My Last Duchess by Robert Browning - Notes
(1) Annotation
(2) Summary
~Synopsis
-The Situation:
-Presenting the Portrait:
-Description of the Duchess:
-Stooping of stature:
-Next Negotiation:
(3) About the poet
(4) Elements
.................................
(1)Annotation + (2)Summary
The Situation:
The Duke of Ferrara (a place in Italy) is addressing an emissary of a Count who has come to negotiate a marriage proposal of the Count's daughter with the Duke.
The Duke and the emissary are in an elevated floor and the people who have come along with the emissary are below.
There is a portrait of the Duke's dead wife on a wall where the Duke and the emissary were present.
The Duke is the speaker who says ill about his wife and the emissary is just a passive listener. Therefore the poem is a dramatic monologue.
Presenting the Portrait:
That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive....
In the poem, the Duke is showing the portrait and addressing the emissary saying that it is the painting of his last Duchess where she looked as if she were alive, which means that the Duke's wife, the Duchess is dead. And the words 'my last duchess' used by the Duke make us understand that he might have had more than one duchess before either simultaneously or one after the other of which the duchess described in this poem is the last one and it also depicts his inclination for a next wife.
...I call
That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf's hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
The Duke praises the portrait and calls it a wonder, which was the result of a day's hardwork by Fra` Pandolf, an imaginary painter in the poem.
Will't please you sit and look at her?...
The Duke is asking the emissary to sit and look at her with a rhetorical question.
...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 noneputs by
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so, not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus....
The portrait is usually kept hidden by a curtain. Only the Duke has the authority of drawing it to whom he wishes to show. Strangers like the emissary never kept quiet on seeing the Duchess' facial expression in the portrait which had a very serious, deep and passionate brief look but they turned to the Duke and dared to ask about the cause of such expression of her with awe. The emissary did so. So he was one among such strangers. To make this doubt clear he said Fra` Pandolf deliberately to make him know the fact that it was in his presence the Duchess glanced like that.
...Sir, 'twas not
Her husband's presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek:...
The dimple on the Duchess' cheek was not special for him because it was common for all men.
...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
For calling up that spot of joy....
While speaking about the dimple in the portrait, the painter Fra` Pandolf might have possibly made some comments such as the loose cloak being painted in the portrait folds or overlaps too much, possessively with the use of the words 'my lady' or he might have said that the art of painting can not even hope to reproduce the feeling of shyness in her face which diminishes along her throat. And on hearing such simple comments she might have given a courteous smile.
Description of the Duchess:
...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.
The Duke then describes her nature saying she was very easily impressed. She looked everywhere and liked everything.
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 not only liked the gifts which were given by him to her but also the setting sun in the West, the bough of cherries from the orchard given by someone who asserts authority in an overbearing way and the white mule she rode in the terrace. The Duke's gifts did not prove to be special for her. Gifts by all seemed alike and in response she would give a satisfactory speech or atleast show a feeling of shyness.
...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 Duke appreciates her gratefulness but he disagrees with her way of expressing it which was as if she considered Duke's nobility of nine-hundred years had no predominance over others.
Stooping of stature:
...Who'd stoop to blame
This sort of trifling?...
The Duke declares that even to say or hold her of her trivial behaviour, he would stoop down. He makes use of a rhetorical question.
...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' -
The Duke says that if a person having such a wife, had the skill to say and make her clearly understand his desire towards her can say that such and such things in her are strongly disapproving and one time or the other she exceeds the limit.
- and if she let
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,
- E'en that would be some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop....
He may say this not just to make her physical actions according to his desire, indeed, but to make her realise her mistakes and learn how to behave, and he may even forgive her. The Duke did not have the skill to say so. Even had he the skill and Duchess had learned to be accordingly after which he would have to excuse her, he feels that he would stoop down for which he is never ready.
...Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile?...
The Duchess smiled whenever the Duke passed but she did so even for others. Again here he uses a rhetorical question.
...This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive....
Her universal kindliness kept continuing until he gave orders, after which the Duchess was no more.
The Duke immediately points out towards the portrait saying she stood there, after that, as if alive.
The cause of her death is not made clear in the poem that whether death seeked the Duchess, probably through the Duke or vice versa, a suicide.
Next Negotiation:
...Will't please you rise? We'll meet
The company below, then....
The Duke asks the emissary to stand using a rhetorical question and come along to meet the emissary's company below.
...I repeat,
The Count your master's known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretence
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed
At starting, is my object....
He declares that eventhough the Count's fair daughter is his purpose of marriage, the known generosity of his master sufficiently guarantees that his pretending for dowry will be greatly concerned. He had said this before and declares again.
...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!
While going down, he asks him to notice the sculpture of Roman Sea-God, Neptune, taming a sea horse which was sculpted in bronze by an imaginary sculptor named Claus of Innsbruck who casted especially for him. This sculpture is a rare one, he says. The interest of the Duke on such a sculpture, Neptune taming a sea horse, also symbolizes his passion for subjugation.
About the poet
(1)Person's name
Robert Browning
(2)Life period
(7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889 )
(3)Nationality
(English) He was born in London,England and died in Italy.
(4)Designation
Poet (also a playwright)
(5) Speciality
English poet and playwright , whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.
(6)Period in Literature
Victorian era
(7)Notable works
1)The Ring and the Book,
2)Men and Women,
3)The Pied Piper of Hamelin,
4)Porphyria's Lover,
5)My Last Duchess
Elements:
1)Rhyme scheme: aabbccdd...
Every two consecutive lines rhyme together.
2)Consists of four rhetorical questions
3)Ten syllables in each line
4)It is a dramatic monologue
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