'One path alone can save thee from perdition,
From everlasting woe,--by earth abandon'd,
One way is left: that way thou now shalt know.
A band of pilgrims now assembled
From every part of my domain;
This morn the elders went before them,
The rest yet in the vale remain.
'Tis not for crimes like thine they tremble,
And leave their country, friends and home,--
Desire for heav'nly grace is o'er them:
They seek the sacred shrine at Rome.'

Urged to depart by the Landgrave, knights, nobles, and even by
the pale and sorrowful Elizabeth, Tannhäuser eagerly acquiesces,
for now that the sudden spell of sensuous love has departed,
he ardently longs to free his soul from the burden of sin. The
pilgrims' chant again falls upon his ear, and, sobered and
repentant, Tannhäuser joins them to journey on foot to Rome,
kneeling at every shrine by the way, and devoutly praying for
the forgiveness and ultimate absolution of his sins.

When the curtain rises upon the third and last act of this opera,
one whole year has slowly passed, during which no tidings of the
pilgrims have been received. It is now time for their return,
and they are daily expected by their friends, who have ardently
been praying that they may come home, shrived and happy, to
spend the remainder of their lives at home in peace. No one has
prayed as fervently as the fair Elizabeth, who, forgetting her
wonted splendour, has daily wended her way down the hillside,
to kneel on the rude stones in front of the Virgin's wayside