and bidding him return without fear when
the intolerance of man has made him weary of life upon earth.

A sudden change of scene occurs. At a sign from Venus, the
grotto and its voluptuous figures disappear; the roseate light
makes way for the glaring sunshine, and Tannhaeuser, who has
not moved, suddenly finds himself upon the hillside, near the
highroad and the shrine of the Virgin, and within sight of
the Wartburg castle, where he formerly dwelt and won many a
prize for his beautiful songs. The summer silence is at first
broken only by the soft notes of a shepherd singing a popular
ballad about Holda, the Northern Venus, who issues yearly from
the mountain to herald the spring, but as he ceases a band of
pilgrims slowly comes into view. These holy wanderers are all
clad in penitential robes, and, as they slowly wend their way
down the hill and past the shrine, they chant a psalm praying
for the forgiveness of their sins. The shepherd calls to them
asking them to pray for him in Rome, and, as they pass out of
sight, still singing, Tannhaeuser, overcome with remorse for
his misspent years, sinks down on his knees before the Virgin's
shrine, humbly imploring forgiveness for his sins:--

'Oh, see my heart by grief oppressed!
I faint, I sink beneath the burden!
Nor will I cease, nor will I rest,
Till heavenly mercy grants me pardon.'

While he is still kneeling there, absorbed in prayer,
the Landgrave and his minstrel knights appear in hunting
costume. Their attention is attracted by the bowed figure of the
knight, and when he raises his head they recognise him as their
former companion. Some of the minstrels, jealous of his past
triumphs, would fain regard him as their foe, but, influenced by
one of their number, Wolfram von Eschenbach, they welcome him
kindly and ask him where he has been. Tannhaeuser, only partly
roused from his half lethargic state, dreamily answers that he
has long been tarrying in a land where he found neither peace
nor rest, and in answer to their invitation to join them in the
Wartburg declares he cannot stay, but must wander on forever.
Wolfram, seeing him about to depart once more, then reminds him
of Elizabeth, the fair chatelaine of the Wartburg, and when he
sees that, although Tannhaeuser trembles at the mere sound of the
name of the maiden he once loved, he will nevertheless depart,
he asks and obtains the Landgrave's permission to reveal a long
kept secret.

Wolfram