“ At the age of nineteen he entered a corps of the guards, serving in the campaigns of 1639 and 1640, and began the series of exploits that were to make of him a veritable hero of romance. The story of his adventure single-handed against a hundred enemies is vouched for by Lebret as the simple truth. After two years of this life Cyrano left the service and returned to Paris to pursue literature, producing tragedies cast in the orthodox classical mode. ”

“ He was, however, as a pupil of Gassendi, suspected of thinking too freely, and in the Mort d’Agrippine (1654) his enemies even found blasphemy. The most interesting section of his work is that which embraces the two romances L’Histoire comique des états du soleil (1662) and L’Histoire comique des états de la lune (1656?) . ”