Words and music come from the mouth of Gretel when she releases Hänsel from the spell in the third act, and from that of Hänsel when he performs the same office for the gingerbread children. After two phrases of minor significance there comes the "Theme of Fulfilment," so called because of its association with the answer to the prayer for protection in the woods. Thus it forms part of the dawn music at the beginning of the third act when the children are awakened by the Dewman. It makes up the original part of the song of this Dawn Fairy and is the melody to which Hänsel and Gretel sing their explanation to the wondering gingerbread children:-- The angels whispered in dreams to us in silent night What this happy day has brought to light. [Musical excerpt] There is a fourth theme, the "Theme of Rejoicing" which is the inspiration of the dance which the gingerbread children execute around Hänsel and Gretel to celebrate their release from the enchantment put upon them by the wicked Witch. At the parting of the curtain we see the interior of the hut of a poor broom-maker. Specimens of his handiwork hang upon the walls. A tiny window beside the door in the background, shows a glimpse of the forest beyond. Hänsel and Gretel are at work, he making brooms, she knitting. Gretel sings an old German folk-song, beginning thus:-- [Musical excerpt--"Suse liebe suse was raschelt im stroh?"] All the melodies in this act have a strong family resemblance, but this song, a cradle song of the long ago, is the only one not composed by Humperdinck. Miss Constance Bache has failed, in her English translation, to reproduce the quaint sentiment of the old song, which calls attention to the fact that all geese are shoeless. It is not for want of leather,--the shoemaker has that in plenty,--but he has no lasts, and so the poor things must needs go barefoot. The song invites a curious historical note. "Suse" and "Sause" were common expressions in the cradle songs which used to be sung to the Christ-child in the German churches at Christmas when the decadent nativity plays (now dwarfed to a mere tableau of the manger, the holy parents, and the adoring shepherds and magi) were still cultivated. From the old custom termed Kindeiwiegen, which remained in the German Protestant Church centuries after the Reformation, Luther borrowed the refrain, "Susaninne" for one of his Christmas chorales. The beginning of the little song which Gretel sings used to be "Sause liebe Ninne," which, of course, is Luther's "Susaninne." The song dominates the whole of the first act. Out of portions of its melody grows a large part of the instrumental accompaniment to the melodious recitative in which the dialogue is carried on. Through expressive changes, not only in this act, but later also, it provides a medium for much dramatic expression. A little motif with which the orchestra introduces it develops into a song, with which Hänsel greets his sister's announcement that