William Tell

choi

John Letzing, When Switzerland Needs a Hero, It Calls for William Tell; Saga remade amid new nationalist mood; Radiation-tipped arrows. Wall Street Journal, Nov 26, 2013 (front page).
http://online.wsj.com/news/artic ... 4579220101535141862

Excerpt in the window of print: In periods of anxiety and uncertainty--like now--the Alpine country embraces the tale, academics say.

Quote:

"Like [William] Tell, who refused to bow to an Austrian lord's hat, the tiny country feels put upon by foreign powers that have pressured it to change its ways in the wake of the financial crisis, a state of affairs that bruises its pride and stirs a potent, albeit characteristically reserved, resentment. Among the insults: The European Union is pushing proudly independent Switzerland to conform to its financial regulations, while the US chips away at its famous privacy laws in a hunt for tax cheats.

"The hero has also been adopted by the Society for Liberal Weapons Rights, gun-loving Switzerland's equivalent of the National Rifle Association. * * * According to the group's Vice President Hermann Suter, Tell symbolizes the right of free citizens to bear arms and, if necessary, use them against the occasional 'dictator' who does wrong by the people.

"Historians say Tell never existed. But that didn't stop the town of Altdorf—putative site of the famous apple shot—from erecting a towering statue of him on a main drag. Altdorf, about 50 miles south of Zurich, also has a theater built in the 19th century that hosts performances of Friedrich Schiller's drama 'William Tell.'

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the article, which is about a Swiss comic strip.
(b) William Tell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tell
("His legend is recorded in a late 15th-century Swiss chronicle. It is set in the period of the original foundation of the Old Swiss Confederacy in the early 14th century. According to the legend, Tell—an expert marksman with the crossbow—assassinated Gessler, a tyrannical reeve of Habsburg Austria positioned in Altdorf, Uri")
(c) put-upon (adj; First Known Use 1920):
"imposed upon :  taken advantage of"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/put%20upon
(d) Friedrich Schiller
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Schiller
(1759-1805; German)