Second

Paper:

“My Last Duchess” and comparison between Robert Browning and Lord Byron.

Author: Rubén Paz Simeón.

Professor: Vicent Forés.

- The poem that I’ve chosen for this second paper is “My last Duchess”1842 by Robert Browning (he was a great admirer of the romantic poet Shelley but his work is better compared to another Romantic author: Lord Byron), the poem tells the story of the fifth Duke of Ferrara, this is the reason why the poem has the opening word “Ferrara”, and his relation with the Duchess.

“The poem is preceded by the word “Ferrara”: indicating that the speaker is most likely Alfonso II, fifth Duke of Ferrara (1533 - 1598) who at the age of 25, married the 14-year-old Lucrezia di Cosimo de’ Medici, the daughter of Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Eleanora di Toledo.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Last_Duchess).

The author is describing a real situation, which he lived. This kind of poem, referring to stories from their travels, is very usual on Robert Browning’s plays, and can be compared with the Romantic poet Lord Byron, who also wrote many poems referring to his travels all around Europe (we will see it later).

“Lucrezia was not well educated, and the Medicis’ status could be termed “nouveau riche” in comparison with that of the venerable and distinguished Este family. The Duke’s remark regarding his gift of a “nine-hundred-years-old-name” clearly indicates that he considered his bride beneath him socially. She came, however, with a sizeable dowry. The couple married in 1558, and she died three years later, on April 21, 1561, at the age 17. There was a strong suspicion of poisoning. The Duke then sought the hand of Barbara, eighth daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary and the niece of the count of Tyrol. The count was in charge of arranging the marriage; the chief of his entourage, Nikolaus Mardruz, a native of Innsbruck, was his courier. Mardruz is presumably the silent listener in the poem.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Last_Duchess).

“The other characters named in the poem, painter Frà Pandolf and sculptor Claus of Innsbruck, are fictional.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Last_Duchess).

“In “My Last Duchess”, the Duke of Ferrara shows off his art collection to the representative of a nobleman to whose daughter the duke is engaged. The centrepiece of his collection is a portrait of his recently deceased wife, whom the duke has had murdered because of her supposedly indiscriminate attentions” Alfredo Molina (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/feature.html)

The poem is:

Ferrara:
That's my last Duchess painted on the wall, A
Looking as if she were alive. I call A
That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf's hands B
Worked busily a day, and there she stands. B
Will't please you sit and look at her? I said C
"Frà Pandolf" by design, for never read C
Strangers like you that pictured countenance, D
The depth and passion of its earnest glance, D
But to myself they turned (since none puts by E
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I) E
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst, F
How such a glance came there; so, not the first F
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 'twas not G
Her husband's presence only, called that spot G
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps H
Frà Pandolf chanced to say "Her mantle laps H
Over my Lady's wrist too much," or "Paint I
Must never hope to reproduce the faint I
Half-flush that dies along her throat": such stuff J
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough J
For calling up that spot of joy. She had K
A heart — how shall I say? — too soon made glad, K
Too easily impressed; she liked whate'er L
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere. L
Sir, 'twas all one! My favour at her breast, M
The dropping of the daylight in the West, M
The bough of cherries some officious fool N
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule N
She rode with round the terrace — all and each Ñ
Would draw from her alike the approving speech, Ñ
Or blush, at least. She thanked men, — good! but thanked O
Somehow — I know not how — as if she ranked O
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name P
With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame P
This sort of trifling? Even had you skill Q
In speech — (which I have not) — to make your will Q
Quite clear to such an one, and say, "Just this R
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss, R
Or there exceed the mark" — and if she let S
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set S
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse, T
--E'en then would be some stooping, and I chooseT
Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt, U
Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without U
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; V
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands V
As if alive. Will't please you rise? We'll meet W
The company below, then. I repeat,W
The Count your master's known munificence X
Is ample warrant that no just pretence X
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed; Y
Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed Y
At starting, is my object. Nay, we'll go Z
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though, Z
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity, a
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me! a

“The poem is set during the late Italian Renaissance. The narrator (presumably the Duke of Ferrara) is giving the emissary of his prospective second wife a tour of the artworks in his home. He draws a curtain to reveal a painting of a woman, explaining that it is a portrait of his late wife; he invites his guest to sit and look at the painting. As they look at the portrait of his late Duchess, the Due describes her happy, cheerful and flirtatious nature, which had displeased him. He says, “She had a heart – how shall I say? – too soon made me glad...” He goes on to say that his complaint of her was that “twas not her husband’s presence only” that made her happy. Eventually, “I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together.” He now keeps her painting hidden behind a curtain that only he is allowed to draw back, so now she only smiles for him. The Duke then resumes an earlier conversation regarding wedding arrangements, and in passing points out another work of art, a bronze statue of Neptune taming a sea-horse.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Last_Duchess)

The poem has 28 rhymed couplets in 56 verses, with an iambic pentameter prevailing, and the poet uses a very simple rhyme scheme, based in the repetition of couplets. A couplet is a pair of lines of verse that form a unit, and the rhyme that the author uses is aa, bb, cc, dd, etc.

This poem by Robert Browning uses the iambic pentameter, and can be compared with, the Lord Byron’s poem “Childe Harold” 1812-1818. This poem is similar in the poem scheme, Byron uses also the iambic pentameter, but with the only difference that he used it inside the “spenserian stanza”.

The spenserian stanza is: “a fixed verse form invented by Edmund Spenser for his epic poem The Faerie Queene. Each verse contains nine lines in total: eight lines in iambic pentameter followed by a single 'Alexandrine' line in iambic hexameter. The rhyme scheme of these lines is "ababbcbcc".” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spenserian_stanza)

But the most important similarity is their love to their “new countries”, and how they included the stories they lived in their poems. Robert Browning used to tell stories but always as a third person (Ex. “My Last Duchess”), but Byron used to tell the stories as he wasn’t, and he substitutes himself by the principal character of the poem, (Ex. “Childe Harold”). This type of phenomenon it’s called: “Byronic Hero”.

The “Byronic Hero” is: “The Byronic hero is usually described as an outsider, and with a contradictory nature; sometimes cruel, sometimes kind, devoted but unfaithful, and never contented, but eternally seeking out new sensations.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childe_Harold)

An example of this poem wrote by Byron is this verse from the first of his “Cantos” from “Childe Harold”. In this verse we can see clear references to Greece, were he probably lived in that time:

Oh, thou! in Hellas deem'd of heavenly birth,

Muse! form'd or fabled at the minstrel's will!

Since shamed full oft by later lyres on earth,

Mine dares not call thee from thy sacred hill:

Yet there I've wander'd by thy vaunted rill:

Yes! sigh'd o'er Delphi's long deserted shrine,[*]

Where save that feeble fountain, all is still;

Nor mote my shell awake the weary Nine

To grace so plain a tale -- this lowly lay of mine.

(http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/7086/chp1.htm)

And in this verse we can see the “Byronic Hero” in this case “Childe Harold”:

Childe Harold bask'd him in the noontide sun,

Disporting there like any other fly;

Nor deem'd before his little day was done

One blast might chill him into misery.

But long ere scarce a third of his pass'd by,

Worse than adversity the Childe befell;

He felt the fulness of satiety:

Then loathed he in his native land to dwell,

Which seem'd to him more lone than Eremite's sad cell.

(http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/7086/chp1.htm)

Another similarity with Byron is that both began their poetic career when they were very young, and they both travelled around Europe. Byron travelled to Greece, etc... And R. Browning spent his middle life living in Italy, he always admired this country, and as Byron his poems were very influenced by the country where they lived. But a big difference is that Byron had many love affairs and he never had a wife, and R. Browning was married with Elizabeth Barret, who also was a famous poet, this is an example of “The Woman Question” where women has more importance in all the aspects of life.

“Lord Byron began his poetic career when he was very young, more o less at 17 years old, his first volumes of poetry were “Fugitive Pieces”1802, “printed by Ridge of Newark, which contained poems written when Byron was only fourteen.” (http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron)

“Robert Browning was born in Camberwell, a suburb of London, England, on May 7, 1812. In childhood, (Robert Browning), was distinguished by love of poetry and natural history. By twelve, he had written a book of poetry, which he destroyed when no publisher could be found. After being at one or two private schools, and showing an insuperable dislike of school life, he was educated by a tutor. He became a great admirer of the Romantic poets, especially Shelley.” (http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Browning)

“Lord Byron was born in London in 1788, his family was quite rich and he had a good education in Edinburgh. His poetic career became very important, but he had a very successful life participating in different wars like: Greece independence war, etc. And he was also considered a very extravagant person, because he had many love affairs, debts, separations and allegations of incest and sodomy.”

(http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron)

The author uses tail rhymes (a rhyme in the final syllable of a verse) in all the poem, the masculine rhyme is the chosen by the poet. This rhyme has the stress on the final syllable words (Ex. not-spot, name-blame, etc.). I’ve had many difficulties to find rhetorical figures, but I’ve found some: aporias (lines 5, 22, 34-35, 45 and 47 “Will’t please you sit and look at her?” “how shall I say?” “Who’d stoop to blame this sort of trifling?” “But who passed without much the same smile?” “Will’t please you rise?”) “Deliberating with oneself, often with use of rhetorical questions” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es); hypophoras (lines 34 and 44 “Even had you skill in speech” “This grew;”) “Answering one’s own rhetorical question at length” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es); similes (lines 2 and 46-47 “Looking as if she were alive” “There she stands as if alive”) “An explicit comparison between two things” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es); hyperbole (lines 16, 22, 33, 49, 54 and 55 “Her mantle laps” “too soon made glad” “My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old-name” “The count your master’s known munificence” “Notice Neptune” “Taming a sea-horse”), “use of exaggerated terms for emphasis” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es); anthropomorphism (lines 12, 21, 46 and 56 “glance came there” “For calling up that stop of joy” ”smiles stopped” “Innsbruck cast in bronze for me”), “applying human or animal qualities to inanimate objects” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es); personification (lines 7, 8, 27, and 46 “pictured countenance” “depth and passion of its earnest glance” “cherries some officious fool” “There she stands (she’s death)”), “Attributing a personality to some impersonal object” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es); metaphor (lines 10, 19, 26 and 41, “curtain I’ve drawn for you” “Half-flush that dies” “The dropping of the daylight” “Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse”), “An implied comparison of two things” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es); archaism (lines 5, 16, 42 and 44, “Will’t” “Frá” “—E’en” “Whene’er”), “Use of an obsolete, archaic, word” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es) and finally there is a malapropism (line 34, “stoop”), “Using a word through confusion with a word that sounds similar” (http://aulavirtual.uv.es).

Robert Browning was quite influenced by the Romanticism, Shelley was his most influent Romantic author. “Browning was a rapid learner and by the age of fourteen was very fluent in French, Greek, Italian and Latin as well as his native English. He became a great admirer of the Romantic poets, especially Shelley. Following the precedent of Shelley, Browning became an atheist and vegetarian, both of which he later shed.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Browning)

In conclusion Robert Browning was a fantastic Victorian author but his poems were a bit too much dense, but Lord Byron had a fluent poetry very easy to understand and especially “Epitaph to a dog” (one of my favourites) on where he expresses his painful for the death of his dog, which demonstrates a very high grade of humanity.

On the other hand Browning had only a wife, as the normal people do, but Byron had many affairs around the world with much different kind of women. Finally I would like to say that they seem much different in some things than on other, where they seem very similar.

Bibliography.

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Browning

- http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron

- http://www.poetryfoundation.org

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Last_Duchess

- http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/feature.html

- http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/7086/chp1.htm