The king, whom the lad had seen in the glade, is borne in on a litter, before him a veiled shrine containing the mystical cup which is the object of the ceremonious worship.  It is the duty of the king to unveil the talisman and hold it up to the adoration of the knights.  He is conveyed to a raised couch and the shrine is placed before him.  His sufferings of mind and body are so poignant that he would liever die than perform his office; but the voice of his father (Titurel), who had built the sanctuary, established the order of knighthood, and now lives on in his grave sustained by the sight of the talisman, admonishes the king of his duty.  At length he consents to perform the function imposed upon him by his office.  He raises himself painfully upon his couch.  The attendants remove the covering from the shrine and disclose an antique crystal vessel which they reverently place before the lamentable king.  Boys’ voices come wafted down from the highest height of the dome, singing a formula of consecration:  “Take ye my body, take my blood in token of our love":—­

[Musical excerpt—­the love-feast formula]

A dazzling ray of light flashes down from above and falls into the cup, which now glows with a reddish purple lustre and sheds a soft radiance around.  The knights have sunk upon their knees.  The king lifts the luminous chalice, moves it gently from side to side, and thus blesses the bread and wine provided for the refection of the knights.  Meanwhile, celestial voices proclaim the words of the oracle to musical strains that are pregnant with mysterious suggestion.

Another choir sturdily, firmly, ecstatically hymns the power of faith:—­

[Musical excerpt—­the symbol of faith]

and, at the end, an impressive antiphon, starting with the knights, ascends higher and higher, and, calling in gradually the voices of invisible singers in the middle height, becomes metamorphosed into an angelic canticle as it takes its flight to the summit.  It is the voice of aspiration, the musical symbol of the talisman which directs the thoughts and desires of its worshippers ever upward:—­

[Musical excerpt—­the symbol of the holy grail]

The lad disappoints his guide.  He understands nothing of the solemn happenings which he has witnessed, nor does he ask their meaning, though his own heart had been lacerated with pain at sight of the king’s sufferings.  He is driven from the sanctuary with contumely.

He wanders forth in quest of further adventures and enters the magical garden surrounding the castle of the sorcerer.  A number of knights who are sent against him he puts to rout.  Now the magician summons lovely women, clad in the habiliments of flowers, to seduce him with their charms:—­

[Musical excerpt—­Klingsor’s incantation]

They sing and play about him with winsome wheedlings and cajoleries, with insinuating blandishments and dainty flatteries, with pretty petulancies and delectable quarrellings:—­