Of all that poet's heart can pleasure,
Before the fairest of the fair.'

The second act is played in the great hall of the Wartburg
castle, which is festively decorated, for the minstrels are
again to contend for the prize of song, a laurel wreath which
will again be bestowed as of yore by the fair hands of the
beloved Princess Elizabeth. As the curtain rises she is alone in
the hall, no longer pale and wan, but radiant with happiness,
for she knows that Tannhäuser, her lover, has returned, and
she momentarily expects him to appear. While she is greeting
the well known hall, the scene of her lover's former triumphs,
with a rapturous little outburst of song, the door suddenly
opens and Wolfram appears, leading the penitent Tannhäuser,
who rushes forward and falls at Elizabeth's feet, while his
friend discreetly withdraws. Elizabeth would fain raise the
knight, telling him it is unbecoming for him to assume so
humble an attitude beneath the roof where he has triumphed
over all rivals, and she tenderly asks where he has lingered
so long. Tannhäuser, ashamed of the past, and absorbed in the
present, declares that he has been far away, in the land of
oblivion, where he has forgotten all save her alone:--

'Far away in strange and distant regions,
And between yesterday and to-day oblivion's veil hath fallen.
Every remembrance hath forever vanished,
Save one thing only, rising from the darkness,--
That I then dared not hope I should behold thee,
Nor ever raise mine eyes to thy perfection.'