My Last Duchess by Robert Browning (1812 - 1889)

NOTES: "My Last Duchess" puts in the mouth of a Duke of Ferrara, a typical husband and art patron of the Renaissance, a description of his last wife, whose happy nature and universal kindliness were a perpetual affront to his exacting self-predominance, and whose suppression, by his command, has made the vacancy he is now, in his interview with the envoy for a new match, taking precaution to fill more acceptably. (Dramatic Romances by Robert Browning)