My Last Duchess
By Robert Browning
A Study Guide
Cummings Guides Home..|..Contact This Site
.
Setting and
Background
Characters
The Portrait: a
Fresco
Meter
Rhyme: Heroic
Couplets
Type of
Work
Summary of the
Story
Annotated Text of
the Poem
Setting and Background
The setting of "My Last Duchess," a highly acclaimed 1842 poem by
Robert Browning, is the palace of the Duke of Ferrara on a day in October
1564. Ferrara is in northern Italy, between Bologna and Padua, on a
branch of the Po River. The city was the seat of an important principality
ruled by the House of Este from 1208 to 1598. The Este family
constructed an imposing castle in Ferrara beginning in 1385 and, over the
years, made Ferrara an important center of arts and learning. Two
members of the family, Beatrice and Isabella, supported the work of such
painters as Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. In Browning’s poem, the
Duke of Ferrara is modeled after Alfonso II, the fifth and last duke of the
principality, who ruled Ferrara from 1559 to 1597 but in three marriages
fathered no heir to succeed him. The deceased
duchess in the poem was his first wife, Lucrezia de’
Medici, a daughter of Cosimo de’ Medici (1519-1574),
Duke of Florence from 1537 to 1574 and Grand Duke
of Tuscany from 1569 to 1574. Lucrezia died in 1561 at
age 17. In 1598, Ferrara became part of the Papal
States.
Characters
Speaker (or Narrator): The speaker is the Duke of Ferrara. Browning
appears to have modeled him after Alfonso II, who ruled Ferrara from
1559 to 1597. Alfonso was married three times but had no children. The
poem reveals him as a proud, possessive, and selfish man and a lover of
the arts. He regarded his late wife as a mere object who existed only to
please him and do his bidding. He likes the portrait of her (the subject of
his monologue) because, unlike the duchess when she was alive, it
reveals only her beauty and none of the qualities in her that annoyed the
duke when she was alive. Morever, he now has complete control of the
portrait as a pretty art object that he can show to visitors.
Duchess: The late wife of the duke. Browning appears to have modeled
her after Lucrezia de’ Medici, a daughter of Cosimo de’ Medici (1519-
1574), Duke of Florence from 1537 to 1574 and Grand Duke of Tuscany
from 1569 to 1574. The duke says the duchess enjoyed the company of
other men and implies that she was unfaithful. Whether his accusation is a
fabrication is uncertain. The duchess died under suspicious
circumstances on April 21, 1561, just two years after he married her. She
may have been poisoned.
Emissary of the Count of Tyrol: The emissary has no speaking role; he
simply listens as the Duke of Ferrara tells him about the late Duchess of
Ferrara and the fresco of her on the wall. Historically, the emissary is
identified with Nikolaus Madruz, of Innsbruck, Austria.
Count of Tyrol: The duke's of the duke's bride-to-be. The duke mentions
him in connection with a dowry the count is expected to provide.
Daughter of the Count of Tyrol. The duke's bride-to-be is the daughter
of the count but appears to be modeled historically on the count's niece,
Barbara.
Frà Pandolph: The duke mentions him as the artist who painted the
fresco. No one has identified a real-life counterpart on whom he was
based. He may have been a fictional creation of Browning. Frà was a title
of Italian friars of the Roman Catholic Church.
Claus of Innsbruck: The duke mentions him as the artist who created
"Neptune Taming a Sea-Horse." Like Pandolph, he may have been a
fictional creation.
The Portrait of the Duchess
The portrait of the late Duchess of Ferrara is a fresco, a type of work
painted in watercolors directly on a plaster wall. The portrait symbolizes
the duke's possessive and controlling nature inasmuch as the duchess
has become an art object which he owns and controls.
Meter
"My Last Duchess" is in iambic pentameter (10 syllables, or five feet, per
line with five pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables), as Lines 1 and 2
of the poem demonstrate.
That's MY..|..last DUCH..|..ess PAINT..|..ed ON..|..the WALL,
Look ING..|..as IF..|..she WERE..|..a ALIVE...|..I CALL
Rhyme: Heroic Couplets
Line 1 rhymes with Line 2, Line 3 with 4, Line 5 with 6, and so on. Pairs of
rhyming lines are called couplets. When the lines are written in iambic
pentameter, as are the lines of "My Last Duchess," the rhyming pairs are
called heroic couplets.
Theme
The theme is the arrogant, authoritarian mindset of a proud Renaissance
duke. In this respect, the more important portrait in the poem is the one
the duke "paints" of himself with his words.
Summary and Commentary
.......Upstairs at his palace in October of 1564, the Duke of Ferrara–a city
in northeast Italy on a branch of the Po River–shows a portrait of his late
wife, who died in 1561, to a representative of the Count of Tyrol, an
Austrian nobleman. The duke plans to marry the count’s daughter after he
negotiates for a handsome dowry from the count.
.......While discussing the portrait, the duke also discusses his relationship
with the late countess, revealing himself–wittingly or unwittingly–as a
domineering husband who regarded his beautiful wife as a mere object, a
possession whose sole mission was to please him. His comments are
sometimes straightforward and frank and sometimes subtle and
ambiguous. Several remarks hint that he may have murdered his wife, just
a teenager at the time of her death two years after she married him, but
the oblique and roundabout language in which he couches these remarks
falls short of an open confession.
.......The duke tells the Austrian emissary that he admires the portrait of
the duchess but was exasperated with his wife while she was alive, for
she devoted as much attention to trivialities–and other men–as she did to
him. He even implies that she had affairs. In response to these affairs, he
says, “I gave commands; / “Then all [of her] smiles stopped together.”
.......Does commands mean that he ordered someone to kill her?
.......Does it mean he reprimanded her?
.......Does it mean he ordered some other action?
.......The poem does not provide enough information to answer these
questions. Nor does it provide enough information to determine whether
the duke is lying about his wife or exaggerating her faults. Whatever the
case, research into her life has resulted in speculation that she was
poisoned. Browning himself says the duke either ordered her murder or
sent her off to a convent.
.......That the duke regarded his wife as a mere object, a possession, is
clear. For example, in Lines 2 and 3, while he and the emissary are
looking at the painting, he says, “I call that piece a wonder, now.” Piece
explicitly refers to the portrait but implicitly refers to the duchess when she
was alive. Now is a telling word in his statement: It reveals that the
duchess is a wonder in the portrait, because of the charming pose she
strikes, but implies that she was far less than a wonder when she was
alive.
.......Of course, the engaging pose the duchess strikes is not the only
reason the duke prizes the portrait. He prizes it also because the duchess
is under his full control as an image on the wall. She cannot play the
coquette; she cannot protest or disobey his commands; she cannot do
anything except smile out at the duke and to anyone else the duke allows
to view the portrait.
.......As the duke and the emissary turn to go downstairs, the duke points
out another art object–a bronze art object showing Neptune taming a sea
horse. The emissary might well have wondered whether the duke
regarded himself as Neptune and the sea horse as the duchess.
What the emissary plans to tell the count about the duke is open to
question. But in real life, the duke did marry the woman he discussed with
the emissary.
Type of Work: Poem as Dramatic Monologue
......."My Last Duchess" is a poem in the form of a dramatic monologue. A
dramatic monologue presents a moment in which the main character of
the poem discusses a topic and, in so doing, also reveals his personal
feelings to a listener. Only the main character, called the speaker, talks–
hence the term monologue, meaning single (mono) speaker who presents
spoken or written discourse (logue). During his discourse, the speaker
makes comments that reveal information about his personality and
psyche, knowingly or unknowingly. The main focus of a dramatic
monologue is this personal information, not the topic which the speaker
happens to be discussing.
.
.
My Last Duchess
By Robert Browning
Published in 1842 in Dramatic Lyrics
.
Text of the Poem
Annotations
That's my last Duchess painted on the painted on the wall: fresco, a
wall,
painting executed on wet plaster
I . . . now: He refers not only to
Looking as if she were alive. I call
the painting but also to his wife
as she
was in life, a mere object (that
That piece a wonder, now: Frà
piece). Now indicates he regards
Pandolf's hands
his
wife as a wonder in the painting
Worked busily a day, and there she
but something less when she
stands.
lived.
Will't please you sit and look at her? I you: emissary from the Count of
said.............................5
Tyrol
"Frà Pandolf" by design: for never
Frà Pandolf: the painter; by
design: on purpose
read
countenance: face. The duke
Strangers like you that pictured
likes the painting, but he later
countenance,
reveals
The depth and passion of its earnest
that he did not like the countess
glance,
herself.
But to myself they turned (since none none . . . curtain: no one opens
puts by
the curtain except me
but I: forgivable grammatical
The curtain I have drawn for you, but
error. The pronoun should be
I)................................10
me, not I,
And seemed as they would ask me, if but I rhymes with by (previous
they durst,
line). durst: archaic form of dare
How such a glance came there; so,
such a glance: the painting
not the first
really flatters her
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 'twas
not
spot of joy: Enjambment, in
Her husband's presence only, called
which the sense of one line of
that spot
verse
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek:
carries over to the next line
perhaps...............................15
without a pause
Frà Pandolf chanced to say "Her
mantle: cloak or cape
mantle laps
Over my lady's wrist too much," or
"Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the
faint
Half-flush that dies along her
throat:" such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause
enough.......................20
Lines 21-30: The duchess
For calling up that spot of joy. She had annoyed the duke because she
was
just as pleased with a sunset,
A heart–how shall I say?–too soon
some cherries, or a ride on a
made glad,
mule as
Too easily impressed; she liked
she was with him.
whate'er
She looked on, and her looks went
everywhere.
Sir, 'twas all one! My favour at her
breast,...............................25
The dropping of the daylight in the
West,
dd, ff: examples of alliteration
The bough of cherries some officious bough . . . her: apparently a
double-entendre, the second
fool
meaning a
Broke in the orchard for her, the
sexual one.
white mule
She rode with round the terrace–all
and each
Would draw from her alike the
approving speech,.....................30
Or blush, at least. She thanked men,–
good! but thanked
Somehow–I know not how–as if she
ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old My . . . name: The duke comes
name
from an old aristocratic family
With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to
named Este.
blame
This sort of trifling? Even had you skill
In speech–(which I have not)–to make
your will
Quite clear to such an one, and say,
"Just this
Or that in you disgusts me; here you
miss,
Or there exceed the mark"–and if she
let
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made
forsooth: in truth (archaic)
excuse,
E'en then would be some stooping:
and I choose
Oh . . .grew: The Duchess
Never to stoop. Oh, sir, she smiled,
smiled at all men and, according
no doubt,
to the
Whene'er I passed her; but who
duke, did more than smile at
passed without
some men.
I gave . . .together: He
Much the same smile? This grew; I
reprimanded her. Then she
gave commands;
ceased her
flirtation and ceased living. A key
Then all smiles stopped together.
question here is this: Did the
There she stands
duke
As if alive. Will't please you rise? We'll
murder her?
meet
The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count your master's known
munificence
munificence:great generosity
warrant:guarantee; no just . . .
disallowed: The duke will
demand
Of mine for dowry will be
a considerable dowry from the
disallowed;
count.
Though his fair daughter's self, as I
daughter: In real life, she was
avowed
the count's niece.
At starting, is my object. Nay, we'll go my object: The duke again
Is ample warrant that no just
pretence
refers to a woman as an object.
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune,
Neptune:god the sea in Roman
though,
mythology
Taming a sea-horse: To the
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity, duke, the sea horse is a symbol
of the
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in
women.
bronze for me!
Now Available...............................Shakespeare:
aG