The Cardinal and the Dog by Robert Browning
After writing letters to the Pope late into the night at Trent, Crescenzio rises to refresh himself and sees a monstrous black dog enter his chamber; his servants cannot find it. He becomes melancholy, falls sick, and dies, crying out on his deathbed at Verona to have the dog driven away. The narrator attributes the account to another writer and closes by praying for Protestants’ safety and wishing others no harm.
By Robert Browning · Genre: Narrative Poetry, Supernatural · 225 words
First lines
Crescenzio, the Pope's Legate at the High Council, Trent, / -- Year Fifteen hundred twenty-two, March Twenty-five -- intent / On writing letters to the Pope till late into the night, / Rose, weary, to refresh himself, and saw a monstrous sight: / (I give mine Author's very words: he penned, I reindite.)
A black Dog of vast bigness, eyes flaming, ears that hung / Down to the very ground almost, into the chamber sprung / And made directly for him, and laid himself right under / The table where Crescenzio wrote -- who called in fear and wonder / His servants in the ante-room, commanded every one / To look for and find out the beast: but, looking, they found none.
Genres
- Narrative Poetry — Three rhymed stanzas recount Crescenzio’s encounter with a monstrous dog, his illness, and his deathbed cries.
- Supernatural — The enormous dog has flaming eyes, cannot be found by the servants, and appears again to the dying Cardinal.
Tags
apparitions · dogs · cardinals · deathbed visions · Protestantism
What this Textopian page supports
The Cardinal and the Dog 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, Supernatural
- Length: 225 words
- Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for The Cardinal and the Dog by Robert Browning
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph