My Last Duchess Robert Browning

Analysis of Poem

1. The Painter
Chris de Burgh
I'd like you to meet my last queen,
Over there large as life
She's been hanging there for almost a week,
My poor late wife;
What do you think of the colour of her skin,
It has the bloom of a rose,
You see she begged me to bring a certain painter in,
And for that picture in her bedroom she would pose;
Well after a while he was driving me mad,
As you could well understand,
Sitting in there, day after day,
With my wife in the palm of his hand...
It was -

2. "Madam please do this and Madam please do that",
You've never heard such display,
But he didn't mind he was taking his time,
It was me that had to pay,
"Oh Madam I think we should take a walk in the woods,
You understand it's the light",
And did I mind, no, I was so kind when they,
Came back in the middle of the night,
And I swear I'll take care of the painter, oh the painter...
Well as you can see it was hard for me,
But something has to be done,
She only has eyes for him and his lies, and as for me,
Not a glance, not a single one;

3. My orders were severe and she disappeared,
It really was such a shame,
And when they told me she was dead I broke down and said,
"It's that painter, it's him, he's to blame."
With his "Madam please do this and Madam please do that",
You've never heard such display,
But he didn't mind he was taking his time,
It was me that had to pay,
"Oh Madam I think we should take a walk in the woods,
You understand it's the light",
And did I mind, no, I was so kind when they
Came back in the middle of the night,
And I hope it's the rope for the painter,
When he's found, it's hellbound for the painter,
I'll get that painter...

4. My Last
Duchess
Robert Browning

5. Robert Browning
1818 – 1889
Victorian Age (1840 – 1890)
Poet and playwright
Master of the “dramatic
monologue”

6. dRAMATIC MONOLOGUE
Speaker who is not the poet
Duke of Ferrara (Alfonso II)
Ferrara = city-state in Lombardy
Reveals thoughts at significant moment in his life
Usually a one-sided conversation with a silent partner
Duke discusses the portrait of his late wife with an envoy
(a diplomat or messenger) from the Count whose
daughter he intends to marry
We become chillingly aware that he is an arrogant man –
will do anything to satisfy the demands of his arrogance

7. The poem tells of a very cruel and
ruthless Duke who cannot love
without so completely
possessing and destroying the
identity of his wife that he
literally kills her and lives with
her dead substitute – a work of
art.

8. That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf's hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will't please you sit and look at her
What are the implications of the word “last”?
Iambic pentameter
Attitude towards the Duke?
What does the pronoun tell us about his
attitude towards her? Why “now”?
Value of painting versus
the value of his wife?
In media res – in the middle of
the conversation – Duke is
speaking directly to the envoy

9. I said
"Frà Pandolf" by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I) 10
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
Deliberately, on purpose
What does this tell us about the
character of the Duke?
What does this tell us about the
visitors’ attitude towards the
Duke ?

10. How such a glance came there; so, not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 'twas not
Her husband's presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps
Frà Pandolf chanced to say "Her 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
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart -- how shall I say? -- too soon made glad,
The Duke tries to imagine what the painter
said that caused this reaction.
Does not blame the
painter but his wife.
The painter was
being polite. She
should not have
been so easily
impressed.

11. Too easily impressed; she liked whate'er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
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, 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 name
According to the Duke she had
no ability to discriminate between
important and unimportant things:
“My favour at her breast”
“My gift of a nine-hundred-years old name”
It is “good” that she showed gratitude but “bad”
that she ranked this things on a par with his
name.

12. 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, "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 40
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,
--E'en then would be some stooping, and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without
He believes he lack the “skill in
speech” to make his will clear to her
Not prepared to compromise his
dignity or to drop to her level.

13. Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive. Will't please you rise? We'll meet
The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count your master's known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretence 50
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed
At starting, is my object. Nay, we'll go
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!
We do not know what
these commands were but
we see their results
Poem ends where it started –
the Duke shows the envoy
another “treasure”

14. ONE
SPEAKER
FOUR
CHARACTERS
THE
DUKE
THE

DUCHE
S
S
T
HE
VIS
ITO
R –
T
HE
C
OU
NT
’S
E
NV
O
Y T
HE
PA
INT
E
R –

FR
A P
A
ND
OL
F

15. Enjambement/run-on lines
Irony (appearance vs reality)
Pronouns and possessives
Ambiguity:
“Her looks went everywhere’
“I choose/Never to stoop”
“This grew”
“I gave commands”
“All smiles stopped together”