[February 3, 1862.] POGNER. " Und du, mein Kind, du sagst mir nichts ? " Eva. " Ein gutes Kind, gefragt nur sprichts." t t " And thou, my child, say'st nothing to me ? " — "A good child only So, some children do not understand being asked in the third person. The old enthusiasm tried to stir. I had a mind to beg you people for an evening's rendezvous at Basle, to read my Meistersirtger to you. It came hard to me, to renounce the old custom ; yet be it must, and I daresay you will thank me for it! — I have packed my manuscript up for you, however, and it's just going off to you instead* Mind how you find your way about : it looks dreadful in places, with blots of ink too. It would be amusing to me, to see if you made it all out. At times I had to stop work for laughing, at times for crying. I commend to your notice Herr Sixtus Beckmesser. David, too, will win your favour. For the rest, don't get misled : all that there is in it, has been made expressly by myself. Merely the eight lines with which Sachs is saluted by the people, in the last scene, speaks when asked" — Die Meistersinger act ii, save that "folgsam" ("obedient") now takes the place of "gutes." — Probably a letter, or telegram, is missing between 127 and 128, as Mathilde had answered on the 1 6th Jan. — vid. inf. — In the German edition this letter 128 is conjectured as of the end of January, and inferentially, from Paris ; but it now appears to have been written from Carlsruhe on the date assigned above, As its contents, however, round off the composition of the Meistersinger poem, no object would be served by detaching it from the group of " Paris letters."— Tr. are from SACHS' own hymn to Luther; the names of the master-tunes and ' tones ' (with exception of a few invented by myself) are also genuine. Taken all round, I am surprised at what I've been able to make of the meagre notes. To-morrow I go to Mainz, and thence to Biebrich or Wiesbaden, to seek a nest in which to hatch into music the master-egg I've laid. Should you want to write to me, before you hear from me again, please address aux soins de /. B. Schotfs Sohne in Mainz. God keep you, my Child ! Best greeting from the Master. LETTERS OF FEBRUARY 1862 to JUNE 1 871 "9S,
Richard Wagner
Source: Richard Wagner to Mathilde Wesendonck, translated by Ellis, No. 128