Opera Stories from Wagner
By Florence Akin
Mimi Has a Surprise
The sly, wicked Mimi came slinking to the place where the dragon lay.
When he saw it lying dead under the trees, he looked about for Siegfried, but Siegfried was nowhere to be seen.
“Now I shall rush in and snatch the ring! At last I shall have my pay for all these years of trouble with that rogue I hate!”
But scarcely had Mimi turned toward the dragon’s cave when suddenly Alberich sprang before him.
“You sly, crafty rascal!” cried Alberich. “What do you want here? Ha! I have caught you at your sneaking tricks! Long have I guarded here! You shall not steal my gold! Get back to your murky cave.”
But Mimi screamed:–
“You shall not have the gold! ’T is mine! Long years have I toiled and waited! The gold is mine, I say!” “Yours?” Alberich snarled in scorn. “Yours? You snatched it from the Rhine-daughters, did you? You paid the price to mould that ring?”
And Mimi raved:
“Who made the helmet, that wondrous cap that in a flash can change a man into anything he wants to be?”
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