ROME LETTER
649
nor dramatic: it is a prosaic explanation. In conclusion, Moravia has
succeeded in essentially telling the story of Beatrice Cenci, but he has
not succeeded in motiavting it.
If
he has not, it is because he has stressed
the personal side of the story while neglecting its larger social meaning.
He does not make Francesco into a tyrant, but only into a monstrous
father ; he does not make Beatrice into a rebel, but into a parricide.
Shelley did so in a context of angelic anarchism. Moravia might have
done so in the context of contemporary nihilism.
But with so much unauthentic theater around, Moravia's nostalgia
for that superior form of poetic explanation which drama is, remains an
authentic and significant fact.
Nicola Chiaromonte
TALENT ASSOCIATES LTD.
David Susskind
Alfred Levy
