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

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

ACT THREE

PRELUDE

SCENE ONE

The inside of sach's workshop: at the back is the half-open door to the street. To the right there is a door leading to an inner chamber; to the left, overlooking the street, a window with flowers outside; at the side a work-bench. Sachs is seated in an arm-chair near the window, through which the morning sun pours in. He has a large folio in his lap and is absorbed in reading it.

(David comes along the road outside, peeps inside the door, sees Sachs, and starts back.)
(Having made certain Sachs has not noticed him, he slips quietly into the room. He has a basket in his hand which he puts on the work-bench near the door; he takes flowers and ribbons from the basket; finally, he finds a sausage and a cake. He prepares to eat some of the food when Sachs, who still does not look at him, noisly turns over one of the large pages of the folio)

DAVID
(starting at the noise, hiding his food,
and turning to Sachs)
Coming, Master! Here!
The shoes have been delivered
to Her Beckmesser's house.
I thought you just called me?
(gradually approaching, humbly)
He's pretending he hasn't seen me.
It means he's angry when he doesn't speak.
Ah Master! Will you forgive me?
Can an apprentice be perfect?
If you knew Lena as I do,
you would forgive me for sure.
She is so good, so gentle to me,
and often looks at me tenderly:
when you strike at me, she caresses me
and smiles so sweetly the while!
If I'm made to fast, she feeds me,
and in every way is so lovely.
Yesterday, when the knight ruined his chances
I couldn't get her to give me the basket:
that hurt me; and when I found
someone standing before her window at night
and singing to her, and shouting like mad,
I gave him a real thrashing.
How could such a big fuss arise fro that?
And it's certainly helped our love:
Lena has just explained everything to me
and given me flowers and ribbons for the festival.
(bursting out in still greater anxiety)
Ah, Master! speak just one word!
(aside)
If only I'd first put away the sausage and cake!

(Sachs, who has read on undisturbed, claps his book shut. At the loud noise David is so startled that he stumbles and falls unintentionally on his knees before Sachs. The latter gazes away beyond the book which he still holds, beyond David, who looks up at him timidly, and his eyes fall on the farther table)

SACHS

Do I see flowers and ribbons there?
It looks charming and youthful!
How did they get into my house?

DAVID
(astonished at Sachs's friendliness)
Well, Master! Today's a festival;
so everyone puts his best things on.

SACHS

Might there be a wedding-feast today?

DAVID
Yes, would that the time had come
for David to marry Lena!

SACHS

It was Polter-evening, methinks?

DAVID
(aside)
(Polter-evening? So I'm in for it, then?)
(aloud)
Forgive me, Master! Please forget!
For today we celebrate St John's Day.

SACHS
St John's Day?

DAVID
(Is his hearing bad today?)

SACHS
Do you know your poem? Say it to me!

DAVID
(who meanwhile
has stood up again)
My poem? I think I know it well.
(aside)
(No thrashing! The Master is in a good mood!).
(aloud)
"On Jordan's bank St John did stand"
(In his agitation he sings
his lines to the melody
of Beckmesser's serenade
from the previous Act;

he is pulled up by Sachs's
movement of astonishment)

SACHS
Wh-what?

DAVID
(smiling)
Forgive the confusion!
The Polter-evening led me astray.
(He recovers himself
and begins again)
"On Jordan's bank St John did stand
to baptise all the people of the world:
a woman came from a distant land,
from Nuremberg she had hastened:
her little son she carried to the river's bank,
received there baptism and name;
but when they then took their homeward way
and got back to Nuremberg again,
in German land it soon transpired
that the person who on the Jordan's bank
was named John,
on the River Pegnitz was called Hans."
(reflecting)
(impetuously)
Hans? Hans! Sir! Master! It's your nameday!
No! How can one forget such a thing!
Here! here, the flowers are for you,
the ribbons... and what else is there now?
Yes, here! Look, Master! A splendid cake!
Wouldn't you like to try the sausage too?

SACHS
(still dreamily,
without moving)
Thank you my boy! Keep it for yourself!
But today you shall accompany me to the meadow:
adorn yourself with flowers and ribbons;
you shall be my grand herald!

DAVID
Shouldn't I rather be best man?
Master! Ah, Master, you must go wooing again!

SACHS
Would you like to have a Mistress in the house?

DAVID
I mean, it would look much grander.

SACHS
Who knows! Time brings wisdom.

DAVID
It's time.

SACHS
So wisdom can't be far away?

DAVID
For sure! There are rumours about already.
You'd defeat Beckmesser in singing I think.
I mean, he'll hardly give himself airs today.

SACHS
Quite possibly! I've thought about it already.
Go now, and don't disturb the knight!
Come back when you're all smart.

DAVID
(kisses Sachs's hand)
He's never been like this before, though he's usually kind!
(I can't remember what the strap's like!
(He collects his things
and goes into the chamber)

(Sachs, still with the book on his knees, leans forward deep in thought, resting his head on his hand.)

SACHS
Madness! Madness!
Everywhere madness!
Wherever I look searchingly
in city and world chronicles,
to seek out the reason
why, till they draw blood,
people torment and flay each other
in useless, foolish anger!
No-one has reward
or thanks for it:
driven to flight,
he thinks he is hunting;
hears not his own cry of pain;
when he digs into his own flesh
he thinks he is giving himself pleasure!
Who will give it its name?
It is the old madness,
without which nothing can happen,
nothing whatever!
If it halts somewhere in its course
it is only to gain new strenght in sleep:
suddenly it awakens,

then see who can master it!
How peacefully with its staunch customs,
contented in deed and work,
lies, in the middle of Germany,
my dear Nuremberg!
(He gazes before him,
filled with a deep and peaceful joy)
But one evening late,
to prevent a mishap
caused by youthful ardour,
a man knows not what to do;
a cobbler in his shop
plucks at the thread of madness:
how soon in alleys and streets
it begins to rage!
Man, woman, journeyman, and child
fall upon each other as if crazed and blind;
and if madness prevails,
it must now rain blows,
with cuts, blows, and thrashings
to quench the fire of anger.
God knows how that befell!
A goblin must have helped:
a glow-worm could not find its mate;
it set the trouble in motion.
It was the elder-tree: Midsummer Eve!
But now has come Midsummer Day!
Now let us see how Hans Sachs manages
finely to guide the madness
so as to perform a nobler work:
for if madness won't leave us in peace
even here in Nuremberg,
then let it be in the service of such works
as are seldom successful in plain activities
and never so without a touch of madness.

SCENE TWO

(Walther enters from the chamber. He pauses a moment at the door, looking at Sachs. The latter turns and allows his book to slip to the ground)

SACHS
God be with you, Sir knight! You've rested till now?
You were up late, and then you slept?

WALTHER
A little, but deeply and well.

SACHS
So you are now in good heart?

WALTHER
I had a wonderfully beautiful dream.

SACHS
That bodes well! Tell it to me!

WALTHER
I scarcely dare even to think of it:
I fear to see it vanish from me.

SACHS
My friend, it is precisely the poet's task
to interpret and record his dreamings.
Belive me, man's truest madness
is disclosed to him in dreams:
all poetry and versification
is nothing but true dream interpretation.
What are the odds that your dream told you
how you might become a Master today?

WALTHER
No, from the guild and its Masters
my vision did not want to take its inspiration.

SACHS
But it taught you the magic spell
with which you might win her?

WALTHER
How you delude yourself, after such a failure,
if you still cherish hope!

SACHS
I shan't let my hope diminish;
nothing has yet overthrown it;
were it so, then belive me, instead of hindering your flight
I would have run away with you!
So please give up your resentment now!
You are dealing with men of honour;
they make mistakes and are content
that one takes them on their own terms.
He who decides prizes and offers prizes
expects also that people should please him.
Your song made them uneasy;
and rightly so; for when you think of it,
it is with such fire of poetry and love
that daughters are seduced to adventure;
but for loving and blissful wedlock
other words and melodies were invented.

WALTHER

These too I know, since last night;
there was much noise in the street.

SACHS

Yes, yes! Very true! The time-beating as well
you must have heard! But let that be,
and follow my advice; in short:
take courage and make a Master-song!

WALTHER
A beautiful song, a Master-song:
how am I to grasp the difference?

SACHS

My friend, in the sweet time of youth,
when from mighty impulse
to blissful first love
the breast swells high and free,
to sing a beautiful song
many have succeeded:
the spring sang for them.
But when summer, autumn and winter come,
much hardship and care in life,
much married joy as well,
baptism, business, discord and strife:
whoever then can still succeeded
in singing a beautiful song:
Behold! He is called Master!

WALTHER

I love a woman, and will woo her
to be my wife for ever.

SACHS
Learn the Master's rules in good time,
that they may truly accompany you
and help you keep
what in youthful years,
with lovely impulse,
spring and love
placed unawares in your heart,
so that you may cherish it safely.

WALTHER
If they now stand in such high repute,
who was it who made the rules?

SACHS
It was sorely-troubled Masters,
spirits oppressed by the cares of life:
in the desert of their troubles
they formed for themselves an image,
so that to them might remain
of youthful love
a memory, clear and firm,
in which spring can be recognised.

WALTHER
But the form whom spring has long since fled,
how can he capture it in an image?

SACHS
He refreshes it as often as he can:
so, as a troubled man, I should like,
if I am to teach you the rules,
you to explain them to me anew.
See, here is ink, pen, paper:
I'll write it down for you if you will dictate to me.

WALTHER
How I should begin I scarcely know.

SACHS
Tell me your morning-dream.

WALTHER
Through the good precepts of your rules
I feel as if it were effaced.

SACHS
Then take poetry to your hand now:
many found through it what was lost.

WALTHER
So it might be not dream, but poetry?

SACHS
The two are friends, gladly standing by each other.

WALTHER
How do I begin according to the rule?

SACHS
You make it yourself, and then you follow it.
Think of your beautiful dream of this morning;
of the rest let Hans Sachs take care!

(Walther places himself at the work-bench near Sachs who takes down the song as Walther sings it)

WALTHER

"Shining in the rosy light of morning,
the air heavy
with blossom and scent,
full of every
unthought-of joy,
a garden invited me
to be its guest".

SACHS
That was a "stanza": now see to it
that one just like it follows

WALTHER
Why just like it?

SACHS
So that one can see
that you're choosing an equal as a wife.

WALTHER
"Blissfully towering from that blessed spot,
offering golden fruits'
healing, juicy abundance
with fair splendour
in response to desire
at the tips of its fragrant branches,
a glorious tree".

SACHS
You didn't close in the same tone:
that offends the Masters;
but Hans Sachs will learn from it,
in spring it must be so.
Now compose an "Aftersong".

WALTHER
What is that?

SACHS
If you've succeeded
in finding a true pair,
it will show in the children.
Similar to the stanza, but not exactly the same,
rich in its own rhymes and tones;
that people find it slender and self-sufficient,
that makes the parents proud of the child:
and it will from a conclusion to your stanzas
so that nothing shall fall out of place.

WALTHER
"To you be confided
what sublime wonder befell me:
at my side stood a woman
so fair and beautiful as I have never seen;
like a bride
she gently enfolded my body;
with twinkling eyes
her hand pointed shining
towards what I ardently desired,
the fruit, so fair and precious,
of the Tree of Life".

SACHS
(moved)
That's what I call an Aftersong:
see how the complete section has come off!
Only with the melody
you are a little free;
but I don't say that's a fault;
but it isn't easy to hold on to,

and that vexes our old men!
Now fashion me a second section
so that one can see what the first was.
Also, I don't yet know, well as you've rhymed,
what you've composed and what you've dreamt.

WALTHER
"Glowing in the heavenly splendour of the evening,
day departed
as I lay there:
from her eyes
to drink bliss
a desire of unique power
awoke within me.
Enclosed in night my gaze grows faint:
so far, yet so near
shone there
two light stars
from the distance
through the light of slender twings
brightly on my face.
Loving a spring
on a silent height murmurs to me;
now its lovely tone swells
so strong and sweet as I have never heard it:
gleaming and bright
how beautifully the stars were shining there!
To dance and circle
in leaf and twings
more of the golden ones come together,
instead of fruit a host of stars
in the laurel-tree".

SACHS
(deeply moved)
Friend, your vision told you true:
you have succeeded with the second section too.
If you would write a third,
it would tell the meaning of the dream.

(Walther rises hastily)

WALTHER
Where might I find that? Enough of words!

SACHS
(also rising, and going up
to Walther with friendly
decision)
Then deed and word at the proper place!
Therefore I beg you, remember well the melody;

it is a fine vehicle for poetry,
and when you sing it in a wider circle,
then hold fast to your vision too.

WALTHER
What is your intent?

SACHS
Your faithful servant
found his way hither with pack and bag:
the clothes in which at your marriage ceremony
at home you intended to dazzle,
he sent hither to me:
a little dove surely showed him the nest
in which his master was dreaming.
So follow me now into the little chamber!
With richly embroidered clothes
we must both be adorned
if we are to venture on solemn enterprises.
So come, if you are in agreement with me.

(Walther clasps Sachs's hand; Sachs quietly guides him to the chamber; he opens the door and respectfully follows Walther in.)

(Beckmesser is seen in the street, before the house; in the greatest excitement, he peeps into the shop; finding it empty he comes in.)

SCENE THREE

Beckmesser is richly dressed but in a deplorable state. He limps and rubs his back and knees; he tries to sit down on a stool, but jumps up again. He hobbles around, holding on to the workbench as if to avoid toppling over. Then pausing, he looks through the window at Pogner's house opposite; makes gestures of wrath and jealousy; strikes his hand on his forehead. At last he turns back to the work-bench and his eyes fall on the paper which Sachs has left lying there. He takes it up inquisitively, runs his eye over it in growing agitation, and finally bursts out wranthfully

BECKMESSER
A wooing-song! By Sachs? Is it true?
Ha! Now I understand everything!
(Hearing the chamber door open
he stands and conceals the paper
hurriedly in his pocket)

(Sachs, in festive attire, enters and stops short on noticing Beckmesser)

SACHS
Well I never! Mr Clerk? In the morning too?
Surely your shoes can't still be troubling you?

BECKMESSER
The devil! Never have I worn such thin shoes;
I feel the smallest stone through the soles!

SACHS
My Marking Song was responsible for that:
I made them so soft with the Marker's strokes.

BECKMESSER
No more jokes! And enough of your tricks!
Belive me, friend Sachs, now I know you!
Last night's joke
will be remembered against you all right:
so that I shouldn't stand in your way
you created an uproar and riot!

SACHS
It was Polter-evening, let me inform you:
your wedding had a haunting effect on people;
so the madder it goes,
the better the marriage will be.

BECKMESSER
(bursting out into a rage)
O cobbler, full of tricks
and vulgar pranks,
you were always my foe:
now you'll hear whether I see clearly.
The girl I had chosen,
born just for me -
disgrace of all widowers,
this is the maiden you're trying to ensnare.
So that Herr Sachs might win
the goldsmith's rich inheritance,
in the Masters' assembly
he insisted on clauses
so as to delude a girl
who should listen only to him,
and, forsaking other men,
turn only to him.
That's why! That's why!
Could I be so stupid?
With shouts and bangings
he wanted to stop my song,
so that the child should not know
how another man felt!
Yes, yes! Ha ha!
Haven't I got you?
From his cobbler's shop
he finally set the boy
on me with cudgels,
so as to get rid of me!
Ow, ow! Ow, ow!
Thrashed and beaten
so black and blue,
the laughing stock of my dearest lady,
so that no tailor could iron me out!
My very life
was endangered!
But I escaped all the same,
so as to be able to pay you back!
Just go out to the Singing today
and see how it goes;
though I'm pinched
and hacked about too,
I'll certainly upset your rhythm!

SACHS
Good friend, you're seriously deluded!
Please yourself what you think I've done,
give vent to your jealousy;
I've no thought of wooing.

BECKMESSER
Lies and deceit! I know better.

SACHS
What are you thinking of, Master Beckmesser?
My other thoughts don't concern you:
but belive me, you're wrong about the wooing.

BECKMESSER
You're not singing today?

SACHS
Not in the contest.

BECKMESSER
No wooing-song?

SACHS
Indeed not!

BECKMESSER
(he puts his hand into his pocket)
But supposing I had proof of it?

SACHS
(looking on the work-bench)
The poem? I left it here... have you pocketed it?

BECKMESSER
(producing the paper)
Is that your hand?

SACHS
Yes... was that it?

BECKMESSER
Quite fresh still, the writing?

SACHS
And the ink still wet?

BECKMESSER
Might it perhaps be a biblical song?

SACHS
Anyone suggesting that would be wrong.

BECKMESSER
Well then?

SACHS

What do you mean?

BECKMESSER
You ask?

SACHS
What more?

BECKMESSER
In all honesty, you
are the worst of rascals!

SACHS
Maybe! But I've never yet taken
what I found on others' tables:
and so that people don't think evil of you,
keep the sheet, let it be a present for you.

BECKMESSER
(springing up in joyous surprise)
Good heavens! A poem! A poem by Sachs?
But wait... lest some new harm come to me!
You'll have memorised it pretty well already?

SACHS
On my account have no fear!

BECKMESSER
You'll let me have the sheet?

SACHS
So that you're no thief.

BECKMESSER
And if I were to use it?

SACHS
As you like.

BECKMESSER
But, shall I sing the song?

SACHS
If it's not too difficult.

BECKMESSER
And if I brought it off?

SACHS
I should be very surprised!

BECKMESSER
(affectionately)
There you are now, being too modest again:
a song by Sachs, that counts for something!
And look at the state that I'm in,
how things are with me, most wretched fellow!
I look with pain at the song
which I sang last night -
thanks to your funny jokes
it frightened Pogner's daughter!
How can I now forthwith procure
a new song for the purpose?
Poor, beaten-up fellow that I am,
how should I find peace for that today?
Wooing and married life,
even if God allotted me them,
I must straightway give up
if I have no new song.
A song of yours, of that I'm sure,
with that I'll overcome every obstacle:
if I'm to have that today,
forgotten and buried
be quarrels, dispute, and strife
and whatever else kept us apart.
(He peers sideways at the paper:
suddenly he frowns)
And yet! If it should be only a trap!
Yesterday you were still my foe:
how should it be that after such great troubles
you are friendly to me today?

SACHS
I was making you shoes far into the night:
did anyone ever treat a foe in such a way?

BECKMESSER
Yes, yes! Quite right! But swear one thing:
that wherever and however you hear the song
you'll never take it into your head
to say that the song was written by you.

SACHS
I swear and vow to you here
never to boast that the song is by me.

BECKMESSER
(rubbing his hands with elation)
What more do I want? I am saved!
Beckmesser has nothing more to worry about!

SACHS
But friend, I draw it to your attention
and advise you with all kindness:
study the song properly!
Its performance is not easy,
even if you find the right melody
and get the proper tone!

BECKMESSER
Friend Sachs, you are a good poet;
but where tone and melody are concerned,
admit, no one surpasses me!
So prick up your ears,
and: "Beckmesser,
no one better!"
You can be sure of that
if you let me sing in peace.
But now, to memorise it,
quickly home!
Without losing time
I'll see to that.
Hans Sachs, my dear friend,
I've misjudged you;
by that adventurer
I was led astray:

(that sort is no loss!
We Masters have got rid of him all right!)
But my thoughts
are running away with me:
am I confused
and quite lost?
The syllables, the rhymes,
the words, the lines:
I'm stuck as if by glue,
and yet my heels are itching!
Adieu! I must away!
In another place
I'll thank you fervently
for being so charming;
I'll vote only for you,
I'll buy your works at once,
and make you Marker -
but delicately, with soft chalk,
not with hammer-strokes!
Marker! Marker! Hans Sachs Marker!

Let Nuremberg bloom and wax in cobblerly fashion!

(Beckmesser takes leave of Sachs and lumbers towards the door; suddenly thinking he has lost the song, he rushes back to search for it on the work-bench; he finds it in his own hand, delightedly embraces Sachs in warm thanks, and hobbles noisily off through the shop-door)

SACHS
(watching Beckmesser leave
and smiling thoughtfully)
I've never found anyone quite so malicious,
he'll not keep it up for ever:
if many a man often throws away much of his reason,
he'll need some for keeping house.
A moment of weakness comes to everyone -
he then looks foolish and listens to reason.
That Master Beckmesser has turned thief here
is very welcome for my plan.
(Eva approaches
the shop-door.)
(He turns and sees her coming)
Look, Eva! I was wondering where she was!

SCENE FOUR

(Eva, richly dressed in dazzling white, though pale and distraught, enters the shop)

SACHS
God be with you, my Eva! Ah, how noble
and proud you are today!
You'll fill old and young with desire
by looking so beautiful.

EVA
Master! It's not so dangerous:
and if the tailor has brought it off,
who'll then see where I'm anxious,
where my shoe silently pinches me?

SACHS
The wicked shoe! It was your whim
that you didn't try it on yesterday.

EVA
Note that I had too much trust:
I was mistaken in the Master.

SACHS
Ah, I'm sorry! Show me, my child,
so that I may help you this minute.

EVA
If I stand, it wants to walk:
but if I want to walk, it makes me stand.

SACHS
Put your foot on this stool here:
I must put a stop to this dreadful trouble.
(She puts her foot up on a stool
by the work-bench)
What's wrong with it?

EVA
You see, it's too wide!

SACHS
Child, that is pure vanity:
the shoe fits snugly.

EVA
Just what I said:
that's why it's pinching my toes there.

SACHS

Here on the left?

EVA
No, on the right.

SACHS
More on the instep?

EVA
Here, more at the heel.

SACHS
Trouble there too?

EVA
Ah Master! Should you know better than I
where the shoe pinches me?

(Walther, in glittering knightly apparel, has appeared at the chamber door)

SACHS
Indeed I'm surprised
that it's too wide and yet pinches everywhere!

(Eva remains in her position with one foot on the stool, gazing fixedly at Walther)

EVA
Ah!

SACHS
Aha! here it is! Now I see what's wrong!
(Sachs is bent over her foot
with his back toward
the door)
Child, you're right: the stitching was at fault:
now wait, I'll cure the trouble.
(Walther, spellbound at the sight
of Eva, remains at the door
without moving)
Stay where you are; I'll put your shoe
on the last for a while: then it'll give you peace.
(He has gently drawn off
her shoe: while she remains
in the same position, he goes
to the work-bench and pretends
to busy himself with the shoe
and to be oblivious off all else)
(As he works:)
Always cobbling!! that is now my lot;
night and day I can't get away from it!
Child, listen! I have thought over

what will put an end to my cobbling:
it will be best if I woo you after all;
then I might still win something for myself as poet!
You aren't listening? Say something.
It was your idea, wasn't it?
Very well - I note it! - "Make your shoes!"
If only someone would sing an accompaniment!
I've heard a very beautiful song today:
would that a third verse might complete it!

WALTHER
(his gaze still
fixed on Eva)
"Did the stars linger in their lovely dance?
So light and clear
in her tresses -
above all women
glorious to behold -
lay with delicate gleam
a garland of stars".

SACHS
(still at work)
Listen, child! That's a Master-song.

WALTHER
"Wonder on wonder now appears:
twofold day
I gladly greet;
for like two suns
of purest bliss,
the most glorious pair of eyes
I there perceived".

SACHS
(aside to Eva)
That's the sort of song you hear in my house now.

WALTHER
"Most gracious picture,
which I made bold to approach:
the garland by two suns' beams
at once faded and made fresh green,
livingly and mildly
she twined it around her husband's head.
Born there in grace,
now set for fame,
she pours paradisiacal joy
into the poet's breast
in a dream of love".

SACHS
(Busily at work, he brings
back the shoe and fits it
on Eva's foot again)
Now let's see if that's helped my shoe.
I really do think that at last
I've succeeded.
Try it! stand on it - Say, does it still pinch you?

(Eva, who has stood still as if enchanted, gazing and listening, bursts into a sudden fit of weeping and sinks on Sachs's breast, sobbing and clinging to him. Walther advances towards them and wrings Sachs's hand. Sachs at last composes himself, tears himself away as if in vexation, so that Eva now rests on Walther's shoulder)

SACHS
Cobbling certainly produces its problems!
If I weren't a poet too
I would no longer make shoes!
It is labour, drudgery!
Too broad for this person, too tight for that,
people rushing and crowding in form all sides:
it clops,
it's loose,
it's tight here,
it pinches there!
And the cobbler is expected to know everything,
patch up anything torn;
and if he's also a poet
they won't leave that side of him in peace either;
and if he's a widower too,
they certainly make sport with him.
The youngest girls, when there's a shortage of men,
want him to ask for their hand;
whether he understands them or not,
no matter whether yes or no is his answer;
in the end he smells of pitch
and is thought stupid, malicious, impudent!
Ah! I'm only sorry for my apprentice:
he'll lose everyone's respect:
Lena is already affecting his reason,
so that he eats out of her hand.
Where the devil is he hiding now!

EVA
(stopping him as as he is going off
and drawing him to her again)
O Sachs! My friend! Dear man!
How can I reward you, noble man?
What would I be without your love,
without you?
Wouldn't I have remained always a child
if you had not awoken me?
Through you I have won
what people prize,

through you I learnt
the workings of the spirit;
by you awoken,
only through you did I think
nobly, freely, and boldly;
you made me bloom!
Yes, dear Master, scold me if you will;
but I was on the right path,
for, if I had the choice,
I would choose none but you;
you would have been my husband,
I would have given the prize to none but you.
But now I am chosen
for unknown torment,
and if I am married today,
then I had no choice:
that was necessity, compulsion!
You yourself, my Master, were dismayed.

SACHS
My child,
of Tristan and Isolde
I know a sad tale:
Hans Sachs was clever and did not want
anything of King Mark's lot. -
It was high time that I found the right man;
otherwise I would have run right into it.
Aha, there's Lena hurrying round the corner;
come in! Hey, David! Aren't you coming out?
(Magdalena in festive attire
enters from the street
and David at the same time
comes out of the chamber,
also gaily dressed and very
splendid with ribbons and flowers)
Withnesses are here, godparents to hand:
now quickly to the christening! Take your places!
(All look at him with surprise)
A child has been born here;
now let a name be chosen for him!
This the Master's style and pratice
when a Master-melody has been created,
so that it may bear a goodly name
by which all may recognise it.
Hear, respected company,
what summons you today to this place:
A Master-melody has come into being,
written and sung by Sir Walther;
the young melody's living father
invited me and Eva to be godparents.
Because we have heard the melody

we have come hither to its christening;
and for witnesses to the cerimony
I summon Mistress Lena and my lad.
But as an apprentice cannot act as withness
and today he also sang his piece well,
I forthwith make the boy a journeyman.
Kneel down, David, and take this cuff!
(David kneels and Sachs gives him
a smart box on the ear)
Arise, jouneyman, and think of that blow;
you shall then remember the christening too.
If anything else lacks, let no one reproach us;
who knows, it may be an emergency baptism.
So that the melody may have strenght to live,
I will give it its name at once:
"Blissful Morning-Dream-Interpretation-Melody"
let it be named to its Master's praise.
Now may it grow big, without harm or hurt.
The youngest godparent speaks the speech.

EVA
As blissfully as the sun
of my happiness laughs,
a morning full of joy
blessedly awakens for me;
dream of highest favours,
heavenly morning glow:
interpretation to owe you,
blessedly sweet task!

A melody, tender and noble,
ought to succeed propitiously
in interpreting and subduing
my heart's sweet burden.
Is it only a morning dream?
In my bliss, I can scarcely interpret it myself.
But the melody,
what it softly confides
to me,
clear and loud
in the full circle of the Masters
may its revelation point to the highest prize.

MAGDALENA
Do I wake or dream so early?
To explain it gives me trouble:
is it only a morning dream?
What I see I scarcely grasp!
Him here
a journeyman all of a sudden?
I the bride?
In the church
we shall even be married?
Yes, in truth, it is so! Who knows,
but that I may soon be a Master's wife!

WALTHER
Your love made me succeed
in interpreting and subduing
my heart's sweet burden.
Is it still the morning-dream?
In my bliss, I can scarcely interpret it myself.
But the melody,
what it softly
confides to you
in the silent room,
bright and loud
in the full circle of the Masters
may it compete for the highest prize!

DAVID

Do I wake or dream so early?
To explain it gives me trouble:
is it only a morning-dream?
What I see I scarcely grasp!
I became here
a journeyman all of a sudden?
Lena betrothed?
In the church
we shall even be married?
My mind is in a whirl
that I shall soon be a Master!

SACHS
Before the child, so charming and fair,
I would fain sing out:
but the heart's sweet burden
had to be subdued.
It was a beautiful morning-dream;
I scarcely dare think of it.
This melody,
what it softly
confides to me
in the silent room,
says to me aloud:
even youth's eternal twig
grows green only through the poet's praise.

(to the others)
Now all to your places!
(to Eva)
My greetings to your father.
Away, off to the meadow, best feet forward!
(Eva and Magdalena leave)
(To Walther)
Now, Sir knight! Come! Be of good cheer!
David, journeyman! Shut the shop carefully!

(Sachs and Walther also go into the street; David is left shutting up the shop)

SCENE FIVE

During the interlude the scene changes. The stage now represents an open meadow; in the distance at the back the town of Nuremberg. The river Pegnitiz winds across the meadow. Boats gaily decorated with flags continually discharge fresh parties of burghers of the different guilds with their wives and families on the bank by the festival meadow. A raised stand with benches on it is erected on the right, already adorned with the flags of the guilds that have arrived earlier; as the scene opens the standard-bearers of freshly arriving guilds also place their banners against the Singers' stage, so that it is eventually quite closed in on three sides by them. Tents with all kinds of refreshments border the sides of the open space in front. Before the tents there is much merry-making: burghers and their families sit or lie around them. The apprentices of the Mastersingers, in holyday attire, finely decked out with ribbons and flowers and bearing slender wands, also ornamented, merrily fulfil the office of heralds and stewards. They receive the newcomers on the bank, arrange them in procession and conduct them to the stand, whence, after the standard-bearer has deposited his banner, the burghers and journeymen disperse among the tents. Just after the change of scene, the shoemakers are received on the bank in the manner mentioned and led to the foreground.

THE SHOEMAKERS
(marching past with flying banner)
Saint Crispin,
praise him!
He was a very holy man,
showed what a cobbler can do.
The poor had a good time,
he made them warm shoes,
and if no one would lend him the leather
he stole it for his purpose.
The cobbler has a broad conscience,
makes shoes even when there are obstacles;
and as soon as the skin has left the tanner's,
then it's stretch! stretch! stretch!
Leather is of use only in the right place.

(The town watchmen enter with trumpets and drums, followed by the town pipers, lute-makers, etc.)

THE TAILORS
(marching up with flying banner)
When Nuremberg was besieged
and there was famine,
the city and the whole land would have been ruined
if a tailor hadn't been at hand
who had much courage and sense:
he sewed himself into a goatskin
and went walking on the city wall,
and capered there
merrily and cheerfully.
The enemy sees this and withdraws:
the devil may take the city
if there are still such merry bleaters there!
Me-e-eh! Me-e-eh! Me-e-eh!
Who'd think there was a tailor inside the goat!

THE BAKERS

Famine! Famine!
What hideous suffering!
If the baker didn't give you your daily bread,
everyone would die.
Bake! Bake! Bake!
Each day on the spot!
Take away our hunger!

(A gaily painted boat, filled with young girls in fine peasant costumes, arrives. The apprentices go to the bank)

APPRENTICES
Hurrah! Hurrah! Girls from Fürth!
Town pipers, play! Make it merry!
(The apprentices help the girls out of the boat)

(Dance of the Apprentices)

(David advances from the landing-place)

DAVID
You're dancing? What will the Masters say?
(The boys make faces at him)
You won't listen? Then I'll enjoy myself too!

(David seizes a young and pretty girl and mingles in the dance with great ardour. The onlookers are amused and laugh)

APPRENTICES

David! David! Lena's looking!

(David is alarmed and hastily releases the maiden, but seeing nothing, seizes the girl again and resumes his dancing with even more ardour)

DAVID
Ah! leave me in peace with your jokes!

(The boys try to take David's girl from him, but he deftly outwits them)

JOURNEYMEN
(at the landing-place)
The Mastersingers!

APPRENTICES
The Mastersingers!

(The apprentices at once break off their dance and hasten to the bank)

DAVID
Heavens! Farewell, you pretty young things!
(He gives the maiden an ardent kiss
and tears himself away)

(The apprentices arrange themselves to receive the Mastersingers: all stand back for them. The Mastersingers arrange their procession on the bank. When Kothner arrives in the foreground, all wave their hats to greet the banner he is bearing and which King David with his harp is depicted. The Mastersingers' procession arrives on the Singers' platform, where Kothner places his banner. Pogner follows him, leading Eva by the hand; she is attended by richly dressed maidens, among whom is Magdalena. When Eva has taken the richly decorated place of honour, with her maidens around her, and all the others, the Masters on benches, the journeymen standing behind them, have also taken their places, the apprentices solemnly advance in rank and file before the stand, turning to the people)

APPRENTICES
Silence! Silence!
No talking and no murmuring!

(Sachs rises and steps forward. At sight of him all nudge each other; hats and caps are taken off: all point at him)

THE PEOPLE
Ha! Sachs! It's Sachs!
Look, Master Sachs!
Begin! Begin! Begin!

(All those sitting rise; then men remain with uncovered heads.)
(Sachs excepted, all those present sing the following stanza)

ALL
"Awake! the dawn is drawing near;
I hear a blissful nightingale
singing in the green grove,
its voice rings through hill and valley;
night is sinking in the west,
the day arises in the east,
the ardent red glow of morning
approaches through the gloomy clouds."

(The chorus of the people continue to sing alone; the Masters on the platform as well as all those who had joined in the song watch the people's elation)

(The people again become excited and jubilant)

THE PEOPLE
Hail! Sachs! Hail to you, Hans Sachs!
Hail to Nuremberg's dear Sachs!

SACHS
(Sachs, who as if rapt, has stood motionless,
gazing far away beyond the multitude,
at last turns a genial glance on them,
and begins in a voice at first trembling
with emotion but soon gaining firmness:)
You take it lightly, but for me you make it hard;
you do me, poor man, too much honour.
If I must submit to honour,
let it be that of seeing myself loved by you.
Great honour has already been done me,
when today I was named as spokesman,
and what my speech shall tell you,
belive me, is full of high honours.
If you already honour Art so highly,
it was necessary to prove
that he who cleaves to it for its own sake
esteems it above all prizes.
A Master, rich and high-minded,
will show you this today:
his little daughter - his greatest treasure,
with all his goods and possessions -
to the singer who in the song-contest
wins the prize before all the people,
as crown for the highest prize
he offers her as reward.
So hear, and agree with me:
the contest is open to the Poet.
You Masters who are bold to try,
I proclaim it to you before the people:
consider the contest's rare prize,
and whoever shall succeed,
let him know himself pure and noble,
in wooing as in singing,
if he will win the laurels
which never yet, among moderns or ancients,
were set so splendidly high
as by this lovely pure maiden,
who shall never regret
that Nuremberg with highest worth
honours Art and its Masters.

(Great stir among those present. Sachs approaches Pogner)

POGNER
(presses Sachs's hand, deeply moved)
O Sachs! My friend! How worthy of thanks!
You know well what makes my heart heavy!

SACHS
(to Pogner)
You've risked much! Now have courage!
Mister Marker! Say, how is it? Good?

(He turns to Beckmesser, who during the procession and ever since has been continually taking the poem out of his pocked trying to commit it to memory, and constantly wiping the perspiration from his brow in despair)

BECKMESSER
Oh, this song! I can't get it,
and yet I've studied away at it long enough!

SACHS
My friend, it's not being forced on you.

BECKMESSER
What use is that? My own's song out;
it was your fault! Now be kind to me!
I would be disgraceful if you left me in the lurch!

SACHS
I should have thought you'd give it up.

BECKMESSER
A fine idea!
I'll outsing all the others
if you'll only not sing.

SACHS
Then see what happens.

BECKMESSER
The song! I'm sure no one will understand it:
but I'm basing my hopes on your popularity.

SACHS
Well then, if Masters and people agree,
let the song contest begin.

KOTHNER
(advancing)
Bachelor Masters, make ready!
The eldest shall appear first!
Herr Beckmesser you shall begin, it's time!

(The apprentices lead Beckmesser to a little mound of turf which they have beaten solid and richly bestrewn with flowers. Beckmesser strumbles up it, treades uncertainly and totteres)

BECKMESSER
The devil! How wobbly! Make it nice and firm!

(The boys snigger and vigorously beat the turf)

THE PEOPLE
What, him? He's wooing? Doesn't seem to me to be the right man!
In the daughter's place I shouldn't want him.
Be quiet! He's a very able Master!
Quiet! Stop joking!
He has a vote and a seat in the council.
Ah, he can't even stand up straight!
How will he get on?
He's the Town Clerk, he's called Beckmesser.
Heavens! What a booby!
He's almost falling over!

APPRENTICES
(drawn up in order)
Silence! Silence!
No talking and no murmuring!

KOTHNER
Begin!

(Beckmesser, at last settled on the mound of turf, bows first to the Masters, then to the people, and finally to Eva, who turns away from him. In strumming a prelude he give himself courage)

BECKMESSER
"In the morning I shine in a rosy light,
with blood and scent
the air moves fast;
probably soon won,
as if dissolved;
in the garden I invited
horrid and fine."
(Beckmesser settles his feet more securely)

THE MASTERS
(softly to one another)
My! what's that? Is he out of his mind?
Where does he get such thoughts from?
THE PEOPLE
Strange! D'you hear? Whom did he invite?
Did we understand aright? How can that be?

(Beckmesser having taken a peep at the manuscript, then anxiously, slipping it back intohis pocket)

BECKMESSER
"I live passably in the same place,
fetch gold and fruit,
(another peep at the manuscript)
lead-juice and weight.
The aspirant
fetches me from the pillory,
on airy paths I scarcely
hang from the tree."

(He totters again and tries to read the paper)

MASTERSINGERS
What does this mean? Is he just mad?
His song is quite full of nonsense!

THE PEOPLE
A fine wooer! He's getting his reward.
He'll soon be on the gallows, we can see it now!

BECKMESSER
(pulling himself together,
full of despair and rage)
"I secretly grow afraid
because things are going to get merry here:
by my ladder
stood a woman;
she shamed and did not want
look at me;
as pale as a cabbage,
hemp wound about my body;
blinking its eye
the dog blew wavingly
what I long devoured,
like fruit, and wood and horse
from the tree of liver."

(All burst into a peal of loud laughter. Beckmesser descending the mound angrily and hastening to Sachs)

BECKMESSER
Damned cobbler! It's you I thank for that!
The song is not by me at all:
by Sachs, who is so highly revered here,
by your Sachs it was given to me!
The disgraceful fellow has bullied me,
palmed off his dreadful song on me.
(He rushes away furiously
and disappears in the crowd)

THE PEOPLE
My! What does that mean? Things are growing every more confused!
The song by Sachs? That would amaze us!

KOTHNER
(to Sachs)
Explain, Sachs!

NACHTIGALL
(to Sachs)
What a scandal!

VOGELGESANG
(to Sachs)
By you, the song?

ORTEL AND FOLTZ
What a strange occurence!

SACHS
(who has quietly picked up the paper
which Beckmesser threw away)

The song in truth is not by me:
Her Beckmesser is wrong in every respect!
How he came by it he himself may say;
but I should never dare to boast
that a song a s beautifully conceived as this
had been composed by me, Hans Sachs.

THE MASTERSINGERS
What? Beautiful? The song? This confused rubbish?

THE PEOPLE
Listen, Sachs is joking! He only says it for fun.

SACHS
I tell you, gentlemen, the song is beautiful:
only, it's easy to see at a glance
that friend Beckmesser has distorted it.
But I swear it will please you
if someone in this gathering were to sing
the words and music properly.
And whoever managed it would at the same time show
that he was poet of the song,
and he would rightly be named Master
if he were to find just judges.
I am accused and I must stand trial:
so let me choose my witness!
If anyone is present who knows me to be right,
let him enter this circle as witness!
(Walther advances from out
of the crowd.
General stir)

Give witness that this song is not by me;
and give witness also that what I have here
said of this song
is not an exaggeration.

THE MASTERSINGERS
How artful! Well, Sachs, you are very artful!
But we'll let pass for today.

SACHS
The value of a rule can be appreciated
when sometimes it allows an exception.

THE PEOPLE
A good witness, proud and bold!
Methinks good come of him.

SACHS
Master and people are of a mind
to hear what my witness can do.
Herr Walther von Stolzing, sing the song!
Masters, read, see if he brings it off.
(He gives Kothner
the paper to follow)

APPRENTICES
(drawn up in order)
All is expectancy, there's not a murmur:
so we shall not call "Silence!"

(Walther mounts the mound with proud and firm steps)

WALTHER
"Shining in the rosy light of morning,
the air heavy
with blossom and scent,
full of every
unthought-of-joy,
a garden invited me
(Kothner is so moved
that he drops the sheet
which he had started reading,
together with other Masters:
he and the others listen
with increasing attention)

and, beneath a wondrous tree there,
richly hung with fruit,
to behold in blessed dream of love,
boldly promising fulfilment
to the highest of joy's desires,
the most beautiful woman:
Eva in Paradise."

MASTERSINGER
(softly, aside)

Yes, indeed! I see, it makes a difference
if one sings it wrong or right.

THE PEOPLE
That's another matter, who'd have thought it?
What a difference the right words and the proper delivery make!

SACHS
Witness, here present,
continue!

WALTHER
"In the evening twilight, night enfolded me;
on a steep path
I had approached
a spring
of pure water,
which laughed enticingly to me:
there beneath a laurel-tree,
with stars shining brightly through its leaves,
in a poet's waking dream I beheld,
holy and fair of countenance,
and sprinkling me with the precious water,
the most wonderful woman,
the Muse of Parnassus!"

MASTERSINGERS
It's bold and strange, that's true:
but well-rhymed and singable.

THE PEOPLE
So gracious and familiar, however far off it soars,
but we seem to be experiencing ti with him!

SACHS
Well-chosen witness!
Continue and conclude!

WALTHER
"Most gracious day,
to which I awoke from a poet's dream!
The Paradise of which I had dreamed
in heavenly, new-transfigured splendour
lay bright before me,
to which the spring laughingly now showed me the path;
she, born there,
my heart's elect,
earth's loveliest picture,
destined to be my Muse,
as holy and grave as she is mild,
was boldly wooed by me;

in the sun's bright daylight,
through victory in song, I had won
Parnassus and Paradise!"

THE PEOPLE
Lulled as if in most beautiful dream
I hear it well, but scarcely grasp it!
Give him the chaplet!
His the prize!
No one can woo like him!

THE MASTERS
(rising)
Yes, gracious singer! Take the wreath!
Your song has won you the Masters' prize.

POGNER

O Sachs! I owe you happiness and honour.
Past now are all the cares of my heart!

EVA
(to Walther)
No one can woo as graciously as you!

(Walther has been led up the steps of the Singers' platform and there sinks before Eva on one knee)

SACHS
(to the people, pointing to Walther and Eva)
The witness, I think, I chose well:
do you bear ill will against Hans Sachs for doing so?

THE PEOPLE
(jubilantly)
Hans Sachs! No! You thought it out excellently!
You've made everything right again now!

MASTERSINGERS
(solemnly, to Pogner)
Up, Master Pogner! Let it be your honour
to annunce to the knight his Mastership!

POGNER
(bringing forward a gold chain
with three medallions,
to Walther)
Adorned with King David's picture
I take you up into the Guild of Masters!

WALTHER

Not Master! No!
(He looks tenderly at Eva)
I will be happy without Masterhood.
(All look disconcertedly towards Sachs)

SACHS
(going towards Walther and grasping
him meaningfully by the hand)
Scorn not the Masters, I bid you,
and honour their art!
What speaks high in their praise
fell richly in your favour.
Not to your ancestors, however worthy,
not to your coat-of-arms, spear, or sword,
but to the fact that you are a poet,
that a Master has admitted you -
to that you owe today your highest happiness.
So, think back to this with gratitude:
how can the art be unworthy
which embraces such prizes?
That our Masters have cared for it
rightly in their own way,
cherished it truly as they thought best,
that has kept it genuine:
if it did not remain aristocratic as of old,
when courts and princes blessed it,
in the stress of evil years

it remained German and true;
and if it flourished nowhere
but where all is stress and strain,
you see how high it remained in honour -
what more would you ask of the Masters?
Beware! Evil tricks threaten us:
if the German people and kingdom should one day decay,
under a false, foreign rule
soon no prince would understand his people;
and foreign mists with foreign vanities
they would plant in our German land;
what is German and true none would know,
if it did not live in the honour of German Masters.
Therefore I say to you:
honour your German Masters,
then you will conjure up good spirits!
And if you favour their endeavours,
even if the Holy Roman Empire
should dissolve in mist,
for us there would yet remain
holy German Art!
(During the following Eva takes the wreath from Walther's head and places it on Sachs's; he takes the chain from Pogner's hand and puts it round Walther's neck. After Sachs has embraced the young couple, Walther and Eva lean against Sachs, one on each side; Pogner sinks on his knee before him as if in homage. The Mastersingers point to Sachs, with outstretched hands, as to their chief. All those present - finally also Walther and Eva - join in the people's song)

THE PEOPLE
Honour your German Masters,
then you will conjure up good spirits!
And if you favour their endeavours,
even if the Holy Roman Empire
should dissolve in mist,
for us there would yet remain
holy German Art!
(While the apprentices
clap their hands and
shout and dance,
the people wave hats
and kerchiefs in their
enthusiasm)
Hail, Sachs!
Nuremberg's dear Sachs!

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