ntices are busy putting up the shutters, and are singing as they
work. Walter meets Eva and plots an elopement with her, but Sachs
prevents them from carrying out their rash plan. Meanwhile Beckmesser
makes his appearance with his lute for the purpose of serenading Eva
and rehearsing the song he is to sing for the prize on the morrow. As
he is about to sing, Sachs breaks out into a rollicking folk-song
("Jerum, jerum, halla, halla, he!"), in which he sings of Mother Eve
and the troubles she had after she left Paradise, for want of shoes.
At last he allows Beckmesser a hearing, provided he will permit him to
mark the faults with his hammer upon the shoe he is making. The marker
consents, and sings his song, "Den Tag seh' ich erscheinen,"
accompanied with excruciating roulades of the old-fashioned
conventional sort; but Sachs knocks so often that his shoe is finished
long before Beckmesser's song. This is his first humiliation. Before
the act finishes he is plunged into still further trouble, for David
suspects him of designs upon Magdalena, and a general quarrel ensues.

The third act opens upon a peaceful Sunday-morning scene in the sleepy
old town, and shows us Sachs sitting in his arm-chair at the window
reading his Bible, and now and then expressing his hopes for Walter's
success, as the great contest is soon to take place. At last he leans
back, and after a brief meditation commences a characteristic song
("Wahn! wahn! Ueberall wahn!"). A long dialogue ensues between him and
Walter, and then as Eva, David, Magdalena, and Beckmesser successively
enter, the scene develops into a magnificent quintet, which is one of
the most charming numbers in the opera. The situation then suddenly
changes. The stage-setting represents an open meadow on the banks of
the Pegnitz. The river is crowded with boats. The plain is covered
with tents full of merrymakers. The different guilds are continually
arriving. A livelier or more stirring scene can hardly be imagined
than Wagner has here pictured, with its accompaniment of choruses by
the various handicraftsmen, their pompous marches, and the rural
strains of town pipers. At last the contest begins. Beckmesser
attempts to get through his song and dismally fails. Walter follows
him with the beautiful prize-song, "Morgenlich leuchtend in rosigem
Schein." He wins the day and the hand of Eva. Exultant Sachs trolls
out a lusty lay ("Verachtet mir der Meister nicht"), and the stirring
scene e