Wilhelm Tell

by Friedrich Schiller from 1804

About

Schiller's final completed play (1804) dramatizes the Swiss legend of William Tell — the crossbowman forced to shoot an apple from his son's head by the Austrian tyrant Gessler, and his subsequent assassination of the tyrant that sparks Switzerland's liberation. The play became the great anthem of German liberal nationalism: at a time when Germany was occupied by Napoleon and dreaming of freedom, Schiller gave them a myth of popular resistance rooted in community courage rather than heroic individual action. Rossini's opera William Tell (1829) used it as libretto. The play remains a stirring, formally accomplished statement of the Romantic republican ideal.

Translated from the original German.

Tragedy History Play Romantic Defiant Moving Solemnen

Wilhelm Tell

Characters: 58
Words: 20.9k
Acts: 5
Duration: ~2 hr 37 min

Characters

#CharacterPlayerLines

1

WILHELM TELL

—

120

2

WERNER STAUFFACHER

—

100

3

WALTER FURST

—

90

4

ARNOLD OF MELCHTHAL

—

63

5

ULRICH VON RUDENZ

—

42

6

HEDWIG

—

40

7

HERMANN GESSLER

—

31

8

FISHERMAN

—

27

15 sections

20.9k words

#TitleWords

Act I

1

Act I. Scene I.

9397:03

2

Act I. Scene II.

9677:15

3

Act I. Scene III.

7635:43

4

Act I. Scene IV.

2k14:52

Act II

5

Act II. Scene I.

1.4k10:50

6

Act II. Scene II.

3.6k26:41

Act III

7

Act III. Scene I.

7305:29

8

Act III. Scene II.

1.1k8:17

9

Act III. Scene III.

2.3k17:36

Act IV

10

Act IV. Scene I.

1.6k11:50

11

Act IV. Scene II.

1.1k8:29

12

Act IV. Scene III.

1.1k8:18

Act V

13

Act V. Scene I.

1.8k13:10

14

Act V. Scene II.

1.4k10:28

15

Act V. Scene III.

1200:54

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