1. My Last Duchess - Paper 2: Poetry Anthology
Starter: What is a dramatic Monologue? Can you name any features of one?
Lesson objectives: All will be able to comment on the meaning of My Last Duchess Most will be able to analyse the language of My Last Duchess Some will be able to analyse effect in detail, offering interesting interpretations

4. Read the information on the next 2 slides and list the main points in your work book:
This poem was published in Dramatic Lyrics in The poem appears as one half of a conversation. The speaker is the unnamed Duke of Ferrara, a city-state in Lombardy (now the north of Italy. The listener is an envoy (a kind of diplomat and messenger). His master, a count, has sent him to negotiate the dowry for the marriage of his (the count's) daughter to the duke.
The Duke's "last duchess" is the subject of his speech - and of the poem. While having her portrait painted, the duchess revealed innocent qualities that irritated the duke so much, that he chose to have her killed. His power is absolute, and she is easily replaced.

5. But the portrait, by a master painter, is of far more value to the duke, and he is pleased to show this off to his distinguished visitor. The critic Isobel Armstrong sums up the poem like this: "The mad duke...cannot love without so possessing and destroying the identity of his wife that he literally kills her and lives with her dead substitute, a work of art.“
Her reading may be right - but do you think the duke is mad? Perhaps he is sane but very cruel and ruthless. The duke names two artists - both imaginary. They are the painter Frà (Brother) Pandolf and the sculptor Claus of Innsbruck. The poem may draw on a literary tradition of despotic Italians (as you will find in John Keats' poem, Isabella).

7. Copy the following notes into your anthology:
FORM: dramatic monologue – obsessed with power – unsettling
STRUCTURE: What do you notice about it?
Ferrara, then one long stanza. No pause, frequent enjambment, shows his inability to control his anger
RHYME AND RHYTHM: What do you notice about it?
Iambic pentameter creates impression that the Duke is in conversation with his visitor. Rhyming couplets show Duke’s desire for control but enjambment shows he gets carried away with his anger.

8. Ferrara?
A region of Italy. In 1561 the Duke of Ferrara’s wife, Lucrezia, died in suspicious circumstances

9. That's my last duchess painted on the wall,
Possessive personal pronoun – owns both her and the painting
Caesura – hesitation implies he did not see her as such when she was alive
Enjambment – shows his inability to control his anger. He is unstable
Sets sinister tone
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,
That depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain drawn for you, but I) 
Rhetorical Question as he doesn't wait for a reply. Sounds polite but really quite forceful
Enjambment – visitor given no chance to reply
parenthesis– aside shows he controls who looks at the painting, but he couldn’t control her

10. And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
Verb highlights how insubstantial his accusations are
Believes others see guilt in her countenance
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, 't was not
Her husband's presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps
Fra 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.
Metaphor for blush
Reference to death out of place and suspicious. Hints at Duchess’ fate
Repetition of the image shows that it bothers him

11. She had a heart - how shall I say? - too soon made glad,
Punctuation and rhetorical q. show he is struggling to express his irritation
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.
Sir, 't was all one! My favour at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace -all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
Or blush, at least. She thanked men - good! but thanked Somehow - I know not how - as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame
This sort of trifling? 
She was cheery and friendly. Duke sees this as a criticism
Punctuation shows he is being defensive
Listing, plosives and alliteration show Duke’s disdain at her actions
Punctuation creates Caesura. Stuttering effect showing his exasperation at her behaviour
Very proud of his family. Status v. important to him
Rhet. Q. implies her faults weren’t worthy of his intervention. Ironic that he kills her for them

12. Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss
False modesty. He clearly likes speaking
Even had you skill In speech - (which I have not) - to make your will Quite clear to such a one, and say, "Just this
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss
Or there exceed the mark"- and if she let
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set [40]
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse
E'en then would be some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive. 
Verb suggests he is very affected by her behaviour
His madness / cruelty is emphasised, as even if she changed her ways, it would not be enough
Repetition x 3 of verb shows he felt she was beneath him.
Euphemism for her murder. Cold and cynical
Rhet. Q. shows it was her smiling nature that he disliked. Wanted it to himself

13. Will 't please you rise? We'll meet The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count your master's known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretence [50]
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed
At starting is my object. Nay, we'll go
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though, Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me.
Moves onto new art work. Emphasises his power and wealth.
The monologue is a subtle warning to his visitor about how he expects his new wife to behave,
Arranging his next marriage
New duchess destined to be his possession too

14. Feelings and Attitudes
PRIDE
JEALOUSY
POWER – The abuse of power (link to London)