Gessler

“ Now, Gessler, balance thine account with Heaven!
Thou must away from earth,—thy sand is run.
Quiet and harmless was the life I led,
My bow was bent on forest game alone;
No thoughts of murder rested on my soul.
But thou hast scared me from my dream of peace;
The milk of human kindness thou hast turn'd
To rankling poison in my breast; and made
Appalling deeds familiar to my soul.
He who could make his own child's head his mark,
Can speed his arrow to his foeman's heart.
My boys, poor innocents, my loyal wife,
Must be protected, tyrant, from thy rage! ”

“ But there, we may be sure, in addition to Gessler and his guards, were most of the people of Uri, their hearts burning with sympathy for their countryman and hatred of the tyrant, their feelings almost wrought up to the point of attacking Gessler and his guards, and daring death in defence of their liberties. There also we may behold in fancy the brave child, scarcely old enough to appreciate the magnitude of his peril, but looking with simple faith into the kind eyes of his father, who stands firm of frame but trembling in heart before him, the death-dealing bow in his hand. ”

“ But the Tell myth has not its signification thus painted on the surface, and though it is possible that Gessler or Harald may be the power of evil and darkness, and the bold archer the storm-cloud with his arrow of lightning and his iris bow, bent against the sun, which is resting like a coin or a golden apple on the edge of the horizon, yet we have no guarantee that such an interpretation is not an overstraining of a theory. ”

“ The name of murder strikes a damp across his frank and fearless spirit; while the recollection of his children and their mother proclaims emphatically that there is no remedy. Gessler must perish: Tell swore it darkly in his secret soul, when the monster forced him to aim at the head of his boy; and he will keep his oath. His thoughts wander to and fro, but his volition is unalterable; the free and peaceful mountaineer is to become a shedder of blood: woe to them that have made him so! ”

“ To show his power Gessler set up a pole in the market place and on the top of the pole he placed his hat, and ordered everybody who [81] passed by to bow to the hat in order to show respect to the tyrant. The people were very much mortified at this, but they couldn’t help themselves, and so they took off their hats and bowed very low whenever they passed the pole with the hat on it.
One day a bold mountaineer came down into the village holding his little son by the hand. His name was William Tell. He marched with his head high up, and passed the pole without bowing to the hat of Gessler. ”

“ This, however, is only another way of saying what has often been pointed out, that Gessler is simply a fairy-tale tyrant, copied very closely from Tschudi; a sort of typical bad man, whom the saga, after inventing him out of nothing, has made as black as possible in order the more clearly and strongly to justify the revolt. And yet, in the play, Gessler never becomes entirely ridiculous ”

“ Gessler's head is set up here below, I saw it in the dream—Gessler is the greatest tyrant—I suffer under Gessler, William Tell is therefore the greatest tragedy in the world, on account of such personalities as Gessler—I shall tell you what he exacted of the people—he demanded that they should have always the same linen and clothing and never the smallest coin he was always for war, for battle—all cruelties, which these battles legalize—to cause, I suffer under Gessler, he is a tyrant, there are people who are quite inadmissible, of unnatural lack of reason and bloody cruelty. ”

“ Gessler's hatred of the people daily increased, and was constantly showing itself in every form of petty tyranny that a mean and wicked nature could devise. He noticed the growing discontent among the peasantry, but instead of trying to allay it, he determined to humiliate them still more. For this purpose he had a pole, surmounted by the ducal cap of Austria, erected in the market square of the village of Altdorf, and issued a command that all who passed it should bow before the symbol of imperial rule. ”

“ A certain brave Swiss, named William Tell, having refused to obey such an absurd order, was at once arrested and taken before Gessler. The tyrant, who knew him to be a clever archer, said that his life would be spared only on the condition that he should with an arrow hit an apple placed upon the head of his only son. ”

“ The death of Gessler was a signal to the Swiss to rise in revolt, and soon the whole country was up in arms against the Austrians. It had been chiefly the fear of the Governor that had prevented a rising before. It had been brewing for a long time. The people had been bound by a solemn oath to drive the enemy out of the country. All through Switzerland preparations for a revolution were going on, and nobles and peasants had united. ”

“ Gessler was not a nice man, and it soon became plain that he would never make himself really popular with the Swiss. The point on which they disagreed in particular was the question of taxes. The Swiss, who were a simple and thrifty people, objected to paying taxes of any sort. They said they wanted to spend their money on all kinds of other things. Gessler, on the other hand, wished to put a tax on everything, and, being Governor, he did it. He made everyone who owned a flock of sheep pay a certain sum of money to him ”

“ Many details are given of the oppressions of the bailiffs: we hear of Gessler, of the meeting of Stoupacher of Schwyz, Fürst of Uri, and a man of Nidwald at the Rütli, — in fact, the usual version of the legend. To give an instance of tyranny in Uri, the author tells us the story of the refusal of "der Thäll" to do reverence to the hat placed on a pole, of his feat of skill, and of his shooting the bailiff, Gessler, from behind a bush in the "hollow way" near Küssnacht. Tell is represented as being one of those who swore at the Rütli to drive out the oppressors ”

“ Not so with Gessler. He will make a stand.
Surrounded with his dread array of horse,
Blood will be shed before he quits the field,
And even expell'd he'd still be terrible.
'Tis hard, nay, dangerous, to spare his life.
BAUM.
Place me where'er a life is to be lost;
I owe my life to Tell, and cheerfully
Will pledge it for my country. I have clear'd
My honour, and my heart is now at rest.
REDING.
Counsel will come with circumstance. Be patient!
Something must still be to the moment left. ”

“ By remaining here quiet and concealed, till time allowed them to find fresh means of resisting their enemies, they hoped to escape Gessler’s notice; and accordingly they hastened to take shelter at Altdorf, with the brave William Tell, Bloomberg’s half-brother: here also they were sure of a powerful protector in the person of Walter Forest, a man whose situation and native greatness of mind struck awe into the bosom even of the insolent Gessler. ”

“ The inhuman Gessler scarcely permitted his prisoner the satisfaction of a parting embrace with Henric and Lalotte, ere he ordered him to be hurried on board a small vessel in which he embarked also with his armed followers. He commanded the crew to row to Brunnen, where it was his intention to land, and, passing through the territory of Schwyz, to lodge the captive Tell in the dungeon of Kussnacht, and there to immure him for life. ”

“ I will therefore pass over in silence the circumstances which followed their escape from the vessel, and those which again threw them into Gessler’s power. Suffice it to say, that the dart which the Avenger of human nature seemed to have reserved for that express purpose, the dart which Tell had shown Gessler, in the first burst of his indignation, that very dart pierced the tyrant’s bosom; 71and thus was Helvetia freed from a monster, who had laid waste her tranquil vallies with circumstances of much greater cruelty, than were ever attributed to fabled dragons in the Legends of Romance. ”

“ It was at this moment that Lieutenant-General Gessler, under whom is the Dragoon regiment Baireuth, who had kept his place in spite of Valori's message, determined on a thing,—advised to it by General Schmettau (younger Schmettau) , who was near. Gessler, as we saw, stood in the rear line, behind that gap (most likely one of several gaps, or wide spaces, left too wide, as we explained) ; Gessler, noticing the jumbly condition of those Austrian battalions, heaped now one upon another in this part,—motions to the Prussian Infantry to make what farther room is needful ”

“ Tell was left standing alone in the middle of the meadow by the pole. He scorned to run away like the others, but he did not at all like the look of things. Gessler was a stern man, quick to punish any insult, and there were two of his soldiers lying on the ground with their nice armour all spoiled and dented, and his own cap on top of the pole had an arrow right through the middle of it, and would never look the same again, however much it might be patched. ”

“ For after Gessler was killed, there was the whole army of Austria to be driven out."
"People needn't tell me that the story of William Tell and the apple is only a legend," exclaimed Franz. "I believe every word of it, don't you, Carl?"
"Indeed I do. Won't you tell us another story? Look! the sun is still high in the sky. We need not go home for an hour yet."
"Let me see, boys. Shall it be a tale of old Switzerland and of her struggles with her enemies?"
"Yes, yes," cried both boys. "We are never tired of hearing of the lives of our great men." ”

“ For himself, perhaps, he might take the chances of a fugitive in the mountains, but he cannot leave his wife and children exposed to Gessler's vengeful malice. There is no law to which he can appeal, the only law of the land being Gessler's will. In such a situation, clearly, there is no place for refined and chivalrous compunctions, or for ethical hair-splitting. Tell does what he must do. He is in the position of a man protecting his family from a savage or a dangerous beast, and is not called upon to risk his own life needlessly. Every reader of the old saga instinctively justifies him. ”

“ TELL.⁠The story of William Tell’s skill in shooting at and striking the apple which had been placed on the head of his little son by order of Gessler, the tyrannical Austrian bailiff of Uri, is so closely bound up with the legendary history of the origin of the Swiss Confederation that they must be considered together. ”

“ There is a tradition amongst the Swiss of the Canton of Uri, that the wife of the tyrant Gessler, disgusted at the atrocities perpetrated by her husband, fled him, and as she was of Swiss extraction, made a vow never to return to him. The tyrant, however, succeeded in capturing her; and the following verses record the dialogue, which is often repeated by the Swiss hearth, when the peasant recounts to his children the glories and achievements of William Tell. ”

“ One of the men who at that momentous assembly engaged each other by the pledge of “All for each and each for all,” was William Tell, a fisher of the lake and a hunter of chamois, of Bürglen, a half-hour from Altdorf in Uri, and a son-in-law of Walter Fürst. In the mean time, Gessler thought he perceived that the people walked abroad with more confidence, and carried in their looks a haughtier expression ”

“ Hear then, and mark me well; for thou wilt see, I long have known the grief that weighs thee down. The viceroy hates thee, fain would injure thee, For thou hast crossed his wish to bend the Swiss In homage to this upstart house of princes, And kept them stanch, like their good sires of old, In true allegiance to the empire. Say. Is't not so, Werner? Tell nee, am I wrong? STAUFFACHER. 'Tis even so. For this doth Gessler hate me. GERTRUDE. He burns with envy, too, to see thee living Happy and free on thy inheritance, For he has none. ”

“ It came to pass, shortly after the patriots had met on the Grütli, and before the time set for their uprisal, that Gessler, an Austrian bailiff, one of whose castles rose in sight of Hapsburg, determined to ascertain by a clever device how many men in Uri were loyal to his master. ”

“ From the emperor himself Thou holdest in fief the lands thy fathers left thee. There's not a prince in the empire that can show A better title to his heritage; For thou hast over thee no lord but one, And he the mightiest of all Christian kings. Gessler, we know, is but a younger son, His only wealth the knightly cloak he wears; He therefore views an honest man's good fortune With a malignant and a jealous eye. Long has he sworn to compass thy destruction As yet thou art uninjured. Wilt thou wait Till he may safely give his malice scope? A wise man would anticipate the blow. ”

“ Gessler, reflecting on the aspect of the people, and fearful that some plot was in progress, which his accidental shortness of provisions rendered more unfortunate, determined to rid his citadel of the object which might induce an attack. With this in view, he summoned Berenger, and said to him: "I am about to leave Altorf, and you shall command during my absence. I leave my brave soldiers, who will readily obey your voice; and soon, returning with supplies and reinforcements, we will crush this vile people, and punish them for their insolent murmurings. ”

“ There was a stir of excitement in the crowd, more particularly in that part of the crowd which stood on his right, for, his hand trembling for the first time in his life, Tell had pointed his arrow, not at his son, but straight into the heart of the crowd.
“Here! Hi! That's the wrong way! More to the left!” shouted the people in a panic, while Gessler roared with laughter, and bade Tell shoot and chance it.
“If you can't hit the apple or your son,” he chuckled, “you can bring down one of your dear fellow-countrymen. ”