William Tell

“ All the girls have to split every waltz."
Bewildering dream of bliss! Somebody, recovering from the contemplation, wanted to know what "William Tell" would be like with only men in it?
"Oh, I've talked that all over with J. B." said Mazie. "It was his suggestion, you know. They gave it at college, his senior year, and, of course, all the parts were done by men. He said it was simply great. It's a take-off of the real 'William Tell.' What do you think? Doctor Vardaman [Pg 143] asked if it was the real 'Tell,' and he said there was a beautiful adagio for the horn in the overture! ”

“ The ancient friendship established between the families of William Tell and Henric Melthal was kept up by their descendants in all its original vigour. A son of that Alwyn Melthal, who played the chief part at the capture of Rassburg, was still alive, and nearly of the same age with that old relation of William Tell, whom I formerly mentioned. Both these venerable men were still fresh and hearty in spite 318of their advanced time of life; such is indeed the natural effect of breathing the pure mountain air, and living far from the vices and excesses of cities. ”

“ The love of the marvellous is a characteristic trait of the middle-ages, and yet the poetical story of William Tell has left no vestige in the annals of his cotemporaries! It does not appear in the chronicle of Zürich of 1479, where even the name of William Tell is not cited. ”

“ However it is far from being the fact that all the historical works written by the cotemporaries of this hero have been destroyed or buried in oblivion. Freudenberger, in his Danish Fable, has cited several of them. Franz Guillimann, in his work De rebus Helveticis, published at Fribourg in 1598, inserted the history of William Tell, although he regarded it as a mixture of fiction and probable facts, or rather as a conventional truth that does not bear examination; for he casts a doubt upon the very existence of the personage whose memory the Swiss people honour as their liberator. ”

“ A. M. Lemierre with his tragedy of Guillaume Tell (1766) ; Schiller with a tragedy in German, Wilhelm Tell (1804) ; Knowles with a tragedy in English, William Tell (1840) ; and Rossini with the opera of Guglielmo Tell, in Italian (1829) .
Tellus’s Son, Antæos, son of Posei ́don and Gê, a giant wrestler of Lib ́ya, whose strength was irresistible so long as he touched his mother (earth) . Herculês, knowing this, lifted him into the air, and crushed him to death. Near the town of Tingis, in Mauritania, is a hill in the shape of a man, called “The Hill of Antæos,” and said to be his tomb. ”

“ Why does a man who holds his own obstinately against every opponent in all the ordinary arguments of life submit to everything you tell him after he has made himself passive for a minute and you have performed a little hocus-pocus of passes over his face? The philosophy of the subject probably lies in the direction of Messrs. Myers's, Binet's, and Janet's researches into the different strata of which personality consists. The hypnotic stratum must be thrown uppermost, as in the trance; or in some way the suggestion must penetrate to it and tap it, or there will be no effect. ”

“ TELL stands with his body bent forwards, as though he would follow the arrow. His bow drops from his hand. When he sees the boy advancing, he hastens to meet him with open arms, and embracing him passionately sinks down with him quite exhausted. All crowd round them deeply affected. BERTHA. Oh, ye kind heavens! FURST (to father and son) . My children, my dear children! STAUFFACHER. God be praised! LEUTHOLD. Almighty powers! That was a shot indeed! It will be talked of to the end of time. HARRAS. This feat of Tell, the archer, will be told While yonder mountains stand upon their base. ”

“ TELL.
I may preserve you from the Viceroy's power,
But from the tempest's rage another must.
Yet better 'tis you fall into God's hands,
Than into those of men.
[To the herdsman.]
Herdsman, do thou
Console my wife if I should come to grief.
I could not choose but do as I have done.
[He leaps into the boat.]
KUONI (to the fisherman) .
A pretty man to keep a ferry, truly!
What Tell could risk, you dared not venture on.
RUODI.
Far better men would never cope with Tell.
There's no two such as he 'mong all our hills.
WERNI (who has ascended a rock) . ”

“ The setting for "Tell" was the same throughout its two acts as I recall, a Swiss picture with Alps in the background, canvas trees and foliage to the front, and a "practicable" well with a gigantic sweep, whence they brought up pails of water and diluted the contents of Tell's milk-cans—he was a dairyman in the burlesque; this was the Schactenthal Waterfall, and was the subject of many noble apostrophes from all the actors; even Gessler and Jemmy had something to say about it. There was a trap-door in the floor of the stage and a servant stood to hand up buckets as they were needed. ”

“ In his Wilhelm Tell, instead of the hero of liberty and of Switzerland, he has given us little more than a sturdy peasant, who, in destroying Gessler, follows only a personal revenge, and feels the remorse of a common assassin. If this were historic truth, it was not the part of the poet to be the first to discover and proclaim it. Was he to degrade the character below the rank which ordinary historians assigned to it? We do not want a drama to frame the portrait of a Lincolnshire farmer; it is the place, if place there is, for the representation of the higher forms of humanity. ”

“ Let's remember, fellows, that Ted and his crowd must be somewhere about up here. And you know from past experiences what dodges he's up to when he wants to play a trick on anybody."
"Do you mean he'd like to draw us off by shouting that way, while some of his fellows went along to the farmhouse, and got the lost boy?" asked William.
"That would be just like Ted. He's as full of tricks as an egg is of meat," Jack took it upon himself to say at this juncture.
"Well, what are we going to do about it, boys?" asked Wallace.
"I leave it to Paul ”

“ Seeing, however, in the glass Ted's face of angry consternation, she flashed round on him tartly yet condescendingly.
"It is no use trying to hurry Dinas. They are country people, not like London or Blackborough. This is not Williams and Edwards, or such like place, I can tell you." ”

“ As far as the diction itself is concerned, the lyric outbursts of the chorus gave Schiller's genius an opportunity of which he was not slow to avail himself. In the poet's last completed drama, Wilhelm Tell (1804) , he once more, as in Wallenstein, chose a historical subject involving wide issues. Wilhelm Tell is the drama of the Swiss people; its subject is less the personal fate of its hero than the struggle of a nation to free itself from tyranny. ”

“ They'd be afraid of running into other people."
So Ted even dallied for a while. Some of the angry words uttered reached his ears and delighted him.
"Hi Martin is hot with wrath, and I'm glad of it," chuckled Ted to himself. "So he thought I'd spare him, did he! Huh! The next time he'd better be a little more careful over his remarks about 'mucker' schools!"
Then Ted walked on again leisurely.
"I believe I'll let these fellows stay here until about dark, hunting for their clothes, and not finding 'em," reflected Teall. "Then I'll have Ed Payne drop around and tell 'em just where to look. ”

“ Baby William thought he was going to have a good time. He had wandered out of the house when his mother was not looking. Seeing Ted, Janet and the cowboys down by the corral, he made up his mind that was the place for him.
[155] "Maybe I get a horse wide," he said to himself, for he was about as eager over horses as his sister or brother, and, so far, the only rides he had had were when he sat in the saddle in front with them or with his father, and went along very slowly indeed. For they dared not let the horse go fast when Trouble was with them, and Trouble wanted to go fast. ”

“ Yes, you have found one!” he went on, when he reached Baby William’s side. He saw the little boy sitting down in a grassy hollow, and near him, slowly crawling, was a mud turtle—much larger than the one Trouble had found that morning and put in Teddy’s cot.
“Oh, that’s dandy!” cried Ted. “We’ll keep ’em both, and maybe we can get up a show with ’em. Come on, Trouble. ”

“ I picture Tell as an heroic man, possessed of native strength, but contented with himself, and in a state of childish unconsciousness. He traverses the Canton as a carrier, and is everywhere known and beloved, everywhere ready with his assistance. ”

“ It troubled Ted to think that an honest, patriotic man, such as their host appeared to be, should place his "peace" above his duty to in [Pg 254] form against the hiding slackers, but he took comfort in the thought that the fugitives from the draft would not long be left in quiet possession of Deserters' Island.
"Mr. Smith won't tell on 'em," he whispered to Hubert after they had gone to bed, "but just wait till we get home. Uncle Walter will have the sheriff starting into this swamp in a day's time." ”

“ William was about twenty-seven years of age, of a dark hue, and of a courageous bearing. On the score of treatment he spake thus: "I have been treated as bad as a man could be." Emma, his wife, had seen about the same number of years that he had, and her lot had been similar to his. Emma said, "My master never give me the second dress, never attempted such a thing." The master was called Bushong Blake. William was owned by a Mr. Tubman. After leaving Slavery, William changed his last name to Williams, and if he and his wife are now living, they are known only by their adopted names. ”

“ Dell went on gently. “Some time later, but not now. Now—if you stop work for an instant we're lost. You've got to go on making money. I'm afraid it's like that, Bob. Being married, I mean.” He said nothing. “I've been thinking, too,” Dell continued. “My plan is, let's go up to Boston and take a studio apartment. It's cheaper than New York, and I've got a lot of college friends there; people who would help us. I'll arrange an exhibit of your work and we'll sell something, I'm sure. Then, too, there's Myra Tell. They've loads of money, and they want a portrait of the grandmother. ”

“ Here is my head, over which no prince, no monarch, has power but yourselves. Dispose of it for your good, for the preservation of your republic, but if you judge that the moderate amount of experience and industry which is in me, if you judge that the remainder of my property and of my life can yet be of service to you, I dedicate them afresh to you and to the country."
Such was the spirit in which William encountered the dastardly menaces of Philip. The true temper of the man and the true lesson of his life are exhibited in these touching words. ”

“ Unless he has within him that divine spark of genius for his life work, he will continue to belong to the great majority of mediocre humanity, instead of climbing up the ladder of endeavor until he is able to command a view of affairs that will give him that grasp on the rounds of events that nothing can loosen. In reviewing the career and achievements of John H. Tole, of the Liberty Lumber Company and vice president and director of the Liberty State Bank, the above facts are given prominence for he has proven their truth. ”

“ Even after he had seen Della Benedict again his purpose did not consciously alter. The grown-up Dell was sweet and clever and desirable, and if he had been settled in a good business—but he wasn't; he was an artist, and he knew well that artists should not marry. ”

“ None but he in his time, or for long afterwards, could have written to the magistracy of Middleburg in language which takes us at once from the age of Philip and the Inquisition into the region of ideas not too readily accepted after three centuries have passed: "We declare to you that you have no right to trouble yourselves with any man's conscience so long as nothing is done to cause private harm or public scandal." We are content to leave the character of William the Silent to be judged by these remarkable words. ”

“ I'm plain Tom Telford still; but you've got a handle to your name now, Mr Dalzell.'
"My messmates laughed heartily, and Tom was desired to come down to the berth, where he shook me heartily by the hand, and wished me all manner of success, and then tossed off a tumbler of strong grog in the most approved fashion: nose invisible—eyes raised heavenward—out-stretched little finger—gurgling noise in the throat, ending with a suffocating gasp of enjoyment, and a sweeping over his mouth with the cuff of his jacket. ”

“ There are few places in the world, perhaps, where an interval of three eventful centuries has wrought such slight material changes as the little Dutch town in which William the Silent was murdered, and in whose noble church he lies buried. ”

“ They had lost the father of their country, "Father William," as his people affectionately and gratefully called him, and the hand that had struck the blow was bribed by the treasure of Spain. The descendants of those little children who shed tears when William died need, however, shed no tears to-day. It is the deliverance of their country that they are gathered to commemorate, and their gratitude for the achievement whose results they still enjoy will assuage their mourning for the man whose life and death assured their freedom. ”

“ Ted followed readily enough, for, though older, he was no heavier than Hubert, and was even more active; but he lingered behind to watch and softly encourage July. Because of his far greater weight and the bending of the branches beneath him, the negro might well hesitate and move cautiously. He soon saw that his only hope was in a bold leap into the branches of the neighboring tree, trusting to his quick, firm grasp to arrest his descent to the ground. ”