Swords by Sidney Howard

Swords Reviews

• 
  Perry Whitford

  A bold attempt to write a medieval play for an early 20th century audience, set in Italy during the days of the Guelphs and Ghibellines.
  
  The heroine is Fiamma, a beautiful and pious young woman whose prayers heal the sick, held prisoner by a besotted German general. She is a representation of the Virgin Mary, described by the playwright as 'an altogether human Empress, devoted to her servants, none too scrupulous, temperamental, exacting, very feminine, wholly glorious.'
  
  The villain is called Canetto, a Machiavellian court jester who sings songs and prances around the stage one minute then cuts out somebody's tongue the next. The drama involves a game of wits between the evil jongleur and the virtuous Madonna. (Canetto: "In you, I meet my first antagonist...")
  
  A simple stage set, a tense and melodramatic premise, the play demands superlative acting from the two leads. Canetto will stop at nothing to bend Fiamma to his will, using both her husband and child to break her. But her beauty and virtue are themselves powerful weapons:
  
  'She is like the summer sun.
  She shines, and in an hour
  The flower of man's loyalty is withered...
  There is no sword so perilous as her smile.'
  
  I discovered online that the play opened in September 1921 and closed a month later, so it obviously wasn't a success. The first time I read it I was intrigued but found the dialogue a little stiff. The second time I read it I admired it move.
  
  Sidney For Howard later won an Oscar for the screenplay of Gone With the Wind. He obviously liked a good melodrama.