“Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” by Richard Wagner libretto (English)

Contents: Roles; Act One; Act Two; Act Three

ACT ONE

SCENE ONE

The scene represents the interior of Saint Catherine's Church, Nuremberg, in diagonal section; the nave is supposed to extend towards the back of the stage, to the left; only the last few rows of pews are visible.
(Eva and Magdalena are sitting in the last row of pews. Standing to one side by a pillar is Walther von Stolzing, at some distance from the women, gazing at Eva. Eva repeatedly turns round towards the knight).

CHORAL OF THE CONGREGATION
When the Saviour came to thee,

willingly accepted thy baptism,

dedicating Himself to a sacrificial death,

He gave the covenant for our salvation:

that we might be consecrated through baptism

so as to be worthy of his sacrifice.

Noble Baptist!

Christ's precursor!

Receive us graciously
there by the river Jordan.

(The congregation rises. All make their way towards the exit and during the following music gradually leave the church. Walther expectantly fixes his glance on Eva, who slowly leaves her pew and, followed by Magdalena, approaches him. As Walther sees Eva drawing near he forces his way through the congregation in order to reach her)

WALTHER

Stay! A word - a single word!

EVA
(to Magdalena)
My neckerchief! See! It's probably in our place!

MAGDALENA
Forgetful child! Now I must search!
(She goes back
to the pew)

WALTHER
Young lady! Excuse this breach of custom!
To know one thing, to ask one thing,
what should I not dare to break?
Whether life or death, blessing or curse -
in one word let it be disclosed to me:
young lady, say...

MAGDALENA
(returning)
Here is the kerchief.

EVA
O dear! And the brooch?

MAGDALENA
Has it fallen off?
She goes back
again)

WALTHER
Whether light and joy, or night and death?
Whether I learn what I long for,
whether I hear what I dread:
young lady, tell me...

MAGDALENA
(returning again)
There is the brooch, too. Come, child!
Now you have brooch and kerchief...
O dear! now I've forgotten my own book!
(She goes back once more)

WALTHER
This one word, won't you say it?
The syllabe which delivers my sentence.

Yes or no! - a fleeting sound:

young lady, tell me, are you already betrothed?

MAGDALENA
(who has returned again;
curtseying to Walther)
Why look! Sir knight,
how very honoured we are:
young Eva's protection
has become your concern!
May I announce our hero's visit
to Master Pogner?

WALTHER
(passionately)
Oh, if only I had never entered his house!

MAGDALENA
Why, sir! What are you saying?
Just arrived in Nuremberg,
were you not kindly received?
What kitchen and cellar, chest and cupboard
have offered you: does it deserve no thanks?

EVA
Good Lena! Ah, he doesn't mean that.
But from me he wishes to know...
how can I put it briefly? I scarcely understand it
myself! I feel as if I were in a dream!
He asks if I'm betrothed.

MAGDALENA
(looking about her apprehensively)
O Lord! Don't speak so loud!
Let us go home now...
if people should see us here!

WALTHER
Not before I know all!

EVA
(to Magdalena)
It's empty, the people have gone.

MAGDALENA
That's what's bothering me!
Sir knight, some other place!

(David enters from the sacresty and busies himself with drawing together dark curtains.)

WALTHER

No! First this word!

EVA
(urgently, to Magdalena)
This word!

(Magdalena perceives David and pauses)

MAGDALENA
(aside)
David? Ah! David here?

EVA
What shall I say? You tell me!

MAGDALENA
(distractedly, and looking
round repeatedly at David)

Sir knight, what you ask the maiden
is not so easily answered.
It is true that Eva Pogner is betrothed...

EVA

But no one has yet seen the bridegroom.

MAGDALENA
No one even knows who the bridegroom is,
until he is named tomorrow by the judges
who award the Mastersinger his prize...

EVA

And the bride herself gives him the garland.

WALTHER

The Mastersinger?

EVA
(timidly)
Are you not one?

WALTHER
A wooing song?

MAGDALENA
Before the judges of the contest.

WALTHER
Who wins the prize?

MAGDALENA
Whom the masters approve.

WALTHER
The bride then chooses?

EVA
(forgetting herself)
You - or no one!
(Walther turns aside and places up and down in great perturbation)

MAGDALENA
(greatly shocked)
What? Eva! Eva! Are you out of your mind?

EVA
Good Lena! Let me win the knight!

MAGDALENA
Didn't you see him yesterday for the first time?

EVA
What gave me such sudden anguish was the fact
that I had long seen him in a picture:
tell me, did not approach just like David?

MAGDALENA

Are you mad? Like David?

EVA
Like David in the picture.

MAGDALENA
Ah! you mean the king with the harp
and long beard in the Master's coat-of-arms?

EVA
No! The one whose pebbles felled Goliath,
with his sword in his belt, his sling in his hand,
his head shining with fair locks,
as Master Dürer has painted him for us.

MAGDALENA
(sighing loudly)
Ah, David! David!

DAVID

(who has gone out, and now
returns with a rule stuck
in his belt and swinging in his hand
a large piece of chalk tied to a string)
Here I am! Who's calling?

MAGDALENA
Ah, David! What unhappiness you've caused!
(aside)
The dear rogue! Could he still not know?
(aloud)
Ah, look! He's even locked us in!

DAVID
(tnederly)
You alone, in my heart!

MAGDALENA

His honest face!
Ah, tell me! What nonsense are you up to here?

DAVID
Save me! Nonsense? Very serious matters!
I'm preparing the ring here for the Masters.

MAGDALENA
What? Is there to be a singing?

DAVID
Only a trial today:
the apprentice who in no way offends against the table of rules
will be declared free;
he who does not rue the test becomes a Master.

MAGDALENA
So the knight is in just the right place!
Now Eva, come, we must away.

WALTHER
(quickly turning to them)
Let me accompany you to Master Ponger's.

MAGDALENA
Wait for him here; he'll soon be there.
If you want to win Eva's hand,
time and place will bring fortune close to you.
(Two apprentices
enter carrying benches)
Now quickly away!

WALTHER
What must I do?

MAGDALENA
Let David teach you
how to seek trial.
Dear David! Listen, my dear friend,
look after this knight for me here!
I'll save you
something good from the kitchen:
and you can make bolder demands tomorrow
if this knight becomes a Master today.
(She hurries Eva towards the door)

EVA
(to Walther)
Shall I see you again?

WALTHER
(ardently)
This evening for sure!
What I will dare,
how could I express it?
New is my heart, new my mind,
new is everything I do.
One thing alone I know,
one thing I understand:
with all my senses
to win you!
If not with the sword, I must succeed
even if I have to win you by singing as a Master.
For you my possessions and blood!
For you the poet's sacred resolve!

EVA

My heart, blessed glow,
for you love's holy protection!

MAGDALENA
Quickly home, or it will not go well!

(Magdalena takes Eva quickly out through the curtains)

DAVID
(sizing up Walther)
Master straight away? Oho! what courage!

(Agitated and brooding, Walther throws himself upon a raised ecclesiastical chair which has just been moved to the middle of the stage by the apprentices)

SCENE TWO

(More apprentices arrive and start moving furniture, etc., in preparation for the assembly of the Masters)

1. APPRENTICE
David, why are you standing there?

2. APPRENTICE
Get to work!

3. APPRENTICE
Help us preparare the Marker's box!

DAVID
I was far too zealous for the lot of you:
do it yourselves; I've other pleasures!

2. APPRENTICE
How cocky he is!

3. APPRENTICE
The model apprentice!

1. APPRENTICE
That's because his Master's a cobbler!

2. APPRENTICE
At his last he sits with a quill

3. APPRENTICE
writing poetry, with thread and awl.

1. APPRENTICE
His verse he writes on raw leather

2. APPRENTICE

which, methinks, we tanned for him!

(They pursue their work, laughing)

DAVID
(after observing the thoughtful
knight for a while)
"Begin!"

WALTHER
(looking up surprised)
What's that?

DAVID

"Begin!" - That's what the Marker calls;
now you are to sing. Don't you know that?

WALTHER
Who is the Marker?

DAVID
Don't you know that?
Haven't you ever been at a song contest?

WALTHER
Never one where the judges were artisans.

DAVID
Are you "Poet"?

WALTHER
Would that I were!

DAVID
Are you a "Singer"

WALTHER
If only I knew!

DAVID
But you were surely a "School-friend", and a "Scholar" before?

WALTHER
All that sounds strange to my ear.

DAVID
And yet want to become a Master at once?

WALTHER
Why should that cause such great difficulties?

DAVID
O Lena! Lena!

WALTHER
What are you doing?

DAVID
O Magdalena!

WALTHER
Advise me well!

DAVID

Sir, the touch which makes a Mastersinger
is not to be gained in a day.
Nuremberg's greatest Master,
Hans Sachs, is teaching me the art;
for a full year already he's been instructing me
so that I may become a Scholar.
Cobbling and poetry
I learn both together:
When I've beaten the leather smooth
I learn to enunciate vowels and consonants;
when I've waxed the thread till it's firm and stiff,
I well understand what makes a rhyme;
swinging the bodkin,
stitching with the awl,
what is meant by blunt, and ringing,
by measure, and number...
the last is my apron...
what is long, what short,
what hard, what soft,
bright or blind,
what orphans are, und mites,
affixes,
pauses, corns,
flowers, thorns...
I've learned all that with care and attention:
how far do you think I've got?

WALTHER
As far as a pair of very good shoes?

DAVID
Yes, it takes time enough to get that far!
A song has several sections and strophes;
who might at once find the correct rule,
the right seam,
and the correct thread,
with well-fitted stanzas
to sole the song properly?
And only then does the Aftersong come,
let it not be short, and not too long,
and let it contain no rhime
which has already occurred in the stanza.
Anyone who marks, knows and is familiar with all that
is still not yet called Master.

WALTHER

Heaven help me! Do I want to be a cobbler?
Rather introduce me to the art of singing.

DAVID
If only I myself had already got as far as Singer!
Who would belive how much trouble it is?
The Masters' tones and melodies,
so many in name and number,
the strong and the gentle,
who could know them all at once?
The Short, Long, and Overlong tones;
the Writing-Paper and Black Ink melodies;
the Red, Blue, and Green tones;
the Hawthorn, Straw and Fennel melodies;
the Tender, the Sweet, the Rose tones;
the Rosemary and Wall-Flower melodies;
the Rainbow and Nightingale melodies;
the Pewter and Cinnamon-Stick melodies;
Fresh Orange, Green Lime Blossom melodies;
the Frog, the Calf, the Goldfinch melodies;
the Departed Glutton melody;
the Lark, the Snail, the Barker tones;
the Little Blam-Mint, the Marjioram melodies;

Tawny Lion-Skin, True Pelican melodies;

the Brightly Gleaming Thread melody...

WALTHER
Heavens! What an endless string of tones!

DAVID
Those are just the names: now learn to sing them
just as the Masters have ordained them!
Every word and tone must ring out clearly
where the voice rises and where it falls.
Begin neither higher nor lower
than the voice can reach.
Be sparing with your breath, lest it run out
and you even crack at the end.
Don't hum with your voice before the word,
and don't let your mouth rumble on after the word.
Don't alter the "flower" and "coloratura",
let each ornament be in the Master's footsteps;
if you were to change you'd go astray,
lose your place and get into a muddle -
even if everything else had gone well for you
you would have sung your chance away!
Despite great industry and zeal
I myself haven't yet got so far.
Whenever I attempt it and don't succeed

my Master sings me the "Knee-Strap" melody.

And if Mistress Lena doesn't then help me,

I sing the "Plain Bread and Water" melody!
Let this be an example to you,
and forget your dreams of Master!
For you must be a "Singer" and "Poet"
before you reach the goal of "Master".

WALTHER
What is a "Poet"?

APPRENTICES

David! Are you coming?

DAVID
(to the apprentices)
Wait, just a minute!
(turning to Walther again)
What might a Poet be?
When you have risen to the rank of Singer
and sung the Masters' tones correctly,
and have yourself added rhymes and words
which you have yourself fitted correctly
to a Master's tone,
then you might carry off the Poet's prize.

APPRENTICES
Here, David! Shall we complain to your Master?
Or are you almost through with your chatter?

DAVID
Oho! Indeed! For if I don't help you,
without me everything gets done wrong!

WALTHER
(holding David back)
Only one thing more: who is called "Master"?

DAVID

Sir knight, this is how it is!

The Poet who, of his own endeavour,
to words and rhymes of his own invention
fashions a new melody from the tones:
he is recognised as Mastersinger.

WALTHER

Then the Master's reward alone shall be mine!
If I must sing
I can only succeed
if I find the proper tone for the verse.

DAVID
(turning to the
apprentices)
What are you doing there? Yes, if I'm not at work
you put the chair and the box up wrong!

Is it a song-school today? Let me tell you,
the small box! It's only a trial!

(During the following chorus the apprentices, under the supervision of David, take down the large construction which they had put up in the middle of the stage and erect in its place a smaller stage. On this they place a stool with a little desk before it, next to it a large black slate on which a piece of chalk is hung by a string. Around this construction black curtains are hung, which can be drawn behind and at the two sides, and finally also in front)

APPRENTICES
(as they work)
No doubt, David is certainly the cleverest!
He's certainly set his sights on high honours:
if there's a trial today
he's sure to take part,
he already prides himself as a fine Singer!
He's got the Blow rhymes off pat,
he sings the Poor and Hungry melody smoothly;
but the Hard Kick is the one he knows best,

his Master has kicked that one well into him!
(They laugh)

DAVID
Yes, laugh away! Today it's not me;
someone else is facing the court:
he was never "Scholar", isn't a "Singer",
he'll miss out the "Poet" grade, he says;
for he's a knight,
and with one jump he thinks
that without further difficulties
he'll become "Master" here today.
So set up the box
properly for him!

That way! This way! The board against the wall
so that it's nice and handy for the Marker!
(to Walther)
Yes, yes! The "Marker"! Are you getting nervous?
Before him many an applicant has sung his chance away.
He allows you seven faults
which he marks up with chalk there;
anyone incurring more than seven faults
has sung his chance away and is utterly undone!
Now take care!
The Marker is on the watch.
Good luck for the Mastersinging!
May you win the garland!
The flowered garland of fine silks -
will it be awarded to the knight?

APPRENTICES

The flowered garland of fine silks -
will it be awarded to the knight?

(The apprentices scatter in alarm as Pogner and Beckmesser enter from the sacristy, then they go to their places at the back of the stage)

SCENE THREE

(On the right a crescent of cushioned benches runs from the Marker's box, which is in the middle of the stage; on the left and facing the assembly is the ecclesiastical chair - the Singer's Chair. At the back of the stage there is a long, low bench for the apprentices. Walther, angered by the boys' mockery, has slumped down on the front bench. Pogner and Beckmesser have entered from the sacristy, conversing; the apprentices wait respectfully by the bench. Only David stands by the entrance to the sacresty)

POGNER
Be assured of my good faith;
what I have ordined is to your advantage:
you must win the song contest:
who might defy your Mastery?

BECKMESSER
But will you give way on the point
which - I must confess - makes me doubtful;
if Eva's wish can dismiss a wooer,
what is the use of my Master's glory?

POGNER
But say! I mean, of all things
should you worry about that?
If you cannot command my daughter's wishes,
how could you be wooing her at all?

BECKMESSER
Oh yes! Indeed! That's precisely why I'm asking you
to speak to the child on my behalf:
how tenderly and modestly I've wooed,
and how Beckmesser seems to you to be the right man.

POGNER
I'll gladly do that.

BECKMESSER
(aside)
He won't give way!
How should I fend off disaster?

WALTHER
(who, on perceiving Pogner,
has risen and advanced to meet him
and now bows to him)
Permit me, Master!

POGNER
What! Sir knight!
You seek me in the song-school here?

(They greet one another)

BECKMESSER
(still to himself)
If only women understood! but worthless bragging
counts for more with them than all poetry.

WALTHER
This is the right place for me.

I freely admit, what drove me
from the country to Nuremberg
was only my love of Art.
If I forgot to tell you that yesterday,
I must today be bold and proclaim it out loud:
I should like to be a Mastersinger.

Admit me, Master, to your guild!

(Kunz Vogelgesang and Konrad Nachtigall have entered.)

POGNER
(to those entering)
Kunz Vogelgesang! Friend Nachtigall!
Just listen, what a very unusual thing!
This knight, well known to me,
has turned to the Master's art.

(Greetings and introductions; other Masters arrive)

BECKMESSER
(aside)
I'll still try to avert it: but if I don't succeed
I'll try to win the girl's heart with my singing;
in the silence of the night, heard only by her,
I'll learn whether she sets store by my song.
(He turns and sees Walther)
Who is that man?

POGNER
(to Walther)
Belive me, how glad I am!
The old days seem to have returned.

BECKMESSER
(aside)
I don't like him!

POGNER
What you desire
as far as I am concerned, is granted to you.

BECKMESSER
What does he want here? What a smiling air!

POGNER
I gladly helped you with the sale of the estate,
now I'll equally gladly receive you into the guild.

BECKMESSER
Oho, Sixtus! Keep your eye on him!

WALTHER
(to Pogner)
Thank you for your kindness
from the bottom of my heart!
And may I then hope,
if I am this day allowed
to compete for the prize,
to be called a Mastersinger?

BECKMESSER
Oho! Gently now! A skittle can't stand on its head!

POGNER
Sir knight, this must all follow the rules.
But today there's a trial: I'll propose you;
the Masters will lend me a willing ear.

(The Mastersinger have now all assembled, Hans Sachs the last)

SACHS
God be with you, Masters!

VOGELGESANG
Are we all met?

BECKMESSER
Sachs is there all right!

NACHTIGALL
Call the names then!

KOTHNER
(producing a list,
he stands apart from the rest and calls)
To a trial and a guild meeting
an invitation has gone out to the Masters:
by their names,
to see if everyone has come,
I shall now call them; as the last to be admitted
I name myself: I am Fritz Kothner.
Are you here, Veit Pogner?

POGNER
Here at hand.
(sits)

KOTHNER
Kunz Vogelgesang?

VOGELGESANG

Has arrived.
(sits)

KOTHNER
Hermann Ortel?

ORTEL
Always there.
(sits)

KOTHNER
Balthasar Zorn?

ZORN
Never missing.
(sits)

KOTHNER
Konrad Nachtigall?

NACHTIGALL
True to his call.
(sits)

KOTHNER
Augustin Moser?

MOSER
Never likes to be absent.
(sits)

KOTHNER
Niklaus Vogel? Is he silent?

AN APPRENTICE
(jumping up from his seat)
He's ill.
KOTHNER
A quick recovery to the Master!

ALL THE MASTERS
May God will it!

THE APPRENTICE
Thank you!
(He sits down again)

KOTHNER
Hans Sachs?

DAVID

(jumping up
and pointing to Sachs)
There he is!

SACHS
(threateningly to David)
Is your hide itching?
Forgive me, Masters! Sachs is present!
(He sits)

KOTHNER
Sixtus Beckmesser?

BECKMESSER

Always near Sachs, so that I may learn
the rhyme of "bloom" and "wax".
(Sachs laughs)

KOTHNER
Ulrich Eisslinger?

EISSLINGER
Here.
(sits)

KOTHNER
Hans Foltz?

FOLTZ
I'm here.
(sits)

KOTHNER
Hans Schwarz?

SCHWARZ
The last: God's will!
(sits)

KOTHNER
For our session the number is good and full.
If it please you, shall we elect the Marker?

VOGELGESANG
Better after the festival

BECKMESSER
(to Kothner)
Is the gentleman in a hurry?
I'll gladly let him have my position and office.

POGNER
Not so, Masters! Leave that for now.
I ask leave to speak on an important proposal.

(All the Masters rise and reseat themselves)

KOTHNER
It is granted you, Master. Speak!

POGNER
Hear then, and understand me aright!
That beautiful festival, St. John's Day,
as you know, we celebrate tomorrow:
on the green meadow, by the flowery grove,
with games and dancing at the feast;
secure in a joyous heart,
all cares forgotten,
everyone enjoys himself as he pleases.
Their solemn song-school in the church nave
the Masters themselves give up;
with merry music out of the gate
and on to the open meadow they proceed,
in the din of the brilliant festival;
they permit the people to listen
to the open singing with their laymen's ears.
Victors prizes are awarded
for trial and competitive singing,
and both are praised far and wide,
the gift and also the melody.
Now, God has made me a rich man,
and everone gives what he can,
so I had to think carefully
what I might
not come into dishonour:
so hear what I have decided.
Widely travelled in German lands,
it has often vexed me
that people honour the burgher so little,
call him stingy and peevish:
at courts and in meaner places
I grew tired of the bitter reproach
that only in usury and money
was the burgher interested.
That we alone in the broad German empire
still cherish Art -
by that they set little store:
but how this may redound to our honour,
and that with high resolve
we treasure what is beautiful and good,
the value of Art, what it is worth,

this I became resolved to show the world.
So hear, Masters, the gift
which I have decreed as prize:
to the singer who in the Art-singing
before all the people wins the prize
on St John's Day,
be he who he may,
to him I, a friend of Art,
Nuremberg's Veit Pogner, give
with all my goods, such as they are,
Eva, my only child, in marriage.

THE MASTERS
(animatedly, to one another)
That was some word! The man's his word!
Now they'll see what a Nuremberger can do!
Therefore people will praise you far and wide,
you, the worthy burgher Veit Pogner!

THE APPRENTICES

At all times, far and wide:
Veit Pogner!

VOGELGESANG
Who would not gladly be single!

SACHS
Many a man would gladly give up his wife!

KOTHNER
Up, single men!
Now, get to work!

POGNER
But hear how seriously I intend it!
I give no lifeless gift:
a young girl also sits among judges.
The Master's Guild recognises the prize:
but where it's a question of marriage, reason demands
that over the Master's opinion
the bride has the casting vote.

BECKMESSER
(to Kothner)
Do you think that wise?

KOTHNER
If I understand aright,

you are placing us in the girl's charge?

BECKMESSER
Dangerous, that!

KOTHNER
If she doesn't agree
how could the Master's judgement be free?

BECKMESSER
Let her choose straight out as her heart desires
and leave the Mastersinging out of it!

POGNER
Ah no! Why? Understand me correctly!
The man to whom you Masters award the prize
the maid can refuse,
but never solicit another:
it must be a Mastersinger;
only the man whom you crown may she take.

SACHS
Forgive me!
Perhaps you have already gone too far.
A girl's heart and the Master's Art
do not always glow with equal ardour;
a woman's opinion, quite untutored,
seems to me to be as valid as popular opinion.
If you wish to show the people
how highly you honour Art;
if you let the girl choose for herself,
but do not want her to oppose the verdict:
then let the people be judges too;
they will assuredly agree with the child.

THE MASTERS
Oho! The people? Yes, that would be fine!
Farewell then, Art and Master-tones!

KOTHNER
No, Sachs! Certainly there's no sense in that!
Would you abandon the rules to the people!

SACHS
Understand me aright! What a fuss!
You'll admit I know the rules as well;
and to see that the guild preserves the rules
I have busied myself this many a year.
But once a year I should find it wise
to test the rules themselves,
to see whether in the dull course of habit

their strenght and life doesn't get lost:
and whether you are still
on the right track of Nature
will only be told you by someone
who knows nothing of the table of rules.

(The apprentices jump up and rub their hands)

BECKMESSER
Ha! how the boys rejoice!

SACHS
(earnestly continuing)
For that reason you might never regret
that each year on St John's Day,
instead of letting the people come to you,
from your high Masters' clouds
you yourselves should turn to the people.
You want to please the people;
well, I should have thought it in your interest
to let them tell you themselves
whether they took delight in it.
So that people and Art may bloom and thrive equally
do it in this way, say I, Hans Sachs.

VOGELGESANG
Your intentions are good!

KOTHNER
And yet it's all wrong.

NACHTIGALL
When the people speak, I hold my tongue.

KOTHNER
Art is threatened with downfall and disgrace
if it runs after the favours of the people.

BECKMESSER
This impudent fellow's gone far in that direction:
he mainly writes street-songs.

POGNER
Friend Sachs, my intent is itself new:
too much at one go might bring repentance!

So I ask if the Masters are pleased to accept
the gift and rules as I have stated them?

(The Masters rise assentingly)
SACHS

The girl's casting vote satisfies me.

BECKMESSER
The cobbler always rouses my anger!

KOTHNER
Who will enter his name as competitor?
He must be a bachelor.

BECKMESSER
Perhaps a widower too? Just ask Sachs!

SACHS
Oh no, Mister Marker! Of younger wax
than you and me the wooer must be
if Eva is to bestow the prize on him.

BECKMESSER
Than me too? Rude fellow!

KOTHNER
If anyone seeks trial, let him step forward!
Has anyone seeking trial announced himself?

POGNER
Yes, Masters! Back to the agenda for the day!
And hear me report
that I, following a Master's duty,
recommend a young knight
who wishes to be elected,
and this day seeks to become a Mastersinger!
Sir Stolzing, come hither!

(Walther advances and makes obeisance)

BECKMESSER
(aside)
Just as I thought! Is that the way it's heading, Veit?
(aloud)
Masters, I think it's too late now.

THE MASTERS
This is something new. A knight?
Should we be glad? Or is there a danger?
In any case it carries much weight
that Master Ponger speaks for him.

KOTHNER
If we are to welcome the knight,
he must first be heard.
POGNER

Hear me aright! Though I wish him good fortune
I do not overlook the rules.
Masters, put the questions!

KOTHNER
So may the knight tell us:
is he free and honourably born?

POGNER
That question may be put aside,
as I myself stand witness
that he was born in free and noble wedlock:
von Stolzing, Walther, from Franconia,
well known to me from letters and documents.
The last of his line,
he recently left his estate and castle
and came hither to Nuremberg
to become a burgher here.

BECKMESSER
An upstart knightly weed! That's not good!

NACHTIGALL
Friend Pogner's word is enough.

SACHS
As was long since decided by the Masters,
whether lord or peasant does not matter:
here it is only a question of Art,
when someone desires to be a Mastersinger.

KOTHNER
Therefore I ask you forthwith:
what Master's pupil are you?

WALTHER
At the quiet hearth in winter time,
when castle and courtyard were snowed up,
I often read
in an old book left to me by my ancestor
how once Spring so sweetly laughed,
and how it then soon awoke anew.
Walter von der Vogelweide
he was my master.

SACHS
A good master!

BECKMESSER
But long since dead; how could he
have taught him the rules' command?

KOTHNER
But in which school
did you succeed in learning singing?

WALTHER
When the meadow was free from frost
and summertime returned,
what previously in long winter nights
the old book had told me
now resounded loudly in the forests' splendour,
I heard it ring out brightly:
in the forest at Vogelweide
I also learnt how sing.

BECKMESSER
Oho! from finches and titmice
you learnt the Master's melodies?
So your song will be in this vein?

VOGELGESANG
He has already framed two nice stanzas there.

BECKMESSER
You praise him, Master Vogelgesang
because he has learned singing from the birds?

KOTHNER

What is your opinion, Masters? Shall I continue?
I think the knight is in the wrong place.

SACHS
That will soon become clear:
if he has true Art
and is a good guardian of it,
what does it matter who taught him?

KOTHNER
(to Walther)
Are you ready to show us now
if you have succided in creating a Mastersong
new in invention, both poem and melody
of your own composition?

WALTHER
What winter night,
what forest splendour,
what book and grove taught me;
what the wondrous power of the poet's song
tried in secret to disclose to me;

what my horse's step
at a trial of arms,
what a round-dance
at a marry gathering
gave me to attend to thoughtfully:
if I must exchange life's
highest prize for song,
in my own words and to my own melody
it will flow into a unity for me
as a Mastersong, if I understand aright,
and pour out before you Masters.

BECKMESSER
Can you make anything of this torrent of words?

VOGELGESANG
Ah well, he's trying!

NACHTIGALL
A curious case!

KOTHNER
Now Masters, if you please,
let the Marker's box be made ready.
(to Walther)
Does the gentleman choose a sacred theme?

WALTHER
Something sacred to me:
love's banner
I shall wave, and sing in high hopes.

KOTHNER
We call that profane. Therefore,
Master Beckmesser, shut yourself in alone!

BECKMESSER
(rising and going as if reluctantly
to the Marker's box)
A bitter task, and especially today;
there'll be much anguish with the chalk!
(bowing towards Walther)
Sir knight, know:
Sixtus Beckmesser is the Marker;
here in the box
he silently performs his strict task.
Seven faults he allows you,
he marks them up with chalk there:
if he incurs more than seven faults,
then the knightly gentleman has sung his chance away.
(He seats himself in the box)

He listens very carefully;
but so that he doesn't undermine your courage,
as might happen if you saw him,
he leaves you in peace
and shuts himself up here.
May God be with you.

(With the last words he stretches his head out with a scornfully familiar nod, then pulls across the front curtains, so that he becomes invisible)

KOTHNER

(to Walther)
What the guiding principles of your song should be,
learn from the Table of Rules.
(The apprentices have taken the
"Leges Tabulaturae" from the wall
and are holding it out to Kothner,
who reads from it)
(Reading)
"Each unit of a Mastersong
shall present a proper balance
of its different sections,
against which no one shall offend.
A section consist of two stanzas,
which shall have the same melody;
the stanza is a group of so many lines,
the line has its rhyme at the end.
Thereupon follows the Aftersong
which is also to be so many lines long
and have its own special melody
which is not to occur in the stanza.
Each Mastersong shall have
several units in this ratio;
and whoever composes a new song
which does not for more than four syllabies
encroach upon other Master's melodies -
his song may win a -master's prize."
(He returns the Table of Rules to the apprentices;
they hang it on the wall again)
Now seat yourself in the Singer's Chair!

WALTHER

Here - in this chair?

KOTHNER
As is the custom of the School.

WALTHER
(mounting the stool,
with dissatisfaction)

(aside)
For you, beloved, it shall be done!

KOTHNER

The singer sits.

BECKMESSER
(from his box, invisible)
Begin!

WALTHER
"Begin!"
Thus spring cried to the forest
so that it re-echoed loudly:
and as in more distant waves
the sound flees thence,
from farther off there comes a swelling
which powerfully draws nearer;
it swells and resounds,
the forest rings
with the host of lovely voices;
now loud and bright
and near at hand -
how the sound grows!
Like the clanging of bells
the throng of jubilation rings out!
The forest,
how soon
it answers to the call
which brought it new life,
and struck up
the sweet song of spring!
(During this, repeated groans of
discouragement and scratchings of the chalk
are heard from the Marker. Walther hears
them too, and after a momentary
pause of discomposure continues.)
In a thorn-hedge,
consumed with jealousy and grief,
winter, grimly armed,
had to hide himself away:
with dry leaves rustling about him
he lies in wait and plans
how he might harm
this joyful singing.
(rising from the stool)
But: begin!
That was the call in my breast
when it was still ignorant of love.
I felt it rising deep within me

as if it were waking me from a dream;
my heart with its quivering beats
filled my whole bosom:
my blood pounds
all-powerfully,
swollen by this new feeling;
from a warm night
and with superior strength
this host of sighs
swells to a sea
in a wild tumult of bliss:
the breast,
how soon
it answers the call
which brought it new life:
strike up
the majestic song of love!

BECKMESSER
(tearing open the curtains)
Have you finished yet?

WALTHER
What do you mean?

BECKMESSER
There's no more room on the slate.
(He holds out the slate, completely covered with chalk marks. The Masters cannot restrain their laughter)

WALTHER
But listen! My lady's praises
am I only now reaching with my melody.

BECKMESSER
(leaving his box)
Sing where you like! You're finished here!
Masters, look at the slate:
in all my life there has been nothing like it!
I shouldn't belive it, even if you all swear to it!

WALTHER
Will you allow him to interrupt me, Masters?
Am I to remain unheard by all?

POGNER
A word, Mister Marker! You are angry.

BECKMESSER
Let him forthwith be Marker who coverts it!
But that the knight has sung his chance away,
I'll first show before the Masters' assembly.

To be sure, it will be a hard task: where begin,
when there was no beginning nor end to it?
Of false number and false grouping
I'll make absolutely no mention:
too short, too long, who might find an end there?
Who would seriously call this a unit?
I'll accuse him only of Blind Meaning;
say, could a meaning be more meaningless?

SEVERAL MASTERS
It meant nothing! I must admit
no one could descry its end.

BECKMESSER
And then the melody! What a mad jumble
of "Adventure" and "Blue Larkspur" melodies,
"High Fir-Tree" and "Proud Youth" tones!

KOTHNER
Yes, I understood nothing of it!

BECKMESSER
No pause anywhere, no coloratura,
and not a trace of melody!

SEVERAL MASTERS
Who calls that singing?
It made one uneasy!

VOGELGESANG
Nothing but ear-splitting din!

ZORN
And nothing behind it!

KOTHNER
And he even jumped up from the Singer's Chair!

BECKMESSER
Will you press for proof of his faults?
Or declare outright that he has sung his chance away?

SACHS
(who has listened
to Walther from the first
with serious interest)
Stay, Masters! Not so fast!
Not everyone shares your opinion.
The knight's song and melody

I found new, but not confused;
if he left our paths
he at least strode firmly and surely.
If you wish to measure according to rules
something which does not agree with your rules,
forget your own ways,
and first seek its rules!

BECKMESSER
Aha! That's right! Now you hear it:
Sachs is opening a loop-hole for bunglers
who come and go as they please
and follow their own frivolous course.
Sing to the people on the market-place and in the streets;
here admittance is only by the rules.

SACHS
Mister Marker, why such zealousness?
Why so little calm?
Your judgement, it seems to me, would be more mature
if you listened more carefully.
That's why I'll finish by sayng
that we must hear the knight to the end.

BECKMESSER
The Master's Guild, the whole School
count for nothing against Sachs.

SACHS
God forbid that what I ask
should not be according to the laws!
But it is written:
"The Marker shall be so disposed
that neiter hatred nor love
obscure the judgement which he gives."
Since he is going a-wooing,
why should he not satisfy his desire
to disgrace a rival in the chair
before the whole School?

(Walther flames up)

NACHTIGALL
You go too far!

KOTHNER
You're being personal!

POGNER
Avoid, Masters, discord and strife!
BECKMESSER

And what does it concern Master Sachs
where or how I go?
Rather should he take care
that nothing pinches my toes!
But since my cobbler is a great poet
thinas look bad for my footwear!
Look how sloppy they are,
they flap everywhere!
All his verses and rhymes
I'd glady have him leave at home,
histories, plays, and farces too
if he'd bring me my new shoes tomorrow!

SACHS

You do right to remind me;
but is it fitting, Masters, tell me,
that, if I make a little verse
for even the donkey-driver's soles,
I should write nothing on those
of our highly learned town clerk?
(Walther, much put out,
remounts the Singer's seat)

The little verse which would be worthy of you
I with all my humble poetic gifts
have not yet found;
but it will surely come to me now,
when I've heard the knight's song -
so let him sing on undisturbed!

BECKMESSER
No more! An end!

THE MASTERS
(except Sachs and Pogner)
Enough! An end!

SACHS
(to Walther)
Sing, in defiance of our Mister Marker!

BECKMESSER
(He fetches out his board
from the box and shows it
during the following,
first to one and then to another,
to convince the Masters)
What more should we hear?

Unless it were to delude you?
Each mistake, great and small,
see it recorded exactly on the slate.
"False Grouping", "Unspeakable Words",
"Affixes", here "Vices", even!
"Aequivoca", "Rhymes in the wrong place",
"Inverted" and "Misplaced" the whole "unit"!
A "Patch-Song" here between the stanzas!
"Obscure Meaning" absolutely everywhere!
"Unclear Words", "Disagreement", "Clods" here!
"Wrong Breathing" there, "Surprise" here!
A quite incomprehensible melody!
A confused brew of all the tones!
If you aren't put off by the toil,
Masters, count the faults with me!
He'd have failed with his eighth,
but no one has yet got as far as he:
certainly over fifty, at a rough count!
Say, do you elect him Master?

THE MASTERS
Yes indeed, that's it! I see it clearly!
It looks bad for the knight!
Let Sachs think of him what he will,
he must be silent here in the Singing-school!
Is everyone of us not at liberty to decide
whom he wishes as colleague?
If every stranger were welcomed
what worth would the Masters then have?
Ha! How the knight is toiling away!
Sachs has chosen him for his own.
It's really vexatious! So put a stop to it!
Up, Masters, vote and raise your hands!

POGNER
Yes, indeed, what I see doesn't please me:
things look bad for my knight!
If I yield to superior forces here
I foresee it will trouble me.
How gladly I should see him admitted.
He'd be a worthy son-in-law.
If I am now to bid the victor welcome,
who knows if my child will choose him!
I admit that it torments me -
will Eva choose the Master?

WALTHER
From a dark thorn-hedge
the owl sped forth,
awoke all around with its screeching
the hoarse chorus of ravens.

In vast nocturnal horde
how they all begin to croak
with their hollow voices -
Magpies, crows and jackdaws!
There rises up
on a pair of golden wings
a wondrous bird:
its dazzling bright plumage
shines light in the breezes;
blissfully hovering now and again
it beckons me to fly and flee.
My heart swells
with sweet pain,
in my need wings sprout;
it soars
in bold progress
to fly through the air
up from the tombs of cities
to its native hill
to the green Vogelweide
where Master Walther once set me free;
there I sing bright and clear
in honour of my dearest lady:
upwards then climbs -
though Master-Crows are unfriendly to it -
the proud love-song.
Farewell, you Masters here below!

(With a gesture of proud contempt, Walther leaves the Singer's Chair and the building. There is general confusion, augmented by the apprentices, who shoulder the benches and Marker's box, causing hindrance and disorder to the Masters who are crowding to the door)

SACHS

Ha, what spirit!
What glow of inspiration!
You Masters, be quiet and listen!
Listen when Sachs beseeches you!
Master Marker, favour us with some peace!
Let others listen! Grant but that!
In vain! Every endeavour is in vain!
One can scarcely hear oneself speak!
No one will heed the knight.
There's spirit for you, to carry on singing!
His heart's in the right place:
a true poet-knight!
If I, Hans Sachs, make verse and shoes,
he's a knight and a poet too!

THE APPRENTICES AND DAVID
(The apprentices, jumping up
from their bench towards the end
take hands and dance in ring

round the Marker's box)
Good luck for the Master-singing
if you want to gain the garland!
The flowery garland of fine silks -
will it be granted to the knight?

BECKMESSER
Now, Masters, annunce your decision!
(The Masters hold up their hands)

ALL MASTERS
Completely sung away his chance!

(Sachs remains alone in the front, looking pensively at the empty seat: when the boys remove this too he turns away with a humorous gesture of discouragement)

Contents: Roles; Act One; Act Two; Act Three