Worksheet on Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess".

This poem is called a "dramatic monologue"-as if you were listening to one half of a conversation, performed in a dramatic circumstance- 1. What is this circumstance? Who is speaking to whom? About what business matter? What is the other topic of discussion? 2. Where is this discussion taking place? Why has the Duke brought his auditor there? 3. What is a "duke"? Where is a duke in the hierarchy of nobility? What is a "count"? Where …showed first 75 words of 370 total…

…showed last 75 words of 370 total…the advantage in showing himself to be an unskilled speaker? 10. What action is being referred to when the Duke says to his auditor, "Nay, we'll go / Together down, sir"? What would etiquette (or protocol) normally require? Why does the Duke make this gesture? 11. Why does the Duke pause to point out the statue of Neptune? 12. Do you think the envoy has gotten the point? gotten it too well? or learned more than the Duke intended?