Essay About Present Title And Ending Of The Poem

Robert Browning – My Last Duchess
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My Last Duchess
FERRARA
1Thats my last Duchess painted on the wall,
2Looking as if she were alive. I call
3That piece a wonder, now: FrÐo Pandolfs 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 husbands presence only, called that spot
15Of joy into the Duchess cheek: perhaps
16FrÐo Pandolf chanced to say, “Her mantle laps
17Over my Ladys 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 whateer
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 anybodys gift. Whod 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–Een then would be some stooping; and I chuse
43Never to stoop. Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,
44Wheneer 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? Well meet
48The company below, then. I repeat,
49The Count your Masters known munificence
50Is ample warrant that no just pretence
51Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
52Though his fair daughters self, as I avowed
53At starting, is my object. Nay, well 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 Brownings own invention. Title: emphasizing the word Last as the ending of the poem implies; the Duke, identified as “Ferrara” in the poems 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 Barbaras entourage then. This source was discovered by Louis