[Rarebooks] FS: First English Edition of WILLIAM TELL, 1809

[Charles Agvent]

[FLORIAN, Chevalier De]. WILLIAM TELL; OR, SWISSERLAND DELIVERED. 
London: Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, 1809. First English Edition. 
Duodecimo (3-7/8" x 6-1/4") bound in modern quarter calf leather over 
marbled boards, five raised bands and gilt rules to spine, gilt 
lettering, marbled endpapers; xxxvi, 115, {5 advertisements] pages. 
First published in Paris by Didot in 1802, this is the first edition of 
the first English translation from the French by William B. Hewetson. 
Includes a Life of the Author by Jauffret. Complete with half-title 
page, frontispiece engraved by Mackenzie after Thomson, and 5 pages of 
ads at the end. Some foxing to the frontispiece with slight offsetting 
to the title page; contents quite clean and bright. Binding tight and 
firm. About Fine and quite scarce.

According to medieval legend William Tell from Burglen was known as an 
expert marksman with the crossbow. In the early 1300s, the Habsburg 
emperors were seeking to dominate Uri. Hermann Gessler, the newly 
appointed Austrian Vogt of Altdorf, raised a pole in the village's 
central square with his hat on top and demanded that all the local 
townsfolk bow before it. As Tell passed by without bowing, he was 
arrested. He received the punishment of being forced to shoot an apple 
off the head of his son, Walter, or else both would be executed. Tell 
had been promised freedom if he shot the apple. Tell split the fruit 
with a single bolt from his crossbow, without mishap. When Gessler 
queried him about the purpose of the second bolt in his quiver, Tell 
answered that if he had ended up killing his son in that trial, he would 
have turned the crossbow on Gessler himself. Gessler became enraged at 
that comment and had Tell bound and brought to his ship to be taken to 
his castle at Küssnacht. In a storm on Lake Lucerne, Tell managed to 
escape. On land, he went to Küssnacht, and when Gessler arrived, Tell 
shot him with the crossbow. This defiance of the Austrian, Gessler, 
sparked a rebellion, leading to the formation of the Swiss 
Confederation. (#017292)        $500

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