|
Eva, Pogner's daughter - soprano Magdalena, Eva's nurse - mezzo-soprano Walther von Stolzing, a young knight from Franconia - heldentenor David, Sachs' apprentice - high character-tenor Hans Sachs, cobbler, Meistersinger - bass-baritone Veit Pogner, goldsmith, Meistersinger - bass Sixtus Beckmesser, town clerk, Meistersinger - light baritone Fritz Kothner, baker, Meistersinger - baritone Kunz Vogelgesang, furrier, Meistersinger - tenor Konrad Nachtigall, tinsmith, Meistersinger - bass Hermann Ortel, soapmaker, Meistersinger - bass Balthasar Zorn, pewterer, Meistersinger - tenor Augustin Moser, tailor, Meistersinger - tenor Ulrich Eisslinger, grocer, Meistersinger - tenor Hans Foltz, coppersmith, Meistersinger - bass Hans Schwarz, stocking weaver, Meistersinger - bass A Nightwatchman - bass-baritone Citizens of all guilds and their wives, journeymen, apprentices, young women, people of Nuremberg PRELUDE 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) SCENE ONE The scene shows a street lengthwise with two houses, one on the left, another on the right. Between the two houses is a narrow alley winding towards the back of the stage. One house, grand in style, is Pogner's; the other, simple in style, is Sachs's. In front of Pogner's house there is a lime-tree, in front of Sachs's an elder. It is a pleasant summer evening and during this scene night falls. (David is closing the shutters of Sachs's house and other apprentices are doing the same for the other houses in the background) APPRENTICES (as they work) St John's Day! St John's Day! Flowers and ribbons in plenty! DAVID (aside) "The little flowery garland of fine silks", might it soon be granted to me! (Magdalena come out of Pogner's house with a basket on her arm and seeking to approach David unperceived) MAGDALENA Pst! David! DAVID (turning towards the alley) Are you calling again? Sing your silly songs alone! APPRENTICES David, what is it? If you weren't so proud you'd look round - if you weren't so silly! "St John's Day! St John's Day!" He doesn't want to know Mistress Lena! MAGDALENA David! Listen! Turn round to me! DAVID Ah! Mistress Lena! You here? MAGDALENA (pointing to her basket) I bring you something good! Just look inside! That's for my dear little treasure. But first, quickly, how did the knight fare? You advised him well? He won the garland? DAVID Ah, Mistress Lena! It's a sad sory: he has completely sung away his chance! MAGDALENA Sung away? Completely? DAVID What does that matter to you? MAGDALENA (snatching the basket away from David's outstretched hand) Hands off the basket! No titbits for you! God help us! Our knight undone! (She goes back into the house, wringing her hands in despair. David looks after her, dumbfounded) APPRENTICES (who have quietly stolen nearer and overheard, now advance towards David as if congratulating him) Hail, hail to the young man on his marriage! How successfully he has wooed! We all heard, and saw it too: she to whom he has given his heart and for whom he would give his life - she hasn't given him the basket. DAVID (flaring up) Why are you idling here? Hold your tongues this minute! APPRENTICES (dancing round David) St John's Day! St John's Day! Every man woos as he wishes. The Master woos! The apprentice woos! There's much flirtation and cuddling! The old man woos the young maiden, the apprentice the old maid! Hurrah! Hurrah! St John's Day! (David is about to fly at the boys in his temper, when Sachs, who has come down the alley, steps between them). (The apprentices separate) SACHS (to David) What's this? Do I catch you fighting again? DAVID Not I! They're singing coarse songs. SACHS Don't listen to them! Learn better than they! To rest! Get inside! Lock up and light a lamp. (The apprentices disperse) DAVID Do I have a singing lesson today? SACHS No, no singing - as a punishment for your cheekiness today! Put the new shoes on the last for me! (David and Sachs go together into the workshop and disappear through an inner door) SCENE TWO (Pogner and Eva, returning from a walk together, come silently and thoughtfully down the alley, the daughter leaning on her father's arm) POGNER (peeping through a chink in Sachs's shutter) Let's see if Master Sachs is at home. I'd like a word with him. Shall I go in? (David comes out of the inner room with a light and sits down to work at the bench by the window) EVA He seems to be at home: there's a light within. POGNER Shall I? But what for? Better not! (He turns away) If someone is about to risk something unusual what advice would he accept? (after some reflection) Was it not he who thought I was going too far? And if I left the beaten track was it not in his way? But was it perhaps vanity, too? (to Eva) And you, my child, you say nothing? EVA An obedient child speaks only when asked. POGNER How wise! How good! Come, sit down here for a while with me on the bench. (He sits on the stone seat under the lime-tree) EVA Won't it be too cool? It was very close today. (She sits, nervously, at Pogner's side) POGNER No no, it's mild and refreshing; it's a delightful balmy evening. That suggest that tomorrow will be the most beautiful day. O child, don't your heartbeats tell you what happiness may be yours tomorrow, when Nuremberg, the whole city with burghers and commoners, with guilds, people, and high council, shall assemble before you so that you may award the prize, that noble garland, as consort to the Master of your choice? EVA Dear father, must it be a Master? POGNER Listen carefully: a Master of your choice. (Magdalena appears at the door and signs to Eva) EVA (distraught) Yes, of my choice. But just go in - (I'm coming, Lena, I'm coming!) - to supper. (She rises) POGNER (rising vexedly) But there's no guest? EVA (as before) The nobleman, I thought? POGNER (surprised) What do you mean? EVA Haven't you seen him today? POGNER (half to himself) I wasn't pleased with him. But no... What then? Ah! am I growing dim? EVA Come, dear papa! Go and change! POGNER (going into the house before her) Hm! What's going round in my head? MAGDALENA (secretly to Eva) Have you learned anything? EVA He was still and silent. MAGDALENA David said he thought he was undone. EVA (disturbed) The knight? God help me, what am I to do? Ah Lena! What anguish! How can we find out? MAGDALENA Perhaps from Sachs? EVA Ah, he's fond of me! Of course, I'll go to him. MAGDALENA Don't give anything away! Your father would notice if we stayed any longer. After supper! Then I shall have more to say that someone has secretly entrusted to me. EVA Who then? The nobleman? MAGDALENA Nothing there! No! Beckmesser. EVA That should be good! (They go into the house) SCENE THREE SACHS (in light indoor dress, has come back into the workshop. He turns to David, who is still at his work-bench) Show me! It's good. Move my table and stool up by the door there! Go to bed! Be up in good time, sleep off your folly and be sensible tomorrow! DAVID Are you going to work? SACHS Does that concern you? DAVID (aside) What's wrong with Lena? Heaven knows! Why's the Masters staying up late tonight? SACHS What are you still standing there for? DAVID Sleep well, Master! SACHS Good night! (David goes into the inner room which overlooks the street) (Sachs arranges his work, sits on his stool at the door, and then, laying down his tools again, leans back, resting his arm on the closed lower half of the door) SACHS So mild, so strong and full is the scent of the elder tree! It relaxes my limbs gently, wants me to say something. What is the good of anything I can say to you? I'm but a poor, simple man. If work is not to my taste, you might, friend, rather release me; I would do better to stretch leather and give up all poetry. (He tries again to get down the work, with much noise.) (He leaves off, leans back once more and reflects) And yet it just won't go. I feel it, and cannot understand it; I cannot hold on to it, nor yet forget it; and if I grasp it wholly, I cannot measure it! But then, how should I grasp what seemed to me immeasurable? No rule seemed to fit it, and yet there was no fault in it. It sounded so old, and yet was so new, like birdsong who heard a bird singing and, carried away by madness, imitated its song, would earn derision and disgrace! Spring's command, sweet necessity placed it in his breast: then he sang as he had to; and as he had to, so he could: I noticed that particularly. The bird that sang today had a finely-formed break; if he made the Masters uneasy, he certainly pleased Hans Sachs well! SCENE FOUR (Eva comes out into the street, walks ahyly towards the workshop, and stands unnoticed at the door beside Sachs) (He takes up his work again) EVA Good evening, Master! Still so busy? SACHS (starting up in agreeable surprise) Ah, child! Dear Eva! Up so late? And yet, I know why so late: the new shoes? EVA How wrongly he guesses! I have not yet even tried the shoes yet; they are so beautiful and richly adorned that I have not yet dared put them on my feet. (She sits down on the bench near Sachs) SACHS But tomorrow you will wear them as a bride? EVA Who then might the bridegroom be? SACHS Do I know that? EVA How do you know then that I am to be a bride? SACHS Oho! The whole town knows that. EVA Well, if the whole town knows, then friend Sachs has good authority! I thought he knew more. SACHS What should I know? EVA Well, think! Will I have to tell him? Am I so stupid? SACHS I don't say that. EVA Then might you be shrewd? SACHS I don't know. EVA You know nothing? You say nothing? Well friend Sachs, now I truly perceive that pitch is not wax. I would have thought you sharper. SACHS Child! Both wax and pitch are familiar to me: with wax I coated the silken threads with wich I made your dainty shoes: today I am making shoes with thicker yarn, and pitch is required for a rougher customer. EVA Who is that? Someone important? SACHS Yes, indeed! A master proud, intent on wooing, plans to be sole victor tomorrow: I must finish Herr Beckmesser's shoes. EVA Then take plenty of pitch for them: then he will stick to it and leave me in peace! SACHS He assuredly hopes to win you by his singing. EVA Why he then? SACHS A bachelor - there are few of them about here. EVA Might not a widower be successful? SACHS My child, he'd be too old for you. EVA How so, too old? Art is what matters here! Let him who understands it woo me. SACHS Dear Eva, would you mock me? EVA Not I! It is you, who are making excuses! Admit that you are fickle. God knows who may dwell in your heart now! Yet I thought I'd been there for many a year. SACHS Because I liked to carry you in my arms? EVA I see, it was only because you were childless. SACHS I once had a wife, and children enough. EVA But your wife died, and I've grown tall. SACHS Tall indeed, and beautiful. EVA Then I thought: you might take me for wife and child into your house. SACHS Then I should have a child, and wife too: that would indeed be a pleasant pastime! Yes, you have thought it out well for yourself. EVA I think the Master is just laughing at me. And in the end would ha cheerfully, under his very nose and in the sight of all, let Beckmesser win me tomorrow with his song? SACHS Who could prevent him, were he to succeed? Your father alone might know the solution. EVA Where does a Master keep his brains? Would I come to you if I could find the answer at home? SACHS Oh yes! You're right: my brain is in a whirl. I've had many cares and troubles today: so it may well be that something's sticking. EVA (drawing close to him) At the singing-school summoned today? SACHS Yes, child! A song-trial caused me distress. EVA Ah, Sachs! You should have said so at once, I wouldn't have vexed you then with unnecessary questions. Now, tell me, who was it who asked for a trial? SACHS A nobleman, child, quite untutored. EVA A knight? Goodness! Tell me, was he admitted? SACHS Not so, my child! There was much dispute. EVA Then tell me, say, how did it go? If it caused you trouble, how could it leave me in peace? So he fared badly, and failed? SACHS The knight sang his chance away hopelessly. MAGDALENA (coming out of the house and calling softly) Psst! Ev'chen! Listen! EVA Hopelessly? What? Might there be no way of helping him? Did he sing so badly, so faultily, that nothing can help him to become a Master? SACHS My child, for him all is lost, and he will not become a Master in any land; for he who was born a Master has among Masters the worst standing. MAGDALENA (calling louder) Your father is asking for you. EVA Then tell me further whether he won none of the Masters as a friend? SACHS That would be fine - still to be his friend! He before whom everyone felt so small! Squire High and Mighty, let him go! May he fight his way through the world; what we learned with dificulty and labour, let us savour in peace; let him not run amok among us, but may Fortune smile upon him somewhere else. EVA (rising angrily) Yes, it shall smile upon him somewhere other than among you nasty, jealous little men; where hearts still glow warm, in despite of all malicious Master Hanses! (to Magdalena) At once, Lena! At once! I'm just coming! What comfort could I take from here? It stinks of pitch here, may God have mercy! Let him burn it, then at least he'd grow warm! (She crosses the street hastily to Magdalena and remains in agitation at her own door) SACHS (with a meaningful nod of his head) I thought so. Now we must find a way! (During the following he closes the upper half of his door too, so as to leave only a little crack of light showing. He himself remains almost invisible) MAGDALENA Good heavens! Where are you, so late? Your father was calling. EVA Go in to him: Say I'm in bed in my little chamber. MAGDALENA No, no! Hear me! Let me have my word. Beckmesser found me: he gives me no peace, to-night you are to be at your window, he wants to sing and play you something beautiful, the song with which he hopes to win you, to see if it pleases you. EVA That's all I needed! If only he would come! MAGDALENA Have you seen David? EVA What's he to me? MAGDALENA (aside) I was too harsh; he'll fret. EVA Do you see nothing yet? MAGDALENA There seems to be someone coming. EVA Would it were he! MAGDALENA Come, let's go in! EVA Not until I've seen the dearest of men! MAGDALENA I was mistaken, it was not him. Come now, or your father will notice something! EVA Ah! how anxious I am! MAGDALENA And we must also discuss how to get rid of Beckmesser. EVA You'll go to the window in my place. MAGDALENA What, me? (to herself) That might make David jealous. He sleeps on the alley side! Ha! That would be fine! EVA I hear footsteps there. MAGDALENA (to Eva) Come now, you must! EVA Even nearer! MAGDALENA You're wrong! It's nothing, I'll wager, Oh come! You must, till your father's in bed. POGNER'S VOICE (calling within) He! Lena! Eva! MAGDALENA It's high time! (She tries to drag Eva indoor by her arm) Do you hear? Come! Your knight is far away. SCENE FIVE (Walther has come up the alley and now turns the corner by Pogner's house). EVA (sees Walther) There he is! (She tears herself free from Magdaena and rushes towards Walther) MAGDALENA That's that! Now we must be cunning! (She hurries into the house) EVA Yes, it is you, it is you! I'll tell everything, for you know it; I'll bewail everything, for I know it; you are both hero of the prize and my only friend. WALTHER Alas, you're wrong! I'm only your friend, not yet worthy of prize, not the equal of the Masters: my inspiration met with contempt, and I know I may not aspire to my fair friend's hand! EVA How wrong you are! Your friend's hand alone will award the prize; as her heart has discovered your courage, only to you will she give the garland. WALTHER Alas! no, you're wrong! My friend's hand, even if it were destined for no one in particular, would, bound by her father's will, still be lost to me. "It must be a Mastersinger: only the man you crown may she woo!" Thus he spoke solemnly to the gentlemen, and can't turn back, even if he wanted to! That's what gave me courage; though everything seemed strange to me I sang full of love and ardour that I might win the rank of Master. But these Masters! Ha, these Masters! The gluey, sticky nature of these rhyming laws! My gall rises, my heart stands still, when I think of the trap into which I was lured! Away to freedom! That's where I belong - where I'm Master in the house! If I'm to woo you today, I beseech you now, come, and follow me away from here! There's nothing to hope for, there's no choice! Everywhere Masters I see like evil spirits, ganging up to mock me: with their guilds, from Marker's boxes, from every corner, in every spot I see nothing but Masters crowding together, with scornful nods gazing insolently at you, surrounding you in circles and rings, nasally and shrilly demanding you as their bride, as Master's mistress in the Singer's Chair lifting you trembling and quaking up on high! Should I suffer this, should I not dare doughtily to join in the fight? (The loud sound of a night-watchman's horn is heard) (Walther claps his hand to his sword and stares wildly before him) Ha! (Eva takes him soothingly by the hand) EVA Beloved, spare your anger! It was only the night-watchman's horn. Beneath the lime-tree hide yourself quickly: the watchman is coming. MAGDALENA (at the door, softly) Eva! It's time! Take your leave! WALTHER You'll flee? EVA Shouldn't I? WALTHER Escape? EVA From the Masters' court. (She disappears with Magdalena into the house) THE WATCHMAN (has meanwhile appeared in the alley. He comes forward singing, turns the corner of Pogner's house, and goes off) Hear, people, what I say, the clock has struck ten; guard your fire and also your light so that no one comes to harm! Praise God the Lord! SACHS (who has listened to the foregoing from behind his shop door, now opens it a little wider, having shaded his lamp) Wicked goings-on, I see: an elopement afoot, indeed! Watch out: that must not be! WALTHER (behind the lime-tree) Will she not return? Oh what torment! (Eva turns from the house in Magdalena's dress) But yes! Is that her? Woe is me, no! (Eva sees Walther and hurries towards him) It's the older one! But it... yes! EVA The foolish child: you've got her, there she is! (She runs happily into his arms) WALTHER O heavens! Yes, now I surely know that I've won the Master-prize. EVA But no time for thought now! Away, away from here! Oh, if only we were already far away! WALTHER This way, through the alley: there beyond the gate we'll find servant and horses. (As they turn towards the alley Sachs places his lamp behind a glass bowl and sends a bright stream of light through the new wide-open door across the street, so that Eva and Walther suddenly find themselves illuminated) EVA (hastily pulling Walther back) Oh dear, the cobbler! If he were to see us! Hide! Don't go near him! WALTHER What other way will lead us hence? EVA Through the street there: but it's winding and I don't know it well; and we would meet the watchman there. WALTHER Well then, through the alley! EVA Not till the cobbler leaves his window. WALTHER I'll make him leave it. EVA Don't show yourself to him: he knows you! WALTHER The cobbler? EVA It's Sachs! WALTHER Hans Sachs? My friend? EVA Don't belive it! Ho could only speak ill of you. SCENE SIX WALTHER What, Sachs? Him too? I'll put out his light! (Beckmesser has slunk up the alley, some distance behind the watchman, peered up at Pogner's windows and now, leaning against Sachs's house, begins to tune the lute he has brought with him) EVA Don't do it! But listen! WALTHER The sound of a lute? EVA Ah, what trouble! (On hearing the first sounds of the lute, Sachs has, as if struck by a new idea, withdrawn his light and gently opened the lower half of his shop-door) WALTHER What, are you afraid? The cobbler... look, he's taken in the light: let's risk it! EVA Alas! Don't you see? Someone else has come and taken up this position. WALTHER I hear and see - a musician. What does he want here so late at night? EVA It's Beckmesser here already! SACHS (has placed his work-bench on the threshold. He now hears Eva's exclamation) Aha! I thought so! (He quietly settles down to work) WALTHER The marker? Him? In my power? At him! I'll knock that good-for-nothing cold! EVA For God's sake! Will you wake my father? He'll sing a song and then he'll go. Let's hide there, in the bushes. What trouble I have with men! (She draws Walther behind the bushes which surround the bench under the lime-tree) (Beckmesser impatiently tinkles on his lute, waiting for the window to open. As he is about to begin his song Sachs turns his light full on the street again and begins to hammer loudly on his last) SACHS Jerum! Jerum! Hallo allohe! Oho! Tralalei! Ohe! BECKMESSER (jumps up angrily from the stone bench and sees Sachs at work) What's all this damned yelling? SACHS When Eva was driven from Paradise by God the Lord, the hard gravel caused pain to her bare foot. BECKMESSER What's the boorish cobbler thinking of? SACHS The Lord took pity, he liked her little foot and he called to his angel: Make shoes for the poor sinner!... WALTHER (whispering to Eva) What's this song? How come he names you? EVA I've heard it before: it's not about me. But there's mischief behind it. SACHS ... and as Adam, as I see, bangs his toe against the stones - so that in future he can walk properly: measure him for boots as well! WALTHER What a delay! Time is passing! BECKMESSER (to Sachs) What, Master? Up? So late at night? SACHS Mister town clerk! What, you're keeping watch? The shoes are causing you much worry? You see, I'm at it; you'll have them tomorrow. (He continues his work) BECKMESSER The devil take the shoes! SACHS Jerum! BECKMESSER I want some peace here! SACHS Hallo hallohe! Oho! Tralalei! Ohe! O Eva! Eva! wicked woman, thou hast it on thy conscience that, by reason of the feet of the human body angel must now cobble! WALTHER Us or the Marker - on whom is he playing tricks? EVA I'm afraid it's meant for all three of us. Alas, what torment! I fear some ill. SACHS When thou went in Paradise WALTHER My sweet angel, be of good cheer! SACHS there was no gravel: EVA The song is making me sad. WALTHER I scarcely hear it; you are at my side: what a lovely dream! SACHS because of thy recent misdeed I now busy myself with awl and thread, and because of Adam's wretched weakness I sole shoes and apply pitch! If I were not a pure angel - the devil could be a cobbler! Je-... BECKMESSER (coming threateningly towards him) Stop this minute! Are you playing tricks on me? Are you day and night the same? SACHS If I sing here, what's that to you? The shoes must be finished, eh? BECKMESSER Then shut yourself in and keep quiet! SACHS To work at night is irksome. If I'm to keep awake I need air and lively song; so hear how the third verse goes: Jerum! Jerum! BECKMESSER He's driving me mad! SACHS Hallo hallohe! BECKMESSER What a hideous yelling! SACHS O ho! Tralalei! O he! BECKMESSER She'll end up by thinking it's me! SACHS O Eva, hear my lamentation, my trouble and heavy vexation! The works of art which a cobbler created, the world treads underfoot! If an angel did not bring comfort who has drawn the lot of similar work and did not often call me into Paradise, how gladly I'd leave shoes and boots behind! But when he has me in heaven the world lies at my feet, and I am at peace - Hans Sachs, a shoemaker and a poet too! BECKMESSER (Magdalena opens the window and shows herself cautiously, dressed in Eva's clothes) The window is opening! Good heavens! It's her. EVA The song grieves me, I don't know why! Away, let us flee! WALTHER All right then: with the sword! EVA No, no! Ah, stop! WALTHER (taking his hand from his sword) He's scarcely worth it! EVA Yes, patience is better! Oh dearest man! That I can cause you such distress! BECKMESSER Now I'm lost if he carries on singing! (He goes to Sachs's shop-door and during the following, with his back turned to the alley, he strums on the lute to attract the attention of Magdalena and keep her at the window) Friend Sachs! Hear just one word! WALTHER (to Eva) Who's at the window? EVA It's Magdalena. BECKMESSER How keen you are about the shoes! I had honestly forgotten them. I certainly esteem you as a cobbler, and as an artist I venerate you more highly still. WALTHER That serves him right. I can scarcely help laughing. EVA How I long for an end to this, and escape! WALTHER I wish he'd make a start. (Walther and Eva from their bench now watch Sachs and Beckmesser with growing interest) BECKMESSER Your judgement, believe me, I value highly; (Again, he repeatedly sturm on his lute, anxiously turning towards the window) so I beg you: listen to this little song with which I would like to win tomorrow, and say whether it seems all right to you. SACHS Ah! So you want to dupe me? I don't want to be abused again. Since the cobbler fancies himself as a poet, things look bad for your footwear; I can see how sloppy they are. They flap everywhere: so I'll now sensibly leave verse and rhymes at home, reason and wit and knowledge too, and make your new shoes for tomorrow. BECKMESSER Let that be! That was only a joke; better you should hear what's on my mind! You are honoured by the people, and Pogner's daughter esteems you: if before everybody I wish to woo her tomorrow, say, might it not ruin me if my song is not pleasing to her? So listen to me quietly: and when I've sung, you can tell me what you like about it, and what you don't, so that I may change it accordingly. SACHS Oh, leave me in peace! Why should such honour come to me? I've mainly written only street-songs; so I'll sing to the street and hammer at my last. Jerum! Jerum! Hallo, hallohe! Oho! Tralalei! Ohe! BECKMESSER Curse the fellow! I'm going out of my mind with his song full of pitch and grease! Shut up! Do you want to wake the neighbours? SACHS They're used to it: no one pays attention. O Eva, Eva!... BECKMESSER Oh, you spiteful fellow! You're playing your last trick on me today! If you don't shut up at once you'll pay for it, I swear to you. (strumming angrily on his lute) You're jealous, nothing else, even if you think you're cleverer: that others count for something too vexes you dreadfully; belive me, I know you inside out! That you weren't yet chosen as Marker - that's what tormenting this embittered cobbler. All right then! So long as Beckmesser lives, and there's a rhyme still on his lips, so long as I still count for something with the Masters, whether or not Nuremberg blooms and flourishes, I swear to Mister Hans Sachs that he will never ever be appointed Marker! SACHS (who has listened with grave attention) Was that your song? BECKMESSER The devil take it! SACHS Few rules, it's true, but it rang out proudly! BECKMESSER Will you listen to me? SACHS In God's name. sing:I'll be welting the soles. BECKMESSER But you'll be quiet? SACHS Oh, sing away, you'll see, it will advance my work too. (He hammers away on his last) BECKMESSER But won't you stop that damned knocking? SACHS How should I fix your soles properly? BECKMESSER What, you want to hammer, and I'm to sing? SACHS You must finish the song, and I the shoe. BECKMESSER I don't want any shoes! SACHS You say that now, in the song-school you'll hold it against me again. But listen! Perhaps we can come to an arrangement: Man gets on best in consort. Though I may not put aside my work I should like to learn the Marker's art: you have no equal in it; I'll never learn it if not from you. So if you sing, I'll note and mark, and further my work at the same time. BECKMESSER Mark away then; and what went wrong, take your chalk and set it against me. SACHS No, sir! The shoes would make up no progress: with the hammer on the last I'll judge you. BECKMESSER Damned malice! God, it's getting late: the maid will end up by leaving the window! (He strums zealously) SACHS Begin! Hurry up! Or I'll sing to myself! BECKMESSER Stop! anything but that (The devil, how provoking!) If you want to make bold as Marker, very well, mark with the hammer on the last: with one condition; keep strictly to the rules; mark nothing which is according to the rules. SACHS According to the rules, as known to the cobbler, whose fingers are itching to get down to work. BECKMESSER Master's honour? SACHS And cobbler's humour! BECKMESSER Not one mistake: smooth and good! SACHS Then you'd go barefoot tomorrow. (The watchman's horn-call in the distance) WALTHER (softly to Eva) What a crazy business! It's like a dream: I scarcely seem to have left the Song-chair SACHS Sit down here, then! BECKMESSER (moving to the corner of the house) Let me stand here. SACHS Why so far off? BECKMESSER In order not to see you, as in the School custom before the Marker's box. EVA (leaning on Walther's breast) My brow is troubled, as if by some mad delusion: is it good or evil that I sense? SACHS I shan't hear you well there. BECKMESSER The volume of my voice I can very charmingly modulate. (He places himself at the corner, facing the window, re-tunes his lute) SACHS (That's fine!) - All right then! Begin! (Beckmesser plays a short prelude) BECKMESSER "The day I see appear, which pleases me well; (Sachs knocks; Beckmesser shivers) then my heart takes to itself a... (he starts violently, but continues) ...good and fresh..." (Sachs knocks once more. Beckmesser looks round the corner) Are you joking? What was wrong? SACHS Better to sing: "then my heart takes to itself a good, fresh..." BECKMESSER How's that to rhyme with "I see appear"? SACHS Don't you care about the melody? Methinks tone and word should fit. BECKMESSER Who would quarrel with you? Leave the banging or you'll have cause to remember me! SACHS Now continue! BECKMESSER I'm quite confused! SACHS Then begin again: I can now rest for three taps. BECKMESSER (aside) I'd best pay no attention to him: if only it doesn't confuse the maiden! "The day I see appear, which pleases me well; then my heart takes to itself a good and fresh courage. I don't think of dying but rather of wooing for a young maiden's hand. Why of all days the most beautiful should this one be? To all here I say it: because a beautiful maiden by her dear father as vowed he has is destined for matrimony. Come and see standing there, the good, dear young lady, on whom I set all my hope: that is why the day is so beautifully blue, as I at the beginning found." Sachs! Look! You're ruining me! Won't you be silent now? SACHS Indeed I'm dumb! I was marking the faults: then we'll talk; meanwhile the soles are coming on. BECKMESSER (seeing that Magdalena is about to leave the window) Is she going? Pst, pst! Oh God! I must! (shaking his fist at Sachs round the corner) Sachs! I'll remember you for this vexation! SACHS (already lifting his hammer for a knock on the last) Marker in position! Continue! BECKMESSER (even louder and more hurriedly) "Today my heart will jump for joy to woo a young lady, but her father tied a condition to it for him who will inherit him and also woo his fine little child. A worthy Master of the Guild, he loves his daughter well, but at the same time he shows what store he sets by Art: he must win the prize in the Master-singing who will his son-in-law be. Now Art is needed so that, by your leave, and without all harmful, common deception, the winning of the prize may succeed to him who desires with true ardour... (Sachs who, shaking his head, gives up the marking of the faults one by one, continues his hammering and knocks out the key of the last) ...the maiden to woo" SACHS (leaning out over the shop-door) Have you finished yet? BECKMESSER (in great trepidation) Why do you ask? SACHS (triumphantly holding out the shoes) I've quite finished the shoes. I'd call them real Marker's shoes: hear my Marker's verse too! With long and short strokes it is written upon the soles: read it clearly there and perceive it and note it for ever more. A good song needs rhythm; whoever distorts it, be it the clerk with his pen, the cobbler will hammer it on the leather. Now run away in peace, you have good shoes; your foot won't crack them: the soles will keep it in step! BECKMESSER (who has retired into the alley again and leaned againt the wall, continues to sing, shouting breathlessly with violent efforts to drown out Sachs's voice) "I may call myself a master, I'll gladly prove it today, because I must burn to have the prize, and thirst and hunger. Now I call the nine Muses that they may inspire my poetic mind. I well know all the rules, keep good time and count; but leaps and superfluities may sometimes occur when the head, quite full of hesitation, makes bold to woo for a young maiden's hand. (He stops for breath) A bachelor, I brought my skin, my honour, office, dignity and livelihood here so that my singing may please you well and the young maiden may choose me if she found my song good." NEIGHBOURS (first a few, then more, opening their windows in the alley during Beckmesser's song and peeping out) Who's that yelling? Who's screeching so loud? Is that allowed so late at night? Let's have some peace here! It's bed-time! My, just listen to that ass braying! You there! Be quiet, and be off with you! Yell and screech somewhere else! DAVID (who has opened his shutter close to Beckmesser, looking out) (He perceives Magdalena) Who the devil's here? And over there of all places? It's Lena - I can see it clearly! Goodness! It's the man she's made a date with; that's the man she prefers to me! Just wait! You're in for it! I'll tan your hide! (He withdraws and goes inside) (David has armed himself with a cudgel and returned to the window, springing out and throwing himself upon Beckmesser) DAVID The devil take you, damned churl! (Sachs who, for a while, has watched the growing tumult, extinguishes his light and sets his door ajar so that, remaining unseen himself, he can still watch the place under the lime-tree. Walther and Eva observe the riot with increasing anxiety; he has put his cloak around her and hides close to the lime-tree in the bushes so that both are nearly invisible) SCENE SEVEN MAGDALENA (crying aloud, at the window) Ah heavens! David! O God, what a mess! Help. help! They'll kill each other! BECKMESSER Accursed boy! Let me go! DAVID Of course! I'll break your bones for you! (Beckmesser and David continue to struggle and fight.) NEIGHBOURS Look! Join in! They're throttling each other! Ho there! This way! There's a fight! You there! Let go! Clear the way! If you don't stop, we'll join in! A NEIGHBOUR Ah look! You're here too? What's that to you? SECOND ONE What do you want here? What's that to you? FIRST NEIGHBOUR We know you sort. SECOND NEIGHBOUR And yours even better. FIRST NEIGHBOUR What d'you mean? SECOND NEIGHBOUR Just that! SOMEONE It's the cobblers! SOMEONE ELSE No, it's the tailors! THE FIRST GROUP The drunkards! THE SECOND GROUP The starvelings! NEIGHBOURS Ass! stupid oaf! I've owed you this for a long time! Are you afraid? Take that for your pains! Look out when I strike! Has your wife egged you on? Watch out for the blows. Haven't you learned your lesson? Well hit back! Got him! Take that, scoundrel! Wait you rascals! Swindlers! Stupid fellow! Get off home! Clear off! Shut up! APPRENTICES Don't we know those locksmiths? They're sure to have started it! I think it'll have been the smiths. No, it's the locksmiths, I bet! I know those joiners! I'm sure it's the butchers! Hey! Look at the coopers joining in the dance. I can see the barbers over there. Come along! Now there'll be dancing! On and on! There's great scuffle going on! Grocers turn up with barley sugar and candy sticks, with pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, they smell lovely, but they disgust us. they smell lovely, and stay out of harm's way. Just look, that creature's got his nose into everything. Do you mean me? Do I mean you? There's more of them coming! Now it's really getting underway! Hey, off they go! Biff! Did you see that? Take that on your nose! Ha, off they go: Crack! It makes a mark where it falls; nothing will grow there for a while! JOURNEYMEN (arriving from all sides, armed with coudgels) Come on, journeymen, at 'em! There's quarrelling and fighting going on. There's bound to be more fighting. Journeymen, be in it! If there's a fight we'll be there too! It's the weavers! It's the tanners! Cheapjecks! I thought so: they're always playing tricks! Thump them well! Give it to them properly! The fight gets fiercer and fiercer! I can see Klaus the butcher there! Tomorrow's the fifth. Many have it too hot at home! Come here! Hey! See how the cudgels fly! Tailors with their irons! Come on guilds! Soon it will be fifth! Go to it smartly, we're pitching in! You there! Clear off! We're right there! Are you trying to bar our way? Get out of the way, we're pitching in! You clear off yourselves! Girdlers! Tinsmiths! Glueboilers! Pewterers! Candlemakers! Clear off yourselves! We're right there! Don't budge! Beat them! Don't give in! Cloth-cutters! Flax weavers! Beat them! THE MASTERS What's all this quarrelling and brawling? It's raging far and wide! Calm down and clear off at once, all of you! Or it'll hail thunder-blows! Clear off and go home! Hey, there'll be the devil to pay, it'll hail thunder-blows if you don't all clear off home! (The women have opened the windows and are peeping out) WOMEN What's all this brawling and quarrelling? Hi! You there, go away! If only father weren't in it! Ah, how dreadful! Oh my, just look here! Shrieking, fighting! It's enough to frighten anyone properly! Hi! You down there, do be sensible! Are you then all at once ready for quarrelling and brawling? My! That's my husband fighting! Do my eyes deceive me? Are you all mad? Are your heads heavy with wine? Help! Father! Father! Ah, they'll club him to death! Peter, just listen! God, what a hell of a mess! Nobody can hear himself speak! Heads and pigtails are bobbing about all over! What a row! What a noise! Just listen! Come on, bring some water! Pour it on their heads! Come on, cry for help: murder, come here! Come on, cry for help more loudly: murder, come here! MAGDALENA Just listen, David! Do let then man go, he's done nothing to me! Ah! How dreadful! Ah! How dreadful! My! David! He is mad! David, listen! It's Master Beckmesser! POGNER (coming to the window in his nightgrown) For heaven's sake! Eva! Close the window! I'll see if all is quiet downstairs. (He pulls Magdalena in and closes the window) WALTHER (who has been hiding with Eva behind the bushes, now clasps her with his left arm and with hir right hand draws his sword) Now we must be bold and fight our way through! (Brandishing his sword, Walther forces a way to the middle of the stage, in order to clear a path for Eva and himself through the alley, Sachs rushes with one bound out of his shop and grasps Walther's arm) (Loud call from the Nightwatchman's horn. The crowd disappears in all directions, and in a moment the street becomes totally deserted) POGNER (on the steps) He! Lena, where are you? SACHS (pushing the half-fainting Eva up the steps) Get indoors, Mistress Lena! (Pogner catches Eva and pulls her into the house. Sachs, still brandishing his knee-strap, now belts David one and after kicking him into the shop, drags Walther, whom he still holds firmly by his other hand, indoors with him, closing and barring the door behind them. Beckmesser, released from David's attentions by Sachs, seeks hasty flight through the crowd.) (When the street and the alley are empty and all houses are closed, the watchman re-enters. He rubs his eyes, stares about him in surprise, and shakes his head) THE WATCHMAN Hear, people, what I say: the clock has struck eleven, beware of ghosts and spooks, that no evil spirit ensnare your soul! Praise God, the Lord! (The full moon comes out and brightly illumines the new peaceful alley. The watchman walks slowly up the alley.) 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! |