She would have been happier with a drunken husband, with a brute who
kicked her, rather than with this supercilious cold-hearted patrician.
Toward the end of the poem, in his remarks about the dowry, we see
that the Duke is as avaricious as he is cruel; though he says with a
disagreeable smile, that the woman herself is his real object. The
touch to make this terrible man complete comes at the very end. The
Duke and the envoy prepare to descend the staircase; the latter bows,
to give precedence to the man with the nine hundred years' old name:
but the Duke, with a purr like a tiger, places his arm around the
shoulder of the visitor, and they take the first step. Just then the
master of the palace calls attention casually to a group of statuary.
It is Neptune taming a sea-horse. That's the way I break them in!
Throughout the whole monologue, the Duke speaks in a quiet, steady,
ironical tone; the line
The depth and passion of its earnest glance
is pronounced in intense irony, in ridicule of the conventional
remark made by previous visitors.
Pages:
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202