My dear Frá Pandolf April
20 1561
I am eternally grateful for your
beautiful painting of me, but now I must say that I fear for my life. I was
joyful and happy but all the Duke does is being angry and jealous, and this
takes away my smile. I fear what commands he will give out perhaps my smile will
be forced away forever. Yes, my dear Frá Pandolf, I think he is going to kill
me. How I don’t know perhaps by poison, perhaps with a dagger in my heart. He
is jealous, so very jealous, he thinks I flirt and woo everyone, even the white
mule! He is foolish this Duke of mine, but stupid is he not, for he suspects my
fondness of you and your fondness of me, oh I hope he will never find out!
Until now, I have been able to wave him off by saying that your compliments are
just simple courtesy, but I see his jealousy turning worse! Besides the white
mule, he thinks the servant who brings me cherries is flirting with me and I
flirting with him, and I see the Duke turning angry. He thinks I am below him
and that I should be grateful for that nine-hundred-year-old name of his, but
alas how I wish my father never married me to this monster so he could have a
duchess who he did not need to stoop for or he would find worthy of stooping
for, if he could ever swallow his pride! Please meet me at our place my dear
Pandolf and I hope everything will be okay!
Forever your Duchess
My dear Duchess April
21 1561
Why did you not meet me at our
special place? What has happened? It is that Duke of yours? Did he finally get enough
of the games he thinks you play? Oh how I hope not, but I dread for your life
my dear Duchess! Please let it not be true, please meet me at our place and let
this hour be through! I will be strong in faith.
Yours forever Frá Pandolf
My dear Duchess April
22 1561
Oh, what is the point of all this
madness, I write to you but you are dead! Your suspicions were right! And that
Duke! He killed you! Oh not with his bare hands, because he is to much a coward
for that! Oh how I hate that even in death he stills decide your fate. Tugged
away behind a curtain you are for no one to see but him and who he pleases!
Today a marriage booker came to the castle. Oh how I dread the poor girl he
going to marry next! Alas, right now he is probably showing my painting of your
beautiful self to his next victim’s father. But he will not have the chance, I
swear, to kill another of your kind! Because tonight at sunset, when the clock
strikes ten and he is lying in his bed, I will sneak in and put a dagger in his
heart like he had someone do to my dear duchess. But no coward I will be, because
the deed will be done by me! I accept my fate and the consequences of what I
have to do! I will meet you at our special place where I can forever be yours.
Frá Pandolf.
Love the way you incorporate the words from the original poem and use old-fashioned words such as "alas"! In the second to last sentence in the first letter I believe you mean "please meet me at our place" (or perhaps the "my" is on purpose, in that case just ignore this ;-) ). I like how you made the ending sort of ambiguous which makes the reader wonder whether Pandolf succeeded in his revenge.
ReplyDeleteUps, the "my" was a mistake, thanks for noticing me :)
DeleteI would add to Helena's comment and say your work would be even stronger had it been in Italics, or written with a "handwritten"-font in order to support it being an old letter.
ReplyDeleteWhat a creative solution to our task, loved it. The authenticity of the text is strengthened by your choices in word order which contextualises it nicely. However, maybe think about changing the dates of the letters: that is a very fast mail service, which should replace PostNord! :D
ReplyDeleteThanks :D I thought of the letters as small message between the Duchess and Fra Pandolf and imagined that they were put in a secret place that only the two of them know rather than being delivered by mail :)
DeleteI like the idea of making small letters between the Duchess and Frá Pandolf, great sulution in my opinion. I thought the same as Sofie about the dates, a small detail, though something that could make the letters more authentic if changed.
ReplyDeleteThanks :D As answered to Sofie, I more thought of the letters as small messages between the Duchess and Fra Pandolf that were being put in a secret place that only the two of them know rather than being delivered by mail :)
DeleteI think this is a really interesting point of view, and I like how you created this affair between these two characters.
ReplyDeleteNice to see a dialogue in letters between the Last Duchess and Pandolf - and to see an active vengeance from the good Fra! Most of the story is carefully maintained, not least through recycling the vocabulary of the original poem (the mule is a nice touch). The only thing that is a little underrepresented is the Duke's motivation, but that is a minor point.
ReplyDeleteI liked that you connected Fra Pandolf and the Duchess and that you chose to write it as a letter, in which Fra Pandolf responds. Very creative!
ReplyDelete