Isn't a little too early for our boys to learn to shoot?
Well then, come in breakfast is ready!
They must begin early, if they're ever to shoot well...
Inside the cottage
Not today, for if you go you will be involved in some plot.
Ok, but please be careful..
I have to go to Altdorf to visit my father.
But I have promised him!
I will mother...
Who will stay with me then?
Father, I shall come with you too.
By all means Walter!
William tell, his wife, and the two little boys are sitting in their cottage. It is early morning. Tell is working with a hammer and tools. His wife is busy getting breakfast ready. Walter and William, the two little boys, are playing with a bow and trying to learn to shoot.
Scene 2
HALT to the governor's hat
Never! I bow my knees only in front of God, but to nobody else!
Hello! Tell I suppose you remember me... I am Gessler - the governor. And I heard that you never miss a shot. I order you to shoot someone who is really dear to you from a hundred paces...
Very well then..
From a hundred paces.. Scene 3
An open space-in the center there is a small pole. On the pole there is a hat. Two soldiers are standing as sentinels. Walter and William Tell are passing by. Suddenly, a soldier notices Walter and Tell and asks them to bow before the hat.
Or you'll be taken to prison!
Hearing all the noise in the streets.. Governor Gessler came to the scene. And from the look of his face he didn't look very surprised to see someone familiar...