myself I have not
brought it to that point. Let me be an example to you, and drop
this folly of seeking to be made a master!"

Walther, persisting in inquiry, conquers the information at last
that in order to be named a master a man must compose an original
poem and fit it to an original air, in accordance with the many
laws laid down by his judges. "All there is for me to do then,"
concludes the lover, nothing discouraged, "is to aim directly at
mastership. If I am to sing successfully, I must find, to verses of
my own, a melody of my own!" David, who has joined the apprentices,
fends off their teasing by privately preparing them for rich diversion
presently at the song-trial. "Not I to-day, another fellow is up
for trial! He has not been a 'pupil' and is not a 'singer'; the
formality of earning the title of 'poet' he says he will omit;
for he is a gentleman of quality, and expects, with one leap and
no further difficulty, this very day to become a master. Wherefore
arrange carefully the Marker's cabinet; the blackboard on the wall,
convenient to the Marker's hand.... The Marker, yes!" he repeats
bodingly to the not sufficiently impressed knight. "Are you not
afraid? Many a candidate already, singing before him, has met with
failure. He allows you seven errors; he marks them there with chalk;
whoever makes more than seven errors has completely and conclusively
failed!" The apprentices in their glee over the prospective
entertainment join hands and dance in a ring around the curtained
recess where the Marker shortly shall be chronicling the slips
and blunders of this self-confident lordling.

Their play is interrupted, and they hurriedly put on good behaviour,
at the entrance of two of the masters, Pogner and Sixtus Beckmesser,
the town-clerk. The change in the music is definite as a change
of air and scene, is like passing from the hubbub of the street
into some calm and pleasant precinct. Beckmesser is importuning
Pogner with regard to his intentions for the morrow. Beckmesser
wishes extremely to become his son-in-law, wherefore he thinks it
would be best to give the young lady no choice, to decree simply
and finally that the winner of the prize for song should be her
husband. He feels cocksure of his superiority as a master-singer,
but dubious, it would seem, of his power to enthrall the fancy of
a young girl. "If Evchen's voice can strike out the candidate,
of what use to me is my supremacy as a master?"--"Come,