116 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
his resolve to leave the field to him is taken at once. To be sure, 
his sly joke at Beckmesser’s expense, “Nickt dock, Herr Merher! 
Aus jungrem Wachs als ich und Ihr muss der Freier sein, soil 
Evchen ihm den Preis verleihn,” would seem to indicate that he 
harbors no desire to enter the lists; still it is here nothing more 
than a well-meant advice to Beckmesser not to make himself ridicu¬ 
lous by competing. But soon after, while Sachs continues “to 
show to the world a serene and energetic face, ’ ’ a plaintive motive 
from the orchestra reveals to us his real feelings; it is repeated in 
Act II, during his chat with Eva, at the words li Ja Kind! eine 
Freiung machte mir Not,” (the word Freiung being here taken in 
a double sense), and soon after this in the third stanza of the merry 
cobbler song a similar strain strikes our ears and hearts, and Eva 
exclaims, “Mich schmerzt das Lied, ich weiss nickt wie!” These 
strong undercurrents are most pronounced in the prelude and the 
first scene of the third act, picturing the last struggle in the aged 
man’s soul, until in the “lofty mirth which heals our pains” he 
achieves the triumph over his passion and “calmed and appeased 
reaches the serenity of a mild and blissful resignation.” 
This last quotation, from his Entwiirfe, Gedanken, Fragmente, 
may be applied to Wagner’s own state of mind at the time when 
he finished the drama. It is the culmination of one of the deepest 
experiences in the poet’s own life, his love for Mathilde Wesen- 
donk, his victory over himself, and his renunciation. “Now only 
am I fully resigned,” he writes to Mathilde, as he is working on 
the final draft, and “Look out for your heart when you meet Hans 
Sachs! you will surely fall in love with him.” By giving it im¬ 
mortal expression in a creation of his genius, Wagner the artist 
has risen above the painful experience of Wagner the man. Now 
he has made himself truly a master—master of his art, and master 
of himself, and the fact that from this time on Wagner loved to 
call and sign himself der Meister gains a deepened significance. 
Just as the historic Hans Sachs is one of the most interesting 
and impressive figures of sixteenth century Germany, the Hans 
Sachs of Wagner has become one of the most sympathetic charac¬ 
ters of the highest type of comedy, and it is difficult indeed not 
to fall in love with him. What endears him to us is his truly 
God-given humor—not simply an intellectual gift, to be defined as 
the sense of proportion, but a quality of the heart that recognizes* 
the ordained place for everything in the universe and is willing 
to content itself with its place in the eternal scheme of things. 
