THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES THE SMILE OF MONA LISA Contemporary Dramatists Series HUGO VON HOFMANNSTHAL Death and the Fool JOSE ECHEGARAY The Great Galeoto AUGUST STRINDBERG Advent MAXIM GORKI The Submerged JACINTO BENAVENTE The Smile of Mono Lisa Uniform binding, 12 mo., antique boards Each 75c. net, 8sc. postpaid RICHARD G. BADGER, PUBLISHER THE GORHAM PRESS, BOSTON, U. S. A. Contemporary Dramatists Series THE SMILE OF MONA LISA A PLAY IN ONE ACT JACINTO BENAVENTE Translated from the Spanish by JOHN ARMSTRONG HERMAN BOSTON: RICHARD G. BADGER TORONTO: THE COPP CLARK CO,, LIMITED Copyright, 1915, by Richard G. Badgef All Rights Reserved Right to Dramatic Representation, copyrighted by John A. Herman, 1912. All rights thereto re- served by the translator by authority from The Society of Spanish Authors. THE GORHAM PRESS, BOSTON, U. S. A. TO. 3435^5 JACINTO BENAVENTE 572331 JACINTO BENAVENTE f^" ~^HREE names shine with equal luster, when the Spanish drama of today is considered. They are the names of: JL. Jose Echegaray, Jacinto Benavente and Perez Galdos. All three dramatists have fertile pens. Some fifty or sixty plays have been published by Echegaray and Benavente and Galdos' work, including his drama and novels, are more numerous. The three authors have European recognition and appreciation their dramas having appeared in translated editions in Holland, Germany, Italy and other European countries. Benavente's early plays, those appearing from 1893 to about 1903 were generally of contempo- raneous life and often dealt with social foibles. He is satirical at times, again gay rarely serious but whatever the play, his love of beauty, his brilliant imagery, his worship of art for art's sake, are man- ifest. In his later works the serious play some- times the tragedy, appear. In a preface of one of his own works Benavente has given the ideals which guide him in his lit- erary work. "Art should be free," he writes in substance, 5 6 JACINTO BENAVENTE "and spontaneous; yet the world would constrain art by dogmas and the laws of convention. Art is a spontaneous realization of beauty; this senti- ment of beauty must be sincere." He says further, "In art you laugh at names and schools; all schools are good, all real artists strive to elevate man. Don't follow precedents. You don't break the old moulds of art when you enlarge your vision and enter new creative fields." Benavente believes "in the goodness of great beauty" and that art is "the devine nuptials of love and wisdom. The artist, the sculptor, the poet pictures the beauty he sees." This recalls Ruskin who answered the sail- or who criticized Ruskin for leaving out certain important details of a boat: "I recognize my fault but it is not necessary for the painter to give every detail of the boat, but to depict the beauty the painter sees." "The true artist must fly from literary precedents as the true lover must eschew the letter form book and write the dictates of his heart only, to the woman he loves. Serene inspiration accomplishes the best in art; it is this that gives distinction to the writer's style, elegance to his diction ; all comes from his inner vision." At times Benavente fails to see the silver lining to the cloud. Like the English poet (Henley) his characters hold that: JACINTO BENAVENTE 7 "Life is a smoke that curls Curls in a flickering skein, That winds and whisks and whirls A figment thin and vain. One end for hut and hall ! One end for cell and stall ! Burned in one common flame Are wisdoms and insanities. For this alone we came: O Vanity of Vanities!" Again the puppets of the stage in Benavente's dramas are happy, hopeful beings, who see only the blue or star lit sky. Other personages have moods as average mortals and are dearer to us for that very fraility. He strives for the "culture of art, for art alone and disinterested love of beauty." Benavente's first compositions were lyrical poems; then short stories and novels but from 1893 his pen has been busy with dramatic work only the drama of the Theatre. In his dramas, Teatro Fem- inista, Viaje de Instruction, La Sobresa-lienta ap- pear little poems of great beauty. Madrid men of letters have wished that Benavente could have found time to have cutlivated lyric poetry more generously. Many of his shorter poems are supremely beautiful. Mis Musas, a notable lyric in a volume of short poems, has been hailed by critics as one of the finest 8 JACINTO BENAVENTE lyrics in Spanish literature. Since Benavente consecrated his life to the thea- ter, in addition to his own dramas, he has trans- lated into Spanish, Moliere's Don Juan; Shake- speare's Twelfth Night; Dumas' Mademoilselle de Belle Isle; Lytton's Richelieu and Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Among his own earlier plays the best are "Gente Conocido" (1896), "La Gata de Angora," (1901), "El Primo Roman" (1901), and "Rosas de Otono," (1905). In Gente Conicido, a remarkable contrast is drawn between one character and all the other per- sons in the play: The impoverished daughter of an aristocrat is the one noble redeeming creature amidst a score of selfish scheming men and women. In Sacrificios a soul sacrifices its human love for its love of beauty. "The Smile of Mona Lisa" de- picts Leonardo da Vinci in a struggle between his love of women and his love of art. La Gata de Angora is a tribute almost divine of a sister's love and fealty for an utterly selfish, but brilliant brother. Many of Benavente's later plays have been received with great applause and have added to his fame. In a notice such as this but a few can be mentioned. Among the more popular are: For las Nubes (1909), De Cerca (1909), Los Ojos de JACINTO BENAVENTE 9 Muertos (1907), and El Principe que Todo lo Aprendio en los Libras (1909). De Cere a (At close Range) is a one act play founded on the theme that class prejudice between the rich and the poor by close acquaintance, disap- pears. An automobile breaks down and the rich man and his frail and now childless wife seek shel- ter from the sun in the humble cottage of a poor working man. The cottagers and the rich man's wife discover on better acquaintance that the joys and sorrows of life do not depend so much upon wealth as on health and the happiness that children bring to a home. From that day the cottagers cease to envy the occupants of the cars as they pass and from time to time little remembrances come from the rich lady to the cottagers' child for "the poor man's child was so like the rich woman's child that has gone to fairy land." In "Los Ojos de Muertos," a powerful tragedy, Isabel exclaims to a great pianist and artist: "Sorrow does not assail your soul in vain! You say you cannot be an artist unless you have suf- fered deeply. Poor devils! Do you think because the artist can read the deep meaning of a sonata of Beethoven's he is thus repaid for his hours of agony." El Principe que todo lo Aprendio en los Libros io JACINTO BENAVENTE (The Prince who Learned Everything from Books), is a beautiful fairy story drama for children. The ogres and good enchantresses are all of human form and the young prince learns in his pilgrimage that "We ever have a protecting spirit at our side ; that we can if we will make those about us happy as well as ourselves; and that we must dream beauti- ful dreams if we hope to accomplish good, beautiful deeds." In Por las Nubes the fiance and her lover are both members of old families of Spain. She has refused to marry him and accompany him to a dis- tant country where he will have an opportunity to mend the family fortunes. She would wait for years for his return but . He casts her aside as faith- less to her professed love. As the curtain falls the lov- er receives: the benediction of a virile friend who trys to assuage the lover's grief by acclaiming him for declining to be dependant upon his parents and recalling to the lover the past history of Spain whose citizens often won the highest honors be- cause they went even to the ends of the earth for achievement. Benavente's dramatic works have heretofore been published in twenty volumes. In 1910 he began the publication of a new edition of his works and a quo- tation from the preface of the first volume well il- lustrates the modesty and humility of this man of JACINTO BENAVENTE n genius whom his nation loves and revers ; and whose fame has travelled far beyond his native land. "In publishing a complete edition of my theatrical works I recall with no slight emotion the excitement of the first night's when my dramas left me the plays I had learned to love because their creation was of my very life and my travail; like the sorrow of the father who has disposed by will of his pos- sessions and wonders what the future has in store for his children children of his blood and very soul when the father shall no longer be with them. I love art above everything, but I deeply realize, when I consider my creations, that my infinite love for art has been in vain." Jacinto Benavente was the son of a physician and was born in Madrid the i2th day of August, 1866. After a course at college he began the study of law at the Central University in Madrid. He had early shown a strong desire to follow a liter- ary course, and he abandoned his study of the law that he might devote his whole time to literature. Through his brilliant talents he early won recog- nition, and up to the present has devoted his time solely to literature. He is a resident of Mad- rid, where from time to time his new dramas are welcomed and applauded in the leading theaters there. This dramatic sketch, "The Smile of Mona Lisa," illustrates in a few pages the perfection of 12 JACINTO BENAVENTE his style; his wealth of imagery; and that most important element in literature lucidity. So that he who runs may read his words and see his thoughts. JOHN ARMSTRONG HERMAN. THE SMILE OF MONA LISA PERSONS IN THE LITTLE DRAMA. LEONARDO DA VINCI, artist, sculptor, philosopher. ISMAEL, a Jew. FLORIO AND ANTONIO, students and assistants of Leonardo da Vinci. STELLO, the page of Mono Lisa. PLACE The studio of Leonardo da Vinci in Florence. TIME About 1503. The Smile of Mona Lisa ISMAEL Well met, Antonio and Florio, my friends. ANTONIO Welcome to Florence, Ismael. f i ISMAEL And Leonardo, youi master? ANTONIO He'll be back in a twinkling. We wait him here. He's struggling with the curious mob in the streets to see the giraffe. ISMAEL The animal I brought from Africa as a present to the Magnifico! And you haven't seen that rare animal ? 15 16 THE SMILE OF MONA LISA FLORID Curiosity needs good humor and ease of mind, and we have neither. ISMAEL Has fortune frowned? FLORIO She's left us altogether. Her wheel's bound and we're at sixes and sevens with her. ANTONIO That's the worst of it. Tranquil ity dampens the wheel as it does our spirits and we are rusty. ISMAEL Hasn't your great master prospered? I know your fate is bound up in his. FLORIO How could he prosper if all the world assists and he turns away? His great works are heralded THE SMILE OF MONA LISA 17 on the winds works that would give any other painter ease and fame, but Leonardo has risen to boundless extravagance and gives little attention to the commissions confided to him. The leading citi- zens are offended and are learning to detest Leon- ardo, so that our master has come to such need of money that before long he'll be the laughing stock and scorn of Florence. ISMAEL Strange predicament for the great painter, sculp- tor, mechanician, musician, astronomer, philosopher, this man of universal genius worried and har- rassed for money in spite of all his brave protectors. I see extravagance all about me. These galleries where disorder reigned; here where sculptors, ar- chitects, craftsmen, chemists, painters wrought; here where the confusion of effort was everywhere, now surprise me by their quiet luxury and elegance. Priceless tapestries, musical instruments, rare fruits and flowers arranged with exquisite taste as if Flora and Pomona were offering gifts to pagan altars. FLORIO It may well seem to you the adoration of a deity, but they're only offerings to a human deity. i8 THE SMILE OF MONA LISA ISMAEL And is Leonardo in love? FLORIO In love? Was there ever a time when he was not in love? Every hour and every day is love for Leonardo. The roses of Bengal, the crimson carna- tions, are his love. Swans floating on the lake in his gardens are his love. His capricious Berber horse is his love. The poisonous asps that guard his sanctum there are his love. The golden apples from the tree he cultivates are his love. They say, Ismael, the sap of that tree so subtly flows, that if you but taste the golden fruit, death will come naturally and peacefully and no chemist may find a vestige of poison in fruit, in tree, or in the stilled veins of the dead. Every form of beauty appeals to Leonardo roses that weigh the zephyrs with their perfume; birds that thrill the zephyrs with their song; asps that cleave the zephyrs with their poison- ous tongues. Leonardo da Vinci worships beauty everywhere in the swift flight of birds in the graceful undulations of asps reptiles evoked from the blue Nile of mysterious Egypt. Egypt which strove to immortalize death in its mummies. Egypt, where divine Cleopatra, woman among women, THE SMILE OF MONA LISA 19 learned a lesson from the serpent not as her moth- er, Eve, the lesson of good and evil but learned the beautiful art of loving and dying. ISMAEL Are you all pagans stark mad mad as Leon- ardo! ANTONIO Don't deprive us of our reason and we'll teach you to lend with profit. ISMAEL In your unbelief, Christians still! Why do you speak of me with scorn? ANTONIO Scorn! Never! You are a generous Jew. ISMAEL You've learned the lesson of love but poorly from your Master. Do you forget the times I helped Leonardo when no advantage came to me. 20 THE SMILE OF MONA LISA FLORIO But Ismael if you've gained little, you've lost nothing for you stand high in the estimation of Leonardo. ISMAEI. But Leonardo loves everything even the asps there. ANTONIO Why not? Little cares Leonardo for canting virtues. But your face and figure, Ismael! What a splendid example of your race! Who can tell? Some day Leonardo may ask you to be his model for a masterpiece. Could you hope for greater glory? ISMAEL I a model for a pagan artist! Every one who praised it would be excommunicated by your church! ANTONIO Leonardo's masterpiece would be supremely beau- tiful, it would move all hearts to love. It would be superhuman to move the hearts of your magistrates and ecclesiastics to just treatment or my race. (Enter LEONARDO.) Good day Leon- ardo. FLORIO Good day, Master. LEONARDO Good day to all. Welcome, Ismael! I've heard of your return to Florence. I see you've not forgot- ten Leonardo. ISMAEL Even though your assistants treat me with disdain ! LEONARDO Disdain ! ANTONIO He called us pagans and unbelievers. 22 THE SMILE OF MONA LISA LEONARDO Unbelievers! That might offend. But pagans, never. Paganism is the religion of beauty. We artists make beauty our deity. All love and un- derstand beauty. All religions should teach beauty. ISMAEL From whence have you come, Leonardo? LEONARDO Perhaps from as distant a land as you, but of late I've been in Florence. Just now? From admiring the giraffe. The animal with the beautiful eyes is the attraction of the city. Our Duke is never miserly with his treasures and he never bargains when it comes to a spectacle for the people. We can pardon him for many things for that. He gave Florence a chance to see your giraffe. I saw the white hands of gentle ladies steal through blinds to offer to the animal, midst their fears and laughter, bits of delicacies. Whence came the animal? It must have taken skill and care to bring it here alive and well. THE SMILE OF MONA LISA 23 ISMAEL True, Leonardo. It was my most costly gift to the magnifico. It's death would have been bank- ruptcy for me. LEONARDO From what land? ISMAEL From Africa by way of Egypt and Arabia. I've brought surpassingly beautiful treasures too, which I've set aside for Leonardo. LEONARDO A bad time, Ismael. All the credit I might have now wouldn't pay for one of them. I'm afraid even to look at them. ISMAEL If you'll accept them I'm fully paid. LEONARDO Generous too generous, Ismael. 24 THE SMILE OF MONA LISA FLORID He knows, Leonardo, that sooner or later he'll have them back again and their value will be multi- plied because you had possession of them. ISMAEL (To FLORIO.) Discourteous and narrow minded as ever. LEONARDO You are right, good Ismael. They have niggard- ly spirits who do not possess the supreme art of leaving themselves be deceived. I know that you flatter but I know if you did not, you would still tell the same tale, because Leonardo da Vinci well deserves all that even his flatterers say. ISMAEL What fine pride, Leonardo ! Never have I seen such pride before! LEONARDO It's because I've looked oftener at my inner self than those around me. I know my littleness. I'm THE SMILE OF MONA LISA 25 sure that your giraffe never thought himself so high among the stately palms that margin his native desert, as to day, when he towers above the citizens of Florence who crowd the streets to admire him. ISMAEL True! But you should be proud, Leonardo. You are first among the great artists of Italy. Why do these highwaymen, (To FLORIO and ANTONIO), why do you believe, I flatter! When I, ignoring prin- ces, even the great Duke himself, offer to you the treasures I have brought from Arabia and other lands, because no one is as worthy as you to possess them. Now that you've transformed your studio with such exquisite decorations, my silks from Da- mascus will look well here. The Persian tapestries too. And the chests of sandal -wood and the caskets of marble and mother of pearl with their little secret hidden drawers, made for those who traffic in love and jealousy, as they tell me you do now. LEONARDO You've heard this senseless babble of Florence too! Or have Florio and Antonio, my students here 26 THE SMILE OF MONA LISA ISMAEL No, Leonardo. I had but to see your studio to see the commanding height of your person. Only love's magic can make such transformations. Be- sides have you not painted twenty masterpieces that commend my veneration? LEONARDO Masterpieces? Apprentice work. ISMAEL Which was your best? LEONARDO Best? My insatiate desire for perfection makes me discontented with my work. I know I could secure boundless wealth and fame if I strove for the applause of the vulgar. It's so easy to deceive the vulgar. But Leonardo only works for Leonardo. ISMABL Your model must be a person of quality when you thus adorn your studio to receive her. THE SMILE OF MONA LISA 27 LEONARDO You don't know ? It's the portrait of Mona Lisa, wife of Signore Francisco da Giocondo. ISMAEL His wife!! LEONARDO Yes, Mona Lisa. Why are you surprised? ISMAEL Because you've given preference to her among so many more surpassingly beautiful women. LEONARDO But the others are not mysteries. Are not their lives, their little histories well known? The pe- culiarities of the noble lord of this lady; the pat- rician beauty of that lady; the perversity of this Signorina; the banalities of almost all of them. Any artist could paint their portraits. But Mona Lisa! No, Mona Lisa is different Mona Lisa is an enigma. Many people judge her the most virtu- 28 THE SMILE OF MONA LISA ous woman in Florence; others think her capable of deception. Who would dare confirm either rumor. ISMAEL And you? You have eyes and ears? LEONARDO But in the presence of Mona Lisa they are blind and deaf. Today, I imagine I've discovered the enigma when painting her. Tomorrow she is an- other person. Ah! The smile that smile. Is it her soul ! It is the despair of my art. ISMAEL But you've only finished the background of the portrait! Why the sea there? Perhaps Mona Lisa never sailed a sea. Florence has no sea. LEONARDO What better background for the portrait of a woman who smiles? Is there anything more like the sea than the smile of a woman? You say the sea smiles; and you sail on its bosom. You say a THE SMILE OF MONA LISA 29 woman smiles; you would discover her heart; and the smile of the sea is not more uncertain than her smile. Do you think this is but a portrait a family portrait that friends perchance come to see; to consider whether it is the same face, whether the mantilla has graceful folds; whether it is her little dog at her feet? I know that before my portrait of Mona Lisa, her distinguished husband Prince da Giocondo would frown. He would view it from near then from afar. In this light and in that. He would shade his eyes with his hands now again he would pull the shades to lessen the light; he would turn his head this way and then that, until his authorized opinion would fall like lead! "Yes, yes," he would say: "It is my wife but some- thing is wrong. The expression is not hers. You don't see her as I do at all hours. Lady Gioconda is grave, not smiling." And Mona Lisa would say; "Yes, it is I, but I appear older. The gown is not mine. Its fabric seems too rich." But what does it matter? When neither Francisco da Gio- condo, nor Mona Lisa, nor Leonardo exist, when the memory of our fame is dead, people before my portrait will ask: "What an enigma? Here's a woman of mystery, this woman who smiles. Is the smile divine or evil ? Is it the smile of love fortified in chastity or is it the smile of wicked perversity; was her life unselfish were her thoughts impure? jo THE SMILE OF MONA LISA Who can tell?" And amidst their doubts they will say that Leonardo did more than paint the portrait of Mona Lisa for he painted a soul that smiles with hidden, elusive meaning. FLORIO Master! The servant of Mona Lisa asks permis- sion to speak to you in the name of his mistress. LEONARDO Tell him to come in. (Enter STELLO.) STELLO Good day, Signore Leonardo. LEONARDO Good day, gentle page. From your mistress? Doubtless to excuse herself from posing for her portrait to-day? STELLO I cannot tell, Signore. You will find my mis- tress' message in this letter. I'm to await your answer. THE SMILE OF MONA LISA 31 LEONARDO (After reading the letter.} Oh, ho! Witty letter! Listen, friends. For then you'll surely be- lieve that I'm in love. (Reads.) "To the Famous Leonardo da Vinci, Greeting: Pardon me if I find it imposible to-day to assist you at the studio. My portrait on which you now have been working for more than two years without making much progress, has lately become the theme of the scandal mongers of the city, and my husband, although he has both profound respect and confidence in you and me, is annoyed. Of all unfortunate things, the most un- fortunate for me would be that you should never finish my portrait. While I cannot be present again, I send you my gown and ornaments and my page, Stello, whom all people insist is a perfect image of myself. You can tell me in your answer whether the likeness is perfect. If my page resembles me, as much as is believed, finish my portrait, from the copy, and if our features in any respect differ, your imagination can well supply the difference from memory. You have studied my face and expression so long I feel sure my presence will be unneces- sary. At worst you can recall my own likeness." (To his friends.) What do you say to that? 32 THE SMILE OF MONA LISA FLORIO The little page is the living image of his mis- tress! ANTONIO They are as like as two peas! LEONARDO (To the page.} You've heard your mistress' let- ter. You shall be my model. STELLO How, signore! LEONARDO Antonio, Florio, show Stello the model's room. ANTONIO ( To the page. ) Come. Leonardo will carry out the fancy of your mistress. (Exeunt ANTONIO, FLORIO and STELLO) THE SMILE OF MONA LISA 33 ISMAEL And you surround your working hours with mus- icians and singers? LEONARDO With everything that may make Mona Lisa happy so that she may smile forever. Everything in sight and sound to please; soft music; the rain- bow in the leaping fountain; melodious birds; little dogs in gleeful play; the serious mien of grotesque apes and last but best of all my love to which she ever hopes to give a mortal wound be- cause she shall not know that Leonardo never loved a woman more than he loves art. (ANTONIO, FLORIO return with STELLO clothed as a woman in the suit of Mona Lisa as seen in the well known painting, La Gioconda.) FLORIO Here's Mona Lise, Leonardo. LEONARDO i (In surprise, to the page.} You! 34 THE SMILE OF MONA LISA ANTONIO Is not the likeness wonderful? FLORIO Who would dare say this is not Mona Lisa herself? LEONARDO Stello! Mona Lisa! Who are you? Speak! What does it matter? Smile as she smiles. Never till to-day have I understood the enigma of a woman's soul. Smile that Leonardo may give your smile immortality. (Soft sweet music, almost in- audible, ripples the perfumed air. LEONARDO, with palette and brush, goes to the portrait.) UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES COLLEGE LIBRARY This book is due on the last date stamped below. UAY 23197* Book Slip-35m-7,'63(D8634s4)4280 UCLA-College Library PQ 6603 B43S6E L 005 659 078 9 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY Library PQ 6603 BU3S6E A 001 153652 1