How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
VANITY, saith the preacher, vanity! (1)
This opening quote from the Bible (Ecclesiastes 1.2 to be exact) is what you might call in the literary biz…ironic. It warns us to reject self-centeredness and vanity, and yet the next 124 lines are all about precisely those very same things.
Quote #2
What's done is done, and she is dead beside,
Dead long ago, and I am Bishop since, (6-7)
Early in the poem, we're clued in that we may not be dealing with a conventional bishop. He wasn't always a priest, as it turns out, and his dead mistress (or wife) is proof of that—not to mention the gaggle of sons he has standing around him while he's on his deathbed.
Quote #3
Yet still my niche is not so cramped but thence
One sees the pulpit o' the epistle-side,
And somewhat of the choir, those silent seats,
And up into the very dome where live
The angels, and a sunbeam's sure to lurk: (20-24)
Does the bishop have any religious convictions? It does seem that he's happy to have a good view from his tomb of the pulpit and the angels. Maybe he's just a bit misguided by his own interpersonal rivalry with Gandolf.
Quote #4
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)
For a Catholic bishop, these are some pretty tone-deaf similes. They make the bishop seem crude and unreligious, in particular his pursuit of personal wealth and decoration.
Quote #5
So, let the blue lump poise between my knees,
Like God the Father's globe on both his hands
Ye worship in the Jesu Church so gay,
For Gandolf shall not choose but see and burst! (47-50)
Yeah, we haven't heard of too many church figures comparing themselves to God before, much less wanting to be depicted as God after they die. This bishop seems to have traded his religion in for belief in his own ego.
Quote #6
Those Pans and Nymphs ye wot of, and perchance
Some tripod, thyrsus, with a vase or so,
The Saviour at his sermon on the mount,
Saint Praxed in a glory, and one Pan
Ready to twitch the Nymph's last garment off,
And Moses with the tables (57-62)
The bishop's vision for his tomb here is a wild mix of Catholic religion and Greek mythology. Still, he doesn't seem to see any problem mixing his theology with the polytheism of the Greeks. Is that because he wants his tomb to look worldly and sophisticated? Or is he equally accepting of (or indifferent toward) all religions?
Quote #7
And have I not Saint Praxed's ear to pray
Horses for ye, and brown Greek manuscripts,
And mistresses with great smooth marbly limbs? (73-75)
Apparently our bishop sees his religious authority as a request line to the saints. Prayers tend to be (at least in theory) for gifts of a more spiritual nature than, you know, horses, books, and hot chicks. That's not the case here, though.
Quote #8
And this life too, popes, cardinals and priests,
Saint Praxed at his sermon on the mount, (94-95)
Thank you for playing, bishop, but it was Jesus who gave us the sermon on the mount. Also, Saint Praxed was a she. So we'll have to give you a giant red X for that comment and hand you this set of steak knives as a parting gift. Is the bishop's frail medical state responsible for this slip up? Or is he just that out of touch, religion-wise?
Quote #9
Evil and brief hath been my pilgrimage. (101)
This one line sums things up nicely for us. It's the only time that the bishop seems to reflect on his life and work, and, well, he finds it lacking. His choice of metaphor here is particularly striking, as a pilgrimage is a personal journey undertaken for religious reasons. The bishop seems to realize that he's failed big-time in that regard.