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My Last Duchess
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"My Last Duchess" is a poem, frequently anthologised as an example of the dramatic monologue. It first appeared in 1842 in Browning's Dramatic Lyrics. The poem is written in 28 rhymed couplets of iambic pentameter. The poem is set during the late Italian Renaissance. The speaker (presumably the Duke of Ferrara) is giving the emissary of the family of his prospective new wife (presumably a third or fourth since Browning could have easily written 'second' but did not do so) a tour of the artworks in his home. He draws a curtain to reveal a painting of a woman, explaining that it is a portrait of his late wife; he invites his guest to sit and look at the painting.
Robert Browning (1812 - 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, and in particular the dramatic monologue, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets. His poems are known for their irony, characterization, dark humor, social commentary, historical settings, and challenging vocabulary and syntax. The speakers in his poems are often musicians or painters whose work functions as a metaphor for poetry.
"My Last Duchess" is a poem, frequently anthologised as an example of the dramatic monologue. It first appeared in 1842 in Browning's Dramatic Lyrics. The poem is written in 28 rhymed couplets of iambic pentameter. The poem is set during the late Italian Renaissance. The speaker (presumably the Duke of Ferrara) is giving the emissary of the family of his prospective new wife (presumably a third or fourth since Browning could have easily written 'second' but did not do so) a tour of the artworks in his home. He draws a curtain to reveal a painting of a woman, explaining that it is a portrait of his late wife; he invites his guest to sit and look at the painting.
Robert Browning (1812 - 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, and in particular the dramatic monologue, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets. His poems are known for their irony, characterization, dark humor, social commentary, historical settings, and challenging vocabulary and syntax. The speakers in his poems are often musicians or painters whose work functions as a metaphor for poetry.
4 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1969
About the author
Robert Browning
2,152 books417 followersRobert Browning (1812-1889) was a British poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.
Browning began writing poetry at age 13. These poems were eventually collected, but were later destroyed by Browning himself. In 1833, Browning's "Pauline" was published and received a cool reception. Harold Bloom believes that John Stuart Mill's review of the poem pointed Browning in the direction of the dramatic monologue.
In 1845, Browning wrote a letter to the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, professing that he loved her poetry and her. In 1846, the couple eloped to Europe, eventually settling in Florence in 1847. They had a son Pen.
Upon Elizabeth Barrett Browning's death in 1861, Browning returned to London with his son. While in London, he published Dramatis Personae (1864) and The Ring and the Book (1869), both of which gained him critical priase and respect. His last book Asolando was published in 1889 when the poet was 77.
In 1889, Browning traveled to Italy to visit friends. He died in Venice on December 12 while visiting his sister.
Browning began writing poetry at age 13. These poems were eventually collected, but were later destroyed by Browning himself. In 1833, Browning's "Pauline" was published and received a cool reception. Harold Bloom believes that John Stuart Mill's review of the poem pointed Browning in the direction of the dramatic monologue.
In 1845, Browning wrote a letter to the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, professing that he loved her poetry and her. In 1846, the couple eloped to Europe, eventually settling in Florence in 1847. They had a son Pen.
Upon Elizabeth Barrett Browning's death in 1861, Browning returned to London with his son. While in London, he published Dramatis Personae (1864) and The Ring and the Book (1869), both of which gained him critical priase and respect. His last book Asolando was published in 1889 when the poet was 77.
In 1889, Browning traveled to Italy to visit friends. He died in Venice on December 12 while visiting his sister.
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November 30, 2022
An exemplary dramatic monologue set in “Ferrara”, the capital of a province in Italy that was famous for its high culture during the Renaissance.
Two main characters (speaker and listener) involved in the poem are – the main character, speaker, Duke Alfonso II of Ferrara, and the other person listening to him is the envoy (marriage agent) sent by the Count of another place called Tyrol.
The duke is talking about a painting on the wall while preparing to meet Tyrol, the father of the new proposed girl (he had murdered his previous wife, the duchess, the reasons of which are exposed in this poem)
The poem is an exposition of oppression, pride, jealousy, corruption, possessiveness, murder, and avarice for dowry!
The poem uncovers the wide gap between the high culture and the obnoxious low personal behavior of the upper ruling class of Renaissance Italy.
Robert Browning exhibits the true character of the duke and satirizes/mocks the culture through him.
The poem is fabricated as a monologue, revealing the true character of the duke who is having small talk with a visitor, and the readers get to explore the real story behind all his boasting and bragging!
The duke starts by talking about the painting of his previous wife, the duchess, claiming it to be a painting done by the famous Italian painter brother Pandolf (a fictional entity). He depicts an intimacy with the painter(name-dropping) by using the word ‘fra’/’brother’ , being snobbish, while giving readers an impression that he is a connoisseur of art, an aesthete-
“the depth and passion in the earnest glance… reproduce the faint half-flush that fades along the throat…”
Subsequently, he serves his egotism by claiming that he is a powerful man and that no one has dared to ask him about the red spot on the cheek of the duchess. It clearly shows his power and control!
He is controlling, diabolical, evil-minded, jealous, and cynical, assuming if his wife looks at or smiles at visitors or any other male, it is out of her sensual excitement (how gross and mean!)
“She had a heart -- how shall I say? -- too soon made glad, Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er She looked on, and her looks went everywhere”
He wants his wife to be more discriminating and discerning and wants only his presence to make her happy!
He goes on crowing about his “nine hundred years old name” while complaining that the duchess did not give special regard to the heritage, he offered her! He presumes his heritage to be the most invaluable gift to her.
The duke is a shameless tyrant who cannot think of anything positive about his wife. Though, we readers never find any hint that the duchess was morally guilty of all the accusations made against her!
He is an emblematic of tyranny and the diabolical male chauvinism not only in Renaissance Italy but in all societies of all times and places!☹
Finally, at the climax, the duke reveals that he had killed his previous wife, the duchess painted on the wall.
He says that he did not want to bend low before her, asking her not to smile at other people, not get impressed by ordinary people and things, should not blush and should behave in the proper ways to “demonstrate” the great name of her husband’s heritage!
Then he claims, that he “gave orders” to stop all her smiles together, giving orders to kill her.
The duke represents a plethora of all ghoulish qualities, the misuse of power, and extreme oppression. There are also some dramatic actions in the poem, in the beginning, the duke tells the other man to sit down and look at the picture. Towards the end of the poem, he tells him to stand up: “Will it please you rise?”
As the duke is saying all the nasty things about his own wife, the other man seems to try to leave the place! But the duke tells him to wait: “Nay, we’ll go down together, sir” . He is making the man wait just to give us another piece of boasting! He points to a statue and tells his guest that it is his own statue in the form of God Neptune training the sea horse, symbolizing his demand for a wife like a “trained” horse. The poem ends with the duke still talking about himself as a great man and a lover of art.
Why the duke had to reveal the past when he is going onto meeting a new duchess? It is just a threat, a warning, that if the new duchess doesn’t turn out to be tamed, then she will have to bear the same consequences as the previous duchess did!
I shower 3-stars on this poem of possessiveness and tyranny! I liked Browning’s painting of the psychological feat over the technical feat, so rendered 3 stars!
Two main characters (speaker and listener) involved in the poem are – the main character, speaker, Duke Alfonso II of Ferrara, and the other person listening to him is the envoy (marriage agent) sent by the Count of another place called Tyrol.
The duke is talking about a painting on the wall while preparing to meet Tyrol, the father of the new proposed girl (he had murdered his previous wife, the duchess, the reasons of which are exposed in this poem)
The poem is an exposition of oppression, pride, jealousy, corruption, possessiveness, murder, and avarice for dowry!
The poem uncovers the wide gap between the high culture and the obnoxious low personal behavior of the upper ruling class of Renaissance Italy.
Robert Browning exhibits the true character of the duke and satirizes/mocks the culture through him.
The poem is fabricated as a monologue, revealing the true character of the duke who is having small talk with a visitor, and the readers get to explore the real story behind all his boasting and bragging!
The duke starts by talking about the painting of his previous wife, the duchess, claiming it to be a painting done by the famous Italian painter brother Pandolf (a fictional entity). He depicts an intimacy with the painter(name-dropping) by using the word ‘fra’/’brother’ , being snobbish, while giving readers an impression that he is a connoisseur of art, an aesthete-
“the depth and passion in the earnest glance… reproduce the faint half-flush that fades along the throat…”
Subsequently, he serves his egotism by claiming that he is a powerful man and that no one has dared to ask him about the red spot on the cheek of the duchess. It clearly shows his power and control!
He is controlling, diabolical, evil-minded, jealous, and cynical, assuming if his wife looks at or smiles at visitors or any other male, it is out of her sensual excitement (how gross and mean!)
“She had a heart -- how shall I say? -- too soon made glad, Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er She looked on, and her looks went everywhere”
He wants his wife to be more discriminating and discerning and wants only his presence to make her happy!
He goes on crowing about his “nine hundred years old name” while complaining that the duchess did not give special regard to the heritage, he offered her! He presumes his heritage to be the most invaluable gift to her.
The duke is a shameless tyrant who cannot think of anything positive about his wife. Though, we readers never find any hint that the duchess was morally guilty of all the accusations made against her!
He is an emblematic of tyranny and the diabolical male chauvinism not only in Renaissance Italy but in all societies of all times and places!☹
Finally, at the climax, the duke reveals that he had killed his previous wife, the duchess painted on the wall.
He says that he did not want to bend low before her, asking her not to smile at other people, not get impressed by ordinary people and things, should not blush and should behave in the proper ways to “demonstrate” the great name of her husband’s heritage!
Then he claims, that he “gave orders” to stop all her smiles together, giving orders to kill her.
The duke represents a plethora of all ghoulish qualities, the misuse of power, and extreme oppression. There are also some dramatic actions in the poem, in the beginning, the duke tells the other man to sit down and look at the picture. Towards the end of the poem, he tells him to stand up: “Will it please you rise?”
As the duke is saying all the nasty things about his own wife, the other man seems to try to leave the place! But the duke tells him to wait: “Nay, we’ll go down together, sir” . He is making the man wait just to give us another piece of boasting! He points to a statue and tells his guest that it is his own statue in the form of God Neptune training the sea horse, symbolizing his demand for a wife like a “trained” horse. The poem ends with the duke still talking about himself as a great man and a lover of art.
Why the duke had to reveal the past when he is going onto meeting a new duchess? It is just a threat, a warning, that if the new duchess doesn’t turn out to be tamed, then she will have to bear the same consequences as the previous duchess did!
I shower 3-stars on this poem of possessiveness and tyranny! I liked Browning’s painting of the psychological feat over the technical feat, so rendered 3 stars!
September 15, 2022
The enchanting monologue of a Duke
The Duchess; She was a woman who was too easily impressed by things. She liked everything she looked at and she looked at everything. This did not at all appeal to her husband. Her Husband, The Duke of Ferrara, is talking to his guest; delivering a long, conversable monologue, in other words.
The Duchess is lightheaded, he says. she is passionate about everything, he says. Everything excites her soft, temperate heart and not being able to bear this extreme, The Duke goes mad. he gives commands.
Now this poem, written by Robert Browning during the Victorian era of England in 1842, is not written from his own point of view but that of a fictional character. This is quite challenging and also, represents the ability and power which lies in the writer’s hands. Just the way Tolstoy does a magnificent, admirable job at depicting the perspective of a woman in “Anna Karenina”, Browning also succeeds in speaking on behalf of an Italian Renaissance Duke; which led to another point that this character was allowed to come alive through the use of first-person narration.
The focus of this poem is not on what is proceeded between the wife and the husband, but on the husband -the Duke- himself; his personality, his authority and his controlling manners. We can only acquaint him by what he says and leaves unsaid. He wants us to know what he lets us to -controlling us in this way- and this, is an act of power. But there are proofs that the Duke is not as powerful as he declares to be. His personality and attitude change during the poem. When we reach the final line, the Duke is not the same person as in the beginning line. What I mean is at first, we are facing a rather educated, polite gentleman who offers his guest to sit and look at his beautiful painting of a Duchess. But throughout, there is a jealous, possessive, proud and arrogant man against us, not choosing the right words to express and yet, being so precise.
The last few lines and certainly some specific phrases catch the eye and evoke some intense feelings like confusion, horror and perplexity. I gave commands. This short sentence uttered in the coldest way, totes the whole burden of the plot. Even not knowing that Mister Browning himself had confirmed this theory, it is indeed pretty obvious that the command was to have the Duchess killed. The line ‘and then all smiles stopped together. There she stands As if alive’ is a sticking seal to this argument and by that means, a wife had been killed by a cold-blooded husband; the same husband that appreciates his object of art more than his alive wife. It is not explicitly written how the Duke killed his wife, thus, the ambiguity draws readers in.
Nevertheless, it is obvious that the Duke is a jealous person; jealous of everything that impresses her and makes the Duchess happy. He envies the sunset, some cherries given to her by an admirer, or riding a horse. He also is disappointed by the way she looks at everyone else, the same way she looks at her husband. He thinks that she should be grateful to him for giving her his name -his nine-hundred-year-old name- and that she had been flirtatious with other men. She thanked men, and this amount of intimacy with others was enough to drive the man to madness. But the point is that she, the Duchess, doesn’t seem flirty or siren at all. So then we realize that besides being jealous, he is insanely possessive. The personal pronouns ‘my’ and ‘I’ can be seen throughout the poem (my Duchess, my gift, I gave commands, I choose, I repeat, etc.) So this suggests the Duke is self-obsessed, and also that he believes his wife belongs to him. So he’s not only possessive, but he sees the duchess herself as one of his objects that he owns. But does he stop there, fulfilling his extent? The answer is no. As we can see, there are questions asked from the guest by the Duke such as ‘Will’t please you sit?’ and ‘Will’t please you rise?’ These are not really questions at all. They are demands. The Duke has the full superiority —towards us, the readers, the outsiders and the people in his mansion.
It’s almost near the end of the poem that we learn the Duke is talking to the envoy of a Count. He seems to be there in order to arrange a marriage between the Duke and the new duchess.
And finally, at the end of the poem, there’s a piece of artwork which is talked about, the Clause of Innsbruck statue of Neptune taking a seahorse. Neptune was the Roman god of the sea, best known as being a masculine, broad-shouldered, domineering god. And here he is in the sea taming a wild creature. We can read this as a metaphor for the Duke himself and what he feels his role is over women —to domineer and control. This leads to some points in context. Although ‘My Last Duchess’ is set in the Italian Renaissance between the 14th and 16th centuries, it was written and published during the Victorian era in 1842. At the time the poem was written, when a woman married she became the legal property of her husband. A wife’s role was seen as the angel of the house who existed to serve and entertain her husband. In this light, it is possible to read this poem as a criticism of Victorian attitudes to women. It can be argued that Duke’s obsession with fixing the behaviour of his wife links to Victorian society’s obsession with the reputation of women being perfect. When the Duke’s wife didn’t act as he wanted her to, this undermined his status as powerful and controlling. The fact that we never hear the wife’s side of the story illustrates this point clearly. Women being silenced and deprived of such human rights and not being seen and appreciated as important reflects what society and male dominance and male power towards women were like at the time.
The Duchess; She was a woman who was too easily impressed by things. She liked everything she looked at and she looked at everything. This did not at all appeal to her husband. Her Husband, The Duke of Ferrara, is talking to his guest; delivering a long, conversable monologue, in other words.
The Duchess is lightheaded, he says. she is passionate about everything, he says. Everything excites her soft, temperate heart and not being able to bear this extreme, The Duke goes mad. he gives commands.
Now this poem, written by Robert Browning during the Victorian era of England in 1842, is not written from his own point of view but that of a fictional character. This is quite challenging and also, represents the ability and power which lies in the writer’s hands. Just the way Tolstoy does a magnificent, admirable job at depicting the perspective of a woman in “Anna Karenina”, Browning also succeeds in speaking on behalf of an Italian Renaissance Duke; which led to another point that this character was allowed to come alive through the use of first-person narration.
The focus of this poem is not on what is proceeded between the wife and the husband, but on the husband -the Duke- himself; his personality, his authority and his controlling manners. We can only acquaint him by what he says and leaves unsaid. He wants us to know what he lets us to -controlling us in this way- and this, is an act of power. But there are proofs that the Duke is not as powerful as he declares to be. His personality and attitude change during the poem. When we reach the final line, the Duke is not the same person as in the beginning line. What I mean is at first, we are facing a rather educated, polite gentleman who offers his guest to sit and look at his beautiful painting of a Duchess. But throughout, there is a jealous, possessive, proud and arrogant man against us, not choosing the right words to express and yet, being so precise.
The last few lines and certainly some specific phrases catch the eye and evoke some intense feelings like confusion, horror and perplexity. I gave commands. This short sentence uttered in the coldest way, totes the whole burden of the plot. Even not knowing that Mister Browning himself had confirmed this theory, it is indeed pretty obvious that the command was to have the Duchess killed. The line ‘and then all smiles stopped together. There she stands As if alive’ is a sticking seal to this argument and by that means, a wife had been killed by a cold-blooded husband; the same husband that appreciates his object of art more than his alive wife. It is not explicitly written how the Duke killed his wife, thus, the ambiguity draws readers in.
Nevertheless, it is obvious that the Duke is a jealous person; jealous of everything that impresses her and makes the Duchess happy. He envies the sunset, some cherries given to her by an admirer, or riding a horse. He also is disappointed by the way she looks at everyone else, the same way she looks at her husband. He thinks that she should be grateful to him for giving her his name -his nine-hundred-year-old name- and that she had been flirtatious with other men. She thanked men, and this amount of intimacy with others was enough to drive the man to madness. But the point is that she, the Duchess, doesn’t seem flirty or siren at all. So then we realize that besides being jealous, he is insanely possessive. The personal pronouns ‘my’ and ‘I’ can be seen throughout the poem (my Duchess, my gift, I gave commands, I choose, I repeat, etc.) So this suggests the Duke is self-obsessed, and also that he believes his wife belongs to him. So he’s not only possessive, but he sees the duchess herself as one of his objects that he owns. But does he stop there, fulfilling his extent? The answer is no. As we can see, there are questions asked from the guest by the Duke such as ‘Will’t please you sit?’ and ‘Will’t please you rise?’ These are not really questions at all. They are demands. The Duke has the full superiority —towards us, the readers, the outsiders and the people in his mansion.
It’s almost near the end of the poem that we learn the Duke is talking to the envoy of a Count. He seems to be there in order to arrange a marriage between the Duke and the new duchess.
And finally, at the end of the poem, there’s a piece of artwork which is talked about, the Clause of Innsbruck statue of Neptune taking a seahorse. Neptune was the Roman god of the sea, best known as being a masculine, broad-shouldered, domineering god. And here he is in the sea taming a wild creature. We can read this as a metaphor for the Duke himself and what he feels his role is over women —to domineer and control. This leads to some points in context. Although ‘My Last Duchess’ is set in the Italian Renaissance between the 14th and 16th centuries, it was written and published during the Victorian era in 1842. At the time the poem was written, when a woman married she became the legal property of her husband. A wife’s role was seen as the angel of the house who existed to serve and entertain her husband. In this light, it is possible to read this poem as a criticism of Victorian attitudes to women. It can be argued that Duke’s obsession with fixing the behaviour of his wife links to Victorian society’s obsession with the reputation of women being perfect. When the Duke’s wife didn’t act as he wanted her to, this undermined his status as powerful and controlling. The fact that we never hear the wife’s side of the story illustrates this point clearly. Women being silenced and deprived of such human rights and not being seen and appreciated as important reflects what society and male dominance and male power towards women were like at the time.
April 18, 2022
I read this again today because I thought of it while reading a short story. It has long been a favorite of mine. The last stanza is quite chilling. One cannot help wondering what exactly happened to his "last" duchess.
December 13, 2017
If I would ever have to choose a favorite poem, it would definitely be this one.
October 4, 2016
Oh god, our main protagonist is so sly, I can't even. . .
February 7, 2017
A heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 13, 2016
Browning is creepy and violent but he's also genius...plus I heard he was a total sweetie irl
December 30, 2021
yes, I am petty enough to add a one page poem I did at school to my Read list
August 18, 2023
Excellent.
5 stars. 💙 Heart.
5 stars. 💙 Heart.
March 25, 2021
My Last Duchess is a haunting yet fun introduction into the dramatic monologue, a form of poetry that exists on its own, similar to an overheard conversation, an uncontextualized soliloquy. The dramatic monologue is a practice in using both content and silence to present meaning. Insofar as the reader is brought to discern the character of the Duke by what he explicitly says—the direct content—so we are also forced to judge his character by his cryptic silence and ambiguity. The dramatic monologue, understood in the context of My Last Duchess and more broadly, is a dualistic or paradoxical speech, where there exists both an explicit and implicit narrative. The Duke’s haughty and rather commanding disposition forces us to question the explicit narrative, while we are implicitly left to see him as yet another Bluebeard figure.
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December 2, 2023przeczytane na poetyke, krótkie a świetne
October 21, 2021
My Last Duchess, by Robert Browning
Vivid descriptions, makes you want to find out more!
Vivid descriptions, makes you want to find out more!
August 30, 2021
The original title of the poem was Italy, it was first published in Bells and Pomegranates No. III, under the title Dramatic Lyrics in 1842.
In 1842 the poem was paired with France (later Court Giomond) under the general title Italy and France—was replaced by the present title in 1849. It was also included in Dramatic Romances 1868. This poem appeared in Browning’s first collection of shorter poems entitled ‘Dramatic Lyrics’ (1842). It is to be noted that in the original edition, this poem poem is printed side-by-side with “Count Gismond” under the heading “Italy and France,” and the two poems share a comparable concern with issues of aristocracy and reputation.
This is one of many poems by Browning that are founded, as a minimum partially, upon historical fact. “My Last Duchess” symbolizes a convergence of two of Browning’s principal interests: the Italian Renaissance and visual art. Both the speaker of the poem and his “last Duchess” intimately bear a resemblance to historical figures.
The poem’s duke is possibly modeled upon Alfonso II, the last Duke of Ferrara, whose marriage to the teenaged Lucrezia de’ Medici ended inexplicably only three years after it began. The duke then bargained through an agent to marry the niece of the Count of Tyrol.
John D. Re traced the source of the poem to Duke Vespasiano Gonzaga’s life as written by Irenio Affo. Louis S. Friedland too saw in Browning’s Duke the image of Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara. De Vane takes over from Friend land to suggest that Browning’s Duchess may be studied in the context of the fate of Lucrezia, wife of Alfonso II.
De Vane further suggests that the original of the Count’s emissary in the poem may be supposed to be Nicholas Madraz of Innsbruck who negotiated for Alfonso’s next marriage on behalf of the Count of Tyrol.
Most of the critics interpret this poem as a study of the Italian Renaissance.
De Vane reads in it ‘the culture and morality of the Italian Renaissance’. Cohen (Robert Browning) marks in the poem the ‘vivacity and ruthlessness’ associated with Italy and the Renaissance. Percy Lubbock remarks: “the mind of particular time and place”.
My Last Duchess characterizes an explicit advance towards dramatic monologues which communicate a clearer and more convincing delusion of objective reality. The setting is more precise. The Duke’s motive for speaking is more definite, the language is more natural, and the person to whom the Duke speaks is more candidly and spectacularly indicated.
The device of including someone within the poem, someone to listen to the utterance, perhaps more than any other single element, accounts for the greater sense of reality.
Porphyria’s Lover is technically a soliloquy rather than a dramatic monologue, for there is present no listener or audience to hear the lover’s utterance. The speech of Porphyria’s lover has its own mad logic, but when one speaks to oneself or to God, the logic need not be too clear.
In contrast, the Duke uses his speech as a keen instrument of policy: he wishes to communicate certain information to a particular man whom he self-confidently hopes to manipulate. He is a man talking to another man. The heightened language, the regular cadences, and insistent rhyme of My Last Duchess give way to a less artificial, more conversational style:
That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive; I call
That piece a wonder, now: Fra Pandolf’s hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
The listener is asked to ‘sit and look at her’, while the Duke describes the painting and the character of the Duchess.
As the poem closes the listener will be asked politely to rise from the chair and walk side by side with the Duke down the stairs, pausing for a moment to notice a bronze statue. In a few brief but vivid phrase Browning has described the physical action of the poem and suggested both the floor plan and the furnishings of the Duke’s palace. He has also displayed the Duke’s confident superiority over the man to whom he is speaking.
The listener is an envoy from the count, whose daughter will be the next Duchess; so, the Duke carefully tailors his speech to lay down a code of behaviour for the new Duchess by describing the flaws in the character of the previous one. His speech is filled with calculated pauses and even with a mock-humility about his powers as a rhetorician:
She thanked men;—good! but thanked
Somehow I know not how as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to 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 (11. 31-37)
As so often in Browning’s monologues, here the Duke can carry on a kind of dialogue.
It is a concise and economical device for gaining the advantage of dialogue while retaining the advantage of a single speaker. Gesture and setting exhibit a similar economy.
The bronze statue of Neptune taming a sea-horse, which the envoy is asked to notice, supplies a detail of stage-setting, acts as a reminder that the Duke intends to ‘tame’ the new Duchess and underscores the Duke’s pride in possession. In the course of his short utterance, the Duke has revealed himself to the envoy and to the reader: his pride in station and possession has led him to treat people as possessions, objects, things. The last Duchess has become a mere art-object and the envoy a tool to be used.
At the same time, by sketching out the Duchess’ warm and almost democratic sentiments, the Duke has created for the reader a standard, a foil against which his own character can be judged.
So it appears that My Last Duchess is a perfect specimen of dramatic monologue. The poem expresses Browning’s genius for condensation. It has been rightly said that the whole poem is but the visible part of the iceberg but the submerged invisible part is not a matter of vague suggestiveness; it is both psychologically and historically defined.
In 1842 the poem was paired with France (later Court Giomond) under the general title Italy and France—was replaced by the present title in 1849. It was also included in Dramatic Romances 1868. This poem appeared in Browning’s first collection of shorter poems entitled ‘Dramatic Lyrics’ (1842). It is to be noted that in the original edition, this poem poem is printed side-by-side with “Count Gismond” under the heading “Italy and France,” and the two poems share a comparable concern with issues of aristocracy and reputation.
This is one of many poems by Browning that are founded, as a minimum partially, upon historical fact. “My Last Duchess” symbolizes a convergence of two of Browning’s principal interests: the Italian Renaissance and visual art. Both the speaker of the poem and his “last Duchess” intimately bear a resemblance to historical figures.
The poem’s duke is possibly modeled upon Alfonso II, the last Duke of Ferrara, whose marriage to the teenaged Lucrezia de’ Medici ended inexplicably only three years after it began. The duke then bargained through an agent to marry the niece of the Count of Tyrol.
John D. Re traced the source of the poem to Duke Vespasiano Gonzaga’s life as written by Irenio Affo. Louis S. Friedland too saw in Browning’s Duke the image of Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara. De Vane takes over from Friend land to suggest that Browning’s Duchess may be studied in the context of the fate of Lucrezia, wife of Alfonso II.
De Vane further suggests that the original of the Count’s emissary in the poem may be supposed to be Nicholas Madraz of Innsbruck who negotiated for Alfonso’s next marriage on behalf of the Count of Tyrol.
Most of the critics interpret this poem as a study of the Italian Renaissance.
De Vane reads in it ‘the culture and morality of the Italian Renaissance’. Cohen (Robert Browning) marks in the poem the ‘vivacity and ruthlessness’ associated with Italy and the Renaissance. Percy Lubbock remarks: “the mind of particular time and place”.
My Last Duchess characterizes an explicit advance towards dramatic monologues which communicate a clearer and more convincing delusion of objective reality. The setting is more precise. The Duke’s motive for speaking is more definite, the language is more natural, and the person to whom the Duke speaks is more candidly and spectacularly indicated.
The device of including someone within the poem, someone to listen to the utterance, perhaps more than any other single element, accounts for the greater sense of reality.
Porphyria’s Lover is technically a soliloquy rather than a dramatic monologue, for there is present no listener or audience to hear the lover’s utterance. The speech of Porphyria’s lover has its own mad logic, but when one speaks to oneself or to God, the logic need not be too clear.
In contrast, the Duke uses his speech as a keen instrument of policy: he wishes to communicate certain information to a particular man whom he self-confidently hopes to manipulate. He is a man talking to another man. The heightened language, the regular cadences, and insistent rhyme of My Last Duchess give way to a less artificial, more conversational style:
That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive; I call
That piece a wonder, now: Fra Pandolf’s hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
The listener is asked to ‘sit and look at her’, while the Duke describes the painting and the character of the Duchess.
As the poem closes the listener will be asked politely to rise from the chair and walk side by side with the Duke down the stairs, pausing for a moment to notice a bronze statue. In a few brief but vivid phrase Browning has described the physical action of the poem and suggested both the floor plan and the furnishings of the Duke’s palace. He has also displayed the Duke’s confident superiority over the man to whom he is speaking.
The listener is an envoy from the count, whose daughter will be the next Duchess; so, the Duke carefully tailors his speech to lay down a code of behaviour for the new Duchess by describing the flaws in the character of the previous one. His speech is filled with calculated pauses and even with a mock-humility about his powers as a rhetorician:
She thanked men;—good! but thanked
Somehow I know not how as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to 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 (11. 31-37)
As so often in Browning’s monologues, here the Duke can carry on a kind of dialogue.
It is a concise and economical device for gaining the advantage of dialogue while retaining the advantage of a single speaker. Gesture and setting exhibit a similar economy.
The bronze statue of Neptune taming a sea-horse, which the envoy is asked to notice, supplies a detail of stage-setting, acts as a reminder that the Duke intends to ‘tame’ the new Duchess and underscores the Duke’s pride in possession. In the course of his short utterance, the Duke has revealed himself to the envoy and to the reader: his pride in station and possession has led him to treat people as possessions, objects, things. The last Duchess has become a mere art-object and the envoy a tool to be used.
At the same time, by sketching out the Duchess’ warm and almost democratic sentiments, the Duke has created for the reader a standard, a foil against which his own character can be judged.
So it appears that My Last Duchess is a perfect specimen of dramatic monologue. The poem expresses Browning’s genius for condensation. It has been rightly said that the whole poem is but the visible part of the iceberg but the submerged invisible part is not a matter of vague suggestiveness; it is both psychologically and historically defined.
April 8, 2023
I am reminded of Venus in Furs.
May 14, 2023
my actual lifeline i would not have gotten my place in sixth form or uni without that Duke and that bloody seahorse
February 4, 2020
can u say... NARRATIVE!!! and it’s about a hot girl 😍😍
November 10, 2023
“I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive”
Any poetry that deals with domestic abuse hits me hard.
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive”
Any poetry that deals with domestic abuse hits me hard.
February 8, 2020
Lucrezia de' Medici, by Bronzino, generally believed to be My Last Duchess.
February 9, 2021
Victorian age poetry is highly musical why don't I feel that this is musical..
Too much possessiveness like she smiles at everyone
Warn her ❌
Kill her ✔️
Too much possessiveness like she smiles at everyone
Warn her ❌
Kill her ✔️
June 27, 2020
So fascinating to pick apart (my working theory is that the last duchess was a cheater and the duke killed her for it, which is ironic because at the end of the poem he’s going after another girl).
Also I’m convinced that in these lines:
“She thanked men,—good! but thanked
Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody’s gift...”
he’s talking about his p-e-n-i-you finish the word.
Also I’m convinced that in these lines:
“She thanked men,—good! but thanked
Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody’s gift...”
he’s talking about his p-e-n-i-you finish the word.
December 6, 2019
Honestly if I have to look up online about the meaning or an “ending explains” video then it wasn’t that good. I had to read it for an assignment and I’m so happy I have a goodreads account so I can rip this precious book apartment.
Basically a manifesto of an entitled, narcissist talking about his dead wife like trash.
Basically a manifesto of an entitled, narcissist talking about his dead wife like trash.
November 15, 2016
The narrator is so cunning and sly, like, seriously. We're supposed to hate and fear him, I know that, but I also can't help liking him. You know that guy. The guy we all love to hate. And like. Yes, a very good read.
November 13, 2014
Characters- The Speaker and His dead wife.
Theme- Power, Money, Arrogance, Jealousy, and Secrecy.
Theme- Power, Money, Arrogance, Jealousy, and Secrecy.
April 29, 2023
Wow this is a chilling poem full of understated menace. The underlying theme is power and control
The Duke of Ferrara is showing an unnamed visitor a portrait in his house, a portrait of “my last duchess “. Only the Duke is allowed to pull aside the curtains that hang over the portrait. The Duke tells the visitor that undoubtedly the visitor has noted the lady’s beautiful smile. His wife, he says, “had a heart—how shall I say—too easily made glad, too soon impressed; she liked whate’er she looked on, and her looks went everywhere.” She smiled at the mule she rode, or the person breaking off a cherry branch for her. The Duke felt wronged that her smiles were not reserved for him, but “would not stoop” to explain his feelings to her. “I gave commands, then all smiles ceased” [leaving open the question: did he order her to isolate herself, or did he order her killed?]. In the last passage we learn that the visitor is an emissary from a Count whose daughter the Duke plans to marry.
The Duke of Ferrara is showing an unnamed visitor a portrait in his house, a portrait of “my last duchess “. Only the Duke is allowed to pull aside the curtains that hang over the portrait. The Duke tells the visitor that undoubtedly the visitor has noted the lady’s beautiful smile. His wife, he says, “had a heart—how shall I say—too easily made glad, too soon impressed; she liked whate’er she looked on, and her looks went everywhere.” She smiled at the mule she rode, or the person breaking off a cherry branch for her. The Duke felt wronged that her smiles were not reserved for him, but “would not stoop” to explain his feelings to her. “I gave commands, then all smiles ceased” [leaving open the question: did he order her to isolate herself, or did he order her killed?]. In the last passage we learn that the visitor is an emissary from a Count whose daughter the Duke plans to marry.
May 9, 2023
Brilliant!
What a true wonder here, how Browning captures the cruel, slick, egotistical crusher of women.
"She had a heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad". "Then all smiles stopped"
She just gave up and wilted and died like a chocked flower.
He just moved on to his next victim.
The way that Browning draws this shallow villain is just too real!
In his own life though, Browning certainly showed true love and self sacrificing devotion to the love of his life- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
I first heard this classic poem read by James Mason on a vinyl album. If you ever get the chance to listen to that version, then take it!
What a true wonder here, how Browning captures the cruel, slick, egotistical crusher of women.
"She had a heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad". "Then all smiles stopped"
She just gave up and wilted and died like a chocked flower.
He just moved on to his next victim.
The way that Browning draws this shallow villain is just too real!
In his own life though, Browning certainly showed true love and self sacrificing devotion to the love of his life- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
I first heard this classic poem read by James Mason on a vinyl album. If you ever get the chance to listen to that version, then take it!
May 13, 2019
"Sir, ’twas all one! My favour at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace—all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
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 name
With anybody’s gift."
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace—all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
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 name
With anybody’s gift."
July 8, 2023
It's getting a flat two stars. Been a while (only a few months, tee-hee), but I remember this poem holding some pretty misogynistic views. It was also kind of long and boring, that's a big one for me, especially since I kind of like reading stuff in that old kind of classical language.
*gets awkward reminders of class- grimaces -*
I should re-read it again though, so don't get me wrong!
*gets awkward reminders of class- grimaces -*
I should re-read it again though, so don't get me wrong!
July 20, 2023
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I..
She's no more yet that didn't stop his tyranny in the least. Her portrait sees light of the day at the command of Duke of Ferrara? Wow, this dude throwing all these chilling hints at the emissary while discussing his next marriage in the same conversation? I -
She's no more yet that didn't stop his tyranny in the least. Her portrait sees light of the day at the command of Duke of Ferrara? Wow, this dude throwing all these chilling hints at the emissary while discussing his next marriage in the same conversation? I -
May 23, 2023
Robert's vivid descriptions brought the setting to life, allowing me to immerse myself in the opulence and decadence of the Renaissance era. I love the usage of dramatic monologue which has added an intimate and confessional tone to this wonderful poem.
September 30, 2023
I heard the tail end of an interview with the author Michael Rosen on Radio 4 in which he mentioned this poem, so I had to look it up and read it. Then I made the mistake of also reading an analysis of it. The poem is brilliant, the analysis was not. 😂
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