Editing Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (section)

===Influence of Schopenhauer===
In 1854, Wagner first read [[Arthur Schopenhauer|Schopenhauer]], and was struck by the philosopher's theories on [[aesthetics]].<ref>[[Schopenhauer's aesthetics]]</ref> In this philosophy, art is a means for escaping from the sufferings of the world, and music is the highest of the arts since it is the only one not involved in representation of the world (i.e. it is abstract). It is for this reason that music can communicate emotion without the need for words. In his earlier essay ''Oper und Drama'' (Opera and Drama) (1850–1)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://users.belgacom.net/wagnerlibrary/prose/wlpr0063.htm|title=Opera and Drama|first=Richard|last=Wagner|website=Users.belgacom.net|access-date=19 May 2018}}</ref> Wagner had derided staples of operatic construction: arias, choruses, duets, trios, recitatives, etc. As a result of reading Schopenhauer's ideas about the role of music, Wagner re-evaluated his prescription for opera, and included many of these elements in {{Lang|de|Die Meistersinger}}.

Although {{Lang|de|Die Meistersinger}} is a comedy, it also elucidates Wagner's ideas on the place of music in society, on renunciation of  ''Wille'' ([[Will (philosophy)|Will]]), and on the solace that music can bring in a world full of {{Lang|de|Wahn}} (delusion, folly, self-deception). It is {{Lang|de|Wahn}} which causes the riot in Act II – a sequence of events arising from a case of mistaken identity, which can be seen as a form of self-delusion. Commentators have observed that in his famous Act III monologue {{Lang|de|Wahn, Wahn, überall Wahn}} (Madness! Madness!, Everywhere madness!), Sachs paraphrases Schopenhauer's description of the way that {{Lang|de|Wahn}} drives a person to behave in ways that are self-destructive:{{sfn|Magee|2002|p={{page needed|date=January 2022}}}}
<poem lang="de" style="margin-left:1em; float:left;">in Flucht geschlagen, wähnt er zu jagen; hört nicht sein eigen Schmerzgekreisch,
wenn er sich wühlt ins eig'ne Fleisch, wähnt Lust sich zu erzeigen!</poem>
<poem style="margin-left:1em; float:left;">driven into flight he believes he is hunting, and does not hear his own cry of pain:
when he tears into his own flesh, he imagines he is giving himself pleasure!</poem>{{clear|left}}

Following the completion of ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]'', Wagner resumed work on {{Lang|de|Die Meistersinger}} in 1861 with a quite different philosophical outlook from that which he held when he developed his first draft. The character of Hans Sachs became one of the most Schopenhauerian of Wagner's creations. Wagner scholar Lucy Beckett{{sfn|Warrack|1994|loc=chapter 4}} has noted the remarkable similarity between Wagner's Sachs and Schopenhauer's description of the noble man:

<blockquote>We always picture a very noble character to ourselves as having a certain trace of silent sadness... It is a consciousness that has resulted from knowledge of the vanity of all achievements and of the suffering of all life, not merely of one's own. (Schopenhauer: ''[[The World as Will and Representation]]'')</blockquote>

The other distinctive manifestation of Sachs's character – his calm renunciation of the prospect of becoming a suitor for Eva's love – is also deeply Schopenhauerian.{{sfn|Magee|2002|loc=chapter 14}} Sachs here denies the [[Will (philosophy)|Will]] in its supposedly most insistent form, that of sexual love. Wagner marks this moment with a direct musical and textual reference to ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]'': {{Lang|de|Mein Kind, von Tristan und Isolde kenn' ich ein traurig Stück. Hans Sachs war klug und wollte nichts von Herrn Markes Glück.}} ("My child, I know a sad tale of Tristan and Isolde. Hans Sachs was clever and did not want anything of King Marke's lot.")