Bernhardt.

Silvio Pellico, who wrote the first drama on "Francesca da Rimini"
known to modern playgoers, lived his early life in an intensely
religious atmosphere, and suffered imprisonment later because of his
patriotic tendencies; it is not surprising, therefore, to find in his
play--first a national appeal that was to win it applause from all
Italy, and then, more important still, a purity of tone that struggled
most nobly against an inevitable, passionate end. _Paolo_ is the
one who, after some scruples, succumbs; _Francesca_ is infinitely
conscious that she is a wife; _Giovanni_ is suspicious. It would
seem that Pellico's play is the first that realized the theatrical
possibilities of the story; research has brought to light no play
manuscript previous to his.

In the handling of his details, Pellico's incongruities and
artificialities are many. _Paolo_ returns from knightly deeds in Asia,
to find his father dead--the _Malatesta Verucchio_ who died in 1312,
twenty-seven years after _Giovanni_ committed the murder; therefore
Pellico gives to the deformed brother the power that history does not
wholly accord. The dramatist would avoid the indelicacy he finds in
the reading incident, recounting it only in a situation during
which _Francesca_ holds aloof in a wild effort to stifle her love.
Throughout the play, there is this ruthless twisting, in a desire to
conceal wrong and unpardonable sin.

Turning to Uhland's fragmentary ideas, which even he himself was
doubtful whether he could handle, an atmosphere confronts us as
mediævally German as the "Der arme Heinrich" of Hartmann von Aue,
which was the inspirational source for Longfellow's "The Golden