William Tell

Swiss patriot of the 14th century who was a great archer. An Austrian governor ordered him to shoot an apple off the top of the head of Tell's young son. Tell did so without hurting the boy, but said if the child had been hurt, his next arrow would have killed the governor. His feats supposedly inspired the Swiss to overthrow their Austrian rulers.

William Tell is a play written by James Sheridan Knowles (1784-1862) about William Tell. The title page of the first edition reads:

WILLIAM TELL
A Play,
IN FIVE ACTS
BY JAMES SHERIDAN KNOWLES, ESQ.
FIRST PERFORMED AT THE
Theatre Royal Drury Lane,
May 11, 1825
LONDON:
PUBLISHED BY THOMAS DOLBY, 17, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND.
Price Three Shillings and Sixpence

The play is 86 pages in length. Subsequent editions were published in 1835, 1850, 1855, and 1882. The work is presently extremely hard to find.