Of course, the catastrophe — like any other scene of
sudden death — is dramatic enough ; but a catastrophe
is only the end of a play, not the play itself. The
play itself must be the story of a gradual drifting into
a guilty passion, and, do what you will, you cannot
make that drifting dramatic in itself. Do what you
will, you cannot make Paolo anything but a stick, a
beautiful stick. Further, your cardinal scene must be
a transfer to the stage of the famous passage from
Dante about the lovers' kiss over the book. You
cannot escape that scene ; the play without that scene
would be Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark.
You may make that scene a thing of beauty, as
D'Annunzio does ; but neither D'Annunzio nor any-
one else can make that scene dramatic. But
D'Annunzio's handling of the whole story is more
dramatic than the handling of anyone else. The
sudden confrontation of Francesca and Paolo at the
17



258 DRAMA AND LIFE

end of the first act, with never a word spoken, is
highly dramatic. There is no need for words. The
twain stand spellbound. The woman hands the man
a rose, a blood-stained rose. All the story to conxe is
there. The second act, the fighting on the ramparts,
if not dramatic, is full of bustle and excitement. Its
one raison cFitre as drama is that it reveals to Paolo,
supposed to be wounded, the secret of Francesca's
passion. Only half-dramatic, again, the third act ; but
it had to be there, as I have said, for the sake of the
cardinal scene, the scene of the kiss and the book. In
the fourth act the dramatic pulse beats hot and fierce.
