Edmond Rostand

“ CYRANO.
We'll hold to the death!
(In a voice of anguish, looking toward Roxane, whom Guiche and Ragueneau are carrying away senseless) .
Farewell, Roxane!
(Tumult. Cries. Wounded Cadets reappear and fall within the embankment. Cyrano, rushing to the fray, is stopped on the crest of the embankment by Carbon of Haughty-Hall, covered with blood.)
CARBON.
We are wavering! I have received two gun shots.
CYRANO (shouting to the Gascons) .
Steady there! Hold fast, you rascals!
(to Carbon, holding him up) .
Have no fear! I have two deaths to avenge: Christian's and that of my happiness! ”

“ CYRANO (pushing them all into the house) .
Go in, go in! Only one must remain here: I!
ROXANE (to Christian) .
Come!
(They all go into the house.)
CYRANO.
How can I detain Guiche fifteen minutes? Oh! I have a plan!
(He climbs upon the balcony. The archlutes play a sort of dirge.)
This time it must be a man, most certainly. It is!
(He is on the balcony, with his hat well down over his eyes. Takes off his sword, wraps himself in his cloak, leans over the railing and observes.) ”

“ ROXANE.
Fly? Never.
GUICHE.
Such being the case, give me a musket!
CARBON.
What for?
[Pg 170]
GUICHE.
I, too, will remain.
CYRANO.
At last, Sir, you show your courage!
FIRST CADET.
So you are a true Gascon, after all, in spite of your lace?
GUICHE.
I never abandon a woman in danger!
SECOND CADET (to the first Cadet) .
Say! don't you think he deserves something to eat?
(Eatables and drinkables instantly reappear.)
GUICHE (whose eyes brighten) .
Provisions!
THIRD CADET.
Every doublet covers some!
GUICHE (mastering himself, proudly) .
I eat nobody's leavings!
CYRANO (bowing) . ”

“ CYRANO (aside to Christian) .
I must speak to you!
ROXANE (to the Cadets who come up loaded with eatables) .
Place all that on the ground.
(She spreads a table-cloth on the grass, and, with the assistance of the two lackeys, prepares the cover.)
(to Christian, whom Cyrano is endeavouring to draw aside) .
Come, make yourself useful.
(Christian helps her. Cyrano looks anxious.)
RAGUENEAU.
A stuffed peacock!
A CADET (cutting for himself a large slice of ham) .
Jupiter's thunder! We'll not die without previously ....stuffing our.... (noticing Roxane) your pardon.... feasting! ”

“ LE BRET.
A musician!
LIGNIÈRE.
But how strange is his appearance!
RAGUENEAU.
No solemn painter, like Philip de Champaigne, probably, will ever give us a portrait of him. But he is so odd, extravagant, wild and strange, that he could well have served Jacques Callot as a model for the most erratic of his fighting heroes. Three-plumed hat, astounding doublet, cloak [Pg 13] whose folds a sword draws up behind, in stateliness, like the saucy tail of a cock. [4] Prouder than the proudest of Gascony's numberless haughty sons, he wears, above his Pulcinella ruff, a nose!.... Ah! ”

“ GUICHE.
You cannot remain here!
ROXANE (gayly) .
Oh! yes, I can! Will you be kind enough to bring up a drum?
(One of the Cadets brings up a drum, on which she sits.)
There! thank you.
(laughing) .
Do you know that they fired on my coach? It looks like a squash, does it not? As in the fairy tale; and the lackeys like rats.
(sending a kiss to Christian) .
How are you, dear?
(looking around at them all) .
You don't seem to be very merry here! I didn't know that Arras was so far off.
(looking at Cyrano) .
Cousin, delighted!
CYRANO (advancing) .
Roxane, tell me how?.... ”

“ Remembering that it was born a reed.
(Bertrandou begins playing some Gascony airs.)
Ye Gascons, list! 'Tis war no more, but peace.
'Tis hill and dale, 'tis wood and meadow-land,
With red-capped lads beside their gentle herds;
'Tis smiling riverbank and sunny sea.
O Gascons, hark! You are in Gascony!
(All have bowed their heads and are dreaming: many brush away a tear.)
CARBON (to Cyrano, aside) .
But, instead of giving them courage, you make them weep!
CYRANO.
I've made them homesick!.... A noble sort of suffering .... nobler than hunger. ”

“ CYRANO (to Guiche, pointing to Roxane) .
Carry her off! I will charge!
ROXANE (in dying tones, as she kisses the letter) .
His blood! His tears!....
RAGUENEAU (jumping off the coach and running toward her) .
She is fainting!
GUICHE (on the embankment, fiercely, to the Cadets) .
Steady, for your lives!
[Pg 187]
A VOICE (outside) .
Lay down your arms!
THE CADETS.
Never!
CYRANO (to Guiche) .
You have proved your valour, Sir! You can afford to fly (pointing to Roxane) and save her!
GUICHE (runs to Roxane and takes her in his arms) .
So be it! Hold fast a few moments and we shall win the day! ”

“ CHRISTIAN.
Yes, a tear!
CYRANO.
Oh!.... Yes!.... we poets are caught in our own trap, through the swing of our art. You understand.... this letter,—was heart-rending; I drew tears from my own eyes as I was writing it. ”

“ They are getting trained to climbing!
ROXANE.
The fact is that I am speaking to you from quite a height!
CYRANO.
Assuredly, and you would kill me if, from such an elevation, you allowed a sharp word to drop upon my heart!
ROXANE (moved) .
I'll come down.
CYRANO (quickly) .
No!
ROXANE (pointing to the stone bench under the balcony) .
Step upon the bench, then, and climb up here!
CYRANO (frightened and retreating) .
No!
ROXANE.
You surprise me.... Why not?
CYRANO (more and more moved) .
Let us rather improve.... this opportunity of.... speaking softly together.... without seeing each other. ”

“ SECOND POET.
By sword both slashed and pierced,
Eight cut-throats bleeding fast illustrated the street.
CYRANO (looking up) .
Eight?.... I thought seven.
(continues writing.)
RAGUENEAU (to Cyrano) .
Who fought so bravely? Do you know?
CYRANO (treating the matter lightly) .
I?.... No!
LISE (to the Musketeer) .
Do you?
MUSKETEER (curling his mustache) .
Perhaps.
CYRANO (writing—mutters a word now and then, aside) .
I love you....
FIRST POET.
A single man, they say, put all the band to flight!....
CYRANO (writing) . ”

“ But the young men who now come to the front, and who have no more brilliant representative than Edmond Rostand, belong to another generation. They have not known the pangs of defeat; the mutilation of the beloved Fatherland was an accomplished fact when they began to feel and to think. They viewed French history not as concentrated in its last and heart-rending episode, but as spreading through centuries of heroic deeds, oftener illuminated by the dazzling sunshine of victory than darkened by the gloom of defeat. ”

“ CYRANO.
So that she bursts out laughing into my face .... under my very nose? No, no!.... That is the only thing in the world that I fear!
[Pg 43]
THE JANITOR (bringing in the duenna, to Cyrano) .
Somebody for you, Sir.
CYRANO (seeing the duenna) .
Great heavens! Her duenna!
SCENE VI. CYRANO, LE BRET, THE DUENNA.
THE DUENNA (with a long curtsy) .
A fair cousin would like to know where a valiant cousin can be seen, in private.
CYRANO (greatly disturbed) .
I be seen, in private?
DUENNA (with another curtsy) .
Yes, be seen. There are things to be said. ”

“ A YOUNG MAN (to Cyrano) .
But, after all, Sir, what reason is there for your hating Montfleury?
CYRANO (very courteous, still seated) .
Young gosling, there are two, either one of which is sufficient in itself. First: he is a bad actor; he rants, and seems to lift with a derrick lines that have wings of their own. Second: but that is my secret.
TRADESMAN (behind Cyrano) .
But, Sir, you deprive us of the pleasure of hearing "La Clorise." I insist....
CYRANO (turning in his chair toward the tradesman respectfully) .
Venerable mule, Baro's verse is worthless. ”

“ CYRANO.
Yes, and, when
I hear the name of this enthusiast,
I doff my hat.
GUICHE.
Then kindly meditate
The windmill chapter....
CYRANO (bowing) .
Yes,—I know—thirteenth.
GUICHE.
When windmills are attacked it happens oft....
CYRANO.
Have I attacked some noble weather-vane?
GUICHE.
That, if their mighty arms revolve, a man
Is dashed to earth!....
CYRANO.
Or lifted to the stars!
(Exit Guiche, who enters his chair. His friends, whispering. Crowd withdraws.)
[Pg 81]
SCENE VIII. CYRANO, LE BRET, THE CADETS, who have taken seats at the tables, and are eating and drinking. ”

“ CHRISTIAN.
But, my friend....
CYRANO.
Obey orders!
THE PAGES (in the rear, to Cyrano) .
Hep!
CYRANO (silencing them) .
Hush!
FIRST PAGE (in a whisper) .
We have serenaded Montfleury.
CYRANO (in a whisper, quickly to Pages) .
You, stand on this corner....and you, on that one. If anyone comes along, play an air.
SECOND PAGE.
What sort of air would suit Gassendi?
CYRANO.
Lively for a woman; for a man a sad one!
(Pages disappear, taking two different streets.)
(To Christian) Now, call her!
CHRISTIAN (calling) .
Roxane. ”

“ CHRISTIAN (with a tug at Cyrano's cloak) .
Why so?
CYRANO.
Be silent, Christian!
ROXANE (leaning over the balcony) .
What are you muttering?
CYRANO.
I was reproving myself for going too far. I was saying: be silent Christian!....
(sound of archlute.)
One moment please!.... Some one comes.
(Roxane closes her window. Cyrano listens to the archlutes; one of them plays a lively air, and the other a sad one.)
Lively?.... Sad?.... A woman or a man? No, a monk! ”

“ CYRANO.
Since Phœbe, when her bow is the thinnest, loves to draw, O beeves! your marrow,.... anoint myself with the same!
GUICHE (stupefied) .
Five!
CYRANO (who has managed, while talking, to press Guiche over to the other side of the square, near a bench) .
Last: I could have placed myself upon an iron plate, taken a magnet and thrown it up into the air! This is a capital way. As soon as the magnet starts, the iron rushes in pursuit of it. The magnet is thrown up again; the iron plate follows—and, Cadedis! there is nothing to prevent the ascension from lasting indefinitely. ”

“ Le Bret exaggerates!
LE BRET.
All as I predicted: desertion and poverty!.... His epistles have made him new enemies! He denounces mock nobility, mock piety, mock bravery, plagiarism,—in fact everybody!
ROXANE.
But the fear of his wonderful sword holds them all in respect. They'll never reach him.
DUKE (shaking his head) .
Who knows?
LE BRET.
What I fear for him is not an assault; it is solitude, hunger, winter stealthily entering his poor abode. These are the enemies that may lay him low.—Each morning [Pg 195] he buckles his belt a little tighter. His nose has now the sallowness of old ivory. ”

“ Let trumpet sound! Let cuckoo call!
[Pg 78] Fair Gascony's cadets are they,
To husbands, writing on the wall!
GUICHE (comfortably seated in an armchair that Ragueneau promptly brought in) .
A poet is one of our choice luxuries to-day. Will you be mine?
CYRANO.
No, Sir, nobody's!
GUICHE.
Your ready wit, yesterday, caused much amusement to my uncle Richelieu. I shall take pleasure in recommending you to him.
LE BRET (dazzled) .
What a good fortune!
GUICHE.
You certainly must have rimed some five-act tragedy?
LE BRET (whispering to Cyrano) .
Your "Agrippine!" You'll have it played! ”

“ Seldom has, indeed, the purpose of a dramatist been more clearly pointed out than in "Cyrano." When the hero of the play breathes his last, after an imaginary fight with all the unworthy traits of human nature and society which he had antagonized during his checkered life, the one thing which he informs his friends cannot be taken from him, which he will proudly carry to the very presence of God, is his panache, and this is the last word, and, as it were, the affabulation of the drama. ”

“ It is covered with mud and dust. The curtains are closed. Two lackeys behind. It stops short.)
CARBON (shouting) .
Salute!
(Drums beat.)
GUICHE.
Lower the step!
(Two men advance rapidly. The coach door opens.)
ROXANE (jumping out of coach) .
How are you all?
(On hearing a woman's voice, they all, from a profound inclination, suddenly straighten up. Stupor.)
SCENE V. The same, ROXANE.
GUICHE.
Service of the King! You?
ROXANE.
Certainly, of the only king there is: Love!
CYRANO.
Great God.
CHRISTIAN (rushing up to her) .
You, Roxane! Wherefor?
ROXANE.
Oh! this siege was entirely too long. ”

“ The panache, too, is essentially joyful. "Cyrano" is joyful, in spite of a life that would breed discouragement and bitterness in almost any heart but his. If reality denies him his share of happiness, then he will find it in the domain the ideal. He will not have to go without it.
And here we strike another cause of "Cyrano's" success. It is not simply a play, it is a poem, and poetry always leads us towards the ideal. This is undoubtedly one of the reasons underlying the love of the French for a verse play. ”