MY LAST DUCHESS – ROBERT BROWNING
EXPLANATION
My Last Duchess is a one-sided conversation by the Duke of Ferrara
who has been widowed recently. The messenger of the Count of a neighbouring state comes to the Duke’s palace to negotiate with the Duke for his marriage with the Count’s daughter. The Duke takes the messenger upstairs and shows him the portrait of his last Duchess. The Duke tells the messenger that very few people have had the pleasure of viewing this exquisite piece of art. The Duke unveils the portrait, and, noticing an enquiring look in the messenger’s face, as if to know the cause of the deeply passionate look in the eyes of the Duchess, explains that that look could have been caused by anything, probably an impersonal remark on the part of the painter, Fra Pandolf, or Brother Pandolf, a monk and an expert artist who finished the portrait in a day. Thus, it could not have been caused by any intimacy between the Duchess and the painter.
According to the Duke, it took very little to make the Duchess happy: even a casual remark would be taken as a compliment by her, and would bring a smile of joy to her face. The Duke feels that she was too easily pleased, that she observed all things with equal pleasure. She could not discriminate between what was aristocratic, and therefore more valuable, and what was ordinary or commonplace. Thus, she took equal pleasure in the Duke’s gift of an expensive ornament, a beautiful sunset, a branch of cherries that some eager courtier obtained for her from the orchard or her white mule. She expressed this approval in speech or simply by a blush. She thanked everyone for their favour, but it seemed to the Duke as if she thanked him for giving her his nine hundred year old name in the same way that she thanked others for some unimportant thing.
However, if someone were to ask him why he did nothing to point out her faults, or her inappropriate behaviour to her, The Duke felt that to do so would be beneath his dignity. This unladylike behaviour of the Duchess of thanking and smiling at everybody continued until it became quite intolerable to the Duke. He gave orders and “then all smiles stopped together”. The implication here is that he had the Duchess murdered.
Casually, in the next moment, the Duke goes on to tell the Count’s messenger that he would expect a rich dowry from his master, though he would be marrying his daughter primarily for her beauty. As they walk away, the Duke draws his visitor’s attention to a sculpture of Neptune taming a sea-horse. He takes pleasure in pointing out how rare a piece it is, and therefore, how he appreciates art.
CRITICAL APPRECIATION
My Last Duchess has allusions to the history and culture of Renaissance Italy. The speaker of this poem is apparently based on Alfonso II ( 1533-1597), fifth Duke of Ferrara, a city in Lombardy in northern Italy. He married fourteen year old Lucrezia de Medici, the daughter of Cosimo de Medici, The Duke of Florence in 1558. Lucrezia died in 1561 under mysterious circumstances. Four years later, Alfonso married the daughter of Ferdinand I, the Count of Tyrol.
The very spirit of the Italian Renaissance has been captured in this poem. Its love of intrigue, its greed, its cunning and hypocrisy, as well as its love of beauty and the fine arts, has all been clearly brought out. The poem is concerned with the theme of jealousy and egotism and the historical tyranny of men over women. It presents a psychological portrait of a powerful Renaissance aristocrat. It is written in Heroic couplets, in the form of a dramatic monologue – a drama piece written for a single actor. It contains the three formal elements of a dramatic monologue – an occasion, a speaker and a hearer. The poem is presented as if the reader is simply eavesdropping on a casual conversation. The Duke’s speech reveals both his and his late Duchess’ character, as he talks to his visitor about her.
Irony in the poem surfaces as the reader discovers that the young woman’s ‘faults’ were qualities like compassion, modesty, humility, delight in simple pleasures, and courtesy to those who served her. Yet, as the Duke enumerates her various ‘faults’, he unwittingly reveals his own unpleasant and monstrous personality. This is an example of dramatic irony.