98 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
Ver Liebe Gluck, das Vaterland, and the assembled people are 
unanimous for according to him the prize, but Steffen decides in 
favor of Eoban, who recites an incredibly silly mastersong on Ab¬ 
salom’s rebellion against David. The jealous mastersingers side 
with Steffen, and the latter publicly announces his daughter’s be¬ 
trothal to Eoban. During a public festival on a meadow outside 
the city walls, Gorg reads to Kordula the poem which he has filched 
from his master as his own, then loses the manuscript, which falls 
into the hands of some crossbowmen of the emperor, and they 
pocket it with the intention of handing it to Max, whose fondness 
for poetry is universally known. Hans Sachs, deeply grieved by 
his humiliation at the contest in the morning, has made up his 
mind to leave Nuremberg, and comes to the festival only in order 
to bid farewell to Kunigunde. Like her prototype in Deinhard- 
stein’s play, she tries to coax Sachs into giving up his trade, but 
is not so insistent and more than willing to ask his forgiveness 
when she notices how she has hurt his feelings. As they embrace, 
Steffen and Eoban step out of the burgomaster’s tent, and Steffen 
after a brief conference with the councillors pronounces the decree 
of banishment for Sachs. Sachs leaves, accompanied by the faith¬ 
ful Gorg, who is resolved to share his master’s exile. Steffen soon 
repents of the council’s action: Emperor Maximilian, who has just 
arrived in the city, wishes to meet the author of the verses that his 
soldier has handed him—Sachs’s poem which Gorg had appropri¬ 
ated for his own use. With Maximilian, Sachs has returned to 
Nuremberg, and during a clandestine visit at Steffen’s house over¬ 
hears an agreement between Steffen and Eoban according to which 
Eoban is to pose as the author. In the last scene at the great ban¬ 
quet hall the emperor demands that Eoban prove his authorship, 
and his attempt fails dismally. Sachs naturally recites his poem 
by heart and is publicly acknowledged as the author. After this 
recognition by the sovereign, the authorities of the city are of 
course only too glad to receive Sachs back into their fold, Kuni¬ 
gunde is solemnly betrothed to Sachs, and the curtain drops amid 
jubilant cheers for the monarch. 
The few external features that Wagner’s work shows in com¬ 
mon with Reger and Lortzing’s adaptation of Deinhardstein’s 
drama may be briefly summarized as follows: A young and en¬ 
thusiastic poet fails before the guild of the older men, as a result 
of their incapacity and unwillingness to understand and appre¬ 
ciate his superiority. A poem composed by the hero is stolen by a 
rival, and the latter is put to shame when asked to recite it. Gorg, 
Hans Sachs’s apprentice in the earlier opera, is a votary at the 
shrine of the Muses, as is David in the Meistersinger. Gorg and 
Kordula are the forebears of David and Magdalene, excepting 
