What now the wise man thought, the good man wished,
And garner’d up their wisdom in my heart. 
Hear then, and mark me well; for thou wilt see,
I long have known the grief that weighs thee down. 
The Viceroy hates thee, fain would injure thee,
For thou past cross’d his wish to bend the Swiss
In homage to this upstart house of princes,
And kept them staunch, like their good sires of old,
In true allegiance to the Empire.  Say,
Is’t not so, Werner?  Tell me, am I wrong?

STAUFF.

’Tis even so.  For this doth Gessler hate me.

GERT.

He burns with envy, too, to see thee living
Happy and free on thine ancestral soil,
For he is landless.  From the Emperor’s self
Thou hold’st in fief the lands thy fathers left thee. 
There’s not a prince i’ the Empire that can show
A better title to his heritage;
For thou hast over thee no lord but one,
And he the mightiest of all Christian kings. 
Gessler, we know, is but a younger son,
His only wealth the knightly cloak he wears;
He therefore views an honest man’s good fortune
With a malignant and a jealous eye. 
Long has he sworn to compass thy destruction. 
As yet thou art uninjured.  Wilt thou wait
Till he may safely give his malice vent? 
A wise man would anticipate the blow.

STAUFF.

What’s to be done?

[Illustration:  STAUFFACHER AND HIS WIFE GERTRUDE As performed at the Royal Theatre, Dresden, 1906.]

GERT.

Now hear what I advise. 
Thou knowest well, how here with us in Schwytz
All worthy men are groaning underneath
This Gessler’s grasping, grinding tyranny. 
Doubt not the men of Unterwald as well,
And Uri, too, are chafing like ourselves,
At this oppressive and heart-wearying yoke. 
For there, across the lake, the Landenberg
Wields the same iron rule as Gessler here—­
No fishing-boat comes over to our side,
But brings the tidings of some new encroachment,
Some fresh outrage, more grievous than the last. 
Then it were well that some of you—­true men—­
Men sound at heart, should secretly devise,
How best to shake this hateful thraldom off. 
Full sure I am that God would not desert you,
But lend His favor to the righteous cause. 
Hast thou no friend in Uri, one to whom
Thou frankly may’st unbosom all thy thoughts?

STAUFF.

I know full many a gallant fellow there,
And nobles, too—­great men, of high repute,
In whom I can repose unbounded trust.

[Rising.]

Wife!  What a storm of wild and perilous thoughts
Hast thou stirr’d up within my tranquil breast! 
The darkest musings of my bosom thou
Hast dragg’d to light, and placed them full before me;
And what I scarce dared harbor e’en in thought,
Thou speakest plainly out with fearless tongue. 
But has thou weigh’d well what thou urgest thus?