My Last Duchess

By Robert Browning

• Browning was born in London in 1812. • His father worked for the Bank of England and was a great reader, who owned over 6000 books. • Browning inherited his father’s love for literature and the arts, and wrote his first poem at the age of six.

• By the age of fourteen, Browning was fluent in Latin, Greek, Italian and French. • He could easily have gone to Oxford or Cambridge; however, in those days they were only open to Church of England followers and Browning’s family were evangelical.

• Browning married another famous poet, Elizabeth Barrett, who had been living as an invalid and had not left her bedroom for five years. • They were forced to marry in secret as Barrett’s father disapproved of any of his children marrying.

• Browning spirited his new wife off to Italy, where they spent their lives happily and comfortably until Barrett’s death in 1861. • Browning died at his son Robert’s home in 1889.

• My Last Duchess is written in the form of a dramatic monologue. • Browning wrote lots of poems in this style and they were very popular in the Victorian period. • A dramatic monologue has only one speaker. Over the course of the poem, the speaker unintentionally reveals certain things about themselves.

• The speaker in the poem is Alfonso II, fifth Duke of Ferrara (a province in Italy), who lived from 1533 – 1598. • When he was 25 he married Lucrezia di Cosimo de’ Medici, whose father was the Grand Duke of Tuscany. She was 14 years old at the time.

• Lucrezia’s family were noveau riche – they would have been pleased by Alfonso’s ‘gift of a nine-hundred year old name’. • Lucrezia was not well educated but would have come with a sizeable dowry. • Lucrezia died very suddenly at the age of 17, and many people believed that she had been poisoned.

• After the death of Lucrezia, the Duke went on to marry again. • This time, his wife was the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, Barbara. • The marriage appears to have been a happy one until Barbara’s death from tuberculosis in 1572. • His third wife was Barbara’s fifteen-year old niece, Margherita Gonzaga.