The Washington times., 1920-09-05

ual and Financial Bankrupt.
r LEONORA BUSES life of tragic suf-
fcring, unharr" lo92 and artistic tri-
"-- Umph is entering Il. On its saddest
cha ,er
She who ha. drawn wdaI houses of
thrilled admirers on 20 bemispbcres is
row q poverty ;r!Y':el, promaturely
roken woman--t-G'.r- - b-iv nd broken
il spirit. Th"rne,' uato.~cn11o Investments
I'D inrr.t>'G va, G,ld't!orG her large
: ,uc or '"rr 3ia~inatcG. One calamity
n'p'~'f = has fallen upon her and now
is ra6."eG to misery. she has been
! '"l. 10 apply fer 'hc small pension tina.
olieved to be due her as the widow Of
an officer, although long parted from her
husband
.Saddest Of all in Duse's own eyes is the
fact that she has been forced to abandon
her great dream of recent years-the Gre
alton of a home for travelling actresses,
where they could escape some of the mis-
cries and humiIiations she experienced in
youth.
Italy regards Duse as the greatest ac-
tress in the world. France considers her
almost the equal of Bernhard" The rest
of the world is perhaps equally divided as
to their talents. In her old age Sarah
Bernhard is enjoying a happy and pros
porous life. Duse, who is much younger,
seems to have fallen into utter misery
after many wonderful triumphs.
What is the reason of the tragic down
fall Of Eleonora Duse, her successive mis-
fortunes, her broken spirit, her failure to
rally in spite of all the opportunities that
must still lie within her grasp? Many
who know and admire her say that the
secret of her tragedy lies in her intimate
association with Gabrielle d'Annunzio the
brilliant decadent poet and playwright,
who has lately disturbed Europe and defied
his native Italy by his occupation Of Fiume.
Those who remember well the lives OF
Duse and d'Annunzio say that from the
time she first became infatuated with the
poet she steadily lost her strength, her
vitality and her hope of the future. 1t was
as though spiritual vampire had stolen
away her forces. They say that the poet
has had a similar influence on the many
women with whom he has been associated
on all, perhaps, except the virile and
statuesque Ida Rubinstein.
good many years ago when d'Annun-
zfo, the author of "The Triumph Of Death"
was at the height of his literary fame, he
met Eleonora Duse, whose graceful but
cGther melancholy beauty had charmed
thousands. She became completely fas-
cina,ed with the wonderfully talented poet
and playwright and utterly devoted to him.
For her he wrote his most brilliant
= plays, including "The Dead City" and "The
Gioconda," two masterpieces of morbidity
and strange sin that have never been
equalled. DAnnunzio showed a great ap-
probation of one OF Duse's chief beauties
her hands His "Gioconda" was dedi-
Gated "To Eleonora Duse of the beautiful
hands," and in the play the heroine al
lowed her hands to be crushed into shape
lessness as a supreme sacrifice to her lover.
In her series of d'Annunzio plays Duse in
creased her fame, although their NOR.
bidity must have reacted deeply on her
already melancholy temperament. But for
a time, undoubtedly, she lived in a kind
of exotic Paradise with her gifted poet.
Then he callously dealt her blow that
hurt her inexpressibly. He published
new novel called "Fuoco" (Fire), in which
he revealed the story of her early life, as