Boedder—“Die Meistersinger von Niimberg.” 
95 
Grieved and sad, Sachs has left Nuremberg in quest of a new 
home elsewhere. In a large forest at some distance from his un¬ 
grateful native city, he meets a distinguished-looking stranger in 
hunter’s garb, who is none other than the Emperor Maximilian, 
traveling incognito, on his way to Nuremberg. The stranger wants 
Sachs to show him the way, and on learning his guide’s name is 
overjoyed, since he values him very highly as a poet, and the same 
opinion he says is held by the monarch himself. The latter would 
certainly be pleased to meet him, and if Sachs ever should have a 
special request would do his best to comply with it. Thoroughly 
appeased, Sachs returns to Nuremberg with his new friend, whom 
he imagines to be a powerful count and high dignitary of the court. 
Again the scene changes, and once more we are in Master Stef¬ 
fen’s garden. Eoban, decked out for the approaching wedding, 
gets scant encouragement from the disconsolate Kunigunde, who 
cannot forgive herself for her treatment of Sachs. He hopes to 
compel her to accept him as her husband, and when a number of 
citizens bring the announcement that Steffen has been elected 
burgomaster of the city, Eoban is the first to convey this precious 
piece of news to his prospective father-in-law, with the intimation 
that he was chiefly instrumental in bringing about this decision. 
Steffen promises Eoban that Kunigunde shall wed him on this very 
day, and as he is about to force her to consent, Sachs, who with 
the emperor’s retinue has just passed by outside, leaps over the 
wall to protect the girl and threatens to invoke the law against the 
father and would-be bridegroom. Steffen, who himself now repre¬ 
sents the majesty of the law, commands him to leave the premises 
instantly. Kunigunde, awakening from a swoon, entreats Sachs 
to forgive her and plights her troth to him anew. With the definite 
promise that he will protect her, Sachs hurries away, confident of 
success. 
In the emperor’s ante-room, in Act Four, Sachs craves an im¬ 
mediate interview with the supposed count, and is directed to re¬ 
pair to the city hall square within an hour. Here, in the next and 
final scene, the burghers are assembling for the festive installation 
of the new mayor, and we learn that the council has decreed Sachs’s 
banishment for having broken the peace in entering Steffen’s gar¬ 
den. Sachs is informed by Kunigunde of the impending edict, 
and decides to leave the city at once. Kunigunde is resolved to 
accompany him, though Sachs tries to dissuade her, and as she 
clings to him, Steffen with the councillors and citizens steps forth 
from the city hall and proclaims the decree against Sachs, on which 
Eoban comments with malicious jeers. The emperor appears in 
the nick of time. After eliciting Steffen’s legal opinion on a ficti¬ 
tious case in which a jewel was withheld from the man to whom it 
rightfully belonged, he discloses his identity, and declares Kuni¬ 
gunde to be the jewel and Sachs the rightful owner according to 
the burgomaster’s judicial wisdom. Steffen urges his debt of grati- 
