NPPF--commentary--671-672--The Untamed Seahorse

[Paul Mackin]

Browning's "My Last Duchess"  is below.

K's criticism of S's using the variant of Browning's phrase (next to last line)
as the title for his collection seems quite silly.

I was wondering if Seahorse has any further connotation here. The Seahorse
Society is a self help organization for cross dressers and trans-gender people.
Was Aunt Maud a man? Naw.(were mason and dixon really Charlotte and Germaine)

As to Browning's dramatic monologue, does the narrator bear some resemblance to
K in his apparent contempt for women?



My Last Duchess

FERRARA

              1That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,
              2Looking as if she were alive. I call
              3That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf's hands
              4Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
              5Will 't please you sit and look at her? I said
              6"Frà Pandolf" by design, for never read
              7Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
              8The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
              9But to myself they turned (since none puts by
            10The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
            11And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
            12How such a glance came there; so, not the first
            13Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 'twas not
            14Her husband's presence only, called that spot
            15Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps
            16Frà Pandolf chanced to say, "Her mantle laps
            17Over my Lady's wrist too much," or "Paint
            18Must never hope to reproduce the faint
            19Half-flush that dies along her throat"; such stuff
            20Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
            21For calling up that spot of joy. She had
            22A heart . . . how shall I say? . . . too soon made glad,
            23Too easily impressed; she liked whate'er
            24She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
            25Sir, 'twas all one! My favour at her breast,
            26The dropping of the daylight in the West,
            27The bough of cherries some officious fool
            28Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
            29She rode with round the terrace--all and each
            30Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
            31Or blush, at least. She thanked men,--good; but thanked
            32Somehow . . . I know not how . . . as if she ranked
            33My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
            34With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame
            35This sort of trifling? Even had you skill
            36In speech--(which I have not)--to make your will
            37Quite clear to such an one, and say, "Just this
            38Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,
            39Or there exceed the mark"--and if she let
            40Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
            41Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,
            42--E'en then would be some stooping; and I chuse
            43Never to stoop. Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,
            44Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without
            45Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
            46Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
            47As if alive. Will 't please you rise? We'll meet
            48The company below, then. I repeat,
            49The Count your Master's known munificence
            50Is ample warrant that no just pretence
            51Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
            52Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed
            53At starting, is my object. Nay, we'll go
            54Together down, Sir! Notice Neptune, though,
            55Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
            56Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me.