William Tell (The Heritage Press)

160 pp. Translated from the German in the original meter by Theodore Martin, with an introductory essay by Thomas Carlyle and illustrations by Rafaello Busoni. "Friedrich Schiller's 1804 eponymous play about the legendary marksman William Tell plays an important part in the modern history of Europe, dealing with the very political question of tyrannicide. William Tell had become a hero of the French revolution in the wake of the 1766 play by Antoine-Marin Lemierre, and as the revolutionary armies overran Switzerland, Tell became the symbol of the short-lived Helvetic Republic. Johann Wolfgang Goethe eventually inspired his friend Schiller to the task. He wrote the play in 1803-04, and it had its debut performance on March 17, 1804, in Weimar. Gioacchino Rossini in turn used Schiller's play as the basis for his 1829 opera William Tell. Adolf Hitler was enthusiastic about Schiller's play, quoting it in his Mein Kampf, and approving of a German/Swiss co-production of the play where Hermann Goring's mistress (later wife) appeared as Tell's wife. From 1938, however, following the assassination attempt by young Swiss Maurice Bavaud (who was later dubbed a 'New William Tell' by Rolf Hochhuth), Hitler had the play banned for its subversive qualities. At a banquet in 1942, Hitler is reported to have exclaimed: 'Why did Schiller have to immortalize that Swiss sniper!'. Schiller's play was performed at Interlaken (the Tellspiele) in the summers of 1912 to 1914, 1931 to 1939 and every year since 1947. In 2004 it was first performed in Altdorf itself."