUONI: The Wolfenschiesen? He's pursuing you? He'll harm no man again, I've vet him dead.
ALL (fall back):
May God forgive you! What is it you've done?
BAUMGARTEN: What any free man in my place had done! I've exercised my household right against Him who'd defile mine honor and my
KUONI: The Castilian hath your honor then impaired?
BAUMGARTEN: That he did not his evil lust fulfill, Hast God and my good axe alone prevented.
WERNI: You've split his head in two then with your axe?
KUONI: O, let us hear, you've time enough, before He hath the boat unfastened from the shore.
BAUMGARTEN: I had been felling timber in the woods, When ran my wife toward me in mortal fear. The Cast'llan quartered in my house, he had Commanded her, to get a bath prepared. And when he had indecencies of her Demanded, she escaped, to search for me. Then ran I brisk thereto, just as I was, And with the axe I've blessed his bath for him.
WERNI: You've acted well, no man can blame you for it.
KUONI: The maniac! Now hath he his reward! 'Twas long deserved from Unterwalden's people.
BAUMGARTEN: The deed was noised about, I am pursued --
And while we're speaking -- God -- the time is flying --
(It begins to thunder.)
KUONI: Quick, Ferryman convey this man across.
RUODI: It can't be done. A violent storm is now Approaching. You must wait.
BAUMGARTEN: Oh, Holy God! I can not wait. The least delay is death --
KUONI (to the fisherman): Set out with God, one must assist his neighbor, The like can happen to each one of us.
(Roaring and thundering.)
RUODI: The Fohn is loose, see how the waters rise, I can not steer against the storm and waves.
BAUMGARTEN (embraces his knees): So must I fall into the tyrants hands,
WERNI: His life's at stake, have mercy Ferryman.
KUONI: He is a father, and hath wife and children!
(Repeated peals of thunder.)
RUODI: So what? I have a life as well to lose, Have wife and child at home, like he -- Look how It surges, how it heaves and whirlpools draw, And all the water rouses from the depths. -- I would be glad to save this worthy man, Yet it's impossible, you see yourself.
BAUMGARTEN (still on his knees): So must I fall into the tyrant's hands, The shore of rescue now so near to sight! -- Lies yonder! I can reach it with mine eyes, My voice's sound can make its way across, Here is the boat, that would convey me thence, And must I lie here, helpless, and forlorn!
KUONI: Look, who is now come here!
WERNI: Tis Tell from Burglen.
(TELL with crossbow.)
TELL: Who is the man, who here implores for help?
KUONI: It's an Alzeller man, he hath his honor Defended, and the Wolfenschiessen slain, The Cast'llan of the King, who sat at Rossberg -- The Governor's troopers are upon his heels, He begs the boatman carry him across, But he's afraid o'th' storm and will not go.
RUODI: Now here is Tell, he steers the rudder too He'll be my witness, should the trip be dared.
TELL: If need be, Ferryman, all may be ventured.
(Violent peals of thunder, the lake surges up.)
RUODI: Am I to plunge into the jaws of hell? That none would do, who did possess his senses.
TELL: The valiant man thinks of himself the last, Put trust in God and rescue the distressed.
RUODI: Secure in port tis easy to advise, Here is the boat and there the lake! Attempt it!
TELL: The lake can pity, but the Governor will not, Attempt it, Boatman!
HERDSMAN AND HUNTER: Save him! Save him! Save him!
RUODI: And 'twere my brother and my very child, It can not be, 'tis Simon-Juda day, Here raves the lake and wants to have its victim.
TELL: With idle talk will nothing here be done, The hour insists, the man must now be helped. Speak, Boatman, wilt thou take him?
RUODI: No, not I!
TELL: I' th' name of God then! Give the boat to me, I will attempt it, with my feeble strength.
KUONI: Ha, valiant Tell!
WERNI: That is the hunter's way!
BAUMGARTEN: You are my savior and mine angel, Tell!
TELL: I'll save you from the pow'r o' th Governor From per'l of storm another must give aid. Yet better is't, you fall into God's hands, Than into men's! (to the herdsman) Compatriot, console My wife, if something human falls to me, I've done, but what I could not leave undone.
(He springs into the boat.)
-------
continues . . .
WILHELM TELL
A Drama by Friedrich Von Schiller
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1805schiller-willtell.html-------
You're a good man, Andy.
Get well, we need you.
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