54. Antique-black: Nero antico. Browning gives the English
equivalent for the name of this stone.
58. Tripod: the seat with three feet on which the priestess of
Apollo sat to prophesy, an emblem of the Delphic oracle.
Thyrsus: the ivy-coiled staffer spear stuck in a pine-cone, symbol
of Bacchic orgy. These, with the other Pagan tokens and pictures,
mingle oddly but significantly with the references to the Saviour,
Saint Praxed, and Moses. See also line 92, where Saint Praxed is
confused with the Saviour, in the mind of the dying priest. Saint
Praxed, the virgin daughter of a Roman Senator and friend of Saint
Paul, in whose honor the Bishop's Church is named, is again brought
forward in lines 73-75 in a queer capacity which pointedly
illustrates the speaker and his time.