page_title: Gismonda
section_title: Act I
hierarchical_section_title: Gismonda / Plot / Act I
context_page_description: Gismonda is a Greek melodrama in four acts by Victorien Sardou that premiered in 1894 at the Théâtre de la Renaissance. In 1918, the play was adapted for the now lost film Love's Conquest. In 1919, it was adapted into Gismonda by Henry Février.
context_section_description: Act I starts in 1451 in Athens at the foot of the Acropolis.
  In the opening act, we find Gismonda, the widow of the Duke of Athens, and the mother of his child, a five-year-old boy named Francesco. Gismonda is the ruling power of the duchy as regent for her son, an absolute monarch. She is surrounded by a flattering court, among whom is a Venetian, named Zaccaria Franco, who loved the Duchess before she married the Duke of Athens. He is seemingly one of her strongest supporters, but is actually trying to seize power for himself. Zaccaria is in league with the Turks, who support him in his plotting against the duchy. Gismonda's young son Francesco, the heir to the duchy, stands between Zaccaria and his ambitions. So Zaccaria has conspired with an accomplice, Gregoras, to murder the boy.
  In the opening scene, a cross stands in the center of the stage and a crowd is surging about it. Presently Agnello, a young nephew of the Duchess Gismonda, enters. He looks down at a tiger in a pit, preferring to keep his distance from it, and discusses a statue of Aphrodite, next to the cross, with some comrades. Zaccaria and his accomplice Gregoras appear. They plan to lure Francesco, Gismonda's son, to the edge of the pit, and shove him in, making it look like an accident. The excitement above has driven the captive tiger into a frenzy.
  After a long scene, in which every detail of their scheme is arranged, Zaccaria and Gregoras are joined on stage by Gismonda, with Francesco and others. Gismonda says that she does not like the statue of Aphrodite. A bishop passes by, and he agrees that the statue is inappropriate. During this talk, Gregoras has taken Francesco to the edge of the pit to show him the tiger. With a quick jostle, Francesco falls in.
  Gismonda sees her son fall into the tiger pit and screams. She does not see that Gregoras pushed him in. She beseeches someone—anyone—to save her son. She offers unlimited rewards but no one is willing to risk almost certain death to rescue the boy. At last a man takes a poignard and goes to the child's rescue. The tiger crouches ready to seize his prey and the man leaps into the pit.
  Gismonda prays for help at the foot of the cross. The others describe the conflict in the pit. The man stabs the tiger in the eye. The point of the dagger goes through to its brain and the tiger dies.
  Joyful, Gismonda hugs Francesco, and vows before God to marry and share her duchy with the man who saved her son. No one knows the man, who turns out to be Almerio, a commoner. When she hears this, Gismonda's gratitude begins to cool. Her child is safe, and she has no desire to marry a commoner. The bishop reminds her of her promise. Gismonda tells the bishop that he need not remind her of her oath; it is impossible to fulfill it.
  The entire play revolves around this vow.
  Gismonda kindly and patronizingly thanks Almerio, and begins to look for a loophole out of her promise. She decides to appeal to the Pope. Almerio, however, wants her to live up to her vow. Gismonda promises him whatever he wants, except herself and her duchy.
  "Vous avez promis et j'insiste que vous tiendrez votre promesse (You promised and I insist that you keep your word)," Almerio says.
  The curtain falls as Gismonda is hurrying away with her child.
caption: Photograph of C. C. van Schoonhoven as Zaccaria (1899)
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