Andreas von Doebeln wrote:

>For that last line I've given the usual English translation of that line.
>But the usual English translation quietly corrects one letter of the Wagner
>text; "ihm" to "ihn".  With "ihm" that last line could be read, "Who won
>him from Isolde."

I'd saved this post prior to my temporary absence from this list and better
responses than mine may already have been posted but I, nevertheless,
wanted to register my own opinion as well.

I assume Andreas meant "With 'ihn' [not 'ihm'] that last line could be
read...." Otherwise there would be no change from the libretto as quoted.

Did Andreas, or anyone, explain why it was believed that Wagner meant
to write "ihn" (accusative, or direct object, case) rather than the "ihm
(dative, or indirect object, case) that is actually found in the printed
libretto?

I notice that in my libretto, the text is slightly different from what
Andreas reproduced; viz., the last line reads "der Isolden ihm abgewann."
Scholars of German grammar as it was used in the middle of the last
century, of which I'm not one, may correct me about this but "Isolden" with
the terminal "n" is an archaic accusative (i.e., direct object) ending to
the proper noun, "Isolde", an ending which I don't think is used for the
dative case.  Thus, if Wagner had intended to have Isolde declare that
she had cured Tristan so that he would fall victim to a champion who had
won "ihn" (i.e., Tristan) away from Isolde (a truly contrived scenario,
incidentally) he would not have mentioned both Tristan and Isolde in the
accusative case.

Walter Meyer