Thread by @GCSE_Macbeth

**POETRY SPECIAL**

An interesting idea for every line of MY LAST DUCHESS.

(this might take a few days)

1/

That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall:

- the pronoun THAT implies the Duke sees her as an object, which she now is
- LAST implying she's one of a number: we notice that it makes a sham of his marriage vows, perhaps

2/

- PAINTED has a connotation of using make-up. In Shakespeare, for example, it's code for female dishonesty

3/

Looking as if she were alive. I call

AS IF SHE WERE ALIVE -- I think the Duchess was already dead when he had the portrait done. Freshly dead. This line also carries the sense that a painted Duchess is as good as a living one to the Duke.

4/

I CALL: this poem is a great advert for IAMBIC PENTAMETER and ENJAMBMENT. You could hear it a few times before realising it's all in COUPLETS.

These techniques create a feeling of heightened, poetic language and aristocratic speech, while still in a conversational tone.

5/

That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands

- THAT PIECE: another reference to the Duchess as object
- A WONDER, NOW: again, he prefers the Duchess now to when she was alive
- FRA PANDOLF'S HANDS: maybe he fixates on the hands because he's watching Pandolf so closely

6/

Worked busily a day, and there she stands.

- WORKED BUSILY A DAY because if the painting is a fresco you have to paint while the plaster is still wet (or fresh: "fresco"). Also because with the body still warm he needs to work before she loses that fresh corpse look!

7/

- THERE SHE STANDS: again, talking about the painted Duchess as if she's the living one

8/

Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said

- Now, the Duke sounds like he's asking a question, but since the painting he's already describing is behind a curtain he has presumably already pulled back, really he's giving an instruction. An example of his arrogance.

9/

“Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read

The next 8 lines are hard to unpick syntactically, so for now let's just note:

- that the Duke is a bit fixated on exactly what Fra Pandolf does
- that the twisty syntax adds to a general air of ambiguity and obfuscation

10/

Strangers like you that pictured countenance,

- he calls the envoy of his new Duchess' family a STRANGER, suggesting he doesn't exactly feel intimate with them or emotionally invested in the match.

11/

The depth and passion of its earnest glance,

- the Duke ascribes noble, honest emotions to the Duchess' painting, which he never ascribes to her in real life. In life he found her simple-witted and flirtatious. Again, he prefers the painted version.

12/

But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)

OK THIS IS TWO LINES DON'T @ ME

- The Duke can now control access to the Duchess.

- Is there an echo of their curtained bed -- and his fear of infidelity -- in what the Duke says?

13/

And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,

- A little bit of self-aggrandising here. On the one hand he thinks all men are a threat to his marriage, but now he says men don't DARE to ask him about her.

14/

How such a glance came there; so, not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus.

- The end of that 8-line sentence. Bear with me. What the Duke says is "I said Fra Pandolf by design, because everyone who sees the painting asks me how her "earnest glance" got there."

15/

What it SOUNDS like he's saying is, "I said Fra Pandolf because people always want to know who the artist was who painted her glance."

But what happens is he segues, unasked, into a paranoid discussion of exactly what the Duchess' GLANCE was and why she looked that way.

16/

Sir, ’twas not
Her husband’s presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek;

- The GLANCE has become a SPOT OF JOY as the Duke descends into jealousy.

- SPOT: he sees her blushing (I've always read it as a blush) as a SPOT as in a STAIN on her character

17/

So now we've sequed from thinking about the Duchess' expression as something beautiful that an artist painted, into seeing it as proof of her immoral character.

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.”

Right...

19/

The Duke's story is deeply murky and ambiguous. He says "PERHAPS Fra Pandolf CHANCED to say", then repeats two very specific things he said verbatim.

20

Now, I've always got a distinct hint of death, of murder, from "the faint half-flush that dies along her throat".

It reeks of throat-cutting. It also suggests that colour is draining away from her...

21/

I maintain there's a distinct chance that the Duchess was dead -- recently dead -- when Fra Pandolf painted her.

22/

At the same time, there's an obsessive detail in "the faint half-flush that dies along her throat" -- does it suggest a flush of sexual pleasure? Is this the Duke's paranoia again, imagining the Duchess to be aroused by the presence of the artist?

23/

Such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
For calling up that spot of joy.

I think we're talking about "courtesy" in the sense of a chivalric type of masculine behaviour, rather than just politeness.

24/

There's a bit of blame here, too: a blush is involuntary, but the Duke accuses the Duchess of "calling it up" -- perhaps in an effort to flatter men.

25/

She had
A heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad,

A classic euphemism: a "heart too soon made glad" sounds like a fine thing, not an accusation of lasciviousness.

26/

Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.

Again -- he accuses the Duchess of being active in her lustfulness. She seeks out things to look on with temptation.

27/

Sir, ’twas all one! My favour at her breast,

Check the different implications of FAVOUR: both a gift that the Duchess should wear, and also the Duke's approval or acceptance, for which he thinks she should be equally grateful.

The dropping of the daylight in the West,

This is a bit of a push maybe, but it seems fitting that the Duke views a beautiful sunset as a loss of daylight -- and a loss of the Duchess' attention -- rather than as someone pleasant to watch in itself.

29/

The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her,

A loaded sexual image: this is a key line in the poem for teachers and students willing to brave its implications...

30/

"Cherry" meaning "virginity" wasn't in use yet, but cherries have a long history as an image of female sexuality:
(LINK NOT SAFE FOR SCHOOL)

google.com/amp/s/broadly.…

31/

The BOUGH broken from the Duke's tree by another man is a phallic image of emasculation. It represents a loss of sexual authority for the Duke.

32/

And of course the imagery of fruit from trees as a symbol of forbidden sexual knowledge goes back to the Bible.

33/

OFFICIOUS is another euphemism: a word that could mean "too eager to please" but is used for someone the Duke sees as a sexual threat.

34/

the white mule
She rode with round the terrace

A MULE is the offspring of a horse and a donkey -- so perhaps operates here as a symbol of the Duke's fears over having his sexual authority challenged by someone lesser, or of his bloodline being polluted.

35/

The image of the Duchess on a WHITE MULE is deliberately ridiculous. A white horse, a proper horse, would be a majestic and stately animal for a queen to ride. The Duchess falls short of perfection.

As an image it has a sort of cod-mythological feel...

36/

You might see Guinevere portrayed on a white horse. Or Godiva. A white horse is a symbol of Death in Christianity.

It's a good image to capture the self-importance of the Duke but also the way the poem satirises him.

37/

all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
Or blush, at least.

By "ALL and EACH" the duke seems to mean both the things the Duchess liked and the people giving them. It refers to her lack of discernment.

38/

Compare the Duke's own view of himself as a careful curator and collector of objects (and of women).

39/

In terms of "THE APPROVING SPEECH", it's worth asking if the Duke and Duchess ever actually communicate. For all the prominence of Fra Pandolf or the men bringing gifts, the Duke never recalls anything he actually said to his wife.

40/

She thanked men—good! but thanked
Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked

The stuttering rhythm here and use of caesurae and enjambment show that we're at the root of the Duke's complaint and his anger.

41/

In a poem where rhymes are mostly skillfully phrased to be unobtrusive, THANKED and RANKED really stands out. The Duchess is ignoring the rules of an intricate game of social protocol -- even her polite words are freighted with meaning and implication.

42/

So THANKED and RANKED covey an almost visceral, spluttering fury at her actions that smooth diction or delivery can't quite conceal.

43/

My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody’s gift.

The word GIFT is a key one if you want a quote for an essay. The Duke thinks the Duchess owes him respect and a certain type of behaviour in gratitude for his deigning to marry her.

44/

There's something chillingly impersonal in how the Duke views the relationship. He and the Duchess are like two almost anonymous figures playing roles defined by history and titles. Just as the Duchess is interchangeable, so is he to an extent.

45/

Who’d stoop to blame
This sort of trifling?

A bit of equivocation from the always-slippery Duke. We think he means "Who could possibly be offended by this behaviour?". In fact, his offence and his BLAME of the Duchess are already cemented. It's the STOOPING he objects to.

46/

STOOP is interesting. etymonline.com tells me: 'Figurative sense of "condescend," especially expressing a lowering of the moral self, is from 1570s'.

For example Shaks. The Tempest: "bend
The dukedom yet unbow'd—alas, poor Milan!—
To most ignoble stooping." (I.2)

47/

Even had you skill
In speech—which I have not—

A lie: the Duke is a skilled talker who juggles details and ambiguity with ease. Browning gives him a heightened diction through speech and metre. More accurate: he had no *interest* in talking to the Duchess.

48/

to make your will
Quite clear to such an one, and say,

Is there an implied class difference between him and the Duchess? Perhaps she wasn't born into the same world of social protocol. He doesn't think he should need to explain things.

49/

"Such an one" sounds dismissive, as if he's referring to someone of a different class or background. Perhaps it's just his way of dismissing her by age or gender.

50/

“Just this
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,
Or there exceed the mark”

Note that DISGUST is the first identifiable emotion that the Duke has expressed towards his former wife.

51/

Even in a private conversation, sharing words that were unsaid between him and his wife, DISGUST is all he has.

I wonder if "exceed the mark" is a compliment -- as in "be better than expected" -- or more of a criticism, like "overstep your boundaries".

51/

—and if she let
Herself be lessoned so,

I'm hearing a pun on LESSONED / LESSENED -- the Duke wants to diminish the Duchess, to reduce her to something more meek and manageable.

52/

nor plainly set
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse—

It's worth pointing out here that the Duke is operating from a stereotype of women as old as time itself, and one which Browning's Victorian audience would have recognised:

53/

That women are naturally wanton and treacherous, and need to be kept in line by respectable men in case they bring scandal and shame.

The thought of a woman daring to match wits with him brings the archaic oath FORSOOTH out of the Duke.

54/

E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop.

This is the moment the poem takes a turn for the sinister. It's the end of the section beginning "Who'd stoop to blame this sort of trifling?"

55/

This is the moment when the Duke might *still* dismiss the Duchess' behaviour as "trifling", as too harmless or silly to worry about. But no. It's a serious affront to his status and name.

The repetition of STOOPING shows how much the Duke detests the notion.

56/

Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile?

Again, it's the SAME-ness that bothers the Duke, just like 'TWAS ALL ONE or WITH ANYBODY'S GIFT.

57/

I think WHENE'ER I PASSED HER is important -- it's important to get this brief glimpse that the Duke and Duchess' relationship wasn't totally joyless or loveless. If anything it makes his actions even more cold-hearted: he wouldn't relax his murderous pride even for her.

58/

This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together.

Chilling lines. THIS GREW is worth looking at -- the Duke dismisses his decision to have her murdered in two brief words. He is emotionally completely distant from what he has done.

59/

I GAVE COMMANDS -- for the Duke, the Duchess' death is a restoration of order, and he can go back to being the unquestioned authority in his estate. I GAVE COMMANDS indiciates that he is reasserting his authority.

60/

ALL SMILES STOPPED TOGETHER -- a euphemism for the Duchess' murder. Euphemism is the Duke's preferred way of communicating -- to obfuscate the truth about what has happened.

61/

It's worth noting that ALL SMILES mean he his losing the smiles that the Duchess gave *him* as well as cutting off those she gives to other men. Perhaps he imagines this is a noble act -- to sacrifice his marriage (and the promise of an heir?) for the familiy honour.

62/

Alternatively it shows the marriage, and the Duchess, and totally expendable. Her death is a small price to pay for reasserting his status.

63/

There she stands
As if alive.

I love the juxtaposition of these lines with the Duke's account of the murder. It reminds us how quickly the living Duchess has been replaced with the painted one. Reasserting his status means having a version of the Duchess he can control.

64/

Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet
The company below, then.

A minor detail, but I like the idea that the Duke has taken his guest up into his private chambers, where he keeps the Duchess away from public view. Presumably the picture isn't in his bedroom...but who knows?

65/

Echoes of the tale of Bluebeard, with a private chamber only the Duke can access, containing his dead wives.

66/

I repeat,
The Count your master’s known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretense
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;

Here he goes, flattering and manipulating all at once.

67/

JUST PRETENSE is worth remembering: PRETENSE has the meaning of a REQUEST or CLAIM, but Browning is playing on the double meaning of a FALSEHOOD. So a JUST PRETENSE is oxymoronic in a way -- a good example of the Duke's dishonesty.

68/

I also like the circumlocution of KNOWN MUFNIFICENCE IS AMPLE WARRANT THAT NO JUST PRETENSE...the Duke is burying his materialistic, grapsing request for dowry under some very overblown language.

69/

Although I find the fixation on receiving a DOWRY a bit strange. Surely the Duke isn't that hard-up for money? It It reminds us that love is not his main concern. He is not emotionally invested in whoever he marries next.

70/

Although his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed
At starting, is my object.

This is a good one:

HIS FAIR DAUGHTER'S SELF...IS MY OBJECT is a brilliant bit of equivocation.

71/

It SOUNDS like the Duke is saying "of course it's the girl I love, not her family's money".

But he could ALSO be telling us that he sees his future wife as an OBJECT, something to be traded and then disposed of or kept for display to others.

72/

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!

Let's go with the obvious: The Duke imagines himself as NEPTUNE, and the "sea-horse" is one of them women he's TAMED.

73/

Worth remembering that the SEA-HORSE isn't a cute little fishy thing. It's more like one of THESE BAD BOYS:

74/

Compare this image to how the Duke expressed his insecurity about the Duchess through the image of her "white mule". In contrast, he is a GOD riding MIGHTY SEA STALLIONS.

75/

CLAUS OF INNSBRUCK, like FRA PANDOLF, is a made-up artist. In both cases the Duke seems to think the name-drop will sound impressive. In Medieval times, INNSBRUCK had links to powerful nobility within the Holy Roman Empire, so perhaps this is also meant to impress the guest.

76/

You can also make a good comparison between the BRONZE in which the Duke imagines himself, against the flat, easily-hidden paint in which the Duchess is rendered.

77/

This was 78 tweets on the poem My Last Duchess. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading!

/end