Robert Browning - My Last Duchess

My Last Duchess

FERRARA

1That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,

2Looking as if she were alive. I call

3That piece a wonder, now: FrÐo Pandolf's hands

4Worked busily a day, and there she stands.

5Will 't please you sit and look at her? I said

6"FrÐo Pandolf" by design, for never read

7Strangers like you that pictured countenance,

8The depth and passion of its earnest glance,

9But to myself they turned (since none puts by

10The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)

11And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,

12How such a glance came there; so, not the first

13Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 'twas not

14Her husband's presence only, called that spot

15Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps

16FrÐo Pandolf chanced to say, "Her mantle laps

17Over my Lady's wrist too much," or "Paint

18Must never hope to reproduce the faint

19Half-flush that dies along her throat"; such stuff

20Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough

21For calling up that spot of joy. She had

22A heart . . . how shall I say? . . . too soon made glad,

23Too easily impressed; she liked whate'er

24She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.

25Sir, 'twas all one! My favour at her breast,

26The dropping of the daylight in the West,

27The bough of cherries some officious fool

28Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule

29She rode with round the terrace--all and each

30Would draw from her alike the approving speech,

31Or blush, at least. She thanked men,--good; but thanked

32Somehow . . . I know not how . . . as if she ranked

33My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name

34With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame

35This sort of trifling? Even had you skill

36In speech--(which I have not)--to make your will

37Quite clear to such an one, and say, "Just this

38Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,

39Or there exceed the mark"--and if she let

40Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set

41Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,

42--E'en then would be some stooping; and I chuse

43Never to stoop. Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,

44Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without

45Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;

46Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands

47As if alive. Will 't please you rise? We'll meet

48The company below, then. I repeat,

49The Count your Master's known munificence

50Is ample warrant that no just pretence

51Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;

52Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed

53At starting, is my object. Nay, we'll go

54Together down, Sir! Notice Neptune, though,

55Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,

56Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me.

Notes

1] First published in Dramatic Lyrics, 1842; given its present title in 1849 (Dramatic Romances and Lyrics).

The emphasis in the title is on last, as the ending of the poem makes clear; the Duke is now negotiating for his next Duchess. Fra Pandolf (line 3) and Claus of Innsbruck (line 54) are artists of Browning's own invention. Title: emphasizing the word Last as the ending of the poem implies; the Duke, identified as "Ferrara" in the poem's speech prefix, is negotiating for his next Duchess. In 1842 the title was "Italy and France. I. -- Italy" (then the poem was paired with "Count Gismond: Aix in Provence," which followed). Ferrara: most likely, Browning intended Alfonso II (1533-1598), fifth duke of Ferrara, in northern Italy, from 1559 to 1597, and the last member of the Este family. He married his first wife, 14-year-old Lucrezia, a daughter of the Cosimo I de' Medici, in 1558 and three days later left her for a two-year period. She died, 17 years old, in what some thought suspicious circumstances. Alfonso contrived to meet his second to-be spouse, Barbara of Austria, in Innsbruck in July 1565. Nikolaus Mardruz, who took orders from Ferdinand II, count of Tyrol, led Barbara's entourage then. This source was discovered by Louis