“Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” by Richard Wagner libretto (English)
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Contents: Roles; Act One; Act Two; Act Three
Roles

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
ACT ONE

SCENE ONE

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

CHORAL OF THE CONGREGATION
When the Saviour came to thee,

willingly accepted thy baptism,

dedicating Himself to a sacrificial death,

He gave the covenant for our salvation:

that we might be consecrated through baptism

so as to be worthy of his sacrifice.

Noble Baptist!

Christ's precursor!

Receive us graciously
there by the river Jordan.

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

WALTHER

Stay! A word - a single word!

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

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

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

MAGDALENA
(returning)
Here is the kerchief.

EVA
O dear! And the brooch?

MAGDALENA
Has it fallen off?
She goes back
again)

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

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

WALTHER
This one word, won't you say it?
The syllabe which delivers my sentence.
Yes or no! - a fleeting sound:

young lady, tell me, are you already betrothed?

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

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

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

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

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

WALTHER
Not before I know all!

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

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

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

WALTHER

No! First this word!

EVA
(urgently, to Magdalena)
This word!

(Magdalena perceives David and pauses)

MAGDALENA
(aside)
David? Ah! David here?

EVA
What shall I say? You tell me!

MAGDALENA
(distractedly, and looking
round repeatedly at David)

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

EVA

But no one has yet seen the bridegroom.

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

EVA

And the bride herself gives him the garland.

WALTHER

The Mastersinger?

EVA
(timidly)
Are you not one?

WALTHER
A wooing song?

MAGDALENA
Before the judges of the contest.
WALTHER
Who wins the prize?

MAGDALENA
Whom the masters approve.

WALTHER
The bride then chooses?

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

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

EVA
Good Lena! Let me win the knight!

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

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

MAGDALENA

Are you mad? Like David?

EVA
Like David in the picture.

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

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

MAGDALENA
(sighing loudly)
Ah, David! David!

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

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

DAVID
(tnederly)
You alone, in my heart!

MAGDALENA

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

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

MAGDALENA
What? Is there to be a singing?

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

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

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

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

WALTHER
What must I do?

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

EVA
(to Walther)
Shall I see you again?

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

EVA

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

MAGDALENA
Quickly home, or it will not go well!

(Magdalena takes Eva quickly out through the curtains)

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

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

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

1. APPRENTICE
David, why are you standing there?

2. APPRENTICE
Get to work!

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

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

2. APPRENTICE
How cocky he is!

3. APPRENTICE
The model apprentice!

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

2. APPRENTICE
At his last he sits with a quill

3. APPRENTICE
writing poetry, with thread and awl.

1. APPRENTICE
His verse he writes on raw leather

2. APPRENTICE

which, methinks, we tanned for him!

(They pursue their work, laughing)

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

WALTHER
(looking up surprised)
What's that?

DAVID

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

WALTHER
Who is the Marker?

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

WALTHER
Never one where the judges were artisans.

DAVID
Are you "Poet"?

WALTHER
Would that I were!

DAVID
Are you a "Singer"

WALTHER
If only I knew!

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

WALTHER
All that sounds strange to my ear.

DAVID
And yet want to become a Master at once?

WALTHER
Why should that cause such great difficulties?

DAVID
O Lena! Lena!

WALTHER
What are you doing?

DAVID
O Magdalena!
WALTHER
Advise me well!

DAVID

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

WALTHER
As far as a pair of very good shoes?

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

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

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

Tawny Lion-Skin, True Pelican melodies;

the Brightly Gleaming Thread melody...

WALTHER
Heavens! What an endless string of tones!

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

And if Mistress Lena doesn't then help me,

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

WALTHER
What is a "Poet"?

APPRENTICES

David! Are you coming?

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

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

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

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

DAVID

Sir knight, this is how it is!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

APPRENTICES

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

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

SCENE THREE

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

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

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

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

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

POGNER
I'll gladly do that.

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

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

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

(They greet one another)

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

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

Admit me, Master, to your guild!

(Kunz Vogelgesang and Konrad Nachtigall have entered.)

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

(Greetings and introductions; other Masters arrive)

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

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

BECKMESSER
(aside)
I don't like him!

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

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

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

BECKMESSER
Oho, Sixtus! Keep your eye on him!

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

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

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

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

SACHS
God be with you, Masters!

VOGELGESANG
Are we all met?

BECKMESSER
Sachs is there all right!

NACHTIGALL
Call the names then!

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

POGNER
Here at hand.
(sits)

KOTHNER
Kunz Vogelgesang?

VOGELGESANG
Has arrived.
(sits)

KOTHNER
Hermann Ortel?

ORTEL
Always there.
(sits)

KOTHNER
Balthasar Zorn?

ZORN
Never missing.
(sits)

KOTHNER
Konrad Nachtigall?

NACHTIGALL
True to his call.
(sits)

KOTHNER
Augustin Moser?

MOSER
Never likes to be absent.
(sits)

KOTHNER
Niklaus Vogel? Is he silent?

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

ALL THE MASTERS
May God will it!

THE APPRENTICE
Thank you!
(He sits down again)

KOTHNER
Hans Sachs?

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

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

KOTHNER
Sixtus Beckmesser?

BECKMESSER

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

KOTHNER
Ulrich Eisslinger?

EISSLINGER
Here.
(sits)

KOTHNER
Hans Foltz?

FOLTZ
I'm here.
(sits)

KOTHNER
Hans Schwarz?

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

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

VOGELGESANG
Better after the festival

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

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

(All the Masters rise and reseat themselves)

KOTHNER
It is granted you, Master. Speak!

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

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

THE APPRENTICES

At all times, far and wide:
Veit Pogner!

VOGELGESANG
Who would not gladly be single!

SACHS
Many a man would gladly give up his wife!

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

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

BECKMESSER
(to Kothner)
Do you think that wise?

KOTHNER
If I understand aright,
you are placing us in the girl's charge?

BECKMESSER
Dangerous, that!

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

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

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

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

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

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

SACHS
Understand me aright! What a fuss!
You'll admit I know the rules as well;
and to see that the guild preserves the rules
I have busied myself this many a year.
But once a year I should find it wise
to test the rules themselves,
to see whether in the dull course of habit
their strenght and life doesn't get lost:
and whether you are still
on the right track of Nature
will only be told you by someone
who knows nothing of the table of rules.

(The apprentices jump up and rub their hands)

BECKMESSER
Ha! how the boys rejoice!

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

VOGELGESANG
Your intentions are good!

KOTHNER
And yet it's all wrong.

NACHTIGALL
When the people speak, I hold my tongue.

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

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

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

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

(The Masters rise assentingly)
SACHS
The girl's casting vote satisfies me.

BECKMESSER
The cobbler always rouses my anger!

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

BECKMESSER
Perhaps a widower too? Just ask Sachs!

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

BECKMESSER
Than me too? Rude fellow!

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

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

(Walther advances and makes obeisance)

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

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

KOTHNER
If we are to welcome the knight,
he must first be heard.
POGNER
Hear me aright! Though I wish him good fortune
I do not overlook the rules.
Masters, put the questions!

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

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

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

NACHTIGALL
Friend Pogner's word is enough.

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

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

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

SACHS
A good master!

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

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

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

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

VOGELGESANG
He has already framed two nice stanzas there.

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

KOTHNER

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

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

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

WALTHER
What winter night,
what forest splendour,
what book and grove taught me;
what the wondrous power of the poet's song
tried in secret to disclose to me;
what my horse's step
at a trial of arms,
what a round-dance
at a marry gathering
gave me to attend to thoughtfully:
if I must exchange life's
highest prize for song,
in my own words and to my own melody
it will flow into a unity for me
as a Mastersong, if I understand aright,
and pour out before you Masters.

BECKMESSER
Can you make anything of this torrent of words?

VOGELGESANG
Ah well, he's trying!

NACHTIGALL
A curious case!

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

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

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

BECKMESSER
(rising and going as if reluctantly
to the Marker's box)
A bitter task, and especially today;
there'll be much anguish with the chalk!
(bowing towards Walther)
Sir knight, know:
Sixtus Beckmesser is the Marker;
here in the box
he silently performs his strict task.
Seven faults he allows you,
he marks them up with chalk there:
if he incurs more than seven faults,
then the knightly gentleman has sung his chance away.
(He seats himself in the box)
He listens very carefully;
but so that he doesn't undermine your courage,
as might happen if you saw him,
he leaves you in peace
and shuts himself up here.
May God be with you.

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

KOTHNER

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

WALTHER

Here - in this chair?

KOTHNER
As is the custom of the School.

WALTHER
(mounting the stool,
with dissatisfaction)
(aside)
For you, beloved, it shall be done!

KOTHNER

The singer sits.

BECKMESSER
(from his box, invisible)
Begin!

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

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

WALTHER
What do you mean?

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

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

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

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

POGNER
A word, Mister Marker! You are angry.

BECKMESSER
Let him forthwith be Marker who coverts it!
But that the knight has sung his chance away,
I'll first show before the Masters' assembly.
To be sure, it will be a hard task: where begin,
when there was no beginning nor end to it?
Of false number and false grouping
I'll make absolutely no mention:
too short, too long, who might find an end there?
Who would seriously call this a unit?
I'll accuse him only of Blind Meaning;
say, could a meaning be more meaningless?

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

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

KOTHNER
Yes, I understood nothing of it!

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

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

VOGELGESANG
Nothing but ear-splitting din!

ZORN
And nothing behind it!

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

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

SACHS
(who has listened
to Walther from the first
with serious interest)
Stay, Masters! Not so fast!
Not everyone shares your opinion.
The knight's song and melody
I found new, but not confused;
if he left our paths
he at least strode firmly and surely.
If you wish to measure according to rules
something which does not agree with your rules,
forget your own ways,
and first seek its rules!

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

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

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

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

(Walther flames up)

NACHTIGALL
You go too far!

KOTHNER
You're being personal!

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

SACHS

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

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

BECKMESSER
No more! An end!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SACHS

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

THE APPRENTICES AND DAVID
(The apprentices, jumping up
from their bench towards the end
take hands and dance in ring
round the Marker's box)
Good luck for the Master-singing
if you want to gain the garland!
The flowery garland of fine silks -
will it be granted to the knight?

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

ALL MASTERS
Completely sung away his chance!

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

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.)
ACT THREE

PRELUDE

SCENE ONE

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

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

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

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

SACHS

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

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

SACHS

Might there be a wedding-feast today?

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

SACHS

It was Polter-evening, methinks?

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

SACHS
St John's Day?

DAVID
(Is his hearing bad today?)

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

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

SACHS
Wh-what?

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

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

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

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

DAVID
I mean, it would look much grander.

SACHS
Who knows! Time brings wisdom.

DAVID
It's time.

SACHS
So wisdom can't be far away?

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

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

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

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

SACHS
Madness! Madness!
Everywhere madness!
Wherever I look searchingly
in city and world chronicles,
to seek out the reason
why, till they draw blood,
people torment and flay each other
in useless, foolish anger!
No-one has reward
or thanks for it:
driven to flight,
he thinks he is hunting;
hears not his own cry of pain;
when he digs into his own flesh
he thinks he is giving himself pleasure!
Who will give it its name?
It is the old madness,
without which nothing can happen,
nothing whatever!
If it halts somewhere in its course
it is only to gain new strenght in sleep:
suddenly it awakens,
then see who can master it!
How peacefully with its staunch customs,
contented in deed and work,
lies, in the middle of Germany,
my dear Nuremberg!
(He gazes before him,
filled with a deep and peaceful joy)
But one evening late,
to prevent a mishap
caused by youthful ardour,
a man knows not what to do;
a cobbler in his shop
plucks at the thread of madness:
how soon in alleys and streets
it begins to rage!
Man, woman, journeyman, and child
fall upon each other as if crazed and blind;
and if madness prevails,
it must now rain blows,
with cuts, blows, and thrashings
to quench the fire of anger.
God knows how that befell!
A goblin must have helped:
a glow-worm could not find its mate;
it set the trouble in motion.
It was the elder-tree: Midsummer Eve!
But now has come Midsummer Day!
Now let us see how Hans Sachs manages
finely to guide the madness
so as to perform a nobler work:
for if madness won't leave us in peace
even here in Nuremberg,
then let it be in the service of such works
as are seldom successful in plain activities
and never so without a touch of madness.

SCENE TWO

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

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

WALTHER
A little, but deeply and well.

SACHS
So you are now in good heart?

WALTHER
I had a wonderfully beautiful dream.

SACHS
That bodes well! Tell it to me!

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

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

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

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

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

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

WALTHER

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

SACHS

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

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

SACHS

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

WALTHER

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

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

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

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

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

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

WALTHER
How I should begin I scarcely know.

SACHS
Tell me your morning-dream.

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

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

WALTHER
So it might be not dream, but poetry?

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

WALTHER
How do I begin according to the rule?

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

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

WALTHER

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

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

WALTHER
Why just like it?

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

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

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

WALTHER
What is that?

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

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

SACHS
(moved)
That's what I call an Aftersong:
see how the complete section has come off!
Only with the melody
you are a little free;
but I don't say that's a fault;
but it isn't easy to hold on to,
and that vexes our old men!
Now fashion me a second section
so that one can see what the first was.
Also, I don't yet know, well as you've rhymed,
what you've composed and what you've dreamt.

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

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

(Walther rises hastily)

WALTHER
Where might I find that? Enough of words!

SACHS
(also rising, and going up
to Walther with friendly
decision)
Then deed and word at the proper place!
Therefore I beg you, remember well the melody;
it is a fine vehicle for poetry,
and when you sing it in a wider circle,
then hold fast to your vision too.

WALTHER
What is your intent?

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

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

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

SCENE THREE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BECKMESSER
Lies and deceit! I know better.

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

BECKMESSER
You're not singing today?

SACHS
Not in the contest.

BECKMESSER
No wooing-song?

SACHS
Indeed not!

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

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

BECKMESSER
(producing the paper)
Is that your hand?

SACHS
Yes... was that it?

BECKMESSER
Quite fresh still, the writing?

SACHS
And the ink still wet?

BECKMESSER
Might it perhaps be a biblical song?

SACHS
Anyone suggesting that would be wrong.

BECKMESSER
Well then?

SACHS
What do you mean?

BECKMESSER
You ask?

SACHS
What more?

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

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

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

SACHS
On my account have no fear!

BECKMESSER
You'll let me have the sheet?

SACHS
So that you're no thief.

BECKMESSER
And if I were to use it?

SACHS
As you like.

BECKMESSER
But, shall I sing the song?

SACHS
If it's not too difficult.

BECKMESSER
And if I brought it off?

SACHS
I should be very surprised!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SCENE FOUR

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

EVA
You see, it's too wide!

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

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

SACHS
Here on the left?

EVA
No, on the right.

SACHS
More on the instep?

EVA
Here, more at the heel.

SACHS
Trouble there too?

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

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

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

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

EVA
Ah!

SACHS
Aha! here it is! Now I see what's wrong!
(Sachs is bent over her foot
with his back toward
the door)
Child, you're right: the stitching was at fault:
now wait, I'll cure the trouble.
(Walther, spellbound at the sight
of Eva, remains at the door
without moving)
Stay where you are; I'll put your shoe
on the last for a while: then it'll give you peace.
(He has gently drawn off
her shoe: while she remains
in the same position, he goes
to the work-bench and pretends
to busy himself with the shoe
and to be oblivious off all else)
(As he works:)
Always cobbling!! that is now my lot;
night and day I can't get away from it!
Child, listen! I have thought over
what will put an end to my cobbling:
it will be best if I woo you after all;
then I might still win something for myself as poet!
You aren't listening? Say something.
It was your idea, wasn't it?
Very well - I note it! - "Make your shoes!"
If only someone would sing an accompaniment!
I've heard a very beautiful song today:
would that a third verse might complete it!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

EVA
(stopping him as as he is going off
and drawing him to her again)
O Sachs! My friend! Dear man!
How can I reward you, noble man?
What would I be without your love,
without you?
Wouldn't I have remained always a child
if you had not awoken me?
Through you I have won
what people prize,
through you I learnt
the workings of the spirit;
by you awoken,
only through you did I think
nobly, freely, and boldly;
you made me bloom!
Yes, dear Master, scold me if you will;
but I was on the right path,
for, if I had the choice,
I would choose none but you;
you would have been my husband,
I would have given the prize to none but you.
But now I am chosen
for unknown torment,
and if I am married today,
then I had no choice:
that was necessity, compulsion!
You yourself, my Master, were dismayed.

SACHS
My child,
of Tristan and Isolde
I know a sad tale:
Hans Sachs was clever and did not want
anything of King Mark's lot. -
It was high time that I found the right man;
otherwise I would have run right into it.
Aha, there's Lena hurrying round the corner;
come in! Hey, David! Aren't you coming out?
(Magdalena in festive attire
enters from the street
and David at the same time
comes out of the chamber,
also gaily dressed and very
splendid with ribbons and flowers)
Withnesses are here, godparents to hand:
now quickly to the christening! Take your places!
(All look at him with surprise)
A child has been born here;
now let a name be chosen for him!
This the Master's style and pratice
when a Master-melody has been created,
so that it may bear a goodly name
by which all may recognise it.
Hear, respected company,
what summons you today to this place:
A Master-melody has come into being,
written and sung by Sir Walther;
the young melody's living father
invited me and Eva to be godparents.
Because we have heard the melody
we have come hither to its christening;
and for witnesses to the cerimony
I summon Mistress Lena and my lad.
But as an apprentice cannot act as withness
and today he also sang his piece well,
I forthwith make the boy a journeyman.
Kneel down, David, and take this cuff!
(David kneels and Sachs gives him
a smart box on the ear)
Arise, jouneyman, and think of that blow;
you shall then remember the christening too.
If anything else lacks, let no one reproach us;
who knows, it may be an emergency baptism.
So that the melody may have strenght to live,
I will give it its name at once:
"Blissful Morning-Dream-Interpretation-Melody"
let it be named to its Master's praise.
Now may it grow big, without harm or hurt.
The youngest godparent speaks the speech.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SCENE FIVE

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

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

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

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

THE BAKERS

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

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

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

(David advances from the landing-place)

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

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

APPRENTICES

David! David! Lena's looking!

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

DAVID
Ah! leave me in peace with your jokes!

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

JOURNEYMEN
(at the landing-place)
The Mastersingers!

APPRENTICES
The Mastersingers!

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

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

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

APPRENTICES
Silence! Silence!
No talking and no murmuring!

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

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

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

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

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

(The people again become excited and jubilant)

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

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

(Great stir among those present. Sachs approaches Pogner)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SACHS
Then see what happens.

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

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

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

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

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

(The boys snigger and vigorously beat the turf)

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

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

KOTHNER
Begin!

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

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

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

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

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

(He totters again and tries to read the paper)

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

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

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

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

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

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

KOTHNER
(to Sachs)
Explain, Sachs!

NACHTIGALL
(to Sachs)
What a scandal!

VOGELGESANG
(to Sachs)
By you, the song?

ORTEL AND FOLTZ
What a strange occurence!

SACHS
(who has quietly picked up the paper
which Beckmesser threw away)
The song in truth is not by me:
Her Beckmesser is wrong in every respect!
How he came by it he himself may say;
but I should never dare to boast
that a song a s beautifully conceived as this
had been composed by me, Hans Sachs.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Walther mounts the mound with proud and firm steps)

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

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

MASTERSINGER
(softly, aside)
Yes, indeed! I see, it makes a difference
if one sings it wrong or right.

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

SACHS
Witness, here present,
continue!

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

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

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

SACHS
Well-chosen witness!
Continue and conclude!

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

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

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

POGNER

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WALTHER

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

SACHS
(going towards Walther and grasping
him meaningfully by the hand)
Scorn not the Masters, I bid you,
and honour their art!
What speaks high in their praise
fell richly in your favour.
Not to your ancestors, however worthy,
not to your coat-of-arms, spear, or sword,
but to the fact that you are a poet,
that a Master has admitted you -
to that you owe today your highest happiness.
So, think back to this with gratitude:
how can the art be unworthy
which embraces such prizes?
That our Masters have cared for it
rightly in their own way,
cherished it truly as they thought best,
that has kept it genuine:
if it did not remain aristocratic as of old,
when courts and princes blessed it,
in the stress of evil years
it remained German and true;
and if it flourished nowhere
but where all is stress and strain,
you see how high it remained in honour -
what more would you ask of the Masters?
Beware! Evil tricks threaten us:
if the German people and kingdom should one day decay,
under a false, foreign rule
soon no prince would understand his people;
and foreign mists with foreign vanities
they would plant in our German land;
what is German and true none would know,
if it did not live in the honour of German Masters.
Therefore I say to you:
honour your German Masters,
then you will conjure up good spirits!
And if you favour their endeavours,
even if the Holy Roman Empire
should dissolve in mist,
for us there would yet remain
holy German Art!
(During the following Eva takes the wreath from Walther's head and places it on Sachs's; he takes the chain from Pogner's hand and puts it round Walther's neck. After Sachs has embraced the young couple, Walther and Eva lean against Sachs, one on each side; Pogner sinks on his knee before him as if in homage. The Mastersingers point to Sachs, with outstretched hands, as to their chief. All those present - finally also Walther and Eva - join in the people's song)

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