27 June 2006
“He who sits in the heavens will laugh. The Lord will have them in derision.” Psalms 2:4
This Bishop in Browning’s poem “The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed Church” (Browning 2031) is a ridiculous character that expels both typed pious and zealous men the Church. Browning reveals the Bishop’s contrary guise when he changes his tone in line 15. From immaterial matters, the Bishop adopts a different persona when he talks about the material world. As the change in tone reveals, the Bishop’s character is bifurcated when he moves from Godly things to earthly matters suggesting his imperfect yet vital humanity.
His speech heightened by iambic pentameter suggests that he pains to compose a perfect articulation of his requests. The ninth line begins “And thence ye may perceive the world’s a dream” and he proceeds to question life. In spite of his vocation, the Bishop’s intelligence leads him to ponder the unknowable nature of existence. His language in lines nine through 13 is saturated with long vowels as light as clear yet immaterial air, which suspends the light of God. Through said diction, the Bishop soundly projects the tranquil voice of a preacher while layering redemptive human questions of existence.
More interesting does this story become, starting with line 14. Saint Praxed’s Church exists in honor of a woman’s charity. Our Bishop reminds the reader of this fact to prelude the story of his tomb. He continues speaking with vulgarity about his efforts to reserve a prized spot where his body will eternally lay. A reverie for an esteemed position on earth when, by vocation, this man has reserved a favorable spot in heaven: this is a striking depart from the iconic Bishop. Line 15 intercepts his reserve for existence because he reminds the speech that the tomb was the award for his justly fights. His tomb, inside the church of peace (line 14), is the symbol for bifurcated character of the Bishop. At once, the tomb is a material shell that envelops the Bishop’s shell eternally once God reclaims his spirit; however, honest about the vanity of the material world when compared with the afterlife, the Bishop takes on unrefined diction to speak of the tomb. The Bishop’s honesty is justified by his vocation. He has made peace with God and, “With tooth and nail to save my niche,” he absolves making peace on earth.
The complexity of the Bishops contradictory halves echoes his humanity. His unrefined language suspended in iambic pentameter, suggests a conscious separation between God and man. The name God is the futile representation man gives to the metaphysical power that precedes him. Man is separate from god because he made of flesh, which dies; however, man secures immortally by creating art that in turn creates his undying reputation as artist. Browning immortalizes his Bishop when endowing him with a story within the body of poetry, crystallizing both the physical body with the spirit. By weaving vulgar language through poetic diction, the Bishop’s humanity is achieved.
This Bishop is startling and ridiculous but a careful eye will understand his morality. The Bishop acknowledges that Gandolf cheated him when he imposed on our Bishop’s reserved eternal niche. At least ridiculous, the Bishop speaks about his competitor suggesting haste. However, the iambic pentameter requires Browning’s dutiful embellishment to the Bishop’s character. “Shrewd was that snatch from the corner south—He graces his carrion with;” as much as such language strikes readers as sign posts for ridicule, the Bishop is wise enough to use unrefined language appropriate to the vain business of Earth.
His tomb is cramped by the “carrion” of his colleague but at least it can be seen as church visitors approach to read the Epistles. The Bishop reserves a plot where he can forever be associated with sacred texts. This amusing but honest expostulation is a component of the Bishop’s fight to obtain peace on earth. He willingly embodies his acknowledgement of human vanity and secures comfort by struggling with pragmatic business. That which imposes his goal is grounded with fleshly words because it is a matter on the level of his own desires. Browning organizes the Bishop’s existence appropriately by creating iconic perfection through ordered humanity. The Bishop’s story is weaved with contradicting human imperfection that materializes his character.
The sacred language of the New Testament is appropriately paired with the Bishops legacy. The language is immortal but the Bishop represents the imperfect mortal. By juxtaposing these two metaphors, Browning unifies both Earth and sky. He paints the sacred form of divine texts with the colorful Bishop resulting in perfect marriage of the two. He also combines the opposing personas of the Bishops in such a way that conflict is realigned to form humanity. The Bishop is virtuous because cares about life so much that he makes this passion immortal. His death becomes an art for him as he hopes to inspire visitors with a virtuous story through his elaborate tomb. He must secure this rich plot to have agency in the story told of his life once he is no longer alive to tell it. This is obvious as he ridicules Old Gandolf. He acknowledges that the living choose to tell any story of the dead with little consequence. The Bishop is wise enough to control his immortal story while God has granted him capable. He may appear comic to consumers of his story who are startled by cunning crudeness but, like the laughing heavens, the Bishop ridicules Gandolf and any mortal who dares to ignore their vulnerable reputation.
A man that asks for ridicule with his conflicting tone within lines 9 through 21, is exactly redemptive example of the Bishop’s humanity. Browning has successfully both explored and exploded stereotypes of churchly men with his Bishop at Saint Praxed’s church. Familiar to the collective conscious is the pious figure of Christianity. The Bishop is excluded from such a despised convention because he is self-consciously artificial, thus admirable. Such hypocrisy is certainly here but portrayed by Browning’s Bishop in a way that readers and the Bishop can mutually delight in ridicule thus grounding himself in humanity. Religious zeal is also weaved into the atmosphere of the Bishop’s speech because of its poetic form and his refined diction with regards to spiritual topics. The zealous specter of churchly figures is both created with the artifice of poetic diction and destroyed by the Bishop’s character as it champions grotesque language when packaging the topic of human vanity. Browning’s Bishop is at once an aerial man of God but speaks with the pulsing language that acknowledges human experience because, “dying by degrees,” the Bishop is not dead but the eternally vital character in this poem.
Browning, Robert. “The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed’s Church.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M. H. Abrams. 7th Ed. W.W. New York: Norton, 2001. 2030-2033.
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