Howard's dramatic monologue!

Question

hi guys

i was wandering if anyone can help me to analyse Howard's ‘Nikolaus Mardruz to his Master Ferdinand, Count of Tyrol, 1565’

as a dramatic monologue. please could someone give me some guidelines on how to approach this subject for an essay. Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thank You

MrPedantic · Accepted Answer

Hello Fraico

Thanks very much for your email – I'd be happy to help. What do you have so far, and what title have you been given for your essay?

MrP

PS: To understand the Howard monologue, you first need to read Browing's My Last Duchess. You can find some material in this thread:

(There's also some stuff about the Howard poem on page 6.)

Anonymous · Answer

hey,

well il show you some of the stuff i have but it is all over the place i haven't edited it yet, but there's so much i want to write and so little time to do it in, but i would really like some guidance please.

I have also read Browning's poem, but have yet to really talk on the comparison between the two.

p.s my writing is quite bad at the moment, been writing whilst ill with the flu so please point out any major contradictions or plain nonsense that you see within the text.

thank you

A dramatic monologue has ‘seven definite characteristics: ‘speaker, audience, occasion, revelation of character, interplay between speaker and audience, dramatic action, and action which takes place in the present.’ (pg 8)

‘The dramatic monologue is a hybrid form. It has relations with lyric, because it is an expression of thought and feeling; but it is like a speech from a play, in that the character whose speech is represented is speaking out of a specific situation, and usually a problematic one. A dramatic monologue is like a speech from a play taken out of context. Its speaker is a figure other than the poet – in other words it dramatises the speaking subject – and the speaker generally speaks out of a situation that involves or leads towards action, a situation that is problematic or conflicted. It is a monologue because there is only one voice, and that voice is usually presented as speaking.’

Richard Howard has written a brilliant sequel to the Browning poem, My Last Duchess. His "speaker" is the envoy to whom Browning's duke has recently spoken to, and who is now reporting on that interview to his principal, the Count of Tyrol. However, Richard Howard has decided not to write it in the same form as Browning's but has used a letter form instead. The poem does not appear to have a particular rhyme scheme or a specific metre. It does, however, have a rather syllabic stanza form with mainly monosyllabic words, which is different compared to Browning’s rhyming iambic pentameter couplets.

Nikolaus Mardruz is the speaker of the poem. He is a representative of a government, a messenger: ‘My Lordship's service, I remain his Envoy’. It is clear to see that the poet is not the speaker of the poem, thus it abides with the rules of a dramatic monologue. The speaker’s voice is quite individualised. Nikolaus appears to be very loyal and faithful to the count; he travels to Ferrara and patiently waits hours before the Duke attends to him: ‘several hours were to elapse… before the Envoy.. Be seen to by His Grace.’ The messenger tries his best to assure the Count that all will be well if his daughter were to marry the Duke, and also comes up with a proposal so that the Countess need not suffer from the ‘murderous temper’ of the Duke. The sentence describing the Duke’s temper is a clue from Browning’s poem that the Duke murdered his wife. It is a plausible to suggest the poem has the quality of a dramatic monologue. There is a speaker speaking to the Count of Tyrol. The situation described can be considered, to a certain extent, as problematic. Clearly, the Count has certain anxieties regarding the marriage of his daughter to a Duke who has experienced such a complex past.

The speaker does reveal certain thoughts and opinions about his encounter with the Duke. These are more apparent in the side comments separated with brackets. An example of this is when the messenger first arrives on the Duke’s grounds, and is surprised to see the place ‘close to a ruin’. Nikolaus comments on the fact that ‘even my Lord’s most unstinting dowry may not restore this wasted precincts to what their deteriorating state demands.’ This shows us that he personally believes that no amount of money can restore the palace to a reasonable standard. It is almost as if the messenger is really picking on the weaknesses of the Duke, and maybe hoping to flatter the Count and appeal to his better nature. The speaker also observes the fact that the Duke is getting very old, ‘he is no longer a young man’. These small revelations of character show that he does have concerns regarding the Duke’s age. It is not necessarily the case that he does not approve of the Duke being much older than the Countess, but rather that it works in their favour. The Duke will obviously pass away within a few years, therefore leaving the new Duchess with freedom and wealth. The speaker is very cunning; he is able to devise an alternate pre-nuptial agreement so that the Countess has the upper hand. Thus, the Duke will receive the intended dowry in installments instead of a lump sum; therefore the Count will have a guarantee that his daughter will be treated fairly and remain in good health. The speaker is generally hoping that the Duke will pass on as soon as possible, so that the plan goes ahead as planned, ‘the long devotion (so long as he lasts)’.

The poem has many attributes which may lead an audience to believe it is a dramatic monologue. However, as a point of definition, ‘because the sense of an individual voice, and often of speech, is fundamental to the form, it is not correct to use the term of a poem written in the form of a letter.’ The poem, therefore, can be more appropriately called a dramatic epistle.

The language in ‘My Last Duchess’ is calm. It is a drawn out, one sided conversational boast yet the Duke’s speech is sophisticated and eloquent.
The style contains a gradual build up to the whole story, and the drama takes place slowly with obvious mystery surrounding the fate of the Duchess. The language and actions of the Duke relay his jealous and controlling nature and yet his mannerisms and speech make him affable and admirable to such an extent the reader refrains from casting a moral judgment on him. In both poems Browning demonstrates the ability to detach himself completely and in the former, even offers the insight to a killers psyche using the monologue narrative.

The speaker’s attitude is revealed in his intonation. Upon his arrival in Ferrara, the messenger is quite disappointed by what he sees; he has a high expectation of the quality and extravagance of the palace grounds, but is taken aback when all is not as he had anticipated. This can be seen in lines such as ‘such mirroring was my first dismay’ and ‘queasy it made me’. His first impressions of the palace do not impress him at all as he cannot understand why the Duke would let his ‘life in fallen stone’ remain in such a state,

‘in the dingy water that somehow

held them up as if for our surveillance-

ours?’

The speaker refers to this meeting as an ‘opportunity’ and also emphasises that it is also his ‘obligation’. In the second stanza, this opportunity does not change his perception of what he has seen, but instead, the meeting with the Duke enhances his disappointment as he is delayed for hours assessing ‘a set of cameos just brought from Cairo’. He sees the Duke caught up in a dull and gloomy state, his ‘tenebrosity’. They discuss plans of the pre-nuptial agreement, from the speaker’s point of view, he feels that their negotiations look ‘promising’. Nevertheless, whatever the outcome is, he realises the Count’s daughter will remain ‘among Ferrara’s treasures’ and refers to her as a ‘trophy’. However, there is a downside to this as a lot of the Duke’s prized possessions do not appear to be in perfect condition or looked after, so it can be said that the speaker is not too keen on this idea as at the end of this stanza he says that if this is the Count’s wish then ‘so be it’.

The speaker feels humiliated when he is confronted with the painting of the Duke’s late wife. He calls it a ‘painted deceit’ and his ‘embarrassment afforded a cue for audible laughter’. The speaker is not impressed by the portrait and just sees it as another ‘chicane’ or a form of trickery. The speaker himself has a more inferior role to play in society compared to the Duke, yet the speaker has formulated many opinions against the Duke based on appearance and plausibility of the Duke’s encounters and experiences. In his letter, the speaker talks of the Duke’s ‘rodomontade’ meaning pretentious boasting. The Duke is proud to talk about his ‘bronze Neptune’ which was cast in bronze especially for him, however, the messenger states how he must have seen ‘at least six of them cluttering the summer palace at Innsbruck’. This is also in relation to Browning’s poem, whereby in the last few lines the Duke draw attention to the same prized possession, ‘Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me .’ * From the messenger’s point of view, it was all ‘nonsense’. In spite of this, the speaker chooses to give the Duke the benefit of the doubt and proceeds to guarantee the future of the Countess, be it with the Duke, or if he passes on, the ‘young lordling’ the Countess has had her eye on.

The mood of the poem is quite mischievous and unsupportive towards the Duke. The speaker talks about his encounter with the Duke from a negative perspective. He is not overly impressed with the Duke’s presence and boastful personality. The speaker comes up with ways in which the Count will have the upper hand on his new relation.

There vocabulary used throughout the poem which bring out and places emphasis on the tone of the poem. Words such as ‘chicane’, ‘rodomontade’ and ‘globose’ are all very uncommon and complex terms used for words with a simple meaning behind them. Howard’s purpose for sprinkling words like these throughout the poem is to show that it is a complex situation that that the messenger is involved in.

that's it so far, i have yet to reference my work but they should all be in quoatation marks.

thank you again for all your help

MrPedantic · Answer

Hello Fraico

Will digest and report back.

MrP

MrPedantic · Answer

Hello Fraico

The first thing I would say is that the material needs to be slightly better organized. At the beginning, you include a quote that suggests that the dramatic monologue has: ‘seven definite characteristics: ‘speaker, audience, occasion, revelation of character, interplay between speaker and audience, dramatic action, and action which takes place in the present.’

Now it seems to me that you might assign a section to each of these 7 characteristics (in both poems) in your essay, and order your material accordingly.

Also, I'm not quite sure at this stage which passages are your own, and which are quotations. Are you able to mark those that are quotations?

See you later,

MrP

Anonymous · Answer

Hello I have a question about the howard nikolaus marduz to his master ferdinand poem I need to analyze the poem but I am having a hard time I need to know what it is about along with the poetic terms associated with the poem. Thank you very much.

My Lord recalls Ferrara? How walls
rise out of water yet appear to recede
identically
into it, as if
built in both directions: soaring and sinking...
Such mirroring was my first dismay--
my next, having crossed
the moat, was making
out that, for all its grandeur, the great
pile, observed close to, is close to a ruin!
(Even My Lord's most
unstinting dowry
may not restore this wasted precincts to what
their deteriorating state demands.)
Queasy it made me,
glancing first down there
at swans in the moat apparently
feeding on their own doubled image, then up
at the citadel,
so high--or so deep,
and everywhere those carved effigies of
men and women, monsters among them
crowding the ramparts
and seeming at home
in the dingy water that somehow
held them up as if for our surveillance--ours?
anyone's who looked!
All that pretension
of marble display, the whole improbable
menagerie with but one purpose:
having to be seen.
Such was the matter
of Ferrara, and such the manner,
when at last we met, of the Duke in greeting
My Lordship's Envoy:
life in fallen stone!

Several hours were to elapse, in the keeping
of his lackeys, before the Envoy
of My Lord the Count
of Tyrol might see
or even be seen to by His Grace
the Duke of Ferrara, though from such neglect
no deliberate
slight need be inferred:
now that I have had an opportunity
~~have had, indeed, the obligation~~
to fix on His Grace
that perlustration
or power of scrutiny for which
(I believe) My Lord holds his Envoy's service
in some favor still,
I see that the Duke,
by his own lights or perhaps, more properly
said, by his own tenebrosity,
could offer some excuse
for such cunctation...
Appraising a set of cameos
just brought from Cairo by a Jew in his trust,
His Grace had been rapt
in connoisseurship,
that study which alone can distract him
from his wonted courtesy; he was
affability
itself, once his mind
could be deflected from mere objects.

At last I presented (with those documents
which in some detail
describe and define
the duties of both signators) the portrait
of your daughter the Countess,
observing the while
his countenance. No
fault was found with our contract, of which
each article had been so correctly framed
(if I may say so)
as to ascertain
a pre-nuptial alliance which must persuade
and please the most punctilious (and
impecunious)
of future husbands.
Principally, or (if I may be
allowed the amendment) perhaps Ducally,
His Grace acknowledged
himself beguiled by
Cranach's portrait of our young Countess, praising
the design, the hues, the glaze--the frame
and appeared averse,
for a while, even
to letting the panel leave his hands!
Examining those same hands, I was convinced
that no matter what
the result of our
(at this point, promising) negotiations,
your daughter's likeness must now remain
"for good," as we say,
among Ferrara's
treasures, already one more trophy
in His Grace's multifarious holdings,
like those marble busts
lining the drawbridge,
like those weed-stained statues grinning up at us
from the still moat, and--inside as well
as out--those grotesque
figures and faces
fastened to the walls. So be it!

Real
bother (after all, one painting, for Cranach
--and My Lord--need be
no great forfeiture)
commenced only when the Duke himself led me
out of the audience-chamber and
laboriously
(he is no longer
a young man) to a secret penthouse
high on the battlements where he can indulge
those despotic tastes
he denominates,
half smiling over the heartless words,
"the relative consolations of semblance."
"Sir, suppose you draw
that curtain," smiling
in earnest now, and so I sought--
but what appeared a piece of drapery proved
a painted deceit!
My embarrassment
afforded a cue for audible laughter,
and only then His Grace, visibly
relishing his trick,
turned the thing around,
whereupon appeared, on the reverse,
the late Duchess of Ferrara to the life!
Instanter the Duke
praised the portrait
so readily provided by one Pandolf--
a monk by some profane article
attached to the court,
hence answerable
for taking likenesses as required
in but a day's diligence, so it was claimed...
Myself I find it
but a mountebank's
proficiency--another chicane, like that
illusive curtain, a waxwork sort
of nature called forth:
cold legerdemain!
Though extranea such as the hares
(copulating!), the doves, and a full-blown rose
were showily limned,
I could not discern
aught to be loved in that countenance itself,
likely to rival, much less to excel
the life illumined
in Cranach's image
of our Countess, which His Grace had set
beside the dead woman's presentment... And took,
so evident was
the supremacy,
no further pains to assert Fra Pandolf's skill.
One last hard look, whereupon the Duke
resumed his discourse
in an altered tone,
now some unintelligible rant
of stooping--His Grace chooses "never to stoop"
when he makes reproof...
My Lord will take this
as but a figure: not only is the Duke
no longer young, his body is so
queerly misshapen
that even to speak
of "not stooping" seems absurdity:
the creature is stooped, whether by cruel
or impartial cause--say
Time or the Tempter--
I shall not venture to hypothecate. Cause
or no cause, it would appear he marked
some motive for his
"reproof," a mortal
chastisement in fact inflicted on
his poor Duchess, put away (I take it so)
for smiling--at whom?
Brother Pandolf? or
some visitor to court during the sitting?
--too generally, if I construe
the Duke's clue rightly,
to survive the terms
of his... severe protocol. My Lord,
at the time it was delivered to me thus,
the admonition
if indeed it was
any such thing, seemed no more of a menace
than the rest of his rodomontade;
item, he pointed,
as we toiled downstairs,
to that bronze Neptune by our old Claus
(there must be at least six of them cluttering
the Summer Palace
at Innsbruck), claiming
it was "cast in bronze for me." Nonsense, of course.

But upon reflection, I suppose
we had better take
the old reprobate
at his unspeakable word... Why, even
assuming his boasts should be as plausible
as his avarice,
no "cause" for dismay:
once ensconced here as the Duchess, your daughter
need no more apprehend the Duke's
murderous temper
than his matchless taste.
For I have devised a means whereby
the dowry so flagrantly pursued by our
insolvent Duke ("no
just pretense of mine
be disallowed" indeed!), instead of being
paid as he pleads in one globose sum,
should drip into his
coffers by degrees--
say, one fifth each year--then after five
such years, the dowry itself to be doubled,
always assuming
that Her Grace enjoys
her usual smiling health. The years are her
ally in such an arbitrament,
and with confidence
My Lord can assure
the new Duchess (assuming her Duke
abides by these stipulations and his own
propensity for
accumulating
"semblances") the long devotion (so long as
he lasts ) of her last Duke... Or more likely,
if I guess aright
your daughter's intent,
of that young lordling I might make so
bold as to designate her next Duke, as well...

Ever determined in
My Lordship's service,
I remain his Envoy
to Ferrara as to the world.
Nikolaus Mardruz.

Howard's dramatic monologue!

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