, 1875-03-14
ruE FAJIE OF WHLIAE TELL

rUE FAGLE OF WILLIAM TELL
ANCIENT historians wero, RI rule, moro O
or4to,s than of ctitics- Modern historians car.
less for eloauence than for truth and whe1s
fhev do not, 1t is II the risk OF their reputation
T., the world OF letters, The marvellous ma.
safety men wbo have not "a yet attained to an,
correct idea Of the reign OF Law, in human n
tu;e ~ in the rest ct creation It ia looked upo1
Nth suspicon by thoss who have, and admitted
when as z:i. only af;+T *';e most searching
scrutiny. Tho ages Of fab!e and periods OF IN
doubted hiatorY are no longer confounded
1conoelastao critics are everywhere busy destroy
INK tho snpe1human heroes Of evory conntryt
ea1tx timcs, Or explaining away their existence
Hescules, Theseu., Romulns. and Rcmus, and 4
hest OF others, have been releEated to the region
or poetry by the close students Of Grscian and
Roman history.
For many Of the. famous characters
thus resolved into Tin mir we feel q
genuine regret; but for no ous Of them 40 we
10 sor:oe "a for tho Intrepid Tell YET WITH
him, too, VIC must part. Our only conso'aaon u
that, .tnmortalized by Schiller. possry VII! eFee
claim him as her own, and that humanity Will
cherisa him "a ono OF her ideals thing still OF
aesh and blood, since although he never had
.ny xea1 he;nc. lie is real human creation.
The critical study Of the origin Of the 6riss
confederat;on. br such men as Albert Miliet,
Hcn+; no,df,r: Secretan, Vancher, Hungeroueh-
~ Eo,n Ures sni Ma1c-Monnier, h.s e1-
nloded The story Of Tell Fifty years Ego the
h;stnrv Of Switzerland iavari&bly began NTH two
1ore,,ds: that Of the three Swiss aud that Of
wi1I,.m Tell It would then hare been VEN
turescme thing to question them. They wero
rcyercd Is sacred. 4 century or more previous
It would have been = still more dangerous
attempt. Yet, even then, there we're those
rho did not tttach full faith to
them. Guiliman, historian, who
.v1ots "An Ancient History Of Switzerland
xbout tha end Of the sixteenth century, rea the
frst to express doubts Us to their truth but
this he did, not in his history, but in letter to
friend He says: "As to your inquiry about
Tell. although in my book on the ancient history
pf Switzerland have conforned ia all that
soocar7s him to tho vulgar tradition, must
saT, that, after mature reflection, consider the
whole story pure fable, and all tho more as
h.ys not get been sble to discover writer or I
csroniclor more thsn ceatury old that menious
among themselves as to the place whers Tell
GTeQ 2UU lucy AAfc LII AAAS4AA4A+40A NA1sF%oRCA
10 give concerning hls family or his descendants,
although many other families which ascsnd to
tie eAme epoch ere still in existence"
Guil};gna1i was rise In his rcsiceuce; for
when. 1ates, Frendenberger published bis pam
ph1et, "Tllliam Tell: 4 Danish Fablo," hia
little work was burned publicly at A:orf By
c1dor Of the Magistrates OF Uri. Tbe Swiss OF
to-1sy are less sensitive ~ 1egards their tabn-
lons hero Prof. Kopp. Of Luzerne, althoughin in
his h.rtory Of the federal alliance ha rejected
III the popular beliefs Of his couutr1men relative
to thei1 ancient history, waa honored by them in
l;fe eS his memory is among them ainee he has
gone- After his day. there hars been other
cleaners in this 6cld Of history, and to their
labo1s it ia owing tAat in the learned world
there are no more believers in the beautiful
story Of William Tell. Tho poeta a1ons will not
let hin die.
But il the story Of cur hero be fiction, how
did it arise, and what can be made to take its
place? These two questions II. nilliet has
answered,-the first by tracing the history Of the
fablo itself from its beginning, thtongh all its
changes till it became crFstal1ized BY Mueller in
prose- snd inmostalized in verso by Schiller.
It WAS not the popular fancy tha: gave birth to
The history Of William Tell. Il it we're, 1t would
not be entirely base1ess- The popular fancy does
not, IS II. Marc-Mounier remarks, invent every
thing. 1t NAV cubellish; but under the enbel-
lishmsnts there is kernel Of fact. This does
not seem to have been the Case in the instance Of
William Tell, and this bo very aptly illustrates by
The nyths concerning GAnbalh among the laz-
ka.oui OF Nsples- Before his arrival there it
was tho belief among them that he had accom-
plished many feat worthy Of Hercules. It
vas told how ha had swan to, boarded, and, sim
gle handed, captured, British vessel; how ct
Fllle1i he had only to show himself on his whlte
charger to put ferdinand II. and the snisa to
fight; how nothing could burt him how the
balls we1e stopped iu the folds OF his red ahirt,
snd how, by shaking himself after battle they
Few III about him like leaden halstonos, bow,
one day, leaving Sicily, he came into the 1niddle
ot the Bar OF Naples in his schooner and took
possession OF the Royal feet, etc, etc-
Il such thing be possible in our oRn days
snnong the pncultirated, re may be surs it was
much mora 50 in times past But it does not
seem that it vas with tbs people that the Tell
myth originated. The beginning Of the story is
not lost in antiquity. Chronology has assigned
TIE year 1903 - that in which Tell uaDortal:zed
himself. Switzerland at this time, or rather |
Khat Was Afterwards to become Switzerland, was |
not N unknown regioa- It hHd Its converts, |
its MONKS, and .te archives. It was not wanting |
h chrcnicle1s. Hence it as inferred that ii Tell
really lived and accomplished the e1ploita for !
which he is famed, he would have found some !
body contemporary with himself to record them.
10 snch pe1eon il, however, to b discovered. |
And this ia all the more probable, since only !
seven yeAra later, in 1876, when the mon Of |
schwyz {schwyz Uri, and UnterWa}den are the |
aAmes OF the th1eo FIRST confederate Cantons) |
~ou the victory ct h.rgarten, there
vses instantly found three ehronlcjers
to preserve ihs memory OF their deeds:
John Of Tictrng, Matthew OF Nsuenbarg, |
md John Of Winterthur. It il remark
shls tact, and one we'll worthy Of mention. that
not one Of these men ever heard Of William Tell /
q Of ths thres Swiss. Nor is it only the chroni-
e3an that are silent about Tell No poet chants
hin praises before the second ha1t Of the nj
teenth century. It would even seem that tbs
1ahle did not originate in Switzerland 1t ALL It
appeared for the frat time about 1870. in the
manuscript OF SsrncD, called the White Book
an account OF its binding P1svious 10 this
tine tho existence of Tel had nsrer bean so
u !