An overview of the poem “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning

Year of publication: The poem first appeared in the year 1842 in the volume titled Dramatic Lyrics.

Historical context: the speaker of the poem is ‘Ferrara’ whose character is most likely loosely based on the historical figure of the Alfonso II d’Este, the fifth Duke of Ferrara. The character of the deceased Duchess is probably based on the Duke of Ferrara’s first wife Lucrezia di Cosimo de’ Medici. The twenty five years old Alfonso married fourteen years old Lucrezia in the year 1558 but she died after three years in the year 1561. The cause of her death was subject to much speculation. There was a rumor that the seventeen years old Duchess died of poisoning though there was no irrefutable proof. After Lucrezia’s death, the Duke married Barbara, the sister of the count of Tyrol. The poem, shows the Duke negotiating the terms of his marriage most probably with the emissary of the Count of Tyrol, who was in charge of arranging the marriage.

Setting: the poem is set in Italy during the Renaissance.

Dramatic Monologue : dramatic monologue is a type of lyric poetry, in which, an imaginary speaker addresses an imaginary audience.

According to M. H. Abrams, in a dramatic monologue the following features can be found-

i) ‘ A single person who is patently not the poet, utters the speech that makes up the whole of the poem, in a specific situation at a critical moment.’ ii) ‘This person addresses and interacts with one or more other people ; but we know of the auditor’s presence, and what they say and do, only from clues in the discourse of the single speaker.’ iii) ‘ The main principle controlling the poet’s choice and formulation of what the lyric speaker says is to reveal to the reader, in a way that enhances its interest, the speaker’s temperament and character.’ Though the roots of this poetic form can be traced back to the Classical times, Dramatic monologue fully developed and became widely popular only during the Victorian era. Robert Browning and Lord Tennyson are the two most prolific practitioners of this particular form. Romantic and Modernist poets also often exploited this poetic form.

“My Last Duchess”, “ The Bishop Orders His Tomb”, “Andrea del Sarto” by Browning, “Ulysses” by Tennyson, “ The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot are a few famous examples of dramatic monologue.

Themes: womens’ place in the then society, social status, art, hypocrisy and elitism of the upper class etc.

Form: The poem is written in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is aabbccdd.