D'ANNUNZIO

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 60, 4 December 1919, Page 7

D'ANNUNZIO

<r ?HE MASTER OF PiCMfl" THE MAN AND THE MELODRAMA -Jfifc' recent achievement of Signor DAiuiunzio, one would imagine, can havo astonished ,no ono who knew him or his bcoks well. Tho raid on Fiume, mi irresponsible act of folly, perilous chiefly for his country, is just-what tho hero of the "Vergini delle Rocco" longed to havo tho energy to do, aJid just what Stft'.io Effrena, the hero of "II Fuoco," would, bavo done. Evory one of D'Anirunzio's heroes in all his novels sacrifices everyone to his hysterical egotism, especially women, ;uid now D'Annunzio has sacrificed .his country to his despair of himself, his insano vanity, and megalomania. Mr. Edward Hutton, writing in tho I/ondon "Obsorver," says: English readers who do rot know the Italian charactor may _ have been surprised that a decadent artist should bo capable of action of any sort,, wiso or unwise; but they must hp.vo forgotten very many Italians of the Renaissance, the Visconti, tho Sforza, the Mnlatesta; abovo all. Cola di Rienzo, an amazing study of whom D'Annunzio wrote not .long before the war. "Well, this raid of D'Annunzio's is altogether of the Renaissance; So Sforza raided Milan and founded a pettv duchy, so Malatesta establirhod a lordship, so even Cesaro Borgia failed, to estaolish anything at all having legitimacy or permanence: and Italy was a chaos, not a nation.

His W4r Services. ■It is said that to understand is to pardon. To understand D'Annunzio's latest, escapade wo must gu back: to the time before tho war. Famous. as the author of half a dozen novels, the hotter known, of which were perhaps "II Piacere," "II Trionfo della Morte," and "II Euoco," and of several plays, the best of which was "La Figlia di Lorio," D'Annunzio somo years beforo the war broke out had left his country, loaded with debts, and seemed at tho end of his career, if not an altogether discredited man. During his sojourn in Franco his genius flagged,! and it seemed that he would never write anything again , but "pot-boilere." Whei\ the war broke ' out. however, his return to Italy was made possible, and he rendered great < ftnd undoubted services to his country and to the Allies in a series of magnificent speeches, delivered in Rome, on the Capitol and elsewhere, which 6wept the Italian people into the war, and made it possible for the Italian Government to give up its neutrality and enter an alliance with France, England, and Russia, which brought Italy into the war iu .May, 1915. This service must bo remembered now, and may help his countrymen to forgive his present folly, for which it is to bo feared not he, but suffering and hard-working Italy, will pay.

The "Cinema Raiid." Tho war thus came as an unhoped-for opportunity of a new life for D'Annunzio, find very splendidly ho 6eized it. With the tireless energy that is his chief characteristic, he threw himself into the struggle, and at the age of fifty joined the Italian Air Service, flew everywhere in the most hazardous enterprises, and did everything he could think of to die a glorious death. It was a counsel of despair, but it was glorious, and quite in the later Latin fashion. He failed to

die: he has lived to organise the "cinema

raid" and to become "Master of Fiume," which is just like a denoumont of one of his own novels, as it might havo been with tho airman-hero of 'Torso che si, forse che no," though we must always remember that D'Annunzio is an aTttst in literature, and that it is only in "real life'*' he indulges in such crude molodiama lis this.

An Effort in the Baroque, In his art D'Annunzio has undoubtedly been of his raco and securely in the Italian tradition.- It is only tho Italian who can fill out the baroque. Remember what a, feeble. thing, tho French mako of that robust style, and then recall St. Petor's and tho churches of Yenico and Lccce, for instance. The Italian alone fills it out, and fills it with abundance of life. Well, what is D'Annunzio's art, what are D'Annunzio's novels but successful essays in "that great Italian style? It is only when ho attempts the style in life, or, as now. in Empire building and political adventure, that we feel and recogniso the parvenu. "If half tho people of Italy were like those of Fiume, Italy might be mistress of half the world." It might bo Rienzi speaking crowned with those fantastic crowns of oak, of ivy, of myrtle, of laurol, of olive, and of silver whicti he as firmly believed tho ancient tribunes used as D'Annunzio no doubt believes the is y a hero. Happily, his countrymen have seen through him. Ths "G'orriere delta Sera" calls him and his raid "the limit"—vulgarly, but truly; and in conrmenting upon his "half the world" ora.tion, very soborly and splendidly raj's: "Italy has no need to be mistress of ihalf the world, but to bo mistress of herfelf, and, above all, of her army," while the "Secolo'' denounces him and his "delirious vanity." Now, iv'hcn those two japerp are thus in agreement/ wo in inland may understand whaU our traditional friend and present'ally) the Italian people, think of the "Master of Fiume" and "his raid.

The Two Dangers. The ultimate dangers resulting from this affair are many: tile immediate dangers are two. D'Annunzio may be imitated anywhere along the Dalmatian const, in Zara, Spalato, or Rebenlco, so that if ho should not be immediately brought to account, it might mean mutiny and anarchy, and not ou the eastern coast of # tho Adriatic alone. The sccond danger is that Signor Nilti, the Italian Prime Minister, who has won the confidence of tho world, and seems to havo grasped the Italian financial situation, should fall, which rannot but be deemed a disaster for Haly in tho circumstances of tilio time by all iher friends abroad.

, The pit.v of it is that an hysterical and irresponsible man in despair should thus be able to embarrass his country, which has surely suffered enough. Italian affairs at Uie Pence Conference Ibavo be;n bo grossly_ mismanaged that tho Italian people believe they have suffered a <]pep Jniustico at tho hands of their Allies. This in part is tho excuse, if excuse thers can be, for the dangerous buffoonery of "Tlhe Master of Fiume."