IN HEROIC MOULD

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 74, 28 March 1931, Page 20

IN HEROIC MOULD

The first volume of an allegorical poem of colossal proportions in praise of Fascism and its founder, Bonito Mussolini, has just been presented to the Duce, says the "Christian Scionce Monitor." The poem is the- work of a young Florentine poet, Virgilio Florentine Twenty-six more volumes are to bo issued monthly; each volume, I handsomely bound and illustrated, is to be sold at the price of 500 liros (£5). Each book is in grand folio and consists of a canto of 720 verses; the entire epic will contain 20,000 versos. Tho historical period covered in the work is that between. 23rd March, 1919, when Signor Mussolini founded the first Fascist Society in Milan, and 28th October, 1922, tho date of the Fascist march on Eome. Signor Mussolini and the loaders of the Fascist Revolution aro cast in the mould of Homeric heroes. Tho whole epic is a fantastic allegory in which Siguor Mussolini is depicted as being invested with divine authority to save and redeem Italy from the forces of evil which, in the shape of Bolshevism, arc shown to bo threatening to destroy it. The forces of evil, in the guise of tho allied plenipotentiaries at tho Peace Conferences" in 1018, are set forth as taking the Goddess of Victory from Italy and handing her over in chains to Jugo-Slaria, \rhera sTm fa fettered

A DICTATOR'S ROLE

on the Croatian ltocks on the other side I of tho Adriatic. Signer Mussolini goes to battle in revenge, stops, a Socialist outbreak, and in tire conflict the offices of the Socialist newspaper "Avanti" aro burned. A similarly liigli message comes to Gabricle d'Annunzio to. march on Kurac, and lie is assisted by a ilock of divine eagles.. Following'the eagles along the coast, ho comes to tho Goddess Victory, releases lior, and takes her to Finnic. Meanwhile, Signer. Mussolini, defeated in the 1919 elections through tho machinations of the opposition, organises the Black Shirts. The forces of evil, in the guise of the Socialists, having occupied the factories, the Fascists attack them and ■'drive them out. The Goddess Victory is taken to tho editorial offices of tho "Popolo d 'Italia," where Signor Mussolini swears to defend her and take her to Eome, to defend Latin greatness in perpetuity. The doors of the "Popolo d'ltalia" are tin-own open and tho Goddess of Victory, in glittering armour, is seen proceeding with the Duco at tho head of the Black Shirts on tho march to Eome. Tho epic ends with the divine com-' mission given to Signor Mussolini and f.lio Pope to reunite Fascist and Roman Catholiu Borne and to re-establish tho new empire of universal eh-ilisntkm.