as fast as they are mentioned.  Tristrant saves his head in Ireland when discovered as the slayer of Morhold by ridding the country of a dragon, and is repeatedly convicted of treachery and taken back into confidence by Konig Marx, as one may read in Sir Thomas Malory’s “Morte d’Arthur.”  Sachs follows an old conclusion of the story and gives Tristrant a second Iseult to wife, and she tells the lie about the sails.  The first Iseult dies of a broken heart at the sight of her lover’s bier, and the Herald in a speech draws the moral of the tale:—­

  Aus dem so lass dich treulich warnen,
  O Mensch, vor solcher Liebe Garnen,
  Und spar dein Lieb’ bis in die Eh’,
  Dann hab’ Ein lieb’ und keine meh. 
  Diesselb’ Lieb’ ist mit Gott und Ehren,
  Die Welt damit fruchtbar zu mehren. 
  Dazu giebt Gott selbst allewegen
  Sein’ Gnad’ Gedeihen und milden Segen. 
  Dass stete Lieb’ und Treu’ aufwachs’
  Im ehlich’n Stand’, das wunscht Hans Sachs.

One of the most thrilling scenes in “Die Meistersinger” is the greeting of Hans Sachs by the populace when the hero enters with the mastersingers’ guild at the festival of St. John (the chorus, “Wach’ auf! es nahet gen den Tag").  Here there is another illustration of Wagner’s adherence to the verities of history, or rather, of his employment of them.  The words of the uplifting choral song are not Wagner’s, but were written by the old cobbler-poet himself.  Wagner’s stage people apply them to their idol, but Sachs uttered them in praise of Martin Luther; they form the beginning of his poem entitled “The Wittenberg Nightingale,” which was printed in 1523.

To the old history of Nuremberg written by Wagenseil, Wagner went for other things besides the theatre and personages of his play.  From it he got the rules which governed the meeting of the mastersingers, like that which follows the religious service in the church of St. Catherine in the first act, and the singular names of the melodies to which, according to David, the candidates for mastersingers’ honors were in the habit of improvising their songs.  In one instance he made a draft on an authentic mastersinger melody.  The march which is used throughout the comedy to symbolize the guild begins as follows:—­

[Musical excerpt]

Here we have an exact quotation from the beginning of the first Gesetz in the “Long Tone” of Heinrich Muglin, which was a tune that every candidate for membership in the guild had to be able to sing.  The old song is given in full in Wagenseil’s book, and on the next page I have reproduced a portion of this song in fac-simile, so that my readers can observe the accuracy of Wagner’s quotation and form an idea of the nature of the poetic frenzy which used to fill the mastersingers, as well as enjoy the ornamental passages (called “Blumen” in the old regulations) and compare them with the fiorituri of Beckmesser’s serenade.