Translation

Ferrara

Quella è la mia ultima Duchessa dipinta sul muro

sembra come se fosse viva. io chiamo

quel pezzo una meraviglia, adesso: le mani di Frà Pandolfo

lavorano operosamente una giornara, e lì sta.

Vuole per favore sedersi e guardarla? Io dissi

"Fra Pandolfo" intenzionalmente, perchè mai lessero

estranei come voi quell'espressione dipinta,

la profondità e passione del suo onesto sguardo,

ma loro si volsero a me (perchè nessuno può scostare

la tenda che io ho tirato per voi eccetto me)

e sembrava come se mi chiedessero, se avessero osato,

come tale sguardo foss arrivato lì, così, non siete

il primo a girarvi e chiedere così. Signore, esso non era

di gioia sulla guancia della Duchessa: magari

Fra pandolfo ebbe la possibilità di dire "il suo mantello copre

troppo il polso della mua Signora", o "la pittura

non deve mai sperare di riprodurre il tenue

mezzo rossore che muore lungo la sua gola": tale cosa

fu cortesia, lei pensava, e causa sufficiente

per provocare quel rossore di gioia. Lei aveva

un cuore - come dire?- reso contento troppo presto

troppo facilmente impressionato; le piaceva qualunque cosa

guardasse, e i suoi sguardi andavano ovunque.

Signore, era tutto uguale! La mia coccarda sul suo petto,

Il cadere della luce del giorno a Ovest

Il ramo di ciliegie che qualche sciocco invadente

Staccò nell'orto per lei, il cavallo bianco

 che cavalcava attorno alla terrazza - ogni cosa      

era solita produrre da lei un discorso di approvazione,   

O un rossore, almeno. Ringraziava gli uomini, - bene! Ma ringraziava

In un modo - non so come - come se lei classificasse

Il mio dono di un stirpe di novecento anni  

Con il dono di chiunque. Chi si piegherebbe a rimproverare

Questo tipo di cosa futile? Anche se si avesse l'abilità

Nel parlare - (che io non ho) - di rendere la tua volontà

Abbastanza chiara a una tale persona, e dire, "Proprio questo

O quello disapprovo di te; qui sbagli,

O là vai oltre il segno" - e se lei permette                        

Di essere ripresa così, né chiaramente ponesse

La sua volontà contro la tua, veramente, e chiedesse scusa,

Persino allora bisognerebbe piegarsi, ed io scelgo

Di non piegarmi mai. oh signore, lei sorrideva, senza dubbio,

Ogni volta che le passavo vicino;  ma chi passava senza avere

Esattamente lo stesso sorriso? Questo cresceva; io diedi ordini;

Poi tutti I sorrisi cessarono insieme. Là lei stava

Come se fosse viva. Volete per piacere alzarvi? Incontreremo

La compagnia sotto, dopo. Ripeto,

La conosciuta munificenza del Conte vostro signore                                 

È ampia garanzia che nessuna mia giusta pretesa

verrà disattesa;

anche se la personalità della sua bella figlia, come io ho ammesso

all'inizio, è mio scopo. sì, scenderemo

insieme, signore. Però osserva Nettuno,

domando un cavallo marino, considerato una cosa rara,

che Claus di Innsbruck ha fuso in bronzo per me!

I'm going to analyse My Last Duchess is a dramatic monologue written in 1842 by Robert Browning.

Reading the title the reader may expect the monologue to be about a Dutchess, who probably is dead. As a matter fact, the adjective "last" conveys the idea of something which is no longer present, which has gone away or is dead.

The adjective "my" communicates a sense of possession referred to the Duchess. 

The monologue is organized into in 28 rhyming couplets, very common to ballads and songs.

Since it is a dramatic monologue there is a dramatis personae, living a crucial moment of her/his life and who speaks to a silent listener, who does not intervene.

The word Ferrara, at the first line, provides the situation's setting of the place; moreover the reader can understand also the setting of the time, the Renaissance period, when dukes and duchess were present.

Probably the Duke of Ferrara is speaking to an undefined interlocutor, showing a painting and explaining that he ordered Fra' Pandolph the figure of his last duchess.

The painting is is well done, it is as if the duchess were alive, the Duke calls it a "wonder". The speaking voice insists on recalling the figure of the woman through repetitions of words like "she" and "her".

Right from the start the Duke appears as a very possessive and authoritarian  person, first of all he calls the woman "my last duchess", underlining the possessive pronoun, after that, when the question to the silent listener (if he wants to sit down and look at her) sounds more like an order than as a real question. An other important aspect which underline his possessiveness is that nobody before has seen the picture, only the Duke can draw the curtain which covers it. It is as if he does not want to let people see the picture; thus the silent listener is privileged.

Speaking about the woman, the first piece of information the speaking voice provides the reader deals with her glance: "the depth and passion of its earnest glance". It seems to be a positive image, but going on reading the monologue, the speaking voice says that "her looks went everywhere" and since his possessive nature has already partly come to surface, the duchess' characteristic is probably a negative aspect.  

The reader comes to know that the silent listener is an aristocratic thank to the word "Sir" used by the Duke while speaking to him ("Sir, 'twas not...").

After that some of Fra' Pandolph sentences are reported: he said the mantle's laps cover too much the duchess' wrist and that paint have not to hope to "reproduce the half-flush that dies along her throat".

The appreciations of the painter provoke in her a "spot of joy"; she thought blushing was courtesy and she blushed in front of the Duke in the same way she blushed in front of anybody.

The expression "half- flush that dies..." recalls the death, in particular it seems to be an anticipation of the future decision of the Duke to have her wife killed.

The duke wanted to have the control of her feelings and emotions and since it was not possible he decided to order to kill her.

The word "stuff" is an informal use of the language which has a negative connotation.

After that the Duke continues to describe the duchess' behavior and to give judgments: her heart was "too soon made glad" and "too easily impressed". The anaphoric use of syntax strongly emphasizes a sort of "disgust" of the duke for the way she acted.

The lady did not behave on the standards of the time; moreover she was unable to distinguish rank: she approved everything, she was an open person, she smiled to anybody, she was moved by anybody's attention and she considered a Dukes' gift in the same way she considered anybody's gift.

The monologue reveals much more about the Duke's personality than about the duchess herself. At this point the reader has composed a rather clear idea about him: he is possessive, authoritarian, dominating, jealous, he considers  the social status important, as a matter of fact he strongly underlines that he had a "nine-hundred-years-old name", he is not at the same level of the other people.

He chooses "never to stoop" (the verb to stoop is repeated three times), he is also proud, arrogant, full of himself.

He admits he ordered to make her killed: "I gave commands, then all smiles stopped together". The sentence describes what seems to be simple, easy, ordinary action.

The sentence "There she stands as if alive" recalls the sentence at the start of the monologue, he looks at the picture and he feels as if she were still alive.

In the last part of the monologue the intelligent reader may understand that the Duke has told the story to the silent listener because he is going to get married again. Probably the interlocutor is the father ("though his fair daughter's self") and the Duke want to give him a sort of warning and admonition for how should be the behaviour of his future wife.  

He does not care of the dowry of the new wife, he wants to be the only to have control on her, it is as if the new duchess will be just an object.