The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-11-05
.p.Annunxio,. "The Dead City"

E3eanora Duse is acting in New York
this week. presenting Gabrielle D'Annun-
zio's La Citta Morta" C'The Dead City'O
and La Gioconda" third play of that
author. Francesca da Rimini.' will be used
by the actress next week. In these three
plays only will she appear during her stay
i'm this country Which of them she will
use i'm Indianapolis has not been announced
nor has her date here been settled. Eng
usI. transIations of La Citta Morta" and
Francesca da Rimini'' have been pub
Nshed. The translator of the former was
Prof. G. Mantellini and the publishers are
Laird & Lee, of Chicago. The book is well
put together and contains good illustra-
tons The play is in prose, and Professor
MantelIini has reproduced in English the
fluent STYLE of D'Annunzio. A review Of
Francesca da Rimini," translation by Ar
thur Symons will appear in this column at
another time
The dead city" of which DAnnunzio
writes is that of the sons OF Pelops and
excavating in its ruins is one Leonardo,
an enthusiastic and indefatigable student
of the manners and art of the ancient
Greeks and other peoples at one time or
another associated with them. Leonardo
and his sister, Blanca Maria; his friend
Alessaqdro. poet; AlesSandros W1e,
living together in a house on the edge of
the ruins of Mycenae. These five persons
are all the characters of the drama Leon
ar6o is almost exhausted by his work in the
ruins He has been blistered by the sun,
has breathed the dust of the disturbed
toTslbs. and fever Is burning him. He avoids
his: companions and seems intent almost
10 insanity on delving in the mass of stone
AMI cement that once was a city rich
with gold and charged with golden sensu-
leonardo
in upon Blanca, Alessandro and Anna and
shouts that he has found the tomb of N.Y.
cebae's great.
passed over hundreds. thousands of years,
breathed in the frightful legend. palpitated
The ffteen corpses were there, with all
their members. as II just deposited after
th9 killing. hardly burned by the fire ex-
tirlguished too soon: Agamemnon, Fury
mcdon Cassandra and the royal escort;
buried with their garments. their weapons,
their diadems, their vases, their jewels. all
their riches. Do you remember. do you re-
member. Alsssandro, that passage or no
NOR: They lay between the vases and the
decorated tables and all the room was
stlned with blood And | heard the Ia
menting. voice of the daughter of Cassan-
drs, whom the perfidious Clytemnestra
stabbed at my side For an instant my
Soal has lived an antique and violent NE.
klFS OF kings. the enslaved princess, the
charioteer and the guests-there. under my
vanishes, as foam melts away, as dust Is
dispersed, like l do not know what I'M
sp'akably evanescent and fleeing thing.
th"y all passed away in the silence 1t
seemed 10 me that they were swallowed
by: the same fatal silence that reigned over
thair radiant immobility. / do not know
what happened. mass Of precious
things remains there, a treasure without
eqial. the witness of forgotten civiliZa-
uc n You will see, you will see!''
% T.lo ~
the old civilization are revealed for mo-
mint TO a man of to-day, and for that
ne pays fearful price. The poison of
the old. rich. cruel bestialality he has
oraathed In the dust. and IL possesses him.
he has conceived a passion for his sister.
ara he feels that IL will press him on
10 the horrible crime Of incest. When he
niaiiy Is unable 10 be silent longer, he
pi irts out to his friend Alessandro that
ne and his sister have lived beautifully
together. that no other woman has crossed