"My Last Duchess" By Robert Browning

I Read this text at my Graduation.


This poem is loosely based on historical events involving Alfonso, the Duke of Ferrara, who lived in the 16th century. The Duke is the speaker of the poem, and tells us he is entertaining ambassadors who have come to discuss the Duke’s next marriage to the daughter of another powerful family. As he shows the visitor through his palace, he stops before a portrait of the late Duchess, apparently a young and lovely girl. The Duke begins recollecting about the portrait sessions, then about the Duchess herself. He claims she flirted with everyone and did not appreciate his “gift of a nine-hundred-years- old name.” 
As the poem continues, the reader realizes that the Duke in fact caused the Duchess’s early death: when her behavior becomes worse. After showing the portrait, the Duke talks about the arrangement of another marriage, with another young girl. As the Duke and the ambassadors walk leave the painting behind, the Duke points out other notable artworks in his collection.
The speaker in the poem is likely Alfonso II d'Este, the fifth Duke of Ferrara (1533–1598), who, at the age of 25, married Lucrezia di Cosimo de' Medici, the 14-year-old daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Eleonora di Toledo. Lucrezia was not well educated but She came with a handsome dowry, and the couple married in 1558. He then abandoned her for two years before she died on 21 April 1561, at age 17. There was a strong suspicion of poisoning. The Duke then asked for the hand of Barbara, eighth daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary and the sister of the Count of Tyrol, Ferdinand II. The portrait was painted by Fra Pandolf, a monk and painter whom the duke believes captured the singularity of the duchess's glance. However, the duke insists to the ambassadors that his former wife’s deep, passionate looks were not reserved only for her husband. She was too easily impressed into sharing her friendly nature.

The portrait that you are watching above is regarded as the same portrait that the duke had shown to the ambassadors.





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