The Oregon daily journal., June 13, 1915, Page 53, Image 53

THE OZZEQON SUNDAY JOURNAL, PORTLAND, SUNDAY MORNING, JUNE 13, 1915.
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. v
Elenora Duse, the Tragedienne, With Whom All Italy Sympathized
Whensd'Annntizio Revealed in a Book the Secrets of Their Love.
Gabriele d'Annunzio, Beloved and Then Despised, Be
came ; Once More the Idol of His People Through His
Fiery Denunciations of Austria and Eloquent Appeals
for Battle Scorned Because of His Heartless Treat
ment of the Great Duse, He Is Again a Hero.
VERY country has
Its hero its Idol
in time of war. In
England today Lord
Kitchener Is affec-
tionately called "K.
of K." and is looked
upon as the' man
whose genius will
8a ve British arms from defeat. 1 In Ger
many they speak of Kaiser Wilbelm in
words akin, to reverence, and the name of
King Albert is ever on the Hps of the Bel
gians. France has her General Joffre, Aus-,
tria her Fran Josef, and Turkey her EnTer
Bey Tasha. The eyes of Russia are turned'
toward Grand Duke Nicholas, . ,
Italy's Own IdoL .
Italy," throwing her fortunes ; into the
greatest of all wars, chose an, idol different
from any, of the other countries. . lie is not
t be king, though 'ictor Emmanuel is be
loved by his people ; he is not . Premier
Salandra, the leader of the war cabinet; h
has not . the ' epaulets of a general or : the
insignia ' of an admiral. The ' man . of - the
hour is Stgnor Gabriele ' d'Annunzio, , poet
and dramatist. ;
. Julius Caesar, returning from his
triumphant conquest . of GauV received; too'
more fervid greeting from Rome than did
d'Annunzio on his. arrival -there recently
after : several years of self-imposed exile.
He came to Rome an avowed agent of Mars.
- He preached war to his countrymen and
. they were in receptive mood. ' He stirred
; them to ' frenzy by his fiery denunciations
' of Austria, and when war finally was de-'
clared- it was said that no one person had
-hastened the decree so swiftly as this fa
mous writer. t
Changes of Time.
. That time changes everything is true in
-the case of Italy's love for the poet. Fif
teen years ago, .when Eleanora Duse, the
great actress, declared that she would kill
- d'Annunzio, her Italian : countrymen , ap
plauded her and condemned the poet's book,:
"II Fnosb' ("Fire"), - for whose heroine
Duse' herself 'admitted she was the uncon
scious model. - " i '
Both were artists." Both gloved and un
derstood the things that are of art-whlch.
alone, served to draw tliem outside the com-.'
monplace currents of , affairs and ,. place
them In - a world by themselves. To cthe
J man, Indeed, art. was the - only - thing. It
- was the substance' and the end of life."
" Everything might" be," must be, sacriflced.to .
: it. But' to the' woman there was one thing.
greater than art and that vas love. , To
- her strenuously vibrating nature a play, a
' book, a' song were as nothing compared with
the one mighty reality which womanlike.,
-she worshiped.,.;, . ".'
' . But ' the Balance - was too uneven ; f the ,
scales had to turn. D'Annunzio grew tired.
And one day he told her so.
For a long time Duse struggled to re
cover from this soul-destroying, heart
deadening experience. D'Annunzio, said
his critics, spent the interval in writing it
all down in the novel which he well knew
would be read the world over, and which
he intended should -add an additional cubit
to hia stature as an artist.
It ia unlikely that any readers ot the
story failed to comprehend the cry of the
humiliated, deserted ; woman: "He has
stolen my love and sold it ! I will kill
him!" .
, D'Annunzio apologized two columns of
apology, dripping with self-advertisement.
He Bald he didn't mean Duse. Again Ahe
gave him the lie.
Judge which was rignt by the following
summary: . v , ...
The two main characters in Fire" are
Stelio Effrena,' a poet, and Foscarlna, a
tragic actress. Their love is not led up to,
but assumed at the start- Foscarlna finds
r herself attracted to the youth by "a limit
; less love, and terror. Effrena at the same
time experiences an "intellectual pleasure."
In response to her, admiration of hia
work he. tells v her. that she is the artistic
stimulus.
': "It seems- to me at times," he says to
her, "th.at you have the power to impart
some nameless ' but divine quality to the
things that are born- in my brain and to
make them appear even to my own eyes
remote' and adorable. - You reproduce in
me at times the reverent amazement of the
sculptor; -who, having in the evening borne
into the' temple the Images of the - gods
which he has wrought with heated labor
and patient hand, returns the next morning
to find them exalted on their pedestals and
enveloped in . a cloud of fragrant - divinity "
that' transforms' the common material' from
whlch his hands have fashioned them.'r
- Enter the Other Woman. '
, - .ThenVtliere ; appears r another woman '
Donatella Arvale, young, beautiful gifted
with a marvelous voice,, and a friend ,ofr
la Foscarlna. She Interests Effrena. The
t three spend an evening together. And at
the end of it Donatella Arvale and Stelio.
Effrena looked at each other -with confused ,
glances. And ; their faces, each reflecting
the other's feeling, burned as though they
had Ibeen leaning over a furnace or a
crater."
After this, the apprehension that la Fos
carlna has felt when with Effrena deepens
into terror. She knows no further happi- -ness.
She lives through a period of deep
abasement and humiliation,, longing for
death, yet consumed by her love for the
poet. -
At last she tells him that she longs to
die. Indolently he asks her why.
"First, because you hate me," she re
plies. "Do not torment yourself, he says.
But she no ; longer has the ' power to
move him deeply.
Doubts His Love.
A distrust of his faithfulness to her
enters her mind. ,
"A horrible fear possessed her each time
that she saw -him go, each time that she
saw him come. . Departing, he might be on .
the way to some unknown love. Arriving,
. he might perhaps . intend to take a last
farewell of her." i .
"Do you , think often of Donatella Ar
vale, Stelio? she asked him suddenly one
day. . .
' -"Yes, sometimes," he replied, after a
minute's hesitation, feeling a repugnance
for all lies and' the necessity of resolving
that -love must transcend all little tricks
and. pretensions' and become for - him a -source
of strength and not of weakness, a
free agreement, not a heavy chain. - ,
"The woman walked forward without .
swerving, but she had lost the sense of feel
ing throughout her body except for that '
terrible beating 'of hers heart which shook
ier Irom neck" to heeL".'- , . -
. Thus little . by little la Foscarlna reap -izes
the extent to which she has sacrificed;'
herselfNto the . poet.'' A younger .woman
r seems . to '.him more . beautifuL ..Her. own "
great love .kindles in him no adequate re
sponses . Even the sacred ' moments when
she has confided to him' the - bitterest pas
sages of her own life story have for him, .
she suspects, only a literary value.
" "Do you remember that evening of the
. tempest?" ' asked ' Stelio ' oue day.- "How
sweet you were. . Fosca ! ; A little earlier, V
, on the Rlalto bridge, "L had found a motive ;
I had translated the speech of the elements. ,
mv
un n m i sr i. -
Gabriele d'Annunzio,
the Poet, Who Has Re
claimed the Friendship
ofHls Countrymen. .
m ..........-. -l-,.u.1.uv1jVinnjnjir))(nrririnrrii -
D'
as a War. Poet
THE prohibition by the Italian government In 1912 of the collected edition of j
Gabriele d'Annunzio's war . poems, contributed to Italian newspapers, was due
chiefly to the. unflattering allusions to certain European powers contained in one
of the poems, entitled "A Ballad, of the Dardanelles." tx. ' I . . . j
D'Annunzlo's reference to .Austria .and Emperor Francis Joseph was most
bitter. The poem dealt with episodes In the history of Austrian-Italian relations
the troubles at. Mantua, when Austria endeavored to hold down her Italian sub
jects after the unsuccessful revolution of 1848.
Wrote d'Annunzio: -
Bat ob U mora outraged ; than all Ih etbers. ' It Is ths saintly hanging
angI of th eternal gallows..' O gloomy Aftntua, O atones of Belfiora, O ditcha
of Lombardy, O carving Bay of Trie to, was mrmt greator marvel 'soon?
! Tao modeaty "of tho two-hdod ooglo, which vomit forth Ilka tho vulturo
th undigested flesh of the corpses 1 ' - 1 ; '
1 Yet more portents I Tho hangman's ropo, with its slipknot, whielf Is now
transformed into a airdlo of virtue to sorroand tho foul old executioner, while
every night in his sleep ho is cuffed by' that severed hand loaded with rings
which mads a gory field of" Croatia. . . . , - t ' " j - ' '
The ."severed hand loaded with rings" was taken presumably by the Italian
censor to, mean the. hand, of f some Italian nobleman, cut off as ' be hang upon
the gallows by a Croatian soldier., i . ' ' I ' f - ,
Dost thou know what a motive Is? A lit-,
tie stream' from which there may. grow a
. crowd ; of it vers, ' a little seed,- from which :
may come a' glory of forests,' a . little spark
fromi. which , may come fajn endless chain
of fire, a nucleus - product Ire , of , infinite
force. - " 1 - v. ' i -
. " "There Is not in the world of force any
thing more potent, more effectual. And to
an active mind there Is no higher Joy-than
a development of this form of ..energy'
joy? : Yes, dear friends, -but also'sometimes
a horror." . -f . ' r
.All this and more is what Dose read and,
cried , against. . This stripping aside of all
" reserve. this portrayal of : a' heroine with
great sad eyes, ' "no longer young," with' a
fatal cspadty for loving; this. pitiless-recital'
of the painful,- sordid childhood of the
great actress ; the. melancholy . romance of
. J hec absolute abandonment of herself to. tbe
'f man who accepted her great love and found
: in It-r-a "motive." . j
'. The .unutterable cruelty xt it all, sup-;
plemented by the novelist's airy deulal that'
,'. he had definite models for Uie characters in'
- his book, excited fciguora.Du.se Into a
frenzy; Time after time he sent" for d'An
OUnzlo o , come to her. Repeatedly he
' failed hen To a Wu the writers of Italy
. and France espoused her . caune. M. do
' Provost bitterly attacked d'Annunzio la thr
.. Paris prints. - ' f
u'-'- ;But this is another day. The people of
-Italy,' facing a j crisis, , forgot 'all: else
: save the destiny of their country. Ben-'
..V jamin Disraeli, tbe Earl of iBencousfield.
. once said that "time 1 the great physician."
4 In .tho. case of d'Annunzio "war", might be
substituted for rtlnxe.? I