The Duchess is portrayed as a sweet woman. She took compliments all too well, even things that weren’t always intended as compliments per say. “Sir, ‘twas not//Her husband’s presence only, called that spot//Oh joy into the Duchess’ cheek” Her husband felt she was too easily made happy by little things. It almost seems that he thought she was simple and flighty.
“Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Sir, ‘twas all one! My favor at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace- all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech”
He didn’t find this at all fair, of course. The Duke felt that his Duchess took the gifts of other men to be equal to the gift of being wed to him and his “nine-hundred-years-old name”. He hated this so much that he “gave commands” and “the smiles stopped altogether” which leads one to wonder what exactly he has done to his first wife now that she’s passed.
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