’Bereft of father his mother bore him. 
    For in battle perished Gamuret: 
    From like untimely hero’s death
    To save her offspring, strange to arms
    She reared him a witless fool in deserts.’

The youth, however, pays no heed to Kundry’s explanations, but goes on to tell Gurnemanz that he saw some men riding through the forest in glittering array, and followed them through the world with no other weapon than the bow he had manufactured.  But when Kundry again interrupts him, declaring that his sudden disappearance has caused his mother’s death, he shows the greatest sensibility, and even faints with grief.

While the squires gently bathe his face and hands to bring him back to life, Kundry, feeling the sudden and overpowering desire for sleep which often mysteriously overpowers her, creeps reluctantly into a neighbouring thicket, where she immediately sinks into a comatose state.  In the mean while, the king’s procession comes up from the bath, and slowly passes across the stage and up the hill.  Gurnemanz, whose heart has been filled with a sudden hope that the youth before him may be the promised guileless fool who alone can cure the king, puts an arm around him, gently raises him, and, supporting his feeble footsteps, leads him up the hill.  They walk along dark passages, and finally come into the great hall on the top of Mount Salvat, which is empty now, and where only the sound of the bells in the dome is heard as Gurnemanz says to Parsifal:—­

   ’Now give good heed, and let me see,
    If thou ’rt a Fool and pure
    What wisdom thou presently canst secure.’

Parsifal, the unsophisticated youth, stands spellbound at the marvels he beholds, nor does he move when the great doors open, and the Knights of the Grail come marching in, singing of the mystic vessel and of its magic properties.  This strain is taken up not only by the youths who follow them, but also by a boy choir in the dome which is intended to represent the angels.  When the knights have all taken their places, the doors open again to admit the bearers of the sacred vessel, which is kept in a shrine.  They are followed by Amfortas, in his litter, and when he has been carefully laid upon a couch, and the vessel has been placed upon the altar before him, all bow down in silent prayer.  Suddenly the silence is broken by the voice of the aged Titurel.  He is lying in a niche in the rear of the hall, and calls solemnly upon his son to uncover the Holy Grail, and give him a sight of the glorious vessel, which alone can renew his failing strength.  The boys are about to remove the veil when Amfortas suddenly detains them, and begins a passionate protest, relating how his sufferings increase every time he beholds the Grail.  He implores his father to resume the sacred office, and wildly asks how long his sufferings must endure.  To this appeal the angels’ voices respond by repeating the prophecy made by the Holy Grail:—­