Cyrano de Bergerac

by Edmond Rostand

  DE GUICHE My advice to you is to ponder....

  A CHAIRMAN [appearing at the back] The chair is at the door!

  DE GUICHE The chapter of the windmills.

  CYRANO [bowing] Chapter thirteen.

  DE GUICHE For when a man attacks them, it often happens....

  CYRANO I have attacked, am I to infer, a thing that veers with every wind?

  DE GUICHE That one of their far-reaching canvas arms pitches him down into the mud!

  CYRANO Or up among the stars! [Exit DE GUICHE. He is seen getting into his chair. The gentlemen withdraw whispering. LE BRET goes to the door with them. The crowd leaves.]

  SCENE VIII

  Cyrano, Le Bret, the Cadets

  [The CADETS remain seated at the right and left at tables where food and drink is brought to them].

  CYRANO [bowing with a derisive air to those who leave without daring to take leave of him] Gentlemen ... gentlemen ... gentlemen....

  LE BRET [coming forward, greatly distressed, lifting his hands to Heaven] Oh, in what a pretty pair of shoes....

  CYRANO Oh, you! ... I expect you to grumble!

  LE BRET But yourself, you will agree with me that invariably to cut the throat of opportunity becomes an exaggeration! ...

  CYRANO Yes. I agree. I do exaggerate.

  LE BRET [triumphant] You see, you admit it! ...

  CYRANO But for the sake of principle, and of example, as well, I think it a good thing to exaggerate as I do!

  LE BRET Could you but leave apart, once in a while, your mousquetaire of a soul, fortune, undoubtedly, fame....

  CYRANO And what should a man do? Seek some grandee, take him for patron, and like the obscure creeper clasping a tree-trunk, and licking the bark of that which props it up, attain to height by craft instead of strength? No, I thank you. Dedicate, as they all do, poems to financiers? Wear motley in the humble hope of seeing the lips of a minister distend for once in a smile not ominous of ill? No, I thank you. Eat every day a toad? Be threadbare at the belly with groveling? Have his skin dirty soonest at the knees? Practice feats of dorsal elasticity? No, I thank you. With one hand stroke the goat while with the other he waters the cabbage? Make gifts of senna46 that counter-gifts of rhubarb may accrue, and indefatigably swing his censer in some beard? No, I thank you. Push himself from lap to lap, become a little great man in a great little circle, propel his ship with madrigals for oars and in his sails the sighs of the elderly ladies? No, I thank you. Get the good editor Sercy to print his verses at proper expense?47 No, I thank you. Contrive to be nominated Pope in conclaves held by imbeciles in wineshops? No, I thank you. Work to construct a name upon the basis of a sonnet, instead of constructing other sonnets? No, I thank you. Discover talent in tyros, and in them alone? Stand in terror of what gazettes may please to say, and say to himself “At whatever cost, may I figure in the Paris Mercury!”48 No, I thank you. Calculate, cringe, peak, prefer making a call to a poem,—petition, solicit, apply? No, I thank you! No, I thank you! No, I thank you! But ... sing, dream, laugh, loaf, be single, be free, have eyes that look squarely, a voice with a ring; wear, if he chooses, his hat hindside afore; for a yes, for a no, fight a duel or turn a ditty! ... Work, without concern of fortune or of glory, to accomplish the heart‘s-desired journey to the moon! Put forth nothing that has not its spring in the very heart, yet, modest, say to himself, “Old man, be satisfied with blossoms, fruits, yea, leaves alone, so they be gathered in your garden and not another man’s!” Then, if it happens that to some small extent he triumph, be obliged to render of the glory, to Cæsar, not one jot, but honestly appropriate it all. In short, scorning to be the parasite, the creeper, if even failing to be the oak, rise, not perchance to a great height, ... but rise alone!

  LE BRET Alone? Good! but not one against all! How the devil did you contract the mania that possesses you for making enemies, always, everywhere?

  CYRANO By seeing you make friends, and smile to those same flocks of friends with a mouth that takes for model an old purse! I wish not to be troubled to return bows in the street, and I exclaim with glee “An enemy the more!”

  LE BRET This is mental aberration!

  CYRANO I do not dispute it. I am so framed. To displease is my pleasure. I love that one should hate me. Dear friend, if you but knew how much better a man walks under the exciting fire of hostile eyes, and how amused he may become over the spots on his doublet, spattered by Envy and Cowardice! ... You, the facile friendship wherewith you surround yourself, resembles those wide Italian collars, loose and easy, with a perforated pattern, in which the neck looks like a woman’s. They are more comfortable, but of less high effect; for the brow not held in proud position by any constraint from them, falls to nodding this way and that.... But for me every day Hatred starches and flutes the ruff whose stiffness holds the head well in place. Every new enemy is another plait in it, adding compulsion, but adding, as well, a ray: for, similar in every point to the Spanish ruff, Hatred is a bondage, ... but is a halo, too!

  LE BRET [after a pause, slipping his arm through CYRANO’s] To the hearing of all be proud and bitter, ... but to me, below breath, say simply that she does not love you!

  CYRANO [sharply] Not a word! [CHRISTIAN has come in and mingled with the cadets; they ignore him; he has finally gone to a little table by himself, where LISE waits on him.]

  SCENE IX

  Cyrano, Le Bret, the Cadets, Christian de Neuvillette

  ONE OF THE CADETS [seated at a table at the back, glass in hand] Hey, Cyrano! [CYRANO turns toward him] Your story!

  CYRANO Presently! [He goes toward the back on LE BRET’s arm. They talk low.]

  THE CADET [rising and coming toward the front] The account of your fight! It will be the best lesson [stopping in front of the table at which CHRISTIAN is sitting] for this timorous novice!

  CHRISTIAN [looking up] ... Novice?

  OTHER CADET Yes, sickly product of the North!

  CHRISTIAN Sickly?

  FIRST CADET [impressively] Monsieur de Neuvillette, it is a good deed to warn you that there is a thing no more to be mentioned in our company than rope in the house of the hanged!

  CHRISTIAN And what is it?

  OTHER CADET [in a terrifying voice] Look at me! [Three times, darkly, he places his finger upon his nose.] You have understood?

  CHRISTIAN Ah, it is the ...

  OTHER CADET Silence! ... Never must you so much as breathe that word, or ... [He points’toward CYRANO at the back talking with LE BRET.]You will have him, over there, to deal with!

  OTHER CADET [who while CHRISTIAN was turned toward the first, has noiselessly seated himself on the table behind him] Two persons were lately cut off in their pride by him for talking through their noses. He thought it personal.

  OTHER CADET [in a cavernous voice, as he rises from under the table where he had slipped on all fours] Not the remotest allusion, ever, to the fatal cartilage, ... unless you fancy an early grave!

  OTHER CADET A word will do the business! What did I say? ... A word? ... A simple gesture! Make use of your pocket handkerchief, you will shortly have use for your shroud! [Silence. All around CHRISTIAN watch him, with folded arms. He rises and goes to CARBON DE CASTEL-JALOUX, who, in conversation with an officer, affects to notice nothing.]

  CHRISTIAN Captain!

  CARBON [turning and looking him rather contemptuously up and down] Monsieur?

  CHRISTIAN What is the proper course for a man when he finds gentlemen of the South too boastful?

  CARBON DE CASTEL-JALOLIX He must prove to them that one can be of the North, yet brave. [He turns his back upon him.]

  CHRISTIAN I am much obliged.

  FIRST CADET [to CYRANO] And now, the tale of your adventure! ALL Yes, yes, now let us hear!

  CYRANO [coming forward among them] My adventure? [All draw their stools nearer, and sit around him, with craned necks. CHRISTIAN sits astride a chair.] Well, then, I was marching to meet them. The moon up in the skies was shining like a silver watch, when
suddenly I know not what careful watch-maker having wrapped it in a cottony cloud, there occurred the blackest imaginable night; and, the streets being nowise lighted,—mordious!—you could see no further than ...

  CHRISTIAN Your nose. [Silence. Everyone slowly gets up; all look with terror at CYRANO. He has stopped short, amazed. Pause.]

  CYRANO Who is that man?

  ONE OF THE CADETS [low] He joined this morning.

  CYRANO [taking a step toward CHRISTIAN] This morning?

  CARBON DE CASTEL-JALOUX [low] His name is Baron de Neuvill ...

  CYRANO [stopping short] Ah, very well.... [He turns pale, then red, gives evidence of another impulse to throw himself upon CHRISTIAN.] I.... [He conquers it, and says in a stifled voice.] Very well. [He takes up his tale.] As I was saying ... [with a burst of rage.] Mordious! ... [He continues in a natural tone] one could not see in the very least. [Consternation. All resume their seats, staring at one another.] And I was walking along, reflecting that for a very insignificant rogue I was probably about to offend some great prince who would bear me a lasting grudge, that, in brief, I was about to thrust my ...

  CHRISTIAN Nose ... [All get up. CHRISTIAN has tilted his chair and is rocking on the hind legs.]

  CYRANO [choking] Finger ... between the tree and the bark; for the aforesaid prince might be of sufficient power to trip me and throw me ...

  CHRISTIAN On my nose ...

  CYRANO [wipes the sweat from his brow.] But, said I, “Gascony forward ! Never falter when duty prompts! Forward, Cyrano!” and, saying this, I advance—when suddenly, in the darkness, I barely avoid a blow...

  CHRISTIAN Upon the nose...

  CYRANO I ward it.... and thereupon find myself...

  CHRISTIAN Nose to nose...

  CYRANO [springing toward him] Ventre- Saint- Gris! ... [All the GASCONS rush forward, to see; CYRANO, on reaching CHRISTIAN, controls himself and proceeds] ... with a hundred drunken brawlers, smelling...

  CHRISTIAN To the nose’s limit...

  CYRANO [deathly pale, and smiling] ... of garlic and of grease. I leap forward, head lowered...

  CHRISTIAN Nose to the wind! ...

  CYRANO And I charge them. I knock two breathless and run a third through the body. One lets off at me: Paf! and I retort...

  CHRISTIAN Pif!

  CRYANO [exploding] Death and damnation! Go,—all of you! [All the CADETS make for the door.]

  FIRST CADET The tiger is roused at last!

  CYRANO All! and leave me with this man.

  SECOND CADET Bigre! When we see him again, it will be in the shape of mince-meat!

  RAGUENEAU Mince-meat?...

  OTHER CADET In one of your pies.

  RAGUENEAU I feel myself grow white and flabby as a table-napkin!

  CARBON DE CASTEL-JALOUX Let us go!

  OTHER CADET Not a smudge of him will be left!

  OTHER CADET What these walls are about to behold gives me gooseflesh to think upon!

  OTHER CADET [closing the door at the right] Ghastly!... Ghastly! [All have left, by the back or the sides, a few up the stairway. CYRANO and CHRISTIAN remain face to face, and look at each other a moment.]

  SCENE X

  Cyrano, Christian

  CYRANO Embrace me!

  CHRISTIAN Monsieur ...

  CYRANO Brave fellow.

  CHRISTIAN But what does this ...

  CYRANO Very brave fellow. I wish you to.

  CHRISTIAN Will you tell me? ...

  CYRANO Embrace me, I am her brother.

  CHRISTIAN Whose?

  CYRANO Hers!

  CHRISTIAN What do you mean?

  CYRANO Roxane’s!

  CHRISTIAN [running to him] Heavens! You, her brother?

  CYRANO Or the same thing: her first cousin.

  CHRISTIAN And she has...

  CYRANO Told me everything!

  CHRISTIAN Does she love me?

  CYRANO Perhaps!

  CHRISTIAN [seizing his hands] How happy I am, Monsieur, to make your acquaintance! ...

  CYRANO That is what I call a sudden sentiment!

  CHRISTIAN Forgive me! ...

  CYRANO [looking at him, laying his hand upon his shoulder] It is true that he is handsome, the rascal!

  CHRISTIAN If you but knew, Monsieur, how greatly I admire you!...

  CYRANO But all those noses which you...

  CHRISTIAN I take them back!

  CYRANO Roxane expects a letter to-night...

  CHRISTIAN Alas!

  CYRANO What is the matter?

  CHRISTIAN I am lost if I cease to be dumb!

  CYRANO How is that?

  CHRISTIAN Alas! I am such a dunce that I could kill myself for shame!

  CYRANO But, no ... no.... You are surely not a dunce, if you believe you are! Besides, you scarcely attacked me like a dunce.

  CHRISTIAN Oh, it is easy to find words in mounting to the assault! Indeed, I own to a certain cheap military readiness, but when I am before women, I have not a word to say.... Yet their eyes, when I pass by, express a kindness toward me ...

  CYRANO And do their hearts not express the same when you stop beside them?

  CHRISTIAN No!... for I am of those—I recognize it, and am dismayed! —who do not know how to talk of love.

  CYRANO Tiens! . . . It seems to me that if Nature had taken more pains with my shape, I should have been of those who do know how to talk of it.

  CHRISTIAN Oh, to be able to express things gracefully!

  CYRANO Oh, to be a graceful little figure of a passing mousquetaire!

  CHRISTIAN Roxane is a precieuse, ... 49 there is no chance but that I shall be a disillusion to Roxane!

  CYRANO [looking at CHRISTIAN] If I had, to express my soul, such an interpreter! ...

  CHRISTIAN [desperately] I ought to have eloquence! ...

  CYRANO [abruptly] Eloquence I will lend you! ... And you, to me, shall lend all-conquering physical charm... and between us we will compose a hero of romance!

  CHRISTIAN What?

  CYRANO Should you be able to say, as your own, things which I day by day would teach you?

  CHRISTIAN You are suggesting? ...

  CYRANO Roxane shall not have disillusions! Tell me, shall we win her heart, we two as one? will you submit to feel, transmitted from my leather doublet into your doublet stitched with silk, the soul I wish to share?

  CHRISTIAN But Cyrano! ...

  CYRANO Christian, will you?

  CHRISTIAN You frighten me!

  CYRANO Since you fear, left to yourself, to chill her heart, will you consent,—and soon it will take fire, I vouch for it!—to contribute your lips to my phrases?

  CHRISTIAN Your eyes shine! ...

  CYRANO Will you?

  CHRISTIAN What, would it please you so much?

  CYRANO [with rapture] It would... [Remembering, and confining himself to expressing an artistic pleasure] ... amuse me! It is an experiment fit surely to tempt a poet. Will you complete me, and let me in exchange complete you? We will walk side by side: you in full light, I in your shadow.... I will be wit to you... you, to me, shall be good looks!

  CHRISTIAN But the letter, which should be sent to her without delay? ... Never shall I be able...

  CYRANO [taking from his doublet the letter written in the first part of the act] The letter? Here it is!

  CHRISTIAN How?...

  CYRANO It only wants the address.

  CHRISTIAN I...

  CYRANO You can send it without uneasiness. It is a good letter. CHRISTIAN You had? ...

  CYRANO You shall never find us—poets!—without epistles in our pockets to the Chlorises ... of our imagining! For we are those same that have for mistress a dream blown into the bubble of a name! Take,—you shall convert this feigning into earnest; I was sending forth at random these confessions and laments: you shall make the wandering birds to settle... Take it!You shall see... I was as eloquent as if I had been sincere! Take, and have done!

  CHRISTIAN But will it not need to be altered
in any part? ... Written without object, will it fit Roxane?

  CYRANO Like a glove!

  CHRISTIAN But...

  CYRANO Trust to the blindness of love... and vanity! Roxane will never question that it was written for her.

  CHRISTIAN Ah, my friend! [He throws himself into CYRANO’s arms. They stand embraced.]

  SCENE XI

  Cyrano, Christian, the Cadets, the Mousquetaire, Lise

  ONE OF THE CADETS [opening the door a very little] Nothing more.... The stillness of death.... I dare not look... [He thrusts in his head. ] What is this?

  ALL THE CADETS [entering and seeing CYRANO and CHRISTIAN locked in each others arms] Ah!... Oh! ...

  ONE OF THE CADETS This passes bounds! [Consternation].

  THE MOUSQUETAIRE [impudent] Ouais?

  CARBON DE CASTEL-JALOUX Our demon is waxen mild as an apostle; smitten upon one nostril, he turns the other also!

  THE MOUSQUETAIRE It is in order now to speak of his nose, is it? [Calling LISE, with a swaggering air] Hey, Lise! now listen and look. [Pointedly sniffing the air.] Oh, ... oh, ... it is surprising! ... what an odor! [Going to CYRANO.] But Monsieur must have smelled it, too? Can you tell me what it is, so plain in the air?

  CYRANO [beating him] Why, sundry blows! [Joyful antics of the CADETS in beholding CYRANO himself again. Curtain.]

  ACT THREE

  Roxane’s Kiss

  A small square in the old Marais. Old-fashioned houses. Narrow streets seen in perspective. At the right, ROXANE’S house and the wall ofher garden, above which spreading tree-tops. Over the house-door, a balcony and window. A bench beside the doorstep.

  The wall is overclambered by ivy, the balcony wreathed with jasmine.

  By means of the bench and projecting stones in the wall, the balcony can easily be scaled.

  On the opposite side, old house in the same style of architecture, brick and stone, with entrance-door. The door-knocker is swaddled in linen.

  At the rise of the curtain, the DUENNA is seated on the bench. The window on ROXANE’S balcony is wide open.