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.