Bishop Orders His Tomb at St.

Praxeds Church
The poem Bishop Orders His Tomb at St.Praxeds Church was first published in
Hoods Magazine in 1845 with the name The Tomb at St. Praxeds. Later Bowning
changed the name and called it Bishop Orders His Tomb at St.Praxeds Church.
Browning does not tell us the Bishops name. He might have in mind the life of Cardinal
Ippolito d Este, the Younger who was a materialistic vain and extremely mean person.
Gandolf, mentioned as the arch rival in the poem is also fictitious. The Praxeds Church
might have been the Santa Prassede which Browning visited in 1844. Browning in
writing the poem might have been influenced also by Thomas Macaulays review of a
book of Leopold Ranke.

This dramatic monologue, one of Browning's most accomplished in the form, is notable
both for its command of voice and for its contemplation of matters religious,
psychological, and historical.
In the most obvious sense, the poem uses dramatic irony to criticize the hypocrisy of
materialism in religion. The bishop, presumably accomplished in his field considering
his great wealth, confronts the mystery of death, one of the primary reasons people seek
religion in the first place, and yet is concerned almost exclusively with how
magnificently adorned his tomb will be. The way he speaks to the younger men suggests
that he spent his life speaking from a place of unquestioned authority; he is self-
conscious to now give orders while no longer having such firm authority

Browning attacks virulently the Bishop in the poem and reveals relentlessly his meanness
of mind, selfishness, materialistic outlook, above all his hypocrisy. The Bishop is the
narrator of the poem and his words bring his ill traits of character to light.

The Bishop begins with a Biblical quotation

Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher
Vanity of Vanities! all is vanity

Then he addresses his sons as nephews. He particularly name one son, Anselm who is
perhaps his favourite. Next he refers to his dead wife whom he won against another
clergyman named Gandolf. Gandolf on the other hand won the southern corner for his
residence by defeating the Bishop. So they were arch rival to each other. His wife begot
him many sons. His lustfulness finds expression not only in his affair with this woman
but also in his prayer to St. Praxed for granting his sons mistresses with great smooth
marbly limbs besides horses and Greek manuscripts. The Bishop is lascivious to the
core and does not feel ashamed to see the address of huddling (privacy)

One pan
Ready to twitch the Nymphs last garment off

The Bishop allures his sons with these temptations and many other lucrative things
because he has a concealed desire. It is that his sons will erect his tomb after his death in
the St. Praxed Church. He tells them that he wanted the South corner of the church for
his tomb. But his rival Gondolf snatched it away from him. He was dead and now he lay
there. He orders his sons to build his tomb at such a place and in such a manner as will
enable him to look at his life-long enemy Gandolfs . The Bishop wants his tomb to be
built with basalt stone, with nine columns round him, two and two. He wants the vase to
be full of luscious grapes. He wants visors or masks of the helmet and a bust on a
pedestal. He reveals that he had stolen a precious Lapis Lazuli from a church and burnt
it to hide his crime. He buried the blue stone in the vineyard. He gives detailed
description of the place of hiding and methods of recovery. He wants this blue stone to
be placed between his knees so that Gandolf may burst of envy and disappointment. He
promises to give his sons the fashionable villas and he will pray to God for them. But if
they disobey his order he will not give them the villas. He says.

Else I give the Pope,
My villas

He wants his sons to write his epitaph in the language of Cicero i.e. in Latin. Bishop
discloses that he had deliberately written grandolfs epitaph in the Utopian language.
However the Bishop has some good sides too. He is a lover of the classics and Latin.
This is best expressed in the telling exemplum of the lynx tied to a tripod. The Bishop
has a clear idea of what he wants for his grave. As the poem draws to a close the candles
of his sons dwindle and the memory of their tall pale mother with her talking eyes
rekindles in the Bishops mind. It strikes a discordant tone in the flow of the Bishops
great ideas about his tomb. He discovers that his sons will not pay heed to his request
much less for his commands. He despairs. Now he does not hope that his tomb would be
build of anything other than mere sand stone. He is reconciled to his fate. He tells his
sons.

Well go I bless you

He remains in the church, the church for peace. He still expresses his desire to watch
Gandolf if he leers at him from his onion-stone. He thinks Gandolf still envies him,
because his wife was so fair.

Browning's command of voice allows much depth to come through dramatic irony. The
blank verse (in which the lines are iambic but unrhymed) creates a relatively inelegant
address, which is fitting for a man who compromises glory for the sake of material
business.