G. P. P.
William Tell Legend.—Could any of your readers tell me the true origin of the William Tell apple story? I find the same story told of—
(1.) Egil, the father of the famous smith Wayland, who was instructed in the art of forging metals by two dwarfs of the mountain of Kallova. (Depping, Mém. de la Société des Antiquaires de France, tom. v. pp. 223. 229.)
(2.) Saxo Grammaticus, who wrote nearly a century before Tell, tells nearly the same story of one Toko, who killed Harold.
(3.) "There was a souldier called Pumher, who, daily through witchcraft, killed three of his enemies. This was he who shot at a pennie on his son's head, and made ready another arrow to have slain the Duke Remgrave (? Rheingraf), who commanded it." (Reginald Scot, 1584.)
(4.) And Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and William of Cloudeslie.
G. H. R.
Arms of Cottons buried in Landwade Church, &c. (Vol. iii., p. 39.).—Will Jonathan Oldbuck, Jun., oblige me by describing the family coat-armour borne by the Cottons mentioned in his Note? It may facilitate his inquiry, in which, by the way, I am much interested.
R. W. C.
Sir George Buc's Treatise on the Stage.—What has become of this MS.? Sir George Buc mentions it in The Third University of England, appended to Stowe's Annals, ed. 1631, p. 1082.—