Red Cotton Night-Cap Country; or, Turf and Tower
On a Normandy walk, a narrator recounts goldsmith Léonce Miranda’s enduring relationship with Lucie Muhlhausen, a married woman called Clara. Léonce burns his hands in religious self-punishment after his mother’s death, reunites with Clara, and later dies leaping from his tower; the narrator reconstructs the leap as an attempt to obtain miraculous transport to a shrine. His cousins contest his will, but the court upholds Clara’s lifetime use of Clairvaux and the Church’s subsequent inheritance.
By Robert Browning · Genre: Narrative Poetry, Psychological Literature, Religious Criticism · 4 chapters · 49,852 words
First lines
Or
Turf and Towers
Genres
- Narrative Poetry — An extended verse address to a walking companion recounts Miranda’s relationship, self-inflicted injuries, death and contested will.
- Psychological Literature — The narrator reconstructs Miranda’s divided loyalties to Clara and religious authority, including his imagined reasoning before the fatal leap.
- Religious Criticism — The narrator challenges clergy who accept Miranda’s gifts while leaving his conflict unresolved and questions the shrine’s claims of miraculous healing.
Tags
goldsmiths · illicit relationships · religious guilt · self-mutilation · miracles · inheritance disputes · Normandy · narrative poetry
What this Textopian page supports
Red Cotton Night-Cap Country; or, Turf and Towers is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Browning, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Browning
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Narrative Poetry, Psychological Literature, Religious Criticism
- Length: 49,852 words
- Structure: 4 chapters, 179 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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