while Papageno, a bird-catcher, who has been assigned to him as companion, receives a glockenspiel.  Three genii are summoned to guide them, and the two champions thereupon proceed to Sarastro’s palace.  Tamino is refused admittance by the doorkeeper, but Papageno in some unexplained way contrives to get in, and persuades Pamina to escape with him.  They fly, but are recaptured by Monostatos, a Moor, who has been appointed to keep watch over Pamina.  Sarastro now appears, condemns Monostatos to the bastinado, and decrees that the two lovers shall undergo a period of probation in the sanctuary.  In the second act the ordeal of silence is imposed upon Tamino.  Pamina cannot understand his apparent coldness, and is inclined to listen to the counsels of her mother, who tries to induce her to murder Sarastro.  The priest, however, convinces her of his beneficent intentions.  The lovers go through the ordeals of fire and water successfully, and are happily married.  The Queen of Night and her dark kingdom perish everlastingly, and the reign of peace and wisdom is universally established.  The humours of Papageno in his search for a wife have nothing to do with the principal interest of the plot, but they serve as an acceptable contrast to the more serious scenes of the opera.

The libretto of the ‘Die Zauberfloete’ is usually spoken of as the climax of conceivable inanity, but the explanation of many of its absurdities seems to lie in the fact that it is an allegorical illustration of the struggles and final triumph of Freemasonry.  Both Mozart and Schikaneder were Freemasons, and ‘Die Zauberfloete’ is in a sense a manifesto of their belief.  Freemasonry in the opera is represented by the mysteries of Isis, over which the high-priest Sarastro presides.  The Queen of Night is Maria Theresa, a sworn opponent of Freemasonry, who interdicted its practice throughout her dominions, and broke up the Lodges with armed force.  Tamino may be intended for the Emperor Joseph II., who, though not a Freemason himself as his father was, openly protected the brotherhood; and we may look upon Pamina as the representative of the Austrian people.  The name of Monostatos seems to be connected with monasticism, and may be intended to typify the clerical party, which, though outwardly on friendly terms with Freemasonry, seems in reality to have been bent upon its destruction.  Papageno and his wife Papagena are excellent representatives of the light-hearted and pleasure-loving population of Vienna.  It is difficult to make any explanation fit the story very perfectly, but the suggestion of Freemasonry is enough to acquit Mozart of having allied his music to mere balderdash; while, behind the Masonic business, the discerning hearer will have no difficulty in distinguishing the shadowy outlines of another and a far nobler allegory, the ascent of the human soul, purified by suffering and love, to the highest wisdom.  It was this, no doubt, that compelled Goethe’s often expressed admiration, and even tempted him to