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READ THIS
Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" is a dramatic monologue, spoken by the Duke of Ferrara
who explains to a suitor's ambassador why he had ordered his previous wife to be executed.
The Duke reveals himself to be an irrationally jealous man who could not bear to have his wife even
smiling at any other man. Eventually his jealousies got the better of him and he gave orders, and his wife
was executed. But, with her death, came the death of happiness all about him.
READ THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE
Ferrara:
That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now: Fra Pandolf's hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will't please you sit and look at her? I said
"Fra Pandolf" by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so, not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 'twas not
Her husband's presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps
Fr… Pandolf chanced to say "Her mantle laps
Over my Lady's wrist too much," or "Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies along her throat": such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart -- how shall I say? -- too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed; she liked whate'er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now.
- How do we know that this is a very good painting? (2)
[Need help?]
The painting is so realistic that it looks as though the woman in it were alive. The Duke himself believes
that it is a masterpiece.
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I said
"Fra Pandolf" by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there.
- Who is "Fra Pandolf"? Why is he called "Fra"? (2)
[Need help?]
Fra Pandolf is the painter of the portrait. "Fra" means "Brother" which indicates that the
painter is probably a monk.
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- What do the words "by design" mean? (1)
[Need help?]
The Duke said these words deliberately or on purpose.
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- What is the "pictured countenance"? (2)
[Need help?]
A "countenance" is a face. It is "pictured" because the face appears in a painting. The
"pictured countenance" therefore refers to the Duchess's painted face as it appears in the portrait.
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- What was everyone's reaction upon seeing the painting? Name TWO things. (2)
[Need help?]
They all turned to the nobleman and asked what had caused that particular look on the Duchess's face.
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- Supply ONE word to replace "durst". (1)
[Need help?]
- How do we know that the nobleman is very possessive of his painting? (3)
[Need help?]
- He keeps the painting hidden behind a curtain.
- He is the only one allowed to draw the curtain to expose the painting.
- It is he who decides who is allowed to look at the painting.
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Sir, 'twas not
Her husband's presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek.
- Rewrite these lines in your own words. (2)
[Need help?]
It was not only the presence of her husband which caused that look of joy on her face or caused her to
blush in that manner.
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Perhaps
Fra Pandolf chanced to say . . . 'Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies along her throat'.
- What compliment does Fra Pandolf pay the lady in these lines? (2)
[Need help?]
Fra Pandolf perhaps told the Duchess that she was so beautiful he would never be able to copy, capture
her beauty or reproduce in a painting the glow along her neck.
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She had
A heart -- how shall I say? -- too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed.
- What is the nobleman's criticism of his wife? (2)
[Need help?]
The Duke believed that his wife was too easily impressed or too quickly made happy.
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