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A lime tree in front of STAUFFACHER’S house at Steinen, in Schwytz, upon the public road, near a bridge
WERNER STAUFFACHER and PFEIFFER, of Lucerne, enter into conversation
Pfeiff. Ay, ay, friend Stauffacher, as I have said, | |
| Swear not to Austria, if you can help it. | |
| Hold by the Empire stoutly as of yore, | |
| And God preserve you in your ancient freedom! [Presses his hand warmly, and is going. | |
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| Stauff. Wait till my mistress comes. Now do! You are | 5 |
| My guest in Schwytz—I in Lucerne am yours. | |
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| Pfeiff. Thanks! thanks! But I must reach Gersau to-day. | |
| Whatever grievances your rulers’ pride | |
| And grasping avarice may yet inflict, | |
| Bear them in patience—soon a change may come. | 10 |
| Another emperor may mount the throne. | |
| But Austria’s once, and you are hers for ever. [Exit. [STAUFFACHER sits down sorrowfully upon a bench under the lime tree. GERTRUDE, his wife, enters, and finds him in this posture. She places herself near him, and looks at him for some time in silence. | |
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| Gert. So sad, my love! I scarcely know thee now. | |
| For many a day in silence I have mark’d | |
| A moody sorrow furrowing thy brow. | 15 |
| Some silent grief is weighing on thy heart. | |
| Trust it to me. I am thy faithful wife, | |
| And I demand my half of all thy cares. [Stauffacher gives her his hand and is silent. | |
| Tell me what can oppress thy spirits thus? | |
| Thy toil is blest—the world goes well with thee— | 20 |
| Our barns are full—our cattle, many a score; | |
| Our handsome team of well-fed horses, too, | |
| Brought from the mountain pastures safely home, | |
| To winter in their comfortable stalls. | |
| There stands thy house—no nobleman’s more fair! | 25 |
| ’Tis newly built with timber of the best, | |
| All grooved and fitted with the nicest skill; | |
| Its many glistening windows tell of comfort! | |
| ’Tis quarter’d o’er with’ scutcheons of all hues, | |
| And proverbs sage, which passing travellers | 30 |
| Linger to read, and ponder o’er their meaning. | |
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| Stauff. The house is strongly built, and handsomely, | |
| But, ah! the ground on which we built it quakes. | |
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| Gert. Tell me, dear Werner, what you mean by that? | |
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| Stauff. No later gone than yesterday, I sat | 35 |
| Beneath this linden, thinking with delight, | |
| How fairly all was finished, when from Küssnacht | |
| The Viceroy and his men came riding by. | |
| Before this house he halted in surprise: | |
| At once I rose, and, as beseemed his rank, | 40 |
| Advanced respectfully to greet the lord, | |
| To whom the Emperor delegates his power, | |
| As judge supreme within our Canton here. | |
| “Who is the owner of this house?” he asked, | |
| With mischief in his thoughts, for well he knew. | 45 |
| With prompt decision, thus I answered him: | |
| “The Emperor, your grace—my lord and yours, | |
| And held by me in fief.” On this he answered, | |
| “I am the Emperor’s viceregent here, | |
| And will not that each peasant churl should build | 50 |
| At his own pleasure, bearing him as freely | |
| As though he were the master in the land. | |
| I shall make bold to put a stop to this!” | |
| So saying, he, with menaces, rode off, | |
| And left me musing with a heavy heart | 55 |
| On the fell purpose that his words betray’d. | |
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| Gert. My own dear lord and husband! Wilt thou take | |
| A word of honest counsel from thy wife? | |
| I boast to be the noble Iberg’s child, | |
| A man of wide experience. Many a time, | 60 |
| As we sat spinning in the winter nights, | |
| My sisters and myself, the people’s chiefs | |
| Were wont to gather round our father’s hearth, | |
| To read the old imperial charters, and | |
| To hold sage converse on the country’s weal. | 65 |
| Then heedfully I listened, marking well | |
| What now the wise man thought, the good man wished, | |
| And garner’d up their wisdom in my heart. | |
| Hear then, and mark me well; for thou wilt see, | |
| I long have known the grief that weighs thee down. | 70 |
| The Viceroy hates thee, fain would injure thee, | |
| For thou hast cross’d his wish to bend the Swiss | |
| In homage to this upstart house of princes, | |
| And kept them staunch, like their good sires of old, | |
| In true allegiance to the Empire. Say, | 75 |
| Is’t not so, Werner? Tell me, am I wrong? | |
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| Stauff. ’Tis even so. For this doth Gessler hate me. | |
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| Gert. He burns with envy, too, to see thee living | |
| Happy and free on thine ancestral soil, | |
| For he is landless. From the Emperor’s self | 80 |
| Thou hold’st in fief the lands thy fathers left thee. | |
| There’s not a prince i’ 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. | 85 |
| 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. | 90 |
| As yet thou art uninjured. Wilt thou wait | |
| Till he may safely give his malice vent? | |
| A wise man would anticipate the blow. | |
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| Stauff. What’s to be done? | |
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| Gert. Now hear what I advise. | 95 |
| Thou knowest well, how here with us in Schwytz | |
| All worthy men are groaning underneath | |
| This Gessler’s grasping, grinding tyranny. | |
| Doubt not the men of Unterwald as well, | |
| And Uri, too, are chafing like ourselves, | 100 |
| At this oppressive and heart-wearying yoke. | |
| For there, across the lake, the Landenberg | |
| Wields the same iron rule as Gessler here— | |
| No fishing-boat comes over to our side, | |
| But brings the tidings of some new encroachment, | 105 |
| Some fresh outrage, more grievous than the last. | |
| Then it were well, that some of you—true men— | |
| Men sound at heart, should secretly devise, | |
| How best to shake this hateful thraldom off. | |
| Full sure I am that God would not desert you, | 110 |
| But lend His favour to the righteous cause. | |
| Has thou no friend in Uri, one to whom | |
| Thou frankly may’st unbosom all thy thoughts? | |
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| Stauff. I know full many a gallant fellow there, | |
| And nobles, too,—great men, of high repute, | 115 |
| In whom I can repose unbounded trust. [Rising. | |
| Wife! What a storm of wild and perilous thoughts | |
| Hast thou stirr’d up within my tranquil breast! | |
| The darkest musings of my bosom thou | |
| Hast dragg’d to light, and placed them full before me; | 120 |
| And what I scarce dared harbour e’en in thought, | |
| Thou speakest plainly out with fearless tongue. | |
| But hast thou weigh’d well what thou urgest thus? | |
| Discord will come, and the fierce clang of arms, | |
| To scare this valley’s long unbroken peace, | 125 |
| If we, a feeble shepherd race, shall dare | |
| Him to the fight, that lords it o’er the world. | |
| Ev’n now they only wait some fair pretext | |
| For setting loose their savage warrior hordes, | |
| To scourge and ravage this devoted land, | 130 |
| To lord it o’er us with the victor’s rights, | |
| And, ’neath the show of lawful chastisement, | |
| Despoil us of our chartered liberties. | |
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| Gert. You, too are men; can wield a battle axe | |
| As well as they. God ne’er deserts the brave. | 135 |
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| Stauff. Oh wife! a horrid, ruthless fiend is war, | |
| That smites at once the shepherd and his flock. | |
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| Gert. Whate’er great Heaven inflicts, we must endure; | |
| But wrong is what no noble heart will bear. | |
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| Stauff. This house—thy pride—war, unrelenting war | 140 |
| Will burn it down. | |
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| Gert. And did I think this heart | |
| Enslaved and fettered to the things of earth, | |
| With my own hand I’d hurl the kindling torch. | |
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| Stauff. Thou hast faith in human kindness, wife; but war | 145 |
| Spares not the tender infant in its cradle. | |
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| Gert. There is a Friend to innocence in heaven. | |
| Send your gaze forward, Werner—not behind. | |
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| Stauff. We men may die like men, with sword in hand; | |
| But oh, what fate, my Gertrude, may be thine? | 150 |
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| Gert. None are so weak, but one last choice is left | |
| A spring from yonder bridge and I am free! | |
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| Stauff. (embracing her). Well may he fight for hearth and home, that clasps | |
| A heart so rare as thine against his own! | |
| What are the host of emperors to him? | 155 |
| Gertrude, farewell! I will to Uri straight. | |
| There lives my worthy comrade, Walter Fürst; | |
| His thoughts and mine upon these times are one. | |
| There, too, resides the noble Banneret | |
| Of Attinghaus. High though of blood he be, | 160 |
| He loves the people, honours their old customs. | |
| With both of these I will take counsel, how | |
| To rid us bravely of our country’s foe. | |
| Farewell! and while I am away, bear thou | |
| A watchful eye in management at home. | 165 |
| The pilgrim journeying to the house of God, | |
| And holy friar, collecting for his cloister, | |
| To these give liberally from purse and garner. | |
| Stauffacher’s house would not be hid. Right out | |
| Upon the public way it stands, and offers | 170 |
| To all that pass a hospitable roof. [While they are retiring, TELL enters with BAUMGARTEN. | |
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| Tell. Now, then, you have no further need of me. | |
| Enter yon house. ’Tis Werner Stauffacher’s, | |
| A man that is a father to distress. | |
| See, there he is, himself! Come, follow me. [They retire up. Scene changes. | 175 |
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