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Overview
“My Last Duchess” is a dramatic monologue by the English poet Robert Browning, and it first appeared in his landmark 1842 volume, Dramatic Lyrics
. This volume collects fifteen early examples of the dramatic monologue form, which in Browning’s hands tends to feature speakers with abnormal psychologies. In the case of “My Last Duchess,” Browning centers a historical figure named Alfonso II, who was a 16th-century duke of the Italian city of Ferrara. The duke’s first wife, Lucrezia, was a young woman who died just three years into their marriage. Browning’s sinister poem offers a speculative take on what might have happened to her.Read a summary & analysis, an analysis of the speaker, and explanations of important quotes from “My Last Duchess.”
