LA GIOCONDA, la gro-k6rid4, a trag edy in four ants, in prose by Gabriele d'An mlnzio and dedicated to Duse delle belle It was first played 15 April 1899, at •the theatre Bellini, Palermo, and was not very warmly received. Although the prose form and modern language of the •play, the time and the place of the events differentiate it from the old Greek drama, nevertheless, the inexora ble fatality which dominates the course of events and against which human defense is im potent renders the play tragic as in the case of the fateful tragedies of antiquity. And yet this fatality is not the predestination of the Greek drama, but a conception of Beauty, whether created by art or nature, as the sovereign power of the world, to which must necessarily be sacrificed goodness, morality, and even life itself. The three principal characters are Ludo Settala, a sculptor, his wife, Silvia, and his model and the inspirer of his works of art, Gioconda Diante, a woman of marvelous beauty, with whom he is infatuated. Silvia represents virtue and Gioconda the supremely beautiful in art. The battle between these two for the soul of the sculptor forms the dramatic struggle of the tragedy. Finally Art triumphs over Virtue, just as a man triumphed over destiny in Citta Morta' ; or, rather, in both cases, the triumph is with Eros, the instigator and di rector of the motif in d'Annunzio s productions.
In 'La Gioconda> msthetic fatality has its ful filment amid the tears of the good and inno cent, upon the ruin of whom the work of im mortal art rises, Beauty reigns supreme over the moral virtues trampled in the dust. Despite the lack of action throughout the play, its non conformity by reason of very long passages to what is supposed to he the conventional dra matic procedure: despite its reversal of gen erally accepted standards of the conduct of life and the horrible mutilation with which the tragedy ends; despite the supposed influence of German and French writers, the play remains, none the less, as in the case of Citti Morta,' a thoroughly original produotion such as only d'Annunzio is capable of producing. 'La Gioconda' has been well translated by Arthur Symons (Chicago 1913). Consult Dornis, Jean, 'Le theatre de Gabriel d'An nunzio,' in Revue des deux mondes (pp. 655 681, February 1904) ; Mantovani, D., 'Lettera ture contemporanea) (Turin-Rome 1913) ; Maz zoni, Guido, 'La Gioconda' (in Nuova Antoto gia, No. 165, 1899, pp. 314-337).