Final answer:
The Duke in Robert Browning's "The Last Duchess" is speaking to an envoy from a Count. This is part of a dramatic monologue where the poet creates a distinct character, revealing insights into the character's personality and actions through the poem's tone and diction.
Step-by-step explanation:
The person who the Duke is speaking to in Robert Browning's poem "The Last Duchess" is implied to be an envoy or emissary from a Count, who is negotiating a new marriage for the Duke. This information becomes clearer as one reads further into the dramatic monologue.
Browning's poetic voice tends to create complex character sketches and narratives within his works, as represented by the three different speaker personas in the given examples from "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister," "The Last Duchess," and a poem by Charlotte Mew.
The dramatic monologue requires the poet to create a character distinct from themselves. For instance, in "The Last Duchess", the Duke's dialogue provides a critique of his own overbearing jealousy and an insight into his controlling nature which ultimately led to his wife's demise.
The reader is implicitly asked to understand and analyze the tone and diction of the speakers carefully.