ving
which should bring about his confusion, forcing him in its progress
to so many injustices more, injustices which his soul would loathe,
which would blight his best beloved, which would by far be his
greatest punishment!... The Trilogy is moral as a tract.

THE MASTER-SINGERS OF NUREMBERG

THE MASTER-SINGERS OF NUREMBERG

I

The "argument of The Master-singers" is effectually given in the
Overture: Art and Love. The Masters are first--a little pompously,
as befits their pretensions,--presented to us. Then Young Love
sweeps across the scene, delicate musical gale. The themes of the
two then mingle, foreshadowing how the affairs of Walther shall
become entangled with those of the Guild.

This Walther von Stolzing, a young Franconian noble, last of his
line, had for reasons which are not given forsaken the ancestral
castle and come to Nuremberg in the intention of becoming a citizen
there. He had brought letters to a prominent burgher of the town,
Veit Pogner, the rich goldsmith, long acquainted with his family, and
known to it, by reputation. Pogner had offered him every courtesy,
hospitality, and assistance in the business of selling his Franconian
lands.

Walther had found twenty-four hours in Nuremberg and Pogner's house
ample time to fall deeply, transcendingly, rapturously, in love
with the goldsmith's daughter. She is very young, very feminine,
even in the respect of being little rather than large, so that she
is always called, fondly, Evchen, little Eva. Her name is perhaps
meant to indicate her quality of inveterate femineity. The whole
story goes to show that she was pretty enough to turn heads young
and old. She had been an obedient, an exemplary daughter, up to
the hour of meeting Walther, allowing her father to think for her,
accepting demurely his views for her. How should she not feel it
best, so long as her immature heart had never spoken a word, to
let a most kind and indulgent parent, whose wisdom it was not for
her to question, dispose of her hand in the manner he thought most
fitting? When she had seen Walther, however, a new light illumined
her position.

On the second day of his acquaintance with her, it seemed to the
young lord that he could not live through another night but he made
sure of one point. He followed his lady to vespers, in the hope of
an opportunity to exchange one private word, ask one question. It was
the eve of Saint John's day. The congregation when the curtain r