My Last Duchess

Voices of Today

English - June 14, 2019 09:01 - 4 minutes - 5.53 MB
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My Last Duchess
by Robert Browning

Performed by Denis Daly

Possibly Browning's most famous poetic monologue, this piece is a portrait of a narcissistic aristocratic misogynist. The speaker has been identified as Alfonso D'Este, Duke of Ferrara, and the unfortunate lady, Lucrezia, a member of the celebrated Medici family.

As with much of Browning's verse, this poem illustrates that a high level of artistic development is not always accompanied by an equivalent level of moral practice.

A Voices of Today production.