Well, why laugh at that?
2ND W.
Keep Uri, will you, with this paltry place!
1ST W.
How many molehills such as that must first
Be piled up each on each, ere you make
A mountain equal to the least in Uri?
[Taskmaster retires up the stage.]
MAS. M.
I'll drown the mallet in the deepest lake,
That served my hand on this accursed pile.
[Enter Tell and Stauffacher.]
STAUFF.
O, that I had not lived to see this sight!
TELL.
Here 'tis not good to be. Let us proceed.
STAUFF.
Am I in Uri,-Uri, freedom's home?
MAS. M.
O, sir, if you could only see the vaults
Beneath these towers. The man that tenants them
Will ne'er hear cock crow more.
STAUFF.
O God! O God!
MASON.
Look at these ramparts and these buttresses,
That seem as they were built to last for ever.
TELL.
What hands have built, my friend, hands can destroy.
[Pointing to the mountains.]
[A drum is heard. People enter bearing a cap upon a pole, followed by
a crier. Women and children thronging tumultuously after them.]
1ST W.
What means the drum? Give heed!
MASON.
Why, here's a mumming!
And look, the cap-what can they mean by that?
CRIER.
In the Emperor's name, give ear!
WORK.
Hush! silence! hush!
CRIER.
Ye men of Uri, ye do see this cap!
It will be set upon a lofty pole
In Altdorf, in the market place: and this
Is the Lord Governor's good will and pleasure;
The cap shall have like honour as himself,
All do it reverence with bended knee,
And head uncovered; thus the king will know
Who are his true and loyal subjects here;
His life and goods are forfeit to the crown
That shall refuse obedience to the order.
[The people burst out into laughter. The drum beats and the procession
passes on.]
1ST W.
A strange device to fall upon indeed:
Do reverence to a cap! A pretty farce!
Heard ever mortal anything like this?
MAS. M.
Down to a cap on bended knee, forsooth!
Rare jesting this with men of sober sense!
1ST W.
Nay, an it were the imperial crown! A cap!
Merely the cap of Austria! I've seen it
Hanging above the throne in Gessler's hall.
MASON.
The cap of Austria? Mark that! A snare
To get us into Austria's power, by Heaven!
WORK.
No freeborn man will stoop to such disgrace.
MAS. M.
Come-to our comrades, and advise with them!
