40 pages • 1 hour read
My Last Duchess
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Background
Historical Context
The subtitle of the poem, “Ferrara,” has led to it being widely accepted that Browning based his speaker, the duke, on an actual historical character: Alfonso II d’Este (1533-1598), the fifth Duke of Ferrara.
Alfonso belonged to the House of Este, an Italian dynasty with ties to numerous other royal families. He married his first wife, Lucrezia di Cosimo de’ Medici (1545-1561), when she was just 13 years old, and he was 24. Lucrezia belonged to the House of Medici, a wealthy Italian banking family. Lucrezia came with a significant dowry; however, as compared to the prestigious and aristocratic Este family, the Medicis ranked far below them in social status. This is referenced in the poem when the Duke is appalled by his late wife’s seeming disregard for the gift of his “nine-hundred-years-old name” (Line 33). It also comes into play toward the end of the poem when the Duke mentions his expectation of a large dowry while simultaneously discounting this as a reason for marrying the count’s daughter.
Lucrezia’s marriage to Alfonso was reportedly a short and unhappy one, and she died a few years later. Conflicting reports suggest the cause of death as poisoning, possibly on orders of her husband due to suspicion of infidelity, as well as tuberculosis. The latter continues to be the more widely accepted and plausible cause, and the former is touted to be a rumor that was made up by enemies of the Duke (Medici, Lucrezia de, Encyclopedia.com).
Alfonso went on to marry Barbara of Austria (1539-1572), the daughter of Ferdinand I and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary. Barbara was the sister of the Count of Tyrol, Ferdinand II, who is supposed to have arranged the marriage between Alfonso and Barbara. In the poem, while no names are mentioned, the duke speaks to an emissary of a count whose daughter’s hand he seeks in marriage. Before moving to Ferrara after marriage, Barbara resided in Innsbruck, perhaps inspiring the duke’s reference to a fictional sculptor named “Claus of Innsbruck” (Line 55). While all the details do not match exactly, it can nevertheless be assumed that Browning based his poem on these historical figures with a fictionalized version of Alfonso II serving as the speaker in the poem.
Literary Context
Browning lived and wrote in the Victorian period, and the character of the era is evident in his works, including this poem. The Victorian era was an age characterized by invention in a number of fields, and literature was no exception. While it was the novel that gained importance as a literary form, poetry also saw significant contributions, the most enduring of which was the development of the dramatic monologue. Browning was one of the foremost of the “Victorian monologists,” alongside Lord Alfred Tennyson and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
A dramatic monologue is understood to be a poem composed of a monologue delivered by a single character to an implied or actual listener. A single instance or incident serves as the setting of the poem. Through the delivery of the monologue, the speaker reveals significant details about his or her history, character, and psyche; however, the monologue always carries some degree of ambiguity or incompleteness, leaving the reader open to infer additional meaning.
There is some debate about whether the speaker in a dramatic monologue presents these revelations unwittingly or whether the delivery is calculated and intentional. The possibility of both are evident, for instance, in “My Last Duchess.” The duke can be seen as unwittingly confessing to his wife’s murder, thus explaining the briefness of those specific lines (Lines 45-46) and the abrupt change in subject that follows (Lines 47-8). He can also, alternatively, be construed as having set up the context for this monologue to serve a veiled threat and warning to his potential future bride’s family.
“My Last Duchess” remains one of Browning’s most well-known dramatic monologues. It also prefigures his verse murder novel The Ring and the Book, considered to be his greatest work ever.
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By Robert Browning
