Sunday, July 5, 2009

My Last dutches

Text of the Poem Annotations

That's my last Duchess painted on the wall, painted on the wall: fresco, a painting executed on wet plaster
Looking as if she were alive. I call I . . . now: He refers not only to the painting but also to his wife as she
That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf's hands was in life, a mere object (that piece). Now indicates he regards his
Worked busily a day, and there she stands. wife as a wonder in the painting but something less when she lived.
Will't please you sit and look at her? I said.............................5 you: emissary from the Count of Tyrol
"Frà Pandolf" by design: for never read Frà Pandolf: the painter; by design:on purpose
Strangers like you that pictured countenance, countenance: face. The duke likes the painting, but he later reveals
The depth and passion of its earnest glance, that he did not like the countess herself.
But to myself they turned (since none puts by none . . . curtain: no one opens the curtain except me
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)................................10 but I: forgivable grammatical error. The pronoun should be me, not I,
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst, but I rhymes with by (previous line). durst: archaic form of dare
How such a glance came there; so, not the first such a glance: the painting really flatters her
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 'twas not
Her husband's presence only, called that spot spot of joy: Enjambment, in which the sense of one line of verse
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps...............................15 carries over to the next line without a pause
Frà Pandolf chanced to say "Her mantle laps mantle: cloak or cape
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 Lines 21-30: The duchess annoyed the duke because she was
A heart--how shall I say?--too soon made glad, just as pleased with a sunset, some cherries, or a ride on a mule as
Too easily impressed; she liked whate'er she was with him.
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Sir, 'twas all one! My favour at her breast,...............................25
The dropping of the daylight in the West, dd, ff: examples of alliteration
The bough of cherries some officious fool bough . . . her: apparently a double-entendre, the second meaning a
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule sexual one.
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 My . . . name: The duke comes from an old aristocratic family
With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame named Este.
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
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse, forsooth: in truth (archaic)
--E'en then would be some stooping: and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt, Oh . . .grew: The Duchess smiled at all men and, according to the
Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without duke, did more than smile at some men.
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; I gave . . .together: He reprimanded her. Then she ceased her
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands flirtation and ceased living. A key question here is this: Did the duke
As if alive. Will't please you rise? We'll meet murder her?
The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count your master's known munificence munificence: great generosity
Is ample warrant that no just pretence warrant: guarantee; no just . . . disallowed: The duke will demand
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed; a considerable dowry from the count.
Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed daughter: In real life, she was the count's niece.
At starting, is my object. Nay, we'll go my object: The duke again refers to a woman as an object.
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though, Neptune: god the sea in Roman mythology
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity, Taming a sea-horse: To the duke, the sea horse is a symbol of the
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me! women.


Setting and Background
The setting of "My Last Duchess," a highly acclaimed 1842 poem by Robert Browning, is the palace of the Duke of Ferrara on a day in October 1564. Ferrara is in northern Italy, between Bologna and Padua, on a branch of the Po River. The city was the seat of an important principality ruled by the House of Este from 1208 to 1598. The Este family constructed an imposing castle in Ferrara beginning in 1385 and, over the years, made Ferrara an important center of arts and learning. Two members of the family, Beatrice and Isabella, supported the work of such painters as Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. In Browning’s poem, the Duke of Ferrara is modeled after Alfonso II, the fifth and last duke of the principality, who ruled Ferrara from 1559 to 1597 but in three marriages fathered no heir to succeed him. The deceased duchess in the poem was his first wife, Lucrezia de’ Medici, a daughter of Cosimo de’ Medici (1519-1574), Duke of Florence from 1537 to 1574 and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1569 to 1574. Lucrezia died in 1561 at age 17. In 1598, Ferrara became part of the Papal States.
Characters
Speaker (or Narrator): The speaker is the Duke of Ferrara. Browning appears to have modeled him after Alfonso II, who ruled Ferrara from 1559 to 1597. Alfonso was married three times but had no children. The poem reveals him as a proud, possessive, and selfish man and a lover of the arts. He regarded his late wife as a mere object who existed only to please him and do his bidding. He likes the portrait of her (the subject of his monologue) because, unlike the duchess when she was alive, it reveals only her beauty and none of the qualities in her that annoyed the duke when she was alive. Morever, he now has complete control of the portrait as a pretty art object that he can show to visitors.
Duchess: The late wife of the duke. Browning appears to have modeled her after Lucrezia de’ Medici, a daughter of Cosimo de’ Medici (1519-1574), Duke of Florence from 1537 to 1574 and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1569 to 1574. The duke says the duchess enjoyed the company of other men and implies that she was unfaithful. Whether his accusation is a fabrication is uncertain. The duchess died under suspicious circumstances on April 21, 1561, just two years after he married her. She may have been poisoned.
Emissary of the Count of Tyrol: The emissary has no speaking role; he simply listens as the Duke of Ferrara tells him about the late Duchess of Ferrara and the fresco of her on the wall. Historically, the emissary is identified with Nikolaus Madruz, of Innsbruck, Austria.
Count of Tyrol: The duke's of the duke's bride-to-be. The duke mentions him in connection with a dowry the count is expected to provide.
Daughter of the Count of Tyrol. The duke's bride-to-be is the daughter of the count but appears to be modeled historically on the count's niece, Barbara.
Frà Pandolph: The duke mentions him as the artist who painted the fresco. No one has identified a real-life counterpart on whom he was based. He may have been a fictional creation of Browning. Frà was a title of Italian friars of the Roman Catholic Church.
Claus of Innsbruck: The duke mentions him as the artist who created "Neptune Taming a Sea-Horse." Like Pandolph, he may have been a fictional creation.
The Portrait of the Duchess
The portrait of the late Duchess of Ferrara is a fresco, a type of work painted in watercolors directly on a plaster wall. The portrait symbolizes the duke's possessive and controlling nature inasmuch as the duchess has become an art object which he owns and controls.
Meter
"My Last Duchess" is in iambic pentameter (10 syllables, or five feet, per line with five pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables), as Lines 2 and 2 of the poem demonstrate.
That's MY | last DUCH | ess PAINT | ed ON | the WALL,
Look ING | as IF | she WERE | a ALIVE | I CALL
Rhyme: Heroic Couplets
Line 1 rhymes with Line 2, Line 3 with 4, Line 5 with 6, and so on. Pairs of rhyming lines are called couplets. When the lines are written in iambic pentameter, as are the lines of "My Last Duchess," the rhyming pairs are called heroic couplets.
Theme
The theme is the arrogant, authoritarian mindset of a proud Renaissance duke. In this respect, the more important portrait in the poem is the one the duke "paints" of himself with his words.
Summary and Commentary
.......Upstairs at his palace in October of 1564, the Duke of Ferrara–a city in northeast Italy on a branch of the Po River–shows a portrait of his late wife, who died in 1561, to a representative of the Count of Tyrol, an Austrian nobleman. The duke plans to marry the count’s daughter after he negotiates for a handsome dowry from the count.
.......While discussing the portrait, the duke also discusses his relationship with the late countess, revealing himself–wittingly or unwittingly–as a domineering husband who regarded his beautiful wife as a mere object, a possession whose sole mission was to please him. His comments are sometimes straightforward and frank and sometimes subtle and ambiguous. Several remarks hint that he may have murdered his wife, just a teenager at the time of her death two years after she married him, but the oblique and roundabout language in which he couches these remarks falls short of an open confession.
.......The duke tells the Austrian emissary that he admires the portrait of the duchess but was exasperated with his wife while she was alive, for she devoted as much attention to trivialities–and other men–as she did to him. He even implies that she had affairs. In response to these affairs, he says, “I gave commands; / “Then all [of her] smiles stopped together.”
.......Does commands mean that he ordered someone to kill her?
.......Does it mean he reprimanded her?
.......Does it mean he ordered some other action?
.......The poem does not provide enough information to answer these questions. Nor does it provide enough information to determine whether the duke is lying about his wife or exaggerating her faults. Whatever the case, research into her life has resulted in speculation that she was poisoned. Browning himself says the duke either ordered her murder or sent her off to a convent.
.......That the duke regarded his wife as a mere object, a possession, is clear. For example, in Lines 2 and 3, while he and the emissary are looking at the painting, he says, “I call that piece a wonder, now.” Piece explicitly refers to the portrait but implicitly refers to the duchess when she was alive. Now is a telling word in his statement: It reveals that the duchess is a wonder in the portrait, because of the charming pose she strikes, but implies that she was far less than a wonder when she was alive.
.......Of course, the engaging pose the duchess strikes is not the only reason the duke prizes the portrait. He prizes it also because the duchess is under his full control as an image on the wall. She cannot play the coquette; she cannot protest or disobey his commands; she cannot do anything except smile out at the duke and to anyone else the duke allows to view the portrait.
.......As the duke and the emissary turn to go downstairs, the duke points out another art object–a bronze art object showing Neptune taming a sea horse. The emissary might well have wondered whether the duke regarded himself as Neptune and the sea horse as the duchess.
What the emissary plans to tell the count about the duke is open to question. But in real life, the duke did marry the woman he discussed with the emissary.
Type of Work: Poem as Dramatic Monologue
.... "My Last Duchess" is a poem in the form of a dramatic monologue. A dramatic monologue presents a moment in which the main character of the poem discusses a topic and, in so doing, also reveals his personal feelings to a listener. Only the main character, called the speaker, talks–hence the term monologue, meaning single (mono) speaker who presents spoken or written discourse (logue). During his discourse, the speaker makes comments that reveal information about his personality and psyche, knowingly or unknowingly. The main focus of a dramatic monologue is this personal information, not the topic which the speaker happens to be discussing.
.
.Analysis2
Written in 1842 by Robert Browning, "My Last Duchess" is the dramatic monologue of the duke of Ferrara who is negotiating his second marriage through an agent of the count of Tyrol on the grand staircase of the ducal palace at Ferrara in northern Italy. Executing the elements of a dramatic monologue, the duke reveals his situation and much more than he intends to the both the agent and the reader.
Using iambic pentameter AABB couplets Robert Browning reveals the horrifying story of the murder of the duke's previous wife through the duke's conversation with the agent. As the duke attempts to paint an inaccurate picture of himself to the agent, desiring to appear as a nobel, but abused and caring, loving husband who had no choice but to murder his prideful, disrespectful wife, the duke's true controlling, manipulative, jealous nature is revealed.
The duke's desire for control is made evident by the structure of the poem, through his appreciation of art, and his response to the trivial incidences that led to the death of his wife. The frequent use of caesura throughout the poem emphasize the duke's control over the conversation. The duke's appreciation of art reveals the control he has over the artists that produce his works of art; the portrait of his last duchess and the statue of Neptune. Although the duke was unable to control the duchess when she was alive, after her death he is in complete control of her. The duke says "none puts by the curtain I have drawn for you, but I," revealing that now he is able to control both the duchess's countenance and who views the portrait by a curtain covering the portrait (10).
The duke's loss of control is also depicted through the rhythm of the poem. The run over lines in the poem, or enjambment in the poem, reveal the duke's nervous uneasiness over his wife's murder. For example, near the end of the poem, the duke loses control. The reader can only imagine the horrified agent rising to go down the staircase, the duke's uneasiness as he loses control, and his desire to regain control of the situation as he says, "Nay we'll go down together, sir"(53).
The duke wants to appear as a hurt and abused husband whose disrespectful wife left him no alternative but to kill her. However his appreciation of art reveals that he values things that he can control and is contrasted with the images of nature that surround the duchess. The "daylight in the West.....the bough of cherries," and "the white mule," all natural objects that are associated with the duchess' happiness. These images of nature are a sharp contrast to the artificial objects the duke values. His unhappiness over the duchess' association with nature is revealed in the line "I know not how--as if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old-name with anybody's gift"(34). It is clear that the duke believes that his name, something artificial, is of greater value than the natural objects that cause the duchess joy.
In the end it is the duke's loss of control that causes him to kill her. His inability to control the live duchess herself, resulted in her death, and now all that remains is another valued object, which he is in complete control of.

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