GABRIELE D'ANNUNZIO

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXII, Issue 4641, 18 May 1938, Page 8

GABRIELE D'ANNUNZIO

THE MAGNIFICENT BUCCANEER. HIS WORK, HIS LOVES, HIS DEEDS. (By Franco Battistessa, Editor "II Giornale dTtalia," Sydney.) On the stormy night of the 12th March, in 1864, on the barquentine Irene, at sea between Trieste and Pescara, unto Donna Luisa de Benedicts and Don Francescopaolo d'Annunzio was born a son. His proud, ailing mother, smiling on him, said: "My child, you were born at sea on a Friday, and in March. Wfcat a stii you will make in the world ! " Strange words of a prophecy; that child prodigy was to be Gabriele d'Annunzio, a man of destiny, Prince of "Monte Nevoso," the foremost soldier and supreme poet of Imperial Italy; aviator, politician, sailor, novelist, dramatist and conquering hero and dictator-ruler of Fiume. D'Annunzio "il Divo" (The Divine) or " Archangel," as he loved to call himself after Gabriel, was destined to live a genius whose tumultuous, glittering, and adventurous life, stranger I than fiction, which made him dine

with king's and bed with princesses, surpassed in thrills and strangeness, even that of the Duce himself. The most glamorous figure to strut in the literary, political and social life of new and greater Italy, he was endowed with encyclopaedic knowledge, a prodigious memory, an overbearing ambition, an undaunted, fearless spirit, which knew neither obstacles nor limitations. He lived magnificently., wrote powerfully, loved tempestuously and fought stupendously: a superman, a Don Juan and a hero. Plagiarising Pascal, who wrote, "Man is neither Angel nor Beast," d'Annunzio wrote in his "Le Faville II Maglio" (Sparks From the Anvil) ". . the struggle, now impious, now sacred, is ever continuous, between the archangel that I am and the beast that I am." It was true. In his 74 years of cro..ded, glittering and tempestuous life; struggling, loving, fighting, this swashbuckler, magnificent buccaneer and supreme egotist, lived a life of his own in a fantastic world, caiwed by his sword and genius; above the law, beyond discipline, contemptuous evei of moral restraint and determined to be himself, "me no frego"—je m'en fiche, I don't care a d !, his favourite motto, the beast and the angel, a pagan and a god, wrapped up in f powerful all, tremendously alive. He was a battler who hated the cold, prosiac bourgeoisie, and was repaid in full measure. The critical, carping students who used to boo his plays and cry " Death to the Rapagneta," like the Socialist deputies in Parliament, who used to assail, "The not very honourable Rapagnetta," were erroneously inferring an illegitimate birth and an assumed name, but the world celebrity was legally and legitimately born a d'Annunzio, his father formerly Rapagnetta having legally adopted the name' before the poet's birth. At 12 a dreaming adolescent, he met "Splendore," his first love, a peasant girleen, blonde as a stalk of ripened wheat; at 15 in the Cicognini College at Prato, he writes his first ode to Humbert of Savoy, King of Italy; at 16 he launches on a shocked and startled world, "Primo Vere," his first book of poetry which reveals the whole gamut of his ardent pagan soul, exuberant with luscious Latin sensuality which explodes in licentious hymns, mournful allegories and flaming imagery. A new flaming star appears on the glittering firmament of poetry; d'Annunzio has taken Italy by storm. From then on, his literary work is prodigious, novels, plays and poetical work appear in quick succession, over 60 stupendous productions, among which masterpieces like "II Piacere" (The Child of Pleasure), "II Fuoco " (Fire), both novels, "La Figlia di Iorio" (The Daughter of Iorio), "Franeesca da Rimini," "La Nave" (The Boat) plays, and "Canto Novo," "Ele'-

gie Romane," "Le Cauzoni d'oltremare," poetry. Some of his books considered lascivious and blasphemous by the Vatican were placed on the Index and banned to Roman Catholics, among these, "The Son of Pleasure," a power, ful story of a sinful passion, and "Fire," a dramatic novel of passionate desire, love and penitence which portrayed nakedly and unashamed his historic passion for the great actress Eleonora Duse, which raised a storm of scandal and protests. For his alleged cynicism, the poet was accused of caddishness, but the publication of such passionate and intimate reminiscences drew from the tragic Duse sated with admiration * and success, only warmer protestation of love. . A swaggering Lovelace, and a picturesque figure, admired, courted and sought, d'Annunzio had many loves and countless flirtations. At 18 years of age, he eloped with the dainty and aristocratic 19-year-old Duchess Maria di Gallese Hardouin. Followed a runaway marriage and two children.

The romance faded into incompatibility, and in Naples in a whirlwind of passion he woos and wins the most ravishing Sicilian beauty, Princess Gravina, his only and real "Beatrice," who was to live publicly with him for over nine years, and gave him also two children; the girl, Renata, his favorite, became a nun, and nursed him through the six months in total darkness, when blinded in one eye during the Great War.

Again the clu* Aing fingers of passion enter his dynamic life; now comes the romantic epitome of Venice with moonlight and gondolas and passionate Eleonora Duse. "dalle belle mani" of the beautiful hands in his arms. Together they flee to Egypt, and when he returns alone, the loving Eleonora sends him twelve telegrams, one every hour on his birthday, despite the fact that he is still living with his proud Sicilian Princess. The heroic climax of his adventurous life came with the Great War. From Arcachon, France, the great poet and patriot, as if to confuse those who called him a decadent, rushed to Italy, a fiery and eloquent advocate of Italy's intervention on the side of the allies, and, when after his clarion call at his torical Quarto, Italy joined in, on the 25th May, 1915, d'Annunzio, although past fifty years of age, immediately volunteered for active service. Now the sound and fury has ceased and the glamorous, brilliant d'Annunzio lies dead, an object of national admiration and reverence for all times. . In his prosaic age of classified and mechanised humanity, d'Annunzio was a resplendent rebel, who made law unto himself and lived in a fantastic world surrounded by a halo of romance, glittering pomp, and mediaeval ceremony.