Venus.
Save me, my knight
!
To thy sufficing arms
I cHng in this distress of womanhood
!
Tannhauser.
Kiss me the last time.
Venus.
Whom have
I but thee,
Thee in the ages
?
Barren were my bhss
And shorn my Godhead of eternal joy,
Barred from thy kiss.
Tannhauser.
Call not thyself again
Goddess.
I saw thee in the Presence there.
The scales
are fallen, and mine eyes see clear.
Venus.
Then you would leave me ?
Serpent if I were,
My coils should press
in dolorous delight
Thy straining bosom,
and my kiss were death !
Death
!
Dost
thou
live, Tannhauser
.''
Sayest
thou
still
:
" None but the dead
can know the worth of love
!
"
?
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