How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
[…] Put me where I may look at him! True peach,
Rosy and flawless: how I earned the prize! (32-33)
It's interesting to hear the bishop say that he earned all these tricked-out details for his tomb, yet we never hear anything about what he might actually have done to earn them. We wonder if this might just be another exaggeration.
Quote #2
Some lump, ah God, of lapis lazuli,
Big as a Jew's head cut off at the nape,
Blue as a vein o'er the Madonna's breast (42-44)
These are some pretty telling similes. Not only does the bishop manage to offend Jews and Christians in two short lines, but he also shows us how greed can bring out the worst in people. It's no accident that he's describing a huge chunk of precious stone here.
Quote #3
So, let the blue lump poise between my knees,
Like God the Father's globe on both his hands (47-48)
There's another kind of greed that's plaguing our bishop: the greed for notoriety. Who else but a raving egomaniac would want to be portrayed like God Himself? That's a bit over the line, pal.
Quote #4
[…] Ah, ye hope
To revel down my villas while I gasp
Bricked o'er with beggar's mouldy travertine
Which Gandolf from his tomb-top chuckles at!
Nay, boys, ye love me—all of jasper, then!
'Tis jasper ye stand pledged to, lest I grieve. (64-69)
Greed infects everything in the bishop's life, including his relationship with his sons. He appeals to their own greed ("You do want my villas, don't you?") in order to get the jasper stone that he wants for himself. It's like some big seven-layer dip of greediness is at work here—yuck.
Quote #5
And have I not Saint Praxed's ear to pray
Horses for ye, and brown Greek manuscripts,
And mistresses with great smooth marbly limbs?
—That's if ye carve my epitaph aright, (73-76)
Yet again, the bishop appeals to his sons' greed, only this time he plans to use his religious authority to arrange a hook-up from Saint Praxed. Now, we don't know too many saints (or bishops), but we're pretty sure it doesn't work that way.