Edmond Rostand

“ PERCINET. Sylvette, don't speak loud: I know I am dreaming. But don't wake me!
BERGAMIN. Our hatred is ended in the marriage of our dear ones.
[Indicating the wall] Henceforth let there be no Pyrenees!
PERCINET. Who would have believed that my father could change so!
SYLVETTE. I told you everything would turn out happily! [While the lovers go up-stage with PASQUINOT, STRAFOREL rises and hands a folded paper to BERGAMIN.]
BERGAMIN. [Aside] What is it? This paper—your signature? What is it, if you please? ”

“ PERCINET. [Dragging his father away] Go in now, it's late.
BERGAMIN. [Trying to go to the wall again] I can't control myself. Just let me—! [PERCINET takes him out.]
PASQUINOT. [Also trying to return to the wall] I'll kill him!
SYLVETTE. [Dragging PASQUINOT out] The air is so damp! Think of your rheumatism! [They go out.]
[Little by little it grows dark. For a moment the stage is empty. Then, in PASQUINOT's park, enter STRAFOREL and swordsmen, musicians, and torch-bearers.]
STRAFOREL. I see one star already. The day is dying. [He places his men about the stage.] ”

“ SYLVETTE. The thought often pains me and makes me cry when I am alone. Last month, when I came home from the convent, my father pointed out your father's park, and said to me: "My dear child, you behold there the domain of my mortal enemy, Bergamin. Never cross the path of those two rascals, Bergamin and his son Percinet. Mark well my words, and obey me to the letter, or I shall cast you off as an enemy. Their family has always been at bitter enmity with our own." ”

“ But let me tell you, you are no less unpleasant. You are ridiculous and thoroughly selfish. I know now what the trouble is: the wall— with it, we were happy, now we don't live at all.
BERGAMIN. We didn't do this for ourselves, did we?
PASQUINOT. No, we did not!
BERGAMIN. It was for our children.
PASQUINOT. For our children, yes. Let us therefore suffer in silence, and regret our former liberty.
BERGAMIN. Sacrifice is the lot of parents.
[SYLVETTE and PERCINET appear at the left, up stage, arm in arm.]
PASQUINOT. Sh—the lovers!
BERGAMIN. [Looking at them] See them! How they love each other! ”

“ PASQUINOT. Yes, and tear down the wall.
BERGAMIN. And live together.
PASQUINOT. Joining our properties.
BERGAMIN. By marrying our children. But I wonder whether they would be so anxious if they knew we wished it? A marriage arranged beforehand is not so tempting to two young children so romantic as ours. That is why we kept our own wishes a secret. I felt sure that after they had been separated—Sylvette in the convent, Percinet at school—they would thrive on their secret love. That is how I came to invent this hatred of ours. ”

“ PERCINET. Love opens wide the heart of all nature. And you ask me to consent to a marriage of reason!
BERGAMIN. Of course I do!
PERCINET. [Passionately] No, no, no, Father. I swear by this wall—which hears me, I hope—that my marriage will be more romantic than any dreamed of in the most poetic of the world's love stories! [He runs out.] ”

“ Moonlight abduction, or the abduction on a dark and starless night—those moonlight abductions are quite the style, though they are a little dear!—Besides these, there is the abduction by torch-light, with cries and screams, and clash and shock of arms; the brutal abduction, the polite abduction; the classical one with masks; the gallant abduction to the accompaniment of music; but the latest, most stylish, gayest of all, is the sedan-chair abduction! ”

“ PASQUINOT. Alone? But, you silly girl, are you not afraid?
SYLVETTE. Not in the least.
PASQUINOT. Near this wall? I forbade you to come near it! You see that park over there? That belongs to my mortal enemy!
SYLVETTE. I know it, Father dear.
PASQUINOT. Why, here you are exposed to any insult, any—if those rascals knew that my daughter were walking alone in this park— Brr! It makes me shiver to think of! I'm going to have the wall repaired, and erect a huge iron grill on top of it. ”

“ SYLVETTE appears at the back of her park.]
SYLVETTE. The hour has struck. He must be waiting.
[A whistle is heard. STRAFOREL rises in front of SYLVETTE, and torch-bearers appear in the background. SYLVETTE screams. The swordsmen seize and put her into the sedan-chair.]
SYLVETTE. Help! Help!
PERCINET. Great Heavens!
SYLVETTE. Percinet, they are carrying me off!
PERCINET. [Leaping to the wall] I come! [When he reaches the top of the wall, he draws his sword, jumps down on the other side, and engages four or five swordsmen in combat. They flee before him.] There, and there, and there! ”

“ SYLVETTE. [Disappearing behind the wall] Your father! [PERCINET jumps quickly from the wall.]
[Enter BERGAMIN.]
BERGAMIN. Ah, ha, I find you here again, dreaming in this corner of the park!
PERCINET. Father, I love this old corner! I adore this bench over which the vines of the wall have so gracefully draped themselves. See, what graceful arabesques these festoons make! The air is purer here. ”

“ PERCINET. And I lose not a second in springing over the wall, dagger in hand. I fight like a tiger, I—
SYLVETTE. You lay low three or four men. Then my father rushes in and takes me in his arms. You tell him who you are. His heart softens, he gives me to my savior. Your father consents, for he is proud of your bravery. ”

“ As the curtain rises, PASQUINOT is sitting on the bench to the left, reading a paper. BLAISE is at the back, busy with his rake.
BLAISE. So the notary comes to-night, Monsieur Pasquinot? It is pleasant, now that the wall is down, and you living together this past month. It was high time, I'm thinking. The little lovers must be happy!
PASQUINOT. [Raising his head and looking about] So you like it without the wall, Blaise?
BLAISE. The garden is superb!
PASQUINOT. Yes, my property has increased a hundred per cent! [Poking a tuft of grass with his foot] Have you watered the grass? ”

“ He is to superintend the abduction.
[STRAFOREL, in an elaborate swordsman's costume, appears at the back of BERGAMIN's park, and swaggers down-stage.]
BERGAMIN. [Descending from the wall and bowing low to STRAFOREL]
Allow me to introduce you to my friend Pasquinot.
STRAFOREL. [Bowing] Monsieur! [He raises his head and sees no
PASQUINOT.]
BERGAMIN. [Pointing to PASQUINOT on the crest of the wall] There, on the wall!—Now, my dear master, does my plan meet with your approval?
STRAFOREL. It does. It is most simple.
BERGAMIN. You must act quickly, you understand? ”

“ At the moment Sylvette appears, mysterious men in black will emerge from the shadows and start to carry her off. An abduction! She screams, then our young hero gives chase, draws his sword—the ravishers pretend to flee—I arrive on the scene, then you—your daughter is safe and sound. ”

“ STRAFOREL. It was, Per Bacco!
PERCINET. I have you at last.
STRAFOREL. The people you kill, you see, are in the best of health.
PERCINET. [Drawing his sword and making a pass at STRAFOREL]
You will see! ”

“ The young man is still off on his quest for adventure and romance. Life must be giving him a splendid bath of disillusion. I can see him as he returns, his tail between his legs. Now I am working on Sylvette—she, too, will soon be cured. [He takes a letter from his pocket and puts it in the hollow of a tree-trunk. SYLVETTE appears at the back.] It's she! Now to work!
SYLVETTE. [Looking anxiously about] Not a soul. [She lays her muslin scarf on the bench to the left.] Will the letter be there to-day as usual? [She goes toward the tree.] Every day some gallant has left one for me. ”

“ Romance? Was it not romance that you craved not so long ago? It has come, and are you afraid? Love, stars, a cottage. Yes, I did want it—but only a little—like seasoning in a stew! This is too much—I couldn't stand it. [The sun is setting. SYLVETTE takes up her scarf, which she had left on the bench, and puts it over her head.] Who knows whether—?
[PERCINET appears. He is in rags, and his arm is in a sling. He looks ill, and can scarcely walk.] ”

“ SYLVETTE. [Throwing her arms about her father's neck] Papa, I can't marry Percinet!
[Enter the NOTARY and four WITNESSES.]
BERGAMIN. The witnesses! The devil!
WITNESSES. What—?
STRAFOREL. [In the midst of the tumult] My bill! Who is going to pay me? Ninety pistoles!
[Enter the GUESTS and three FIDDLERS, who play.]
BERGAMIN. What's all this? The guests? Music?
[The FIDDLERS continue their minuet.]
STRAFOREL. [To BERGAMIN] Well?
BERGAMIN. See Pasquinot.
STRAFOREL. [Reading] "For the purpose of bringing about a marriage—"
BERGAMIN. Well, there is to be no marriage! ”

“ Really? And do you think that if I had wished—?
SYLVETTE. Now, now, now! I know lovers' dreams are always realized, and that fathers who are mortal enemies always end by falling into each other's arms. ”

“ PERCINET also shows signs of fear as his father pulls the book from the youth's pocket.] Plays! [He drops the book in horror.] And verse! Verse! That's what has turned your head. Now I see why you talk about eyes and honeysuckle. I tell you, to be useful, a wall doesn't have to be beautiful. I am going to have all this green stuff taken away, and the bricks re-laid and the holes stopped up. I want a white wall and a high one to keep the neighbors from looking into our park. I want no vines and honeysuckles. ”

“ Ten years later came "Chantecler," the poet's deepest and in many ways most masterly play.
"The Romancers" is best played in the romantic atmosphere of the late Eighteenth century; the costumes should be Louis XVI. The stage-directions are sufficiently detailed. ] ]
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[Transcriber's note: "The Romancers" is the basis for the plot of the 1960 musical "The Fantasticks," with music by Harvey Schmidt, book and lyrics by Tom Jones.] ”

“ EDMOND ROSTAND Edmond Rostand was born at Marseilles in 1868. Rostand is undoubtedly one of the most brilliant dramatic poets of modern times. "Les Romanesques"—"The Romancers"—was performed for the first time in Paris, at the Comedie Francaise, in 1894, and achieved considerable success. Its delicacy and charm revealed the true poet, and the deftness with which the plot was handled left little doubt as to the author's ability to construct an interesting and moving drama. But not until the production of "Cyrano de Bergerac" in 1897 did Rostand become known to the world at large. ”