My Last Duchess

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"My Last Duchess" is a poem by Robert Browning, frequently anthologized as an outstanding example of the dramatic monologue. It first appeared in 1842 in Browning's Dramatic Lyrics.

The poem is set during the Italian Renaissance. The speaker, a duke of Ferrara, has just unveiled a painted portrait of his previous wife to an implied listener. The poem is written in 28 rhymed couplets, iambic pentameter prevailing, the identity of the listener not revealed until lines 49-53 of this 56-line poem. In the poem, the listener is actually a messenger sent from a Count whose daughter the Duke wishes to marry.

It is believed that the Duke is most likely based upon Alfonso II, who married a daughter of the Medici family, 14-year-old Lucrezia. She was a daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Eleonora di Toledo. She was not well educated and her family's status was what we might term "nouveau riche", compared to the Este family, who we may think of as "old money". The Duke's remarks regarding his gift of a "nine-hundred-years-old name" clearly indicate that he considered her beneath him socially. She came, however, with a sizeable dowry. They married in 1558, and three years later on April 21, 1561, she was dead at age 17. There was a strong suspicion of poisoning. The Duke then went to seek the hand of Barbara, eighth daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary, and the niece of the Count of Tyrol. The count was in charge of arranging the marriage and used Nikolaus Madruz, a native of Innsbruck, as his courier.