Tell. My boy! my boy! my own brave boy!
He's safe! (Aside.)

Sar. (Aside to Gesler.)

Ges. Yet I see no sign

They're like each other.

Or recognition to betray the link
Unites a father and his child.

Sar My lord,

I am sure it is his father. Look at them.
It may be

A preconcerted thing 'gainst such a chance,
That they survey each other coldly thus.
Ges. We shall try. Lead forth the caitiff.
Sar. To a dungeon?

Ges. No; into the court.

Sar. The court, my lord?

Ges. And send

To tell the headsman to make ready. Quick!
The slave shall die! You marked the boy?

Sar. I did. He started; 't is his father.

Ges. We shall see. Away with him!

Tell. Stop! Stop!

Ges. What would you?

Tell. Time! A little time to call my thoughts together.

Ges. Thou shalt not have a minute.

Tell. Some one, then, to speak with.

Ges. Hence with him!

Tell. A moment! Stop!

Let me speak to the boy.

Ges. Is he thy son?

Tell. And if

He were, art thou so lost to nature, as
To send me forth to die before his face?

Ges. Well! speak with him.

Now, Sarnem, mark them well.

Tell. Thou dost not know me, boy; and well for thee

Thou dost not.

About thy age.

I'm the father of a son

Thou,

I see, wast born like him, upon the hills;

If thou should'st 'scape thy present thralldom, he
May chance to cross thee; if he should, I pray thee
Relate to him what has been passing here.

And say I laid my hand upon thy head,
And said to thee, if he were here, as thou art,

Thus would I bless him. Mayest thou live, my boy!
To see thy country free, or die for her,

As I do! (Albert weeps.)

Sar. Mark! he weeps.

Tell. Were he my son,

He would not shed a tear! He would remember
The cliff where he was bred, and learned to scan
A thousand fathoms' depth of nether air;
Where he was trained to hear the thunder talk,
And meet the lightning eye to eye; where last
We spoke together, when I told him death
Bestowed the brightest gem that graces life,
Embraced for virtue's sake. He shed a tear?
Now were he by, I'd talk to him, and his cheek
Should never blanch, nor moisture dim his eye-
I'd talk to him—

Sar. He falters!

Tell. 'Tis too much!

And yet it must be done! I'd talk to him

Ges. Of what?

Tell. The mother, tyrant, thou dost make

A widow of! I'd talk to him of her.
I'd bid him tell her, next to liberty,

Her name was the last word my lips pronounced.
And I would charge him never to forget
To love and cherish her, as he would have
His father's dying blessing rest upon him!
Sar. You see, as he doth prompt, the other acts.
Tell. So well he bears it, he doth +vanquish me.
My boy my boy! O for the hills, the hills,
To see him bound along their tops again,
With liberty.

Sar Was there not all the father in that look?

Ges. Yet 'tis 'gainst nature.

of

Not if he believes

To own the son would be to make him share
The father's death.

Ges. I did not think of that! 'Tis well

The boy is not thy son.
To die along with thee.

I've

destined him

Ges. For having braved my power, as thou hast. Lead Them forth.

Tell. He's but a child.

Ges. Away with them!

Tell. Perhaps an only child.

Ges. No matter.

Tell. He may have a mother.

Ges. So the viper hath;

And yet, who spares it for the mother's sake?

Tell. I talk to stone! I talk to it as though "T were flesh; and know 'tis none.

No more. Come, my boy,

I'll talk to it

I taught thee how to live, I'll show thee how to die.

Ges. He is thy child?

Tell. He is my child.

Ges. I've wrung a tear from him! Thy name?

Tell. My name?

It matters not to keep it from thee now;

My name is Tell.

Ges. Tell? William Tell?

Tell. The same.

Ges. What! he, so famed 'bove all his countrymen
For guiding o'er the stormy lake the boat?
And such a master of his bow, 't is said

His arrows never miss! Indeed! I'll take
+Exquisite vengeance! Mark! I'll spare thy life;
Thy boy's too; both of you are free; on one
Condition.

Tell. Name it.

Ges. I would see you make

A trial of your skill with that same bow

You shoot so well with.

Tell. Name the trial you

Would have me make.

Ges You look upon your boy

As though instinctively you guessed it.

Tell Look upon my boy? What mean you? Look upon
My boy as though I guessed it? Guessed the trial
You'd have me make? Guessed it

*Instinctively? You do not mean-no-no-
You would not have me make a trial of

My skill upon my child! Impossible!
I do not guess your meaning.

Ges. I would see

Thee hit an apple at the distance of

A hundred paces.

Tell. Is my boy to hold it?

Ges. No.

Tell. No? I'll send the arrow through the core !

Ges. It is to rest upon his head.

Tell. Great heaven, you hear him!

Ges. Thou dost hear the choice I give:

Such trial of the skill thou art master of,
Or death to both of you; not otherwise
To be escaped.

Alb. He does. (Gesler signs to his officers, who proceed to take off Tell's chains; Tell unconscious what they do.)

Tell. With his own hand?

Murder his child with his own hand?

This hand?

The hand I've led him, when an infant, by?

'Tis beyond horror! 'tis most horrible!

Amazement! (His chains fall off) What's that you've
done to me?

Villains! put on my chains again. My hands
Are free from blood, and have no gust for it,

That they should drink my child's! Here! here! I'll not
Murder my boy for Gesler.

Alb. Father! Father!

You will not hit me, father!

Tall. Hit thee? Send

The arrow through thy brain? Or, missing that,

Shoot out an eye? Or, if thine eye escape,

Mangle the cheek I've seen thy mother's lips

Cover with kisses? Hit thee?

Hit a hair

Of thee, and cleave thy mother's heart?

Ges. Dost thou consent?

Tell. Give me my bow and quiver.

Ges. For what?

Tell. To shoot my boy!

Alb. No, father, no!

To save me! you'll be sure to hit the apple.
Will you not save me, father?

You know for what? I will not make the trial,
To take him to his mother in my arms,

And lay him down a + corse before her.

Ges. Then he dies this moment, and you certainly
Do murder him whose life you have a chance
To save, and will not use it.

Tell. Well, I'll do it: I'll make the trial.
Alb. Father!

Tell. Speak not to me:

Let me not hear thy voice: thou must be dumb;
And so should all things be. Earth should be dumb;
And heaven-unless its thunders muttered at

The deed, and sent a bolt to stop it!

My bow and quiver!

Give me

Ges. When all's ready.

Tell. Well, lead on!,

KNOWLES.

QUESTIONS. Why does Gesler express joy that his subjects are unhappy? Why does Albert appear not to recognize his father? Why does Tell at last acknowledge Albert?

Parse the first two words in this lesson. Parse "to shoot" on the last "To take" and "lay."

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"To save 99 on the same.