My Last Duchess
"My Last Duchess" is a poem by Robert Browning, frequently anthologised as an example of the dramatic monologue. It first appeared in 1842 in Browning's "Dramatic Lyrics". The poem is composed in 28 rhyming couplets of iambic pentameter. In the first edition of "Dramatic Lyrics", the poem was merely titled "Italy". Historical background. The poem is preceded by the epigraph ""Ferrara:"", indicating that the speaker is Alfonso II d'Este, the fifth Duke of Ferrara (1533–1598), who, in 1558 (at the age of 25), had married Lucrezia di Cosimo de' Medici, the 14-year-old daughter of  Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Eleonora di Toledo. Lucrezia was well-educated, and the Medicis could be considered "nouveau riche" in comparison to the venerable and distinguished Este family (Alfonso II d'Este's remark regarding his gift of a "nine-hundred-years-old name" clearly indicates that he considered his bride beneath him socially). She came with a sizeable dowry. He then abandoned her for two years before she died on 21 April 1561, at age 17. Although there was a strong suspicion of poisoning, it is more likely that the cause of her death was  tuberculosis. It is speculated that the rumour of poisoning was started by enemies of Alfonso II. The Duke then, in 1564, sought the hand of Barbara, eighth daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary and the sister of the Count of Tyrol, Ferdinand II. The count was in charge of arranging the marriage; the chief of his entourage, Nikolaus Madruz, a native of Innsbruck, was his courier. Madruz is presumably the person addressed by the duke in the poem. The artists named in the poem – painter Frà Pandolf and sculptor Claus of Innsbruck  – are fictional. Synopsis. The speaker (presumably the Duke Alfonso of Ferrara) is giving the emissary of the family of his prospective new wife 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. As they look at the portrait of the late Duchess, the Duke describes her happy, cheerful, appreciative and kind nature, which had displeased him. He says, "She had a heart – how shall I say? – too soon made  glad..." He goes on to say that his complaint of her was that "'twas not her husband's presence only" that made her happy. Eventually, "I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together." In an interview, Browning said, "I meant that the commands were that she should be put to death ... Or he might have had her shut up in a convent." The duke now keeps her painting hidden behind a curtain that only he is allowed to draw back, thus now she only smiles for him. The Duke demonstrates many narcissistic tendencies as he recalls the time he shared  with his now-deceased Duchess. He then resumes an earlier conversation regarding wedding arrangements, and in passing points out another work of art, a bronze statue of Neptune taming a sea-horse by Claus of Innsbruck, so making his late wife but just another work of art. Form. Browning characterized this poem as a dramatic lyric; but essentially it is a dramatic monologue, a genre typically associated with Robert Browning, where one person speaks to a presumed audience. It is written in iambic pentameter, employing rhyming couplets and the enjambment technique of not always concluding the sentences at the ends  of lines. Because of these techniques, the poem has a conversational quality and can be read as a long speech.