The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-05-03


So Noon, unnoticed, seeks the western shore,
And man forgets that Noon returns no more.
NIGHT.
Night tappeth gently at a easement, cleaning
With the thin freight, Pickering faint and
BY which grsy-haird d man is sadly dreaming
Ger pleasures gone, as all lifes pleasures
go;
Night calls him to her, and he leaves his door
Silent and Oakland he returns no more.
The Legend of William Tell.
From the fifteenth to the eighteenth CEN
tury-that is to say, from it's first invention
until the introduction of criticism-the story
of Tell, Tells son, Gessler, and the celebrated
apple trick, seems to have found general cre-
dence. Indeed, it was not safe to express
any doubt on the subject; so much so that
Guilliamann, who, writing towards the end
of the sixteenth century, first discovered the
aneedotal character of the incidents, took
care, in publishing his history of ancient
Switzerland, to keep his discovery to himself.
GAS to what you ask me about Tell, he writes
to friend, although in my book on the
ancient history of Switzerland 1 have con-
formed to the vulgar tradition on the subject,
I must tell you that after mature reflection 1
look upon it all as pure fable, the more SO
as have not yet been able to find it men,
century old. The people of Uri are not agreed
as to when Tell lived, and they can give no
information as to his family or descendants,
though many families still subsist who figured
at the same period. r.g.r.
When, in the last century, Freudenberger
ventured to publish his famous pamphlet,
civilian Tell, Legend of Denmark, the
work was publicly burnt in the Altorf mar
ket-place by order of the magistrates of Uri.
La L. foI@, f
the Swiss legend has been. clearly demon
strated by the critics of Germany and Ger
man Switzerland and in the cantons most
interested in regarding William Tell as an
historic parsonage his mythical character is
now generally recognized. 1t was not until
very lately that any question of the genuine
ness and authenticity of the Tell legends was
raised in French Switzerland; but M. Rillett
de Candolle published last year at Geneva a
work on the "Origin of the Swiss Confedera-
ton, in which William Tell, as an actual
personality, is quite put an end to. The
legend of William Tell belongs to no fabu-
lous age. The Swiss chroniclers of the
fifteenth century were imprudent enough
to fix the precise date of the incidents, which
are alleged to have taken place in the year
1908. Yet no account of the incidents is to
be met with until more than a century and
half afterwards The battle of Morgarten,
themselves for ever from Austria, found three
contemporary historians but not one of them
has word to say about William Tells insur-
rection, which should have taken place only
seven years before, or of the feat of archery
by which that insurrection is held to have
been preceded. Nor in the absence of his
torians and chroniclers are there any contem-
porary poets in whose verses mention is made
of William Tell or of the Three SWISS On
fba tba Cf Iyoru oil 1o1 tba
subject is posterior to the earliest prose
chronicle.
The legendary stories out of which Schiller
formed the plot of his William Tell appeared
for the first time about the year 1470 in the
manuscript known as the "White Book. "
Until that time no one had ever heard of
William Tell or of the three Swiss patriots.
But the anonymous author of the ''White
Book" knew exactly what had taken place
for instance, that bailitf of Sarnen, named
Landenberg, had been ordered to seize the
oxen of a poor man belonging to Melchi
(whence "Melchthal"), and, being attacked
in the execution of his duty, had put the poor
mans eyes out; that various acts of oppres-
sion had been committed by an Austrian gov
ernor named Gessler; and that the victims of
these acts belonging to Obwald, Nidwald,
and Schwyz had formed league to resist
and overthrow the Austrian domination. For
the canton of Uri, the cradle of Helvetic
liberty, another anecdote had to be provided;
and the author of the "White Book" did not
hesitate to adapt one from the Danish, He
had read in the 'Danish History" of Saxo-
Grammaticus-an abridgment of which, in
German, was published in 143O-the story of
Toxic, one of King Harold's soldiers, who,
Boosting of his skill as an archer, was ordered
to shoot an apple from the head of his own
son. Substituting Tell for Toxic, Gessler
for Harold, and throwing in plenty of local
color, the author of the 'White Book" turned
the old Danish story into a capital story OF
Switzerland. The hat fixed on a pole, before
which all who passed were to bow, is an
effective detail added by the adapter himself,
whose tale is certainly more complete and fan
more dramatic than the one told by Saxo
EXAMINATIONS.
What, it will be asked, was the moral ori
gin of the anecdotes on Swiss affairs inserted
in the "White Book?" M. Hungerbulhei
and Professor Vaucher agree in attributine
their invention to political motive About
the middle of the fifteenth century the citizen
of Zurich were well-disposed towards Austria
and professed great contempt for the people
of Schwyz, with whom they were at war
Songs ridiculing the peasantry of Schwyz
were composed, and Canon Hemmerlin, in 6