Translated, with an introduction and notes, by Francis Lamport

Many people know the story of William Tell shooting the apple from his son’s head, but few the context in which it happened. In William Tell, Schiller’s last completed play, this context – the struggle of the liberation of Switzerland from Austrian tyranny – is conveyed in fast-paced action. Tell is the model of the unpolitical citizen living peacefully under authoritarian rule, until he feels its injustice touch him personally. The chain of events then unleashed sets in motion a large cast of representative characters in a play that encompasses domestic human drama and action on an historic scale.

William Tell appeared in translation throughout the world as the archetypal dramatic expression of national liberation.

Published by Libris in 2005