dy
Harriet and Nancy's prayer for his pardon.

Lionel gives a ring to Plumkett, asking him {206} to show it to the
Queen, his dying father having told him that it would protect him from
every danger.

In the fourth act Lady Harriet feels remorse for the sad consequences
of her haughtiness. She visits the prisoner to crave his pardon. She
tells him that she has herself carried his ring to the Queen and that
he has been recognized by it as Lord Derby's son, once banished from
Court, but whose innocence is now proved.

Then the proud Lady offers hand and heart to Lionel, but he rejects
her, believing himself duped. Lady Harriet, however who loves Lionel,
resolves to win him against his will. She disappears, and dressing
herself and Nancy in the former peasant's attire, she goes once more to
the Fair at Richmond, where Lionel is also brought by his friend
Plumkett. He sees his beloved Martha advance towards him, promising to
renounce all splendors and live only for him; then his melancholy
vanishes; and he weds her, his name and possessions being restored to
him, while Plumkett obtains the hand of pretty Nancy, alias Julia.

THE MASTER-SINGERS OF NUeREMBERG.

Opera in three acts by WAGNER.

This opera carries us back to the middle of the 16th century and the
persons whom we meet are all historical.

{207}

Amongst the tradesmen, whose rhyme-making has made them famous, Hans
Sachs, the shoemaker is the most conspicuous.

The music is highly original, though not precisely melodious and is
beautifully adapted to its characteristically national subject.

In the first act we see St. Catharine's church in Nueremberg, where
Divine Service is being celebrated, in preparation for St. John's Day.
Eva, the lovely daughter of Master Pogner the jeweller, sees the young
knight Walter Stolzing, who has fallen in love with Eva, and who has
sold his castle in Franconia to become a citizen of Nueremberg. She
tells him that her hand is promised to the winner of the prize for a
master-song, to be sung on the following morning.

We are now called to witness one of those ancient customs still
sometimes practiced in old German towns. The master-singers appear,
and the apprentices prepare everything needful for them. Walter asks
one of them, called David, an apprentice of Sachs, what he will have to
do in order to compete for the prize. He has not learnt poetry as a
profession like those worthy workmen, and David vai