Thursday October 29th 1564
Dearest Diary
Today has been such a
lovely day. I woke up to the sun shining bright and birds singing the most beautiful
melodies outside my bedroom window. As I have previously told you, my dearest
Diary, the Duke has been courting me for quite some time now. I am flattered
that such a gentleman will even look my way, and I blush every time he tells me
that I am the fairest of them all. He is utterly in love with me and he does not
wish for any other men to even glanze at me, because he wants me all to himself.
It is all so very romantic, my dearest Diary. Today I will devote more time
than usual in front of the mirror, because the Duke has arranged for the good
sir Frà
Pandolf to paint my portrait directly onto one of the walls in his grand
palace. The Duke is even contemplating on putting a curtain in front of the
portrait that only he is allowed to draw. He has told me that he will do so,
because he does not believe that just anyone deserves to experience my beauty.
How sweet and thoughtful of him, and such a permanent gesture must mean true
love.
Sincerely
The soon to be Duchess
I like the fact that you chose to re-write the poem as a diary from the Duchess' point of view, and that you included the painter. However, there is so much going on in the poem, for instance the parts where the Duke talks about the Duchess' blushing cheeks - that seems to take up much space in the poem, and also the fact that she doesn't really treat the Duke any differently than other men (the part where another man brought her a cherry branch and the Duke gave her a corset) - maybe you could have included that :-)
ReplyDeleteI thought about including more details, but I chose not do so simply because I wanted to make an early portrayal of how I imagine the Duchess felt about the Duke before they got married and before she found out that he was a raging lunatic :) Therefore, I focused on the light spirit and naivety of the Duchess pre-marriage
DeleteThis made me smile, actually. The fact that you chose to write it at a diary entry created the opportunity to see things from her POV, which I found entertaining. She is so naive, and it works so well with how the original poem focuses on the Duke's POV. I like how it's made 'cheesy' on purpose to exaggerate her feelings.
ReplyDeleteI would have expected a few more details from the original to be present. You could still have the Duchess be naive and optimistic and innocently in love with her Duke - but what of her last moments when she realizes how wrong she has been..?
ReplyDeleteLike I mentioned in regards to Natasha’s comment, I thought about including more details, but liked the fact that the entry focused on how in love and naïve the Duchess was before she married the Duke. For my portfolio, I will do another entry, which highlights how their relationship has changed drastically and include more detail from the original poem.
DeleteThat would be excellent. I understand the 'focus' argument- so the trick would be to maintain that focus, while adding more material.
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