Authors: Elizabeth Loupas

The Second Duchess (51 page)

BOOK: The Second Duchess

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IN PORTRAYING THESE characters and the magnificent Renaissance court and city of Ferrara, I have tried to be as accurate as possible. I’ve imagined and interpreted, of course, but always done my best to keep within the realm of known fact and sixteenth-century possibility. The Neptune banquet in chapter three, for example, is historical in all its detail. The Festival delle Stelle and the dual night revels of the Berlingaccio are fictional—although they are entirely in the style of the court of Ferrara of the time. Many books, articles, and papers have provided details; generous historians have given their time and expertise to help me. Whatever errors have made their way into the narrative are mine alone.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

F
irst of all, thanks are due to Mr. Robert Browning for writing “My Last Duchess.”

Here in the modern world, I’d like to thank my brilliant agent, Diana Fox of Fox Literary, for picking me out of her slush. Also Betty Anne Crawford and the rest of the team at Books Crossing Borders.

Thanks as well to everyone at NAL, including my thoughtful and meticulous editor, Ellen Edwards; the design team who created this book’s beautiful cover art; the copy editor who saved me from multiple howlers; and everyone else who has contributed to this extraordinary experience.

To Jim, the Broadcasting Legend™, who supported and encouraged me from the first spark of inspiration to the final copyedits, and to the rest of my family. I am particularly grateful for the endless support of my dear mother, who now will never hold this book in her hands but who knew it was coming and never ceased to take pleasure in talking about it.

To fellow writers and friends for camaraderie and moral support throughout the crazy process of writing and publishing a book, including Dana Fredsti, Lisa Brackmann, Bryn Greenwood, Maire Donivan, Maureen Zogg, Les Berkley and Paula Horvath, Lesia Valentine, Melanie Morris, Cheryl Barton, and Vanessa Davisson.

To the tireless and patient librarians who fulfilled my many (and sometimes odd) requests for inter-library loans and document deliveries.

To Dr. Charles Rosenberg for kindly providing me with detailed information regarding coins struck in Ferrara during the reign of Alfonso II.

To producer Mark Smalley and presenter Peggy Reynolds for the delightful experience of being interviewed for the BBC’s
Adventures in Poetry:
“My Last Duchess.”

To Don Huff, for his beautiful diagram of the city of Ferrara; also to Mark Oristano for coaxing me through the agonizing process of having my picture taken.

And last but not least, to the beagles for their silky ears (so soothing in any time of stress) and lucky crossed paws: Raffles, who was my faithful shadow for eleven years and who lives on in the story as brave little Tristo; and our present companions, Cressie and Boudin.

A DISCUSSION WITH ELIZABETH LOUPAS

Q. Robert Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess” was your original inspiration for this novel, but what about the story kept you fascinated? When did the characters take on a life of their own?

A. What fascinated me from the beginning about the poem’s story was the unseen character of the duke’s second wife. Would she be given a choice as to whether or not she wanted to be married to the duke? Probably not. What would she think when she arrived in Ferrara and heard the whispers—because of course there would be whispers—of the fate of the duke’s first duchess?

The characters took on a life of their own when I began to research the historical personages upon whom Robert Browning based his story. All of a sudden it wasn’t just a story anymore—these were real people. The poem’s truth was not necessarily history’s truth. The greatest fascination was in somehow connecting the two truths.

Q. Did you know much about sixteenth-century Italy before you began to write
The Second Duchess
? What kind of research did you do?

A. I was interested in the sixteenth century in general, but my reading had been mostly centered on England and France. (I’m a first cousin thirteen times removed of Bessie Blount, Henry VIII’s mistress.) When I thought of Lucrezia Borgia and the Medici, I thought mostly of poison rings and worldly popes.

I’ve since read books, academic papers, and journal articles in English, Italian, and German. I’ve visited libraries and archives in Ferrara and Florence via the magic of the Internet. I’ve talked to people who live in Ferrara and collected thousands of images—fortunately, most of the sixteenth-century buildings in Ferrara have been saved or restored. I’ve listened to music in the style of the Renaissance and tried out the dances (much to the amusement of my family). I’ve cooked and baked from recipes in actual period cookbooks. (They cooked and ate the most extraordinary things!) Research into historical periods is neverending and endlessly fascinating.

Q. In
The Second Duchess
, you portray Barbara of Austria as having been strongly influenced by her childhood reading of Baldassare Castiglione’s
Il Libro del Cortegiano (Book of the Courtier).
Can you tell us more about this book?

A. Il Libro del Cortegiano
, originally published in 1528, was a “bestseller” of its time—it was translated into English, French, Spanish, and German, and more than a hundred different editions were published between 1528 and 1616. It was one of the original self-help books—it provided a model of looks, intellectual and physical achievements, fashion, and manners for the “courtier,” the ideal aristocratic man of the day. And of course there was a section on the ideal female courtier as well. It could be called the
What Not to Wear
of its day, with Emily Post and your favorite fitness guru adding notes.

Barbara would have been taught Italian at an early age, as several Italian marriages were considered for her. It seemed possible that she would have been given a copy of this book to help her learn not only the language, but also the etiquette of the courts she might one day live in.

Q. How much of your portrait of Alfonso and Barbara is based on the historical record, and when did you depart from what is known?

A. I have based them on the historical record as closely as possible, in both appearance and personality although of course I have extrapolated and fictionalized “behind the scenes” where there is no historical record. However, I’ve tried not to attribute to any of my historical characters anything that goes against known facts.

Q. What happened to Alfonso and Barbara, and some of the other characters, after the events of the novel?

A. Alfonso and Barbara were happy together, surprisingly so, considering that it was an arranged marriage of state. Barbara was admired and even loved as duchess, maintaining a correspondence with Alfonso’s mother, Renée of France, despite their religious differences, and using her own income to build an orphanage for girls in Ferrara.

Lucrezia d’Este (my “Crezia”—I gave her a nickname to differentiate her from all the other “Lucrezias” in the story) was eventually married to Francesco Maria II della Rovere, who was—ironically, considering Barbara’s attachment to the
Book of the Courtier
—the heir to the Duke of Urbino. She was thirtyfive; her young groom was twenty. The marriage was very unhappy for both of them, and they were soon separated. She returned to Ferrara and resumed her affair with Ercole Contrari, with disastrous consequences.

Nora never married. Her supposed passion for Torquato Tasso has been celebrated through the centuries, but no one really knows the whole truth of the matter. Tasso himself descended into madness (probably what we today would call schizophrenia), was confined to a madhouse in Ferrara for some years, and later died on the eve of being crowned poet laureate in Rome.

Q. I’ve never heard of ghostlike presences called
immobili
. Are they based in history as well?

A. No, I made them up completely! I wanted Lucrezia to be able to watch the living and comment on their actions, but I did not want her to be visible or audible or even a patch of cold like all the other ghosts and presences seemed to be. So I made up the
immobili
. It means “still ones.” It partly describes how Lucrezia is caught between the world of the living and the world of the afterlife—immobile or still—and partly refers to her stillness or inability to communicate with the living.

Q. The two beagle puppies, Tristo and Isa, bring more than just “the cute” to the story. You’re a beagle owner and beagle lover—did beagles as we know them today actually exist in the sixteenth century?

A. There were certainly dogs called “beagles,” and paintings show parti-colored hounds somewhat similar to the standardized breeds of beagles and foxhounds of today. Dogs were widely used for hunting, and miniature lapdogs were extremely popular among court ladies all over Europe. Queen Elizabeth I did indeed have a pack of small beaglelike dogs she called her “pocket beagles” or “singing beagles,” so Tristo and Isa, unlike the
immobili
, are firmly based in real history.

Q. Browning wrote his poem in 1842, during England’s Victorian era, when there was revived interest in the Renaissance era. What prevailing attitudes of that time might have influenced Browning to see Alfonso as a madman and a murderer?

A. A man like Duke Alfonso, a typically ruthless and vainglorious Renaissance prince, would have compared poorly with the Victorian ideal of the aristocratic male, the gentlemanly and relatively self-effacing figure of the queen’s husband, Prince Albert. Thus, from the beginning the duke was seen as the villain of the piece. Part of my object in writing the book was to rescue him from this undeserved opprobrium.

Browning’s style was considered experimental in his day, and he didn’t really become a major commercial success until twenty-five years or so after he published “My Last Duchess.” Today he’s considered one of the foremost Victorian poets.

In 1846 he married Elizabeth Barrett, who was already one of the most popular writers of the day. Her
Sonnets from the Portuguese
—including #43, the famous “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways . . .”—was written during her romance with Robert Browning and published at his urging.

Q. The written word is obviously a great spark to your imagination. Were there books you read in childhood, or in the years afterward, that greatly impacted your life? What stands out for you in your current reading?

A. I began to read adult books long before I really understood what I was reading—it’s fun to go back today and read them again as an adult. Writers who influenced me include Elizabeth Goudge (particularly
The White Witch
), Mary Stewart, and the incomparable Dorothy Dunnett. Currently I’m reading more nonfiction than fiction, but (not surprisingly) I love historical fiction and historical mysteries.

Q. What novels by you might we hope to see in the future?

A. I am presently working on another historical novel with the working title
The Silver Casket
, featuring Mary Queen of Scots, some secret quatrains of Nostradamus, a lost relic called the Black Rood of Scotland (a real object, which did indeed disappear mysteriously), and a girl who can read the future in flowers. After that, I’m planning a historical-but-not-quite book (or maybe books) set in sixteenth-century England. And I’d love to write more adventures of Barbara and Alfonso, in Ferrara and the other cities that were part of their world.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. How does
The Second Duchess
compare to other novels about Renaissance Italy that you might have read? Did you enjoy the strong mystery element?

2. Barbara is portrayed as a woman of her time, who must submit to her powerful husband. Nevertheless, she sometimes defies him, and she manages to retain a sense of her own identity and ultimately forges a satisfying marriage with Alfonso. How do you think she manages to do this? How risky are her choices?

3. How do you see Alfonso—as the Renaissance ideal of a prince and a man; as a megalomaniac and murderer; or perhaps as a modern man of power, wealth, and position (a head of state, corporate CEO, mega-star actor, or major athlete)? Do you find him attractive or repellent?

4. Did you enjoy the sections from Lucrezia de’ Medici’s point of view? Did you sympathize with her or think she got what she deserved? Do you think Lucrezia has good reasons—or at least understandable motivation—for her anger and vengefulness?

5. Lucrezia de’ Medici’s personality is strongly influenced by Isabella, her older sister. How might this compare with the sexualization of very young girls today?

6. Which character do you find the most interesting and why? Is there anyone whose life you’d most like to live?

7. Were you familiar with Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” before reading this novel? How is it similar to the novel? How has the novel reinterpreted the poem?

8. Barbara is portrayed as having been inspired by Baldassare Castiglione’s
Book of the Courtier
. Were you strongly influenced and shaped by a book you read while growing up? What book, and what ideas and assumptions in it became part of you?

9. At the end of the novel, Alfonso destroys every drawing and painting by Frà Pandolf, despite the great esteem in which Alfonso holds brilliant artists and their work. Would you have done the same thing? Or does the worth of great art transcend the behavior, moral or immoral, of its human creator?

10. In Italy during the sixteenth century, the Catholic Church was highly corrupt. Did anything about its portrayal here particularly surprise you?

11. The clothes described in the book are dazzling, luxurious, and complicated. Did any outfit stand out for you? Would you enjoy wearing Barbara’s clothes?

12. What do you think of the pageantry, formality, and extravagance of the d’Este court?

13. What do you think you’ll take away from this novel? What aspect will leave the strongest impression on you?

BOOK: The Second Duchess

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