For unknown reasons, the self-righteous narrator monk really has it in for Brother Lawrence. In one part, he muses about getting him to sin just before he dies, so that he’ll be sent straight to Hell.
I counted 17 damnations in Galatians in verses 5:19-5:21. Are the other 12 just scattered about? Did Browning miscount? Is the narrator mistakenly numerating them, showing that he’s not so big a Biblical scholar as he thinks he is?
I’m certainly not going to read the Bible for anyone; but I doubt if the narrator is self-righteous particularly — merely that the enforced proximity in communal living has driven him over the edge to the point he concentrates his mislike on a person ( possibly annoyingly sheeplike — or possibly abrasive: the faults scarcely matter ) with whom he has to share space over time.
It even happens in families.
The Notes & Comments link at the bottom of the linked poem page mentions that “Browning had in mind not a text in “Galatians” but another in Deuteronomy (xxviii, 15-45), but elected not to correct his error.” Dunno the provenance of that.
Fun little poem though, isn’t it?
It scans better. “Damnations” rhymes with “Galatians” but not “Deuteronomy.”
Definitely. Seems like he could have adjusted the number to match, though, 17 would have still worked nicely.
In the 19th century people formed Browning social gatherings to regularly read selections from the Master. And discuss.
Those must have been fun occasions.