Roedder—-“Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.” 115 
in the original sketch), and the girl’s exclamation, “Ach, der hat 
mich lieb!” 
In view of the fact that the outward events in both the first and 
final versions are virtually the same, Wagner’s statement that for 
the final execution of the play the original draft offered little or 
nothing would seem extraordinary. It becomes clear as soon as we 
realize that in the final version Hans Sachs, heretofore merely an 
ornament—even though owing to his historical character and his 
intellectual caliber he rose considerably above his surroundings— 
is now the vitalizing center of the whole play, and that everything 
hinges on his love for Eva and his renunciation. 29 The action is 
now placed within his soul and finds expression in tones rather 
than words. Only once, in the quintet of Act III, does Sachs 
softly say to himself: 
“For dem Einde lieblich hehr 
mocht’ ich gem wohl singen; 
doch des Herzens suss ’ Beschwer 
gait es zu bezwingen. 
’s war ein schoner Abendtraum: 
dran zu deuten wag ’ ich haum” 
For a long time he has loved Eva, and on St. John’s day, his 
birthday, in the singing contest at the public festival, his heart’s 
fondest wish is to be consummated: no longer young in years, but 
buoyant in the undying youth of genius, he would outsing his com¬ 
petitors and carry off the fair prize. And everybody else has ex¬ 
pected this outcome: Eva herself, who up to this time has loved 
the master with the fondness of a child; her father; David the ap¬ 
prentice; David’s friends; and the malicious Beckmesser. Now 
Walter von Stolzing appears, and all is changed at once. Eva has 
fallen in love with him at first sight: “Doch nun hat’s mich ge- 
wdhlt zu nie gekannter Quad: und werd’ ich heut’ vermahlt, so 
war’s ohn’ alle Wahl! Das war ein Mussen y war ein Zwang.” 
But long before he finds out from Eva herself that she loves the 
young knight, Sachs with quick intuition sees how matters stand: 
Walter’s request to be received into the mastersinger’s society, by 
all the others treated as a surprising incident, opens his eyes, and 
29 Cf. on this point especially Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Richard Wag¬ 
ner. Translated from the German by G. Ainslee Hight and revised by the 
author. London and Philadelphia, 1900, page 281ff. Also the fine essay by 
Julius Burghold, Wagners Meistersinger: Erlebnis und Dichtung } in Ludwig 
Frankensteins Richard Wagner-Jahrbuch, I, 41f£. 
