My Last Duchess

Study Guide

Literary Devices

Setting

Save

Literary Devices Setting

“My Last Duchess” takes place in the sixteenth century, in the palace of Alfonso II d’Este, located in the Italian city of Ferrara. The palace setting is important insofar as it reflects the status of the poem’s speaker, a wealthy and powerful man who likes to show off. When the Duke stops before the portrait of his late wife, he makes a point of name-dropping the painter—not once, but twice (lines 2–6):

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

Clearly, the Duke wants the emissary to know he’s an influential and well-connected patron of the arts. He makes a similar boast in the poem’s final lines, when he points out a sculpture of the Roman sea god Neptune, “Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!” (line 56). This reference to Innsbruck is significant, since the historical duke of Ferrara’s second wife was the niece of a count from Tyrol, who had his capital at Innsbruck. As it happens, the speaker is on his way to negotiate a new marriage, though Browning says it’s with the count’s daughter. The Duke is therefore using the personal art collection housed in his palace as leverage to expand his wealth and power.

Next section Themes