"Italy" ["My Last Duchess"]
By Robert Browning

Transcription, correction, editorial commentary, and markup by Students and Staff at the University of Virginia, Tonya Howe
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Sources

London : Edward Moxon, Dover Street, 1842"My Last Duchess" was first printed in the third volume ("Dramatic Lyrics") of Bells and Pomegranates, an 8-part self-published collection, under the title "I. Italy." This was the first part of a longer piece in two parts called "Italy and France." It was first printed under its more familiar title in the 1849 collection Dramatic Romances and Lyrics. The poem is frequently anthologized as an example of a dramatic monologue. "Ferrara" is the poetic speaker--this is most likely meant to represent Alfonso II (1533-1598), the fifth duke of Ferrara. In the poem, he is speaking of his first wife Lucrezia de' Medici as he meditates on her portrait; Lucrezia died soon after their marriage under suspicious circumstances. Page images are provided courtesy of the Special Collections, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA.

Editorial Statements

Research informing these annotations draws on publicly-accessible resources, with links provided where possible. Annotations have also included common knowledge, defined as information that can be found in multiple reliable sources. If you notice an error in these annotations, please contact lic.open.anthology@gmail.com.

Original spelling and capitalization is retained, though the long s has been silently modernized and ligatured forms are not encoded.

Hyphenation has not been retained, except where necessary for the sense of the word.

Page breaks have been retained. Catchwords, signatures, and running headers have not.

Materials have been transcribed from and checked against first editions, where possible. See the Sources section for more information.

Citation

Browning, Robert. "Italy" ["My Last Duchess"]. Bells and Pomegranates. No. III. Dramatic Lyrics, Edward Moxon, Dover Street, 1842 , No. 3, p 4 . Literature in Context: An Open Anthology. http://anthologydev.lib.virginia.edu/work/Browning/browning-last-duchess. Accessed: 2025-11-08T14:12:06.699Z

Linked Data

Explore the collection using linked open data.

[TP] BELLS AND POMEGRANATES.

 No. III.--DRAMATIC LYRICS.

 BY ROBERT BROWNING,
AUTHOR OF "PARACELSUS."

 London:
EDWARD MOXON, DOVER STREET.
 MDCCCXLII
Page [TP]Page [TP]

Footnotes