DUSE, ELEONORA (1859-1924), Italian actress, belonged to a family of actors from Chioggia, near Venice. Her grand father, Luigi Duse, a celebrated actor of Goldoni plays, created the i8th century Venetian masque of Giacometto, round which a whole dialect repertory turned. Born on a tour in Lombardy on Oct. 3, 1859, Eleonora Duse was carried to her christening at Vigevano in a gilt theatrical property-box; some Austrian soldiers presented arms, thinking it was a reliquary. She acted the part of Cosette in Les Miserables at the age of four in a booth at Chi oggia. At Verona she played Juliet when just 14, and drew public attention by her love of flowers and the use she made of them in her art. The incident is always referred to as "the device of the roses" (la trovata delle rose).
About this time her mother, to whom she was passionately attached, died, and thrown on her own resources, often in dire poverty, she passed from one travelling company to another, eventually reaching fame through sheer hard work, no less than by genius and the exceptional beauty of her speaking voice. She acted in Alcibiades of Felice Cavallotti, in Or f eo of Alfieri, and took the part of Shakespeare's Ophelia with success. She gained wider recognition in 1878 when, one night at Naples, she was called upon suddenly to take the leading part in Les Fourcham bault by Augier. In the following year, after securing a real triumph in the part of Zola's Therese Raquin, Cesare Rossi engaged her for his famous company as prima diva and she added La Princesse de Bagdad to her repertory. A memorable year was 1882: she saw Sarah Bernhardt act at Turin in La Dame aux Camelias of Dumas fils, and felt inspired to give her own inter pretation of Marguerite Gautier—"fille galante, extremement distinguee," a character which both actresses idealized. The Frenchwoman, less realistic and temperamental, possessed a more subtle style; but, in certain scenes, the passionate, almost vol canic, powers of the Duse admitted of no rival. The greatest tri umph, perhaps, in her career was gained in this part, and she was induced to act it in Paris in 1897, when the Parisians were taken by storm, Sarah Bernhardt leading the applause. She also acted in Frou Frou and La Femme de Claude. Her Magda, in the opinion of Sudermann the author, was never surpassed. In the character of Mirandolina (La Locandiera of Goldoni) she also showed a remarkable gift for light comedy. She created the character of Santuzza in La Cavalleria Rusticana, given for the first time in 1884, and such was her success that Verga said the play belonged as much to her as to him. Her acting during all this period was characterized by realism devoid of any excess; hers was the highest kind of romantic realism which had passed through the flame of intense feeling. Coquelin the elder said of her : "No one draws from humanity as she does ; she is passionately beautiful and great." Her own words still further help to explain her vivid and varied personality : "How I have loved life!" she wrote to a friend, and again : "There are a thousand women within me, and each one makes me suffer in turn." Eleonora Duse was a woman of wide culture; her intellectual life had been greatly influenced early in life through a close friendship with Arrigo Boito, the composer, whose sound criti cism proved of considerable value to her art. The books she steeped herself in included the writings of Pascal, Keats, and Thomas a Kempis; The Letters of St. Catherine of Siena, The Confessions of St. Augustine and L'Action by Maurice Blondel.
Essentially religious by nature, she was untouched by organized religion. She travelled a great deal both for her profession and for pleasure : Matilde Serao called her "the impassioned pilgrim." She had no fixed home ; the nearest approach to one was her sum mer house at Asolo. She lived simply but spent large sums on producing plays and in financing her company of actors whom she would sometimes keep idle for long spells on account of health. She made her first appearance in Paris in 1884; went to London and New York in 1893, and to Moscow in 1892 and 1897, and to Egypt. She always particularly liked acting in Vienna.
Her restless, soaring spirit eventually grew weary of Dumas and Augier, finding in La Dame aux Carnelias alone "a thread of gold to hold together the string of false pearls"; and, towards middle age, the Duse turned definitely to poetry and "les oeuvres de pensee." In 1896 she commissioned Panzacchi to translate L'Abbesse de Houarre, which she acted in Rome with so much success that Renan wrote her a letter full of praise and gratitude. At this time she passed under the spell of the later works of Ibsen, to be closely followed by the aestheticism of D'Annunzio. In the Scandinavian dramatist she saw the poet more vividly than the scourger of society. Ellida, The Lady from the Sea, with whom she felt some affinity, was her favourite heroine. Ibsen was not altogether satisfied with her interpretation of Hedda Gabler; he is reported to have said as he left the theatre: "She believes Hedda to be a neurotic, but she is absolutely wrong." Her life-consuming friendship with D'Annunzio began in 1897; they parted in 1902, only to meet 18 years later at a patriotic gathering in Milan. D'Annunzio immortalized their friendship in Fuoco, the novel of the lagoons, incorporating many of her letters and sayings. La Citta morta he had dedicated to Sarah Bern hardt ; La Gioconda he wrote for "Eleonora Duse of the beautiful hands," and wrote many other plays under her enthusiastic in spiration. She took up the cause of D'Annunzio as a dramatist with almost mystic exaltation, and threw all her energies into trying to found a theatre which was to be a D'Annunzio Bay reuth for the glory of a pure art. A site was offered to her on the shores of Lake Albano, near the Baths of Diana, but to her grief the scheme fell through, chiefly because the public did not recog nize the real Duse in the drama of D'Annunzio. La Gloria was hissed at Naples in 1898 and no better success attended Sogno di un mattino di primavera, but she won some applause for Francesca da Rimini in 19o2. Undaunted, the Duse insisted upon acting only the plays of D'Annunzio when she went to America in 1902-3 with Ermete Zacconi, and, in spite of financial losses, she refused to revive old favourites. Some people think that D'Annunzio had an enervating effect upon her art, and that her recitation tended to wards monotony; while, in the opinion of others, her style lost rough edges and gained in classical grandeur, and her general culture was enriched.
At the height of her fame in 1909, Eleonora Duse definitely left the stage, mainly on account of health. For twelve years she retired into private life. But, owing to pecuniary losses arising out of the World War, she had to face the necessity of returning to the stage. After much anxious thought she accepted collabora tion once more with Ermete Zacconi, appearing at Turin in 192I in The Lady from the Sea. "I only want to act the part of mothers," she said, "women without age, creatures of eternity, like Ellida and so many heroines of the great Ibsen. . . . No wigs, they must accept me with my white hair." They did, and Eleonora Duse found that she had conquered the world a second time. A desire to do something for Italy acted as an incentive to work at this time. Animated by a passionate desire to participate in the joys and sorrows of her fellow creatures, she strove to teach "the good and beauty of life" to a world devastated by a spirit of violence, which was abhorrent to her nature. For the purpose of this spiritual crusade, and also for the benefit of young authors, she tried to found an Italian theatre—Teatro dei Giovani. She complained that her scheme was not supported by the Govern ment, but her ideas were vague and perhaps, too, time was not ripe for the venture.
This, the last period in her career, was marked by a wonderful revival of her youthful genius, rather than by any new creations or change of style. She continued to play Ibsen, D'Annunzio and La Porta Chiusa of Marco Praga. After touring Italy she made her last appearance in London in June 1923 when she acted to far fuller houses than in the heyday of her glory. She courageously accepted a tour in America the following spring, where she also received a triumphal reception. But her health was broken, and often she had to be revived with oxygen after a performance, though her vitality never gave out during the play. She died from the results of a chill at Pittsburgh on April 21, 1924, at the age of 64. She was pitifully anxious not to die far away from Italy, and gave feverish orders, almost with her last breath, to pack up quickly so as to catch the boat home. Italian emigrants knelt on the quay as her coffin was lowered on to the battleship "Duilio" at New York, and national mourning was pro claimed in Italy. Her countrymen desired to see her laid at rest with other illustrious Italians in Santa Croce at Florence, but they respected her wishes to be quietly buried at Asolo.
Craig, "To Madame Eleonora Duse," The Mask, vol. I (March, 1908) ; Ricardo Artuffi, "La Duse inedita," La Stampa (Turin, May 4, 1924, April 21, 1926) ; Gemma Ferruggia, La Nostra vera Duse (Milan, 1924) ; Cesare Levi, "La Duse," Il Libro del Giorno (Milan, 1924) ; Pompieo Mantegari, I comici Italiani, reliquie memorie (Milan, 1924) ; Marco Praga, Cronache Teatrali (Milan, 1924) ; V. Talli, "Eleonora Duse," La Lettura (Milan, June I, 1924) ; E. Schneider, Eleonora Duse (1925) ; A. Symons, Eleonora Duse (1926). (L. WA.)