I'll send the feather from my Hat!
Who knows－but at the sight of that
My Sovereign will relent?
As trinket－worn by faded Child－
Confronting eyes long－comforted－
Blisters the Adamant!
Who knows－but at the sight of that
My Sovereign will relent?
As trinket－worn by faded Child－
Confronting eyes long－comforted－
Blisters the Adamant!
(F.196/J.687)
[1] I:: William Tell.
[3] My Sovereign:: Hermann Gessler.
[4] faded Child:: Tell's son seeing from a hundred paces away.
[5] comforted:: the son comforted his father.
[6] Adamant:: the rigidness of Gessler.
GESS. Since thou canst hit an apple on a tree a hundred paces off, I'll have thee show thy mastery before me. Take thy bow — Thou hast it there at hand, and make thee ready to shoot an apple — upon that boy's head! . . .
TELL. No, no, my Lord, you surely could not mean it. Forbid it, gracious God, that seriously you could require it at a father's hand. . . . You have no children, sir. You cannot know the strong emotion of a father's heart. . . .
WALTER. (under the lime tree.) Shoot, father, shoot! I fear me not.
─ William Tell: A Play (1829) By Friedrich Schiller
