When Schiller completed Wilhelm Tell as a 'New Year's Gift for 1805' he foretold that it would cause a stir. He was right. In the midst of Great Power politics a play that drew substance from one of the fourteenth-century liberation movements proved both attractive and inflammatory. Since then the work has become immensely popular. This new English translation by William F. Mainland brings out the essential tragicomic nature of Wilhelm Tell but also emphasizes its impressive formal unity.