so high as my head; but never had I seen blades,
blossoms, flowers, so mild and tender, nor ever did, to my sense,
all nature give forth a fragrance so innocently sweet, or speak
to me with such amiable confidence!" "That," explains Gurnemanz,
"is Good-Friday's Charm...." "Alas!" wails Parsifal, "that day of
supreme agony! Ought not on this day everything which blooms and
breathes to be steeped in mourning and tears?" "You see," replies
Gurnemanz, "that it is not so. They are the sinners' tears of
repentance which today bathe meadow and plain with a holy dew; that
is why they look so fresh and fair. To-day all created things rejoice
upon the earth once trodden by the Saviour's feet, and wish to
offer Him their prayers. Beyond them it is to see Him upon the
Cross, wherefore they turn their eyes to redeemed man. Man feels
himself delivered from the burden and terror of sin, through God's
sacrifice of love made clean and whole. The grasses and flowers
become aware of this, they mark that on this day the foot of man
spares to trample them, that, even as God with a heavenly patience
bears with man and once suffered for his sake, man in pious tribute
treads softly to avoid crushing them. All creation gives thanks
for this, all the short-lived things that bloom; for to-day all
Nature, absolved from sin, regains her day of Innocence." The
exquisiteness of this passage, the Good-Friday Spell (_Charfreitag's
Zauber_), can hardly be conveyed; if one says the music is worthy
of the theme, one has but given a hint of the overearthly quality
of its sweetness.

Kundry has slowly raised her head and fixed upon Parsifal her prayerful
wet eyes. Either from his recent contemplation of the flowery lea,
or some occult association of her personality with the past, the
flowers of Klingsor's garden come into his mind. "I saw them wither
who had smiled on me. May they not also be hungering for redemption
now?... Your tears, too, are turned to blessed dew.... You weep,
and see, the meadow blooms in joy!" He stoops and kisses her gently
upon the forehead.

Bells are heard summoning the knights to the Castle. Gurnemanz
brings from the cell the mantle of a knight of the Grail, and places
it upon Parsifal's shoulders. Parsifal grasps the Spear, and the
three vanish from sight among the trees. Again, but from the opposite
direction, we approach the Castle; the sound of bells increases
as we pass through the granite portal and the vaulted corridor