Parsifal

Parsifal, by H. R. Haweis

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Parsifal, by H. R. Haweis
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Parsifal Story and Analysis of Wagner's Great Opera
Author: H. R. Haweis

Release Date: January 4, 2007 [eBook #20264]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
PARSIFAL***
E-text prepared by David Newman, V. L. Simpson, Chuck Greif, and
the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net/c/)

Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which
includes the original illustrations. See 20264-h.htm or 20264-h.zip:

(http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/2/0/2/6/20264/20264-h/20264-h.htm) or
(http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/2/0/2/6/20264/20264-h.zip)

PARSIFAL
Story and Analysis of Wagner's Great Opera
by
H. R. HAWEIS
Author of "My Musical Memories," "Music and Morals," etc.

[Illustration: RICHARD WAGNER]
[Illustration: Funk and Wagnalls Symbol]

Funk & Wagnalls Company New York and London 1905
NOTE--
This story and analysis of Parsifal was first published as a part of Mr.
Haweis' well-known work, "My Musical Memories." The interest it has
excited seems to justify its republication at this time in a separate
volume.
F. & W. Co.
Published, February, 1904

CONTENTS
PAGE

WAHNFRIED 5
PARSIFAL 10
ACT I 18
ACT II 41
ACT III 55
WHEN THE CURTAIN FELL 67
ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE Portrait of Richard Wagner Frontispiece
Parsifal and Gurnemanz Passing Through the Ravine (Act I) 30
The Great Hall of the Holy Grail (Act I) 36
Parsifal Entering the Grail Castle in Triumph (Act III) 62

WAHNFRIED
I visited Bayreuth on the 24th of July, 1883, and attended two crowded
performances of Wagner's last work, Parsifal. In the morning I went
into the beautiful gardens of the Neue Schloss. On either side of a lake,
upon which float a couple of swans and innumerable water-lilies, the
long parklike avenue of trees are vocal with wild doves, and the robin
is heard in the adjoining thickets. At my approach the sweet song
ceases abruptly, and the startled bird flies out, scattering the pale petals
of the wild roses upon my path. I follow a stream of people on foot, as
they move down the left-hand avenue in the garden of the Neue Schloss,
which adjoins Wagner's own grounds.
Some are going--some are coming. Presently I see an opening in the
bushes on my left; the path leads me to a clump of evergreens. I follow

it, and come suddenly on the great composer's grave. All about the
green square mound the trees are thick--laurel, fir, and yew. The shades
fall funereally across the immense gray granite slab; but over the dark
foliage the sky is bright blue, and straight in front of me, above the low
bushes, I can see the bow-windows of the dead master's study--where I
spent with him one delightful evening in 1876.
I can see, too, the jet of water that he loved playing high above the
hedge of evergreen. It lulls me with its sound. "Wahnfried!
Wahnfried!" it seems to murmur. It was the word written above the
master's house--the word he most loved--the word his tireless spirit
most believed in. How shall I render it? "Dream-life! dream-life!
Earth's illusion of joy!"
Great spirit! thy dream-life here is past, and, face to face with truth,
"rapt from the fickle and the frail," for thee the illusion has vanished!
Mayest thou also know the fulness of joy in the unbroken and serene
activities of the eternal Reality!
I visited the grave twice. There is nothing written on the granite slab.
There were never present less than twenty persons, and a constant
stream of pilgrims kept coming and going.
One gentle token of the master's pitiful and tender regard for the
faithful dumb animals he so loved lies but a few feet off in the same
garden, and not far from his own grave.
Upon a mossy bank, surrounded with evergreens, is a small marble slab,
with this inscription to his favorite dog:
"Here lies in peace 'Wahnfried's' faithful watcher and friend--the good
and beautiful Mark" (der gute, schöne Mark)!
I returned, too, to Wagner's tomb, plucked a branch of the fir-tree that
waved above it, and went back to my room to prepare myself by
reading and meditation for the great religious drama which I was to
witness at four o'clock in the afternoon--Wagner's latest and highest
inspiration--the story of the sacred brotherhood, the knights of San

Graal--Parsifal!

PARSIFAL
The blood of God!--mystic symbol of divine life--"for the blood is the
life thereof." That is the key-note of Parsifal, the Knight of the Sangrail.
Wine is the ready symbolical vehicle--the material link between