106 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
reception; but curiously enough it was some French guests present 
on that occasion that with great animation recognized the popular 
element of my work and welcomed it as such.” 
Its broad human appeal may best be judged, aside from its en¬ 
thusiastic reception all over the globe, if in our minds we transfer 
the battles that are fought in the Meistersinger to other phases of 
human activity, substituting for the mastersingers any other set 
of more or less self-centered artists, or professional men, or in¬ 
deed men from any walk of life, in any country, at any time. 
The comic elements will remain the same: there are the jealousies 
and rivalries of the individuals making up the class among them¬ 
selves, the overt or covert animosities against the daring innova¬ 
tors that chafe against the narrow fetters of tradition, the con¬ 
certed fight against outsiders, the unconfessed but ever present 
opposition of old age against the rising generation, and the event¬ 
ual triumph of youth. And there is the everlasting and irresist¬ 
ible comedy element, la lutte pour la femme, here aggravated 
by the fact that the rivals are not only representatives of the 
younger and the older generations, not only the impersonations 
of romanticism and philistinism respectively, a dashing young 
knight and a pompous old scribe, but additional zest is lent to 
their fight because they are the representatives of young and old 
in art. And these elements are treated with a humor 
“essentially German and Wagnerian—a combination of play¬ 
fulness, exuberant animal spirits, practical jokes, puns, burlesque, 
and withal an undercurrent of amiability, seriousness, passion, and 
even sadness, as in all great humorous literature. Every form of 
humor is represented, the lowest as well as the highest; from the 
horse-play accompanying the riot scene, the pun on Vogelgesang’s 
name, and the broad burlesque of Beckmesser’s serenade, to the 
more subtle persiflage of Kothner’s address, the merry mockery 
of the apprentices, the quaint spectacle of the watchman, the 
chivalrous bluster of the knight, the rollicking cobbler songs, and 
the subtle satire of Sachs. In this variety of humor, from the 
lowest to the highest, Wagner resembles Shakespeare.” 25 
The chief charm of Wagner’s comedy-drama, however, lies not 
in such comic incidents, no matter how delightful they may be in 
themselves, but in the delineation of the characters. This is what 
gives the play imperishable value. 
25 Finck, l.c., page 225. 
