Abstract
It is the purpose of this thesis to look into the history and tradition of the Francesca tragedy, and to note the effect of each on Baker, Phillips, and d‘Annunzio; to discuss the approach of the authors to their theme and their manner of handling it; and to discover by what means and by what tools their stage success was due. It is also my intention to compare the poetic efforts of the dramatists with a view to placing them in a scale of values; to study the likenesses and dissimilarities between th^ outstanding four corresponding characters of each author; and, finally, to attempt some fair estimate of the value of their plays to the world.|Obviously, there is no desire to exhaust the theme, even relative to the American, British, and Italian playwrights. If the high points, listed in the paragraph above, are reached, I snail feel that I have partially succeeded.