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diff --git a/old/1254-0.txt b/old/1254-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 8ba93b8..0000000 --- a/old/1254-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,9912 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Cyrano de Bergerac - -Author: Edmond Rostand - -Release Date: March, 1998 [eBook #1254] -[Most recently updated: April 22, 2023] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Sue Asscher - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CYRANO DE BERGERAC *** - - - - -Cyrano de Bergerac - -A Play in Five Acts - -By Edmond Rostand - -Translated from the French by Gladys Thomas and Mary F. Guillemard - - - -The Characters -CYRANO DE BERGERAC -CHRISTIAN DE NEUVILLETTE -COUNT DE GUICHE -RAGUENEAU -LE BRET -CARBON DE CASTEL-JALOUX -THE CADETS -LIGNIÈRE -DE VALVERT -A MARQUIS -SECOND MARQUIS -THIRD MARQUIS -MONTFLEURY -BELLEROSE -JODELET -CUIGY -BRISSAILLE -THE DOORKEEPER -A LACKEY -A SECOND LACKEY -A BORE -A MUSKETEER -ANOTHER -A SPANISH OFFICER -A PORTER -A BURGHER -HIS SON -A PICKPOCKET -A SPECTATOR -A GUARDSMAN -BERTRAND THE FIFER -A MONK -TWO MUSICIANS -THE POETS -THE PASTRY COOKS -ROXANE -SISTER MARTHA -LISE -THE BUFFET-GIRL -MOTHER MARGUERITE -THE DUENNA -SISTER CLAIRE -AN ACTRESS -THE PAGES -THE SHOP-GIRL - -The crowd, troopers, burghers (male and female), marquises, musketeers, -pickpockets, pastry-cooks, poets, Gascons cadets, actors (male and female), -violinists, pages, children, soldiers, Spaniards, spectators (male and -female), precieuses, nuns, etc. - - - -Act I. - -A Representation at the Hotel de Bourgogne. - -The hall of the Hotel de Bourgogne, in 1640. A sort of tennis-court arranged -and decorated for a theatrical performance. - -The hall is oblong and seen obliquely, so that one of its sides forms the back -of the right foreground, and meeting the left background makes an angle with -the stage, which is partly visible. - -On both sides of the stage are benches. The curtain is composed of two -tapestries which can be drawn aside. Above a harlequin's mantle are the royal -arms. There are broad steps from the stage to the hall; on either side of -these steps are the places for the violinists. Footlights. - -Two rows, one over the other, of side galleries: the highest divided into -boxes. No seats in the pit of the hall, which is the real stage of the -theater; at the back of the pit, i.e., on the right foreground, some benches -forming steps, and underneath, a staircase which leads to the upper seats. An -improvised buffet ornamented with little lusters, vases, glasses, plates of -tarts, cakes, bottles, etc. - -The entrance to the theater is in the center of the background, under the -gallery of the boxes. A large door, half open to let in the spectators. On -the panels of this door, in different corners, and over the buffet, red -placards bearing the words, 'La Clorise.' - -At the rising of the curtain the hall is in semi-darkness, and still empty. -The lusters are lowered in the middle of the pit ready to be lighted. - - - -Scene 1.I. - -The public, arriving by degrees. Troopers, burghers, lackeys, pages, a -pickpocket, the doorkeeper, etc., followed by the marquises. Cuigy, -Brissaille, the buffet-girl, the violinists, etc. - -(A confusion of loud voices is heard outside the door. A trooper enters -hastily.) - -THE DOORKEEPER (following him): - Hollo! You there! Your money! - -THE TROOPER: - I enter gratis. - -THE DOORKEEPER: - Why? - -THE TROOPER: - Why? I am of the King's Household Cavalry, 'faith! - -THE DOORKEEPER (to another trooper who enters): - And you? - -SECOND TROOPER: - I pay nothing. - -THE DOORKEEPER: - How so? - -SECOND TROOPER: - I am a musketeer. - -FIRST TROOPER (to the second): - The play will not begin till two. The pit is empty. Come, a bout with the -foils to pass the time. - -(They fence with the foils they have brought.) - -A LACKEY (entering): - Pst. . .Flanquin. . .! - -ANOTHER (already there): - Champagne?. . . - -THE FIRST (showing him cards and dice which he takes from his doublet): - See, here be cards and dice. -(He seats himself on the floor): - Let's play. - -THE SECOND (doing the same): - Good; I am with you, villain! - -FIRST LACKEY (taking from his pocket a candle-end, which he lights, and sticks -on the floor): - I made free to provide myself with light at my master's expense! - -A GUARDSMAN (to a shop-girl who advances): - 'Twas prettily done to come before the lights were lit! - -(He takes her round the waist.) - -ONE OF THE FENCERS (receiving a thrust): - A hit! - -ONE OF THE CARD-PLAYERS: - Clubs! - -THE GUARDSMAN (following the girl): - A kiss! - -THE SHOP-GIRL (struggling to free herself): - They're looking! - -THE GUARDSMAN (drawing her to a dark corner): - No fear! No one can see! - -A MAN (sitting on the ground with others, who have brought their provisions): - By coming early, one can eat in comfort. - -A BURGHER (conducting his son): - Let us sit here, son. - -A CARD-PLAYER: - Triple ace! - -A MAN (taking a bottle from under his cloak, -and also seating himself on the floor): - A tippler may well quaff his Burgundy -(he drinks): - in the Burgundy Hotel! - -THE BURGHER (to his son): - 'Faith! A man might think he had fallen in a bad house here! -(He points with his cane to the drunkard): - What with topers! -(One of the fencers in breaking off, jostles him): - brawlers! -(He stumbles into the midst of the card-players): - gamblers! - -THE GUARDSMAN (behind him, still teasing the shop-girl): - Come, one kiss! - -THE BURGHER (hurriedly pulling his son away): - By all the holies! And this, my boy, is the theater where they played -Rotrou erewhile. - -THE YOUNG MAN: - Ay, and Corneille! - -A TROOP OF PAGES (hand-in-hand, enter dancing the farandole, and singing): - Tra' a la, la, la, la, la, la, la, lere. . . - -THE DOORKEEPER (sternly, to the pages): - You pages there, none of your tricks!. . . - -FIRST PAGE (with an air of wounded dignity): - Oh, sir!--such a suspicion!. . . -(Briskly, to the second page, the moment the doorkeeper's back is turned): - Have you string? - -THE SECOND: - Ay, and a fish-hook with it. - -FIRST PAGE: - We can angle for wigs, then, up there i' th' gallery. - -A PICKPOCKET (gathering about him some evil-looking youths): - Hark ye, young cut-purses, lend an ear, while I give you your first lesson -in thieving. - -SECOND PAGE (calling up to others in the top galleries): - You there! Have you peashooters? - -THIRD PAGE (from above): - Ay, have we, and peas withal! - -(He blows, and peppers them with peas.) - -THE YOUNG MAN (to his father): - What piece do they give us? - -THE BURGHER: - 'Clorise.' - -THE YOUNG MAN: - Who may the author be? - -THE BURGHER: - Master Balthazar Baro. It is a play!. . . - -(He goes arm-in-arm with his son.) - -THE PICKPOCKET (to his pupils): - Have a care, above all, of the lace knee-ruffles--cut them off! - -A SPECTATOR (to another, showing him a corner in the gallery): - I was up there, the first night of the 'Cid.' - -THE PICKPOCKET (making with his fingers the gesture of filching): - Thus for watches-- - -THE BURGHER (coming down again with his son): - Ah! You shall presently see some renowned actors. . . - -THE PICKPOCKET (making the gestures of one who pulls something stealthily, -with little jerks): - Thus for handkerchiefs-- - -THE BURGHER: - Montfleury. . . - -SOME ONE (shouting from the upper gallery): - Light up, below there! - -THE BURGHER: - . . .Bellerose, L'Epy, La Beaupre, Jodelet! - -A PAGE (in the pit): - Here comes the buffet-girl! - -THE BUFFET-GIRL (taking her place behind the buffet): - Oranges, milk, raspberry-water, cedar bitters! - -(A hubbub outside the door is heard.) - -A FALSETTO VOICE: - Make place, brutes! - -A LACKEY (astonished): - The Marquises!--in the pit?. . . - -ANOTHER LACKEY: - Oh! only for a minute or two! - -(Enter a band of young marquises.) - -A MARQUIS (seeing that the hall is half empty): - What now! So we make our entrance like a pack of woolen-drapers! -Peaceably, without disturbing the folk, or treading on their toes!--Oh, fie! -Fie! -(Recognizing some other gentlemen who have entered a little before him): - Cuigy! Brissaille! - -(Greetings and embraces.) - -CUIGY: - True to our word!. . .Troth, we are here before the candles are lit. - -THE MARQUIS: - Ay, indeed! Enough! I am of an ill humor. - -ANOTHER: - Nay, nay, Marquis! see, for your consolation, they are coming to light up! - -ALL THE AUDIENCE (welcoming the entrance of the lighter): - Ah!. . . - -(They form in groups round the lusters as they are lit. Some people have -taken their seats in the galleries. Lignière, a distinguished-looking roue, -with disordered shirt-front arm-in-arm with christian de Neuvillette. -Christian, who is dressed elegantly, but rather behind the fashion, seems -preoccupied, and keeps looking at the boxes.) - - - -Scene 1.II. - -The same. Christian, Lignière, then Ragueneau and Le Bret. - -CUIGY: - Lignière! - -BRISSAILLE (laughing): - Not drunk as yet? - -LIGNIÈRE (aside to Christian): - I may introduce you? -(Christian nods in assent): - Baron de Neuvillette. - -(Bows.) - -THE AUDIENCE (applauding as the first luster is lighted and drawn up): - Ah! - -CUIGY (to Brissaille, looking at Christian): - 'Tis a pretty fellow! - -FIRST MARQUIS (who has overheard): - Pooh! - -LIGNIÈRE (introducing them to Christian): - My lords De Cuigy. De Brissaille. . . - -CHRISTIAN (bowing): - Delighted!. . . - -FIRST MARQUIS (to second): - He is not ill to look at, but certes, he is not costumed in the latest mode. - -LIGNIÈRE (to Cuigy): - This gentleman comes from Touraine. - -CHRISTIAN: - Yes, I have scarce been twenty days in Paris; tomorrow I join the Guards, in -the Cadets. - -FIRST MARQUIS (watching the people who are coming into the boxes): - There is the wife of the Chief-Justice. - -THE BUFFET-GIRL: - Oranges, milk. . . - -THE VIOLINISTS (tuning up): - La--la-- - -CUIGY (to Christian, pointing to the hall, which is filling fast): - 'Tis crowded. - -CHRISTIAN: - Yes, indeed. - -FIRST MARQUIS: - All the great world! - -(They recognize and name the different elegantly dressed ladies who enter the -boxes, bowing low to them. The ladies send smiles in answer.) - -SECOND MARQUIS: - Madame de Guemenee. - -CUIGY: - Madame de Bois-Dauphin. - -FIRST MARQUIS: - Adored by us all! - -BRISSAILLE: - Madame de Chavigny. . . - -SECOND MARQUIS: - Who sports with our poor hearts!. . . - -LIGNIÈRE: - Ha! so Monsieur de Corneille has come back from Rouen! - -THE YOUNG MAN (to his father): - Is the Academy here? - -THE BURGHER: - Oh, ay, I see several of them. There is Boudu, Boissat, -and Cureau de la Chambre, Porcheres, Colomby, Bourzeys, -Bourdon, Arbaud. . .all names that will live! 'Tis fine! - -FIRST MARQUIS: - Attention! Here come our precieuses; Barthenoide, Urimedonte, Cassandace, -Felixerie. . . - -SECOND MARQUIS: - Ah! How exquisite their fancy names are! Do you know them all, Marquis? - -FIRST MARQUIS: - Ay, Marquis, I do, every one! - -LIGNIÈRE (drawing Christian aside): - Friend, I but came here to give you pleasure. The lady comes not. I will -betake me again to my pet vice. - -CHRISTIAN (persuasively): - No, no! You, who are ballad-maker to Court and City alike, can tell me -better than any who the lady is for whom I die of love. Stay yet awhile. - -THE FIRST VIOLIN (striking his bow on the desk): - Gentlemen violinists! - -(He raises his bow.) - -THE BUFFET-GIRL: - Macaroons, lemon-drink. . . - -(The violins begin to play.) - -CHRISTIAN: - Ah! I fear me she is coquettish, and over nice and fastidious! -I, who am so poor of wit, how dare I speak to her--how address her? -This language that they speak to-day--ay, and write--confounds me; -I am but an honest soldier, and timid withal. She has ever her place, -there, on the right--the empty box, see you! - -LIGNIÈRE (making as if to go): - I must go. - -CHRISTIAN (detaining him): - Nay, stay. - -LIGNIÈRE: - I cannot. D'Assoucy waits me at the tavern, and here one dies of thirst. - -THE BUFFET-GIRL (passing before him with a tray): - Orange drink? - -LIGNIÈRE: - Ugh! - -THE BUFFET-GIRL: - Milk? - -LIGNIÈRE: - Pah! - -THE BUFFET-GIRL: - Rivesalte? - -LIGNIÈRE: - Stay. -(To Christian): - I will remain awhile.--Let me taste this rivesalte. - -(He sits by the buffet; the girl pours some out for him.) - -CRIES (from all the audience, at the entrance of a plump little man, joyously -excited): - Ah! Ragueneau! - -LIGNIÈRE (to Christian): - 'Tis the famous tavern-keeper Ragueneau. - -RAGUENEAU (dressed in the Sunday clothes of a pastry-cook, going up quickly to -Lignière): - Sir, have you seen Monsieur de Cyrano? - -LIGNIÈRE (introducing him to Christian): - The pastry-cook of the actors and the poets! - -RAGUENEAU (overcome): - You do me too great honor. . . - -LIGNIÈRE: - Nay, hold your peace, Maecenas that you are! - -RAGUENEAU: - True, these gentlemen employ me. . . - -LIGNIÈRE: - On credit! - He is himself a poet of a pretty talent. . . - -RAGUENEAU: - So they tell me. - -LIGNIÈRE: - --Mad after poetry! - -RAGUENEAU: - 'Tis true that, for a little ode. . . - -LIGNIÈRE: - You give a tart. . . - -RAGUENEAU: - Oh!--a tartlet! - -LIGNIÈRE: - Brave fellow! He would fain fain excuse himself! - --And for a triolet, now, did you not give in exchange. . . - -RAGUENEAU: - Some little rolls! - -LIGNIÈRE (severely): - They were milk-rolls! And as for the theater, which you love? - -RAGUENEAU: - Oh! to distraction! - -LIGNIÈRE: - How pay you your tickets, ha?--with cakes. - Your place, to-night, come tell me in my ear, what did it cost you? - -RAGUENEAU: - Four custards, and fifteen cream-puffs. -(He looks around on all sides): - Monsieur de Cyrano is not here? 'Tis strange. - -LIGNIÈRE: - Why so? - -RAGUENEAU: - Montfleury plays! - -LIGNIÈRE: - Ay, 'tis true that that old wine-barrel is to take Phedon's part to-night; -but what matter is that to Cyrano? - -RAGUENEAU: - How? Know you not? He has got a hot hate for Montfleury, and so!--has -forbid him strictly to show his face on the stage for one whole month. - -LIGNIÈRE (drinking his fourth glass): - Well? - -RAGUENEAU: - Montfleury will play! - -CUIGY: - He can not hinder that. - -RAGUENEAU: - Oh! oh! that I have come to see! - -FIRST MARQUIS: - Who is this Cyrano? - -CUIGY: - A fellow well skilled in all tricks of fence. - -SECOND MARQUIS: - Is he of noble birth? - -CUIGY: - Ay, noble enough. He is a cadet in the Guards. -(Pointing to a gentleman who is going up and down the hall as if searching for -some one): - But 'tis his friend Le Bret, yonder, who can best tell you. -(He calls him): - Le Bret! -(Le Bret comes towards them): - Seek you for De Bergerac? - -LE BRET: - Ay, I am uneasy. . . - -CUIGY: - Is it not true that he is the strangest of men? - -LE BRET (tenderly): - True, that he is the choicest of earthly beings! - -RAGUENEAU: - Poet! - -CUIGY: - Soldier! - -BRISSAILLE: - Philosopher! - -LE BRET: - Musician! - -LIGNIÈRE: - And of how fantastic a presence! - -RAGENEAU: - Marry, 'twould puzzle even our grim painter Philippe de Champaigne to -portray him! Methinks, whimsical, wild, comical as he is, only Jacques -Callot, now dead and gone, had succeeded better, and had made of him the -maddest fighter of all his visored crew--with his triple-plumed beaver and -six-pointed doublet--the sword-point sticking up 'neath his mantle like an -insolent cocktail! He's prouder than all the fierce Artabans of whom Gascony -has ever been and will ever be the prolific Alma Mater! Above his Toby ruff -he carries a nose!--ah, good my lords, what a nose is his! When one sees it -one is fain to cry aloud, 'Nay! 'tis too much! He plays a joke on us!' Then -one laughs, says 'He will anon take it off.' But no!--Monsieur de Bergerac -always keeps it on. - -LE BRET (throwing back his head): - He keeps it on--and cleaves in two any man who dares remark on it! - -RAGUENEAU (proudly): - His sword--'tis one half of the Fates' shears! - -FIRST MARQUIS (shrugging his shoulders): - He will not come! - -RAGUENEAU: - I say he will! and I wager a fowl--a la Ragueneau. - -THE MARQUIS (laughing): - Good! - -(Murmurs of admiration in hall. Roxane has just appeared in her box. She -seats herself in front, the duenna at the back. Christian, who is paying the -buffet-girl, does not see her entrance.) - -SECOND MARQUIS (with little cries of joy): - Ah, gentlemen! she is fearfully--terribly--ravishing! - -FIRST MARQUIS: - When one looks at her one thinks of a peach smiling at a strawberry! - -SECOND MARQUIS: - And what freshness! A man approaching her too near might chance to get a -bad chill at the heart! - -CHRISTIAN (raising his head, sees Roxane, and catches Lignière by the arm): - 'Tis she! - -LIGNIÈRE: - Ah! is it she? - -CHRISTIAN: - Ay, tell me quick--I am afraid. - -LIGNIÈRE (tasting his rivesalte in sips): - Magdaleine Robin--Roxane, so called! A subtle wit--a precieuse. - -CHRISTIAN: - Woe is me! - -LIGNIÈRE: - Free. An orphan. The cousin of Cyrano, of whom we were now speaking. - -(At this moment an elegant nobleman, with blue ribbon across his breast, -enters the box, and talks with Roxane, standing.) - -CHRISTIAN (starting): - Who is yonder man? - -LIGNIÈRE (who is becoming tipsy, winking at him): - Ha! ha! Count de Guiche. Enamored of her. But wedded to the niece of -Armand de Richelieu. Would fain marry Roxane to a certain sorry fellow, one -Monsieur de Valvert, a viscount--and--accommodating! She will none of that -bargain; but De Guiche is powerful, and can persecute the daughter of a plain -untitled gentleman. More by token, I myself have exposed this cunning plan of -his to the world, in a song which. . .Ho! he must rage at me! The end hit -home. . .Listen! - -(He gets up staggering, and raises his glass, ready to sing.) - -CHRISTIAN: - No. Good-night. - -LIGNIÈRE: - Where go you? - -CHRISTIAN: - To Monsieur de Valvert! - -LIGNIÈRE: - Have a care! It is he who will kill you -(showing him Roxane by a look): - Stay where you are--she is looking at you. - -CHRISTIAN: - It is true! - -(He stands looking at her. The group of pickpockets seeing him thus, head in -air and open-mouthed, draw near to him.) - -LIGNIÈRE: - 'Tis I who am going. I am athirst! And they expect me--in the taverns! - -(He goes out, reeling.) - -LE BRET (who has been all round the hall, coming back to Ragueneau reassured): - No sign of Cyrano. - -RAGUENEAU (incredulously): - All the same. . . - -LE BRET: - A hope is left to me--that he has not seen the playbill! - -THE AUDIENCE: - Begin, begin! - - - -Scene 1.III. - -The same, all but Lignière. De Guiche, Valvert, then Montfleury. - -A marquis (watching De Guiche, who comes down from Roxane's box, and crosses -the pit surrounded by obsequious noblemen, among them the Viscount de -Valvert): - He pays a fine court, your De Guiche! - -ANOTHER: - Faugh!. . .Another Gascon! - -THE FIRST: - Ay, but the cold, supple Gascon--that is the stuff success is made of! -Believe me, we had best make our bow to him. - -(They go toward De Guiche.) - -SECOND MARQUIS: - What fine ribbons! How call you the color, Count de Guiche? 'Kiss me, my -darling,' or 'Timid Fawn?' - -DE GUICHE: - 'Tis the color called 'Sick Spaniard.' - -FIRST MARQUIS: - 'Faith! The color speaks truth, for, thanks to your valor, things will soon -go ill for Spain in Flanders. - -DE GUICHE: - I go on the stage! Will you come? -(He goes toward the stage, followed by the marquises and gentlemen. Turning, -he calls): - Come you Valvert! - -CHRISTIAN (who is watching and listening, starts on hearing this name): - The Viscount! Ah! I will throw full in his face my. . . -(He puts his hand in his pocket, and finds there the hand of a pickpocket who -is about to rob him. He turns round): - Hey? - -THE PICKPOCKET: - Oh! - -CHRISTIAN (holding him tightly): - I was looking for a glove. - -THE PICKPOCKET (smiling piteously): - And you find a hand. -(Changing his tone, quickly and in a whisper): - Let me but go, and I will deliver you a secret. - -CHRISTIAN (still holding him): - What is it? - -THE PICKPOCKET: - Lignière. . .he who has just left you. . . - -CHRISTIAN (same play): - Well? - -THE PICKPOCKET: - His life is in peril. A song writ by him has given offense in high places-- -and a hundred men--I am of them--are posted to-night. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - A hundred men! By whom posted? - -THE PICKPOCKET: - I may not say--a secret. . . - -CHRISTIAN (shrugging his shoulders): - Oh! - -THE PICKPOCKET (with great dignity): - . . .Of the profession. - -CHRISTIAN: - Where are they posted? - -THE PICKPOCKET: - At the Porte de Nesle. On his way homeward. Warn him. - -CHRISTIAN (letting go of his wrists): - But where can I find him? - -THE PICKPOCKET: - Run round to all the taverns--The Golden Wine Press, the Pine Cone, The Belt -that Bursts, The Two Torches, The Three Funnels, and at each leave a word that -shall put him on his guard. - -CHRISTIAN: - Good--I fly! Ah, the scoundrels! A hundred men 'gainst one! -(Looking lovingly at Roxane): - Ah, to leave her!. . . -(looking with rage at Valvert): - and him!. . .But save Lignière I must! - -(He hurries out. De Guiche, the viscount, the marquises, have all disappeared -behind the curtain to take their places on the benches placed on the stage. -The pit is quite full; the galleries and boxes are also crowded.) - -THE AUDIENCE: - Begin! - -A BURGHER (whose wig is drawn up on the end of a string by a page in the upper -gallery): - My wig! - -CRIES OF DELIGHT: - He is bald! Bravo, pages--ha! ha! ha!. . . - -THE BURGHER (furious, shaking his fist): - Young villain! - -LAUGHTER AND CRIES (beginning very loud, and dying gradually away): - Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! - -(Total silence.) - -LE BRET (astonished): - What means this sudden silence?. . . -(A spectator says something to him in a low voice): - Is't true? - -THE SPECTATOR: - I have just heard it on good authority. - -MURMURS (spreading through the hall): - Hush! Is it he? No! Ay, I say! In the box with the bars in front! The -Cardinal! The Cardinal! The Cardinal! - -A PAGE: - The devil! We shall have to behave ourselves. . . - -(A knock is heard upon the stage. Every one is motionless. A pause.) - -THE VOICE OF A MARQUIS (in the silence, behind the curtain): - Snuff that candle! - -ANOTHER MARQUIS (putting his head through the opening in the curtain): - A chair! - -(A chair is passed from hand to hand, over the heads of the spectators. The -marquis takes it and disappears, after blowing some kisses to the boxes.) - -A SPECTATOR: - Silence! - -(Three knocks are heard on the stage. The curtain opens in the centre -Tableau. The marquises in insolent attitudes seated on each side of the -stage. The scene represents a pastoral landscape. Four little lusters light -the stage; the violins play softly.) - -LE BRET (in a low voice to Ragueneau): - Montfleury comes on the scene? - -RAGUENEAU (also in a low voice): - Ay, 'tis he who begins. - -LE BRET: - Cyrano is not here. - -RAGUENEAU: - I have lost my wager. - -LE BRET: - 'Tis all the better! - -(An air on the drone-pipes is heard, and Montfleury enters, enormously stout, -in an Arcadian shepherd's dress, a hat wreathed with roses drooping over one -ear, blowing into a ribboned drone pipe.) - -THE PIT (applauding): - Bravo, Montfleury! Montfleury! - -MONTFLEURY (after bowing low, begins the part of Phedon): - 'Heureux qui loin des cours, dans un lieu solitaire, - Se prescrit a soi-meme un exil volontaire, - Et qui, lorsque Zephire a souffle sur les bois. . .' - -A VOICE (from the middle of the pit): - Villain! Did I not forbid you to show your face here for month? - -(General stupor. Every one turns round. Murmurs.) - -DIFFERENT VOICES: - Hey?--What?--What is't?. . . - -(The people stand up in the boxes to look.) - -CUIGY: - 'Tis he! - -LE BRET (terrified): - Cyrano! - -THE VOICE: - King of clowns! Leave the stage this instant! - -ALL THE AUDIENCE (indignantly): - Oh! - -MONTFLEURY: - But. . . - -THE VOICE: - Do you dare defy me? - -DIFFERENT VOICES (from the pit and the boxes): - Peace! Enough!--Play on, Montfleury--fear nothing! - -MONTFLEURY (in a trembling voice): - 'Heureux qui loin des cours, dans un lieu sol--' - -THE VOICE (more fiercely): - Well! Chief of all the blackguards, must I come and give you a taste of my -cane? - -(A hand holding a cane starts up over the heads of the spectators.) - -MONTFLEURY (in a voice that trembles more and more): - 'Heureux qui. . .' - -(The cane is shaken.) - -THE VOICE: - Off the stage! - -THE PIT: - Oh! - -MONTFLEURY (choking): - 'Heureux qui loin des cours. . .' - -CYRANO (appearing suddenly in the pit, standing on a chair, his arms crossed, -his beaver cocked fiercely, his mustache bristling, his nose terrible to see): - Ah! I shall be angry in a minute!. . . - -(Sensation.) - - - -Scene 1.IV. - -The same. Cyrano, then Bellerose, Jodelet. - -MONTFLEURY (to the marquises): - Come to my help, my lords! - -A MARQUIS (carelessly): - Go on! Go on! - -CYRANO: - Fat man, take warning! If you go on, I - Shall feel myself constrained to cuff your face! - -THE MARQUIS: - Have done! - -CYRANO: - And if these lords hold not their tongue - Shall feel constrained to make them taste my cane! - -ALL THE MARQUISES (rising): - Enough!. . .Montfleury. . . - -CYRANO: - If he goes not quick - I will cut off his ears and slit him up! - -A VOICE: - But. . . - -CYRANO: - Out he goes! - -ANOTHER VOICE: - Yet. . . - -CYRANO: - Is he not gone yet? -(He makes the gesture of turning up his cuffs): - Good! I shall mount the stage now, buffet-wise, - To carve this fine Italian sausage--thus! - -MONTFLEURY (trying to be dignified): - You outrage Thalia in insulting me! - -CYRANO (very politely): - If that Muse, Sir, who knows you not at all, - Could claim acquaintance with you--oh, believe - (Seeing how urn-like, fat, and slow you are) - That she would make you taste her buskin's sole! - -THE PIT: - Montfleury! Montfleury! Come--Baro's play! - -CYRANO (to those who are calling out): - I pray you have a care! If you go on - My scabbard soon will render up its blade! - -(The circle round him widens.) - -THE CROWD (drawing back): - Take care! - -CYRANO (to Montfleury): - Leave the stage! - -THE CROWD (coming near and grumbling): - Oh!-- - -CYRANO: - Did some one speak? - -(They draw back again.) - -A VOICE (singing at the back): - Monsieur de Cyrano - Displays his tyrannies: - A fig for tyrants! What, ho! - Come! Play us 'La Clorise!' - -ALL THE PIT (singing): - 'La Clorise!' 'La Clorise!'. . . - -CYRANO: - Let me but hear once more that foolish rhyme, - I slaughter every man of you. - -A BURGHER: - Oh! Samson? - -CYRANO: - Yes Samson! Will you lend your jawbone, Sir? - -A LADY (in the boxes): - Outrageous! - -A LORD: - Scandalous! - -A BURGHER: - 'Tis most annoying! - -A PAGE: - Fair good sport! - -THE PIT: - Kss!--Montfleury. . .Cyrano! - -CYRANO: - Silence! - -THE PIT (wildly excited): - Ho-o-o-o-h! Quack! Cock-a-doodle-doo! - -CYRANO: - I order-- - -A PAGE: - Miow! - -CYRANO: - I order silence, all! - And challenge the whole pit collectively!-- - I write your names!--Approach, young heroes, here! - Each in his turn! I cry the numbers out!-- - Now which of you will come to ope the lists? - You, Sir? No! You? No! The first duellist - Shall be dispatched by me with honors due! - Let all who long for death hold up their hands! -(A silence): - Modest? You fear to see my naked blade? - Not one name?--Not one hand?--Good, I proceed! -(Turning toward the stage, where Montfleury waits in an agony): - The theater's too full, congested,--I - Would clear it out. . .If not. . . -(Puts his hand on his sword): - The knife must act! - -MONTFLEURY: - I. . . - -CYRANO (leaves his chair, and settles himself in the middle of the circle -which has formed): - I will clap my hands thrice, thus--full moon! At the third clap, eclipse -yourself! - -THE PIT (amused): - Ah! - -CYRANO (clapping his hands): - One! - -MONTFLEURY: - I. . . - -A VOICE (in the boxes): - Stay! - -THE PIT: - He stays. . .he goes. . .he stays. . . - -MONTFLEURY: - I think. . .Gentlemen,. . . - -CYRANO: - Two! - -MONTFLEURY: - I think 'twere wisest. . . - -CYRANO: - Three! - -(Montfleury disappears as through a trap. Tempest of laughs, whistling cries, -etc.) - -THE WHOLE HOUSE: - Coward. . .come back! - -CYRANO (delighted, sits back in his chair, arms crossed): - Come back an if you dare! - -A BURGHER: - Call for the orator! - -(Bellerose comes forward and bows.) - -THE BOXES: - Ah! here's Bellerose! - -BELLEROSE (elegantly): - My noble lords. . . - -THE PIT: - No! no! Jodelet! - -JODELET (advancing, speaking through his nose): - Calves! - -THE PIT: - Ah! bravo! good! go on! - -JODELET: - No bravos, Sirs! - The fat tragedian whom you all love - Felt. . . - -THE PIT: - Coward! - -JODELET: - . . .was obliged to go. - -THE PIT: - Come back! - -SOME: - No! - -OTHERS: - Yes! - -A YOUNG MAN (to Cyrano): - But pray, Sir, for what reason, say, - Hate you Montfleury? - -CYRANO (graciously, still seated): - Youthful gander, know - I have two reasons--either will suffice. - Primo. An actor villainous! who mouths, - And heaves up like a bucket from a well - The verses that should, bird-like, fly! Secundo-- - That is my secret. . . - -THE OLD BURGHER (behind him): - Shameful! You deprive us - Of the 'Clorise!' I must insist. . . - -CYRANO (turning his chair toward the burgher, respectfully): - Old mule! - The verses of old Baro are not worth - A doit! I'm glad to interrupt. . . - -THE PRECIEUSES (in the boxes): - Our Baro!-- - My dear! How dares he venture!. . . - -CYRANO (turning his chair toward the boxes gallantly): - Fairest ones, - Radiate, bloom, hold to our lips the cup - Of dreams intoxicating, Hebe-like! - Or, when death strikes, charm death with your sweet smiles; - Inspire our verse, but--criticise it not! - -BELLEROSE: - We must give back the entrance fees! - -CYRANO (turning his chair toward the stage): - Bellerose, - You make the first intelligent remark! - Would I rend Thespis' sacred mantle? Nay! -(He rises and throws a bag on the stage): - Catch then the purse I throw, and hold your peace! - -THE HOUSE (dazzled): - Ah! Oh! - -JODELET (catching the purse dexterously and weighing it): - At this price, you've authority - To come each night, and stop 'Clorise,' Sir! - -THE PIT: - Ho!. . .Ho! Ho!. . . - -JODELET: - E'en if you chase us in a pack!. . . - -BELLEROSE: - Clear out the hall!. . . - -JODELET: - Get you all gone at once! - -(The people begin to go out, while Cyrano looks on with satisfaction. But the -crowd soon stop on hearing the following scene, and remain where they are. -The women, who, with their mantles on, are already standing up in the boxes, -stop to listen, and finally reseat themselves.) - -LE BRET (to Cyrano): - 'Tis mad!. . . - -A BORE (coming up to Cyrano): - The actor Montfleury! 'Tis shameful! - Why, he's protected by the Duke of Candal! - Have you a patron? - -CYRANO: - No! - -THE BORE: - No patron?. . . - -CYRANO: - None! - -THE BORE: - What! no great lord to shield you with his name? - -CYRANO (irritated): - No, I have told you twice! Must I repeat? - No! no protector. . . -(His hand on his sword): - A protectress. . .here! - -THE BORE: - But you must leave the town? - -CYRANO: - Well, that depends! - -THE BORE: - The Duke has a long arm! - -CYRANO: - But not so long - As mine, when it is lengthened out. . . -(Shows his sword): - As thus! - -THE BORE: - You think not to contend? - -CYRANO: - 'Tis my idea! - -THE BORE: - But. . . - -CYRANO: - Show your heels! now! - -THE BORE: - But I. . . - -CYRANO: - Or tell me why you stare so at my nose! - -THE BORE (staggered): - I. . . - -CYRANO (walking straight up to him): - Well, what is there strange? - -THE BORE (drawing back): - Your Grace mistakes! - -CYRANO: - How now? Is't soft and dangling, like a trunk?. . . - -THE BORE (same play): - I never. . . - -CYRANO: - Is it crook'd, like an owl's beak? - -THE BORE: - I. . . - -CYRANO: - Do you see a wart upon the tip? - -THE BORE: - Nay. . . - -CYRANO: - Or a fly, that takes the air there? What - Is there to stare at? - -THE BORE: - Oh. . . - -CYRANO: - What do you see? - -THE BORE: - But I was careful not to look--knew better. - -CYRANO: - And why not look at it, an if you please? - -THE BORE: - I was. . . - -CYRANO: - Oh! it disgusts you! - -THE BORE: - Sir! - -CYRANO: - Its hue - Unwholesome seems to you? - -THE BORE: - Sir! - -CYRANO: - Or its shape? - -THE BORE: - No, on the contrary!. . . - -CYRANO: - Why then that air - Disparaging?--perchance you think it large? - -THE BORE (stammering): - No, small, quite small--minute! - -CYRANO: - Minute! What now? - Accuse me of a thing ridiculous! - Small--my nose? - -THE BORE: - Heaven help me! - -CYRANO: - 'Tis enormous! - Old Flathead, empty-headed meddler, know - That I am proud possessing such appendice. - 'Tis well known, a big nose is indicative - Of a soul affable, and kind, and courteous, - Liberal, brave, just like myself, and such - As you can never dare to dream yourself, - Rascal contemptible! For that witless face - That my hand soon will come to cuff--is all - As empty. . . - -(He cuffs him.) - -THE BORE: - Aie! - -CYRANO: - --of pride, of aspiration, - Of feeling, poetry--of godlike spark - Of all that appertains to my big nose, -(He turns him by the shoulders, suiting the action to the word): - As. . .what my boot will shortly come and kick! - -THE BORE (running away): - Help! Call the Guard! - -CYRANO: - Take notice, boobies all, - Who find my visage's center ornament - A thing to jest at--that it is my wont-- - An if the jester's noble--ere we part - To let him taste my steel, and not my boot! - -DE GUICHE (who, with the marquises, has come down from the stage): - But he becomes a nuisance! - -THE VISCOUNT DE VALVERT (shrugging his shoulders): - Swaggerer! - -DE GUICHE: - Will no one put him down?. . . - -THE VISCOUNT: - No one? But wait! - I'll treat him to. . .one of my quips!. . .See here!. . . -(He goes up to Cyrano, who is watching him, and with a conceited air): - Sir, your nose is. . .hmm. . .it is. . .very big! - -CYRANO (gravely): - Very! - -THE VISCOUNT (laughing): - Ha! - -CYRANO (imperturbably): - Is that all?. . . - -THE VISCOUNT: - What do you mean? - -CYRANO: - Ah no! young blade! That was a trifle short! - You might have said at least a hundred things - By varying the tone. . .like this, suppose,. . . - Aggressive: 'Sir, if I had such a nose - I'd amputate it!' Friendly: 'When you sup - It must annoy you, dipping in your cup; - You need a drinking-bowl of special shape!' - Descriptive: ''Tis a rock!. . .a peak!. . .a cape! - --A cape, forsooth! 'Tis a peninsular!' - Curious: 'How serves that oblong capsular? - For scissor-sheath? Or pot to hold your ink?' - Gracious: 'You love the little birds, I think? - I see you've managed with a fond research - To find their tiny claws a roomy perch!' - Truculent: 'When you smoke your pipe. . .suppose - That the tobacco-smoke spouts from your nose-- - Do not the neighbors, as the fumes rise higher, - Cry terror-struck: "The chimney is afire"?' - Considerate: 'Take care,. . .your head bowed low - By such a weight. . .lest head o'er heels you go!' - Tender: 'Pray get a small umbrella made, - Lest its bright color in the sun should fade!' - Pedantic: 'That beast Aristophanes - Names Hippocamelelephantoles - Must have possessed just such a solid lump - Of flesh and bone, beneath his forehead's bump!' - Cavalier: 'The last fashion, friend, that hook? - To hang your hat on? 'Tis a useful crook!' - Emphatic: 'No wind, O majestic nose, - Can give THEE cold!--save when the mistral blows!' - Dramatic: 'When it bleeds, what a Red Sea!' - Admiring: 'Sign for a perfumery!' - Lyric: 'Is this a conch?. . .a Triton you?' - Simple: 'When is the monument on view?' - Rustic: 'That thing a nose? Marry-come-up! - 'Tis a dwarf pumpkin, or a prize turnip!' - Military: 'Point against cavalry!' - Practical: 'Put it in a lottery! - Assuredly 'twould be the biggest prize!' - Or. . .parodying Pyramus' sighs. . . - 'Behold the nose that mars the harmony - Of its master's phiz! blushing its treachery!' - --Such, my dear sir, is what you might have said, - Had you of wit or letters the least jot: - But, O most lamentable man!--of wit - You never had an atom, and of letters - You have three letters only!--they spell Ass! - And--had you had the necessary wit, - To serve me all the pleasantries I quote - Before this noble audience. . .e'en so, - You would not have been let to utter one-- - Nay, not the half or quarter of such jest! - I take them from myself all in good part, - But not from any other man that breathes! - -DE GUICHE (trying to draw away the dismayed viscount): - Come away, Viscount! - -THE VISCOUNT (choking with rage): - Hear his arrogance! - A country lout who. . .who. . .has got no gloves! - Who goes out without sleeve-knots, ribbons, lace! - -CYRANO: - True; all my elegances are within. - I do not prank myself out, puppy-like; - My toilet is more thorough, if less gay; - I would not sally forth--a half-washed-out - Affront upon my cheek--a conscience - Yellow-eyed, bilious, from its sodden sleep, - A ruffled honor,. . .scruples grimed and dull! - I show no bravery of shining gems. - Truth, Independence, are my fluttering plumes. - 'Tis not my form I lace to make me slim, - But brace my soul with efforts as with stays, - Covered with exploits, not with ribbon-knots, - My spirit bristling high like your mustaches, - I, traversing the crowds and chattering groups - Make Truth ring bravely out like clash of spurs! - -THE VISCOUNT: - But, Sir. . . - -CYRANO: - I wear no gloves? And what of that? - I had one,. . .remnant of an old worn pair, - And, knowing not what else to do with it, - I threw it in the face of. . .some young fool. - -THE VISCOUNT: - Base scoundrel! Rascally flat-footed lout! - -CYRANO (taking off his hat, and bowing as if the viscount had introduced -himself): - Ah?. . .and I, Cyrano Savinien - Hercule de Bergerac - -(Laughter.) - -THE VISCOUNT (angrily): - Buffoon! - -CYRANO (calling out as if he had been seized with the cramp): - Aie! Aie! - -THE VISCOUNT (who was going away, turns back): - What on earth is the fellow saying now? - -CYRANO (with grimaces of pain): - It must be moved--it's getting stiff, I vow, - --This comes of leaving it in idleness! - Aie!. . . - -THE VISCOUNT: - What ails you? - -CYRANO: - The cramp! cramp in my sword! - -THE VISCOUNT (drawing his sword): - Good! - -CYRANO: - You shall feel a charming little stroke! - -THE VISCOUNT (contemptuously): - Poet!. . . - -CYRANO: - Ay, poet, Sir! In proof of which, - While we fence, presto! all extempore - I will compose a ballade. - -THE VISCOUNT: - A ballade? - -CYRANO: - Belike you know not what a ballade is. - -THE VISCOUNT: - But. . . - -CYRANO (reciting, as if repeating a lesson): - Know then that the ballade should contain - Three eight-versed couplets. . . - -THE VISCOUNT (stamping): - Oh! - -CYRANO (still reciting): - And an envoi - Of four lines. . . - -THE VISCOUNT: - You. . . - -CYRANO: - I'll make one while we fight; - And touch you at the final line. - -THE VISCOUNT: - No! - -CYRANO: - No? -(declaiming): - The duel in Hotel of Burgundy--fought - By De Bergerac and a good-for-naught! - -THE VISCOUNT: - What may that be, an if you please? - -CYRANO: - The title. - -THE HOUSE (in great excitement): - Give room!--Good sport!--Make place!--Fair play!--No noise! - -(Tableau. A circle of curious spectators in the pit; the marquises and -officers mingled with the common people; the pages climbing on each other's -shoulders to see better. All the women standing up in the boxes. To the -right, De Guiche and his retinue. Left, Le Bret, Ragueneau, Cyrano, etc.) - -CYRANO (shutting his eyes for a second): - Wait while I choose my rhymes. . .I have them now! -(He suits the action to each word): - I gayly doff my beaver low, - And, freeing hand and heel, - My heavy mantle off I throw, - And I draw my polished steel; - Graceful as Phoebus, round I wheel, - Alert as Scaramouch, - A word in your ear, Sir Spark, I steal-- - At the envoi's end, I touch! -(They engage): - Better for you had you lain low; - Where skewer my cock? In the heel?-- - In the heart, your ribbon blue below?-- - In the hip, and make you kneel? - Ho for the music of clashing steel! - --What now?--A hit? Not much! - 'Twill be in the paunch the stroke I steal, - When, at the envoi, I touch. - - Oh, for a rhyme, a rhyme in o?-- - You wriggle, starch-white, my eel? - A rhyme! a rhyme! The white feather you SHOW! - Tac! I parry the point of your steel; - --The point you hoped to make me feel; - I open the line, now clutch - Your spit, Sir Scullion--slow your zeal! - At the envoi's end, I touch. -(He declaims solemnly): - Envoi. - Prince, pray Heaven for your soul's weal! - I move a pace--lo, such! and such! - Cut over--feint! -(Thrusting): - What ho! You reel? -(The viscount staggers. Cyrano salutes): - At the envoi's end, I touch! - -(Acclamations. Applause in the boxes. Flowers and handkerchiefs are thrown -down. The officers surround Cyrano, congratulating him. Ragueneau dances for -joy. Le Bret is happy, but anxious. The viscount's friends hold him up and -bear him away.) - -THE CROWD (with one long shout): - Ah! - -A TROOPER: - 'Tis superb! - -A WOMAN: - A pretty stroke! - -RAGUENEAU: - A marvel! - -A MARQUIS: - A novelty! - -LE BRET: - O madman! - -THE CROWD (presses round Cyrano. Chorus of): - Compliments! - Bravo! Let me congratulate!. . .Quite unsurpassed!. . . - -A WOMAN'S VOICE: - There is a hero for you!. . . - -A MUSKETEER (advancing to Cyrano with outstretched hand): - Sir, permit; - Naught could be finer--I'm a judge I think; - I stamped, i' faith!--to show my admiration! - -(He goes away.) - -CYRANO (to Cuigy): - Who is that gentleman? - -CUIGY: - Why--D'Artagnan! - -LE BRET (to Cyrano, taking his arm): - A word with you!. . . - -CYRANO: - Wait; let the rabble go!. . . -(To Bellerose): - May I stay? - -BELLEROSE (respectfully): - Without doubt! - -(Cries are heard outside.) - -JODELET (who has looked out): - They hoot Montfleury! - -BELLEROSE (solemnly): - Sic transit!. . . -(To the porters): - Sweep--close all, but leave the lights. - We sup, but later on we must return, - For a rehearsal of to-morrow's farce. - -(Jodelet and Bellerose go out, bowing low to Cyrano.) - -THE PORTER (to Cyrano): - You do not dine, Sir? - -CYRANO: - No. - -(The porter goes out.) - -LE BRET: - Because? - -CYRANO (proudly): - Because. . . -(Changing his tone as the porter goes away): - I have no money!. . . - -LE BRET (with the action of throwing a bag): - How! The bag of crowns?. . . - -CYRANO: - Paternal bounty, in a day, thou'rt sped! - -LE BRET: - How live the next month?. . . - -CYRANO: - I have nothing left. - -LE BRET: - Folly! - -CYRANO: - But what a graceful action! Think! - -THE BUFFET-GIRL (coughing, behind her counter): - Hum! -(Cyrano and Le Bret turn. She comes timidly forward): - Sir, my heart mislikes to know you fast. -(Showing the buffet): - See, all you need. Serve yourself! - -CYRANO (taking off his hat): - Gentle child, - Although my Gascon pride would else forbid - To take the least bestowal from your hands, - My fear of wounding you outweighs that pride, - And bids accept. . . -(He goes to the buffet): - A trifle!. . .These few grapes. -(She offers him the whole bunch. He takes a few): - Nay, but this bunch!. . . -(She tries to give him wine, but he stops her): - A glass of water fair!. . . - And half a macaroon! - -(He gives back the other half.) - -LE BRET: - What foolery! - -THE BUFFET-GIRL: - Take something else! - -CYRANO: - I take your hand to kiss. - -(He kisses her hand as though she were a princess.) - -THE BUFFET-GIRL: - Thank you, kind Sir! -(She courtesies): - Good-night. - -(She goes out.) - - - -Scene 1.V. - -Cyrano, Le Bret. - -CYRANO (to Le Bret): - Now talk--I listen. -(He stands at the buffet, and placing before him first the macaroon): - Dinner!. . . -(then the grapes): - Dessert!. . . -(then the glass of water): - Wine!. . . -(he seats himself): - So! And now to table! - Ah! I was hungry, friend, nay, ravenous! -(eating): - You said--? - -LE BRET: - These fops, would-be belligerent, - Will, if you heed them only, turn your head!. . . - Ask people of good sense if you would know - The effect of your fine insolence-- - -CYRANO (finishing his macaroon): - Enormous! - -LE BRET: - The Cardinal. . . - -CYRANO (radiant): - The Cardinal--was there? - -LE BRET: - Must have thought it. . . - -CYRANO: - Original, i' faith! - -LE BRET: - But. . . - -CYRANO: - He's an author. 'Twill not fail to please him - That I should mar a brother-author's play. - -LE BRET: - You make too many enemies by far! - -CYRANO (eating his grapes): - How many think you I have made to-night? - -LE BRET: - Forty, no less, not counting ladies. - -CYRANO: - Count! - -LE BRET: - Montfleury first, the bourgeois, then De Guiche, - The Viscount, Baro, the Academy. . . - -CYRANO: - Enough! I am o'erjoyed! - -LE BRET: - But these strange ways, - Where will they lead you, at the end? Explain - Your system--come! - -CYRANO: - I in a labyrinth - Was lost--too many different paths to choose; - I took. . . - -LE BRET: - Which? - -CYRANO: - Oh! by far the simplest path. . . - Decided to be admirable in all! - -LE BRET (shrugging his shoulders): - So be it! But the motive of your hate - To Montfleury--come, tell me! - -CYRANO (rising): - This Silenus, - Big-bellied, coarse, still deems himself a peril-- - A danger to the love of lovely ladies, - And, while he sputters out his actor's part, - Makes sheep's eyes at their boxes--goggling frog! - I hate him since the evening he presumed - To raise his eyes to hers. . .Meseemed I saw - A slug crawl slavering o'er a flower's petals! - -LE BRET (stupefied): - How now? What? Can it be. . .? - -CYRANO (laughing bitterly): - That I should love?. . . -(Changing his tone, gravely): - I love. - -LE BRET: - And may I know?. . .You never said. . . - -CYRANO: - Come now, bethink you!. . .The fond hope to be - Beloved, e'en by some poor graceless lady, - Is, by this nose of mine for aye bereft me; - --This lengthy nose which, go where'er I will, - Pokes yet a quarter-mile ahead of me; - But I may love--and who? 'Tis Fate's decree - I love the fairest--how were't otherwise? - -LE BRET: - The fairest?. . . - -CYRANO: - Ay, the fairest of the world, - Most brilliant--most refined--most golden-haired! - -LE BRET: - Who is this lady? - -CYRANO: - She's a danger mortal, - All unsuspicious--full of charms unconscious, - Like a sweet perfumed rose--a snare of nature, - Within whose petals Cupid lurks in ambush! - He who has seen her smile has known perfection, - --Instilling into trifles grace's essence, - Divinity in every careless gesture; - Not Venus' self can mount her conch blown sea-ward, - As she can step into her chaise a porteurs, - Nor Dian fleet across the woods spring-flowered, - Light as my Lady o'er the stones of Paris!. . . - -LE BRET: - Sapristi! all is clear! - -CYRANO: - As spiderwebs! - -LE BRET: - Your cousin, Madeleine Robin? - -CYRANO: - Roxane! - -LE BRET: - Well, but so much the better! Tell her so! - She saw your triumph here this very night! - -CYRANO: - Look well at me--then tell me, with what hope - This vile protuberance can inspire my heart! - I do not lull me with illusions--yet - At times I'm weak: in evening hours dim - I enter some fair pleasance, perfumed sweet; - With my poor ugly devil of a nose - I scent spring's essence--in the silver rays - I see some knight--a lady on his arm, - And think 'To saunter thus 'neath the moonshine, - I were fain to have my lady, too, beside!' - Thought soars to ecstasy. . .O sudden fall! - --The shadow of my profile on the wall! - -LE BRET (tenderly): - My friend!. . . - -CYRANO: - My friend, at times 'tis hard, 'tis bitter, - To feel my loneliness--my own ill-favor. . . - -LE BRET (taking his hand): - You weep? - -CYRANO: - No, never! Think, how vilely suited - Adown this nose a tear its passage tracing! - I never will, while of myself I'm master, - let the divinity of tears--their beauty - Be wedded to such common ugly grossness. - Nothing more solemn than a tear--sublimer; - And I would not by weeping turn to laughter - The grave emotion that a tear engenders! - -LE BRET: - Never be sad! What's love?--a chance of Fortune! - -CYRANO (shaking his head): - Look I a Caesar to woo Cleopatra? - A Tito to aspire to Berenice? - -LE BRET: - Your courage and your wit!--The little maid - Who offered you refreshment even now, - Her eyes did not abhor you--you saw well! - -CYRANO (impressed): - True! - -LE BRET: - Well, how then?. . .I saw Roxane herself - Was death-pale as she watched the duel. - -CYRANO: - Pale? - -LE BRET: - Her heart, her fancy, are already caught! - Put it to th' touch! - -CYRANO: - That she may mock my face? - That is the one thing on this earth I fear! - -THE PORTER (introducing some one to Cyrano): - Sir, some one asks for you. . . - -CYRANO (seeing the duenna): - God! her duenna! - - - -Scene 1.VI. - -Cyrano, Le Bret, the duenna. - -THE DUENNA (with a low bow): - I was bid ask you where a certain lady - Could see her valiant cousin--but in secret. - -CYRANO (overwhelmed): - See me? - -THE DUENNA (courtesying): - Ay, Sir! She has somewhat to tell. - -CYRANO: - Somewhat?. . . - -THE DUENNA (still courtesying): - Ay, private matters! - -CYRANO (staggering): - Ah, my God! - -THE DUENNA: - To-morrow, at the early blush of dawn, - We go to hear mass at St. Roch. - -CYRANO (leaning against Le Bret): - My God! - -THE DUENNA: - After--what place for a few minutes' speech? - -CYRANO (confused): - Where? Ah!. . .but. . .Ah, my God!. . . - -THE DUENNA: - Say! - -CYRANO: - I reflect!. . . - -THE DUENNA: - Where? - -CYRANO: - At--the pastry-house of Ragueneau. - -THE DUENNA: - Where lodges he? - -CYRANO: - The Rue--God!--St. Honore! - -THE DUENNA (going): - Good. Be you there. At seven. - -CYRANO: - Without fail. - -(The duenna goes out.) - - - -Scene 1.VII. - -Cyrano, Le Bret. Then actors, actresses, Cuigy, Brissaille, Lignière, the -porter, the violinists. - -CYRANO (falling into Le Bret's arms): - A rendezvous. . .from her!. . . - -LE BRET: - You're sad no more! - -CYRANO: - Ah! Let the world go burn! She knows I live! - -LE BRET: - Now you'll be calm, I hope? - -CYRANO (beside himself for joy): - Calm? I now calm? - I'll be frenetic, frantic,--raving mad! - Oh, for an army to attack!--a host! - I've ten hearts in my breast; a score of arms; - No dwarfs to cleave in twain!. . . -(Wildly): - No! Giants now! - -(For a few moments the shadows of the actors have been moving on the stage, -whispers are heard--the rehearsal is beginning. The violinists are in their -places.) - -A VOICE FROM THE STAGE: - Hollo there! Silence! We rehearse! - -CYRANO (laughing): - We go! - -(He moves away. By the big door enter Cuigy, Brissaille, and some officers, -holding up Lignière, who is drunk.) - -CUIGY: - Cyrano! - -CYRANO: - Well, what now? - -CUIGY: - A lusty thrush - They're bringing you! - -CYRANO (recognizing him): - Lignière!. . .What has chanced? - -CUIGY: - He seeks you! - -BRISSAILLE: - He dare not go home! - -CYRANO: - Why not? - -LIGNIÈRE (in a husky voice, showing him a crumpled letter): - This letter warns me. . .that a hundred men. . . - Revenge that threatens me. . .that song, you know-- - At the Porte de Nesle. To get to my own house - I must pass there. . .I dare not!. . .Give me leave - To sleep to-night beneath your roof! Allow. . . - -CYRANO: - A hundred men? You'll sleep in your own bed! - -LIGNIÈRE (frightened): - But-- - -CYRANO (in a terrible voice, showing him the lighted lantern held by the -porter, who is listening curiously): - Take the lantern. -(Lignière seizes it): - Let us start! I swear - That I will make your bed to-night myself! -(To the officers): - Follow; some stay behind, as witnesses! - -CUIGY: - A hundred!. . . - -CYRANO: - Less, to-night--would be too few! - -(The actors and actresses, in their costumes, have come down from the stage, -and are listening.) - -LE BRET: - But why embroil yourself? - -CYRANO: - Le Bret who scolds! - -LE BRET: - That worthless drunkard!-- - -CYRANO (slapping Lignière on the shoulder): - Wherefore? For this cause;-- - This wine-barrel, this cask of Burgundy, - Did, on a day, an action full of grace; - As he was leaving church, he saw his love - Take holy water--he, who is affeared - At water's taste, ran quickly to the stoup, - And drank it all, to the last drop!. . . - -AN ACTRESS: - Indeed, that was a graceful thing! - -CYRANO: - Ay, was it not? - -THE ACTRESS (to the others): - But why a hundred men 'gainst one poor rhymer? - -CYRANO: - March! -(To the officers): - Gentlemen, when you shall see me charge, - Bear me no succor, none, whate'er the odds! - -ANOTHER ACTRESS (jumping from the stage): - Oh! I shall come and see! - -CYRANO: - Come, then! - -ANOTHER (jumping down--to an old actor): - And you?. . . - -CYRANO: - Come all--the Doctor, Isabel, Leander, - Come, for you shall add, in a motley swarm, - The farce Italian to this Spanish drama! - -ALL THE WOMEN (dancing for joy): - Bravo!--a mantle, quick!--my hood! - -JODELET: - Come on! - -CYRANO: - Play us a march, gentlemen of the band! -(The violinists join the procession, which is forming. They take the -footlights, and divide them for torches): - Brave officers! next, women in costume, - And, twenty paces on-- -(He takes his place): - I all alone, - Beneath the plume that Glory lends, herself, - To deck my beaver--proud as Scipio!. . . - --You hear me?--I forbid you succor me!-- - One, two three! Porter, open wide the doors! -(The porter opens the doors; a view of old Paris in the moonlight is seen): - Ah!. . .Paris wrapped in night! half nebulous: - The moonlight streams o'er the blue-shadowed roofs; - A lovely frame for this wild battle-scene; - Beneath the vapor's floating scarves, the Seine - Trembles, mysterious, like a magic mirror, - And, shortly, you shall see what you shall see! - -ALL: - To the Porte de Nesle! - -CYRANO (standing on the threshold): - Ay, to the Porte de Nesle! -(Turning to the actress): - Did you not ask, young lady, for what cause - Against this rhymer fivescore men were sent? -(He draws his sword; then, calmly): - 'Twas that they knew him for a friend of mine! - -(He goes out. Lignière staggers first after him, then the actresses on the -officers' arms--the actors. The procession starts to the sound of the violins -and in the faint light of the candles.) - -Curtain. - - - -Act II. - -The Poet's Eating-House. - -Ragueneau's cook and pastry-shop. A large kitchen at the corner of the Rue -St. Honore and the Rue de l'Arbre Sec, which are seen in the background -through the glass door, in the gray dawn. - -On the left, in the foreground, a counter, surmounted by a stand in forged -iron, on which are hung geese, ducks, and water peacocks. In great china -vases are tall bouquets of simple flowers, principally yellow sunflowers. - -On the same side, farther back, an immense open fireplace, in front of which, -between monster firedogs, on each of which hangs a little saucepan; the roasts -are dripping into the pans. - -On the right, foreground with door. - -Farther back, staircase leading to a little room under the roof, the entrance -of which is visible through the open shutter. In this room a table is laid. -A small Flemish luster is alight. It is a place for eating and drinking. A -wooden gallery, continuing the staircase, apparently leads to other similar -little rooms. - -In the middle of the shop an iron hoop is suspended from the ceiling by a -string with which it can be drawn up and down, and big game is hung around it. - -The ovens in the darkness under the stairs give forth a red glow. The copper -pans shine. The spits are turning. Heaps of food formed into pyramids. Hams -suspended. It is the busy hour of the morning. Bustle and hurry of -scullions, fat cooks, and diminutive apprentices, their caps profusely -decorated with cock's feathers and wings of guinea-fowl. - -On metal and wicker plates they are bringing in piles of cakes and tarts. - -Tables laden with rolls and dishes of food. Other tables surrounded with -chairs are ready for the consumers. - -A small table in a corner covered with papers, at which Ragueneau is seated -writing on the rising of the curtain. - - - -Scene 2.I. - -Ragueneau, pastry-cooks, then Lise. Ragueneau is writing, with an inspired -air, at a small table, and counting on his fingers. - -FIRST PASTRY-COOK (bringing in an elaborate fancy dish): - Fruits in nougat! - -SECOND PASTRY-COOK (bringing another dish): - Custard! - -THIRD PASTRY-COOK (bringing a roast, decorated with feathers): - Peacock! - -FOURTH PASTRY-COOK (bringing a batch of cakes on a slab): - Rissoles! - -FIFTH PASTRY-COOK (bringing a sort of pie-dish): - Beef jelly! - -RAGUENEAU (ceasing to write, and raising his head): - Aurora's silver rays begin to glint e'en now on the copper pans, and thou, O -Ragueneau! must perforce stifle in thy breast the God of Song! Anon shall -come the hour of the lute!--now 'tis the hour of the oven! -(He rises. To a cook): - You, make that sauce longer, 'tis too short! - -THE COOK: - How much too short? - -RAGUENEAU: - Three feet. - -(He passes on farther.) - -THE COOK: - What means he? - -FIRST PASTRY-COOK (showing a dish to Ragueneau): - The tart! - -SECOND PASTRY-COOK: - The pie! - -RAGUENEAU (before the fire): - My muse, retire, lest thy bright eyes be reddened by the fagot's blaze! -(To a cook, showing him some loaves): - You have put the cleft o' th' loaves in the wrong place; know you not that -the coesura should be between the hemistiches? -(To another, showing him an unfinished pasty): - To this palace of paste you must add the roof. . . -(To a young apprentice, who, seated on the ground, is spitting the fowls): - And you, as you put on your lengthy spit the modest fowl and the superb -turkey, my son, alternate them, as the old Malherbe loved well to alternate -his long lines of verse with the short ones; thus shall your roasts, in -strophes, turn before the flame! - -ANOTHER APPRENTICE (also coming up with a tray covered by a napkin): - Master, I bethought me erewhile of your tastes, and made this, which will -please you, I hope. - -(He uncovers the tray, and shows a large lyre made of pastry.) - -RAGUENEAU (enchanted): - A lyre! - -THE APPRENTICE: - 'Tis of brioche pastry. - -RAGUENEAU (touched): - With conserved fruits. - -THE APPRENTICE: - The strings, see, are of sugar. - -RAGUENEAU (giving him a coin): - Go, drink my health! -(Seeing Lise enter): - Hush! My wife. Bustle, pass on, and hide that money! -(To Lise, showing her the lyre, with a conscious look): - Is it not beautiful? - -LISE: - 'Tis passing silly! - -(She puts a pile of papers on the counter.) - -RAGUENEAU: - Bags? Good. I thank you. -(He looks at them): - Heavens! my cherished leaves! The poems of my friends! Torn, dismembered, -to make bags for holding biscuits and cakes!. . .Ah, 'tis the old tale again. -. .Orpheus and the Bacchantes! - -LISE (dryly): - And am I not free to turn at last to some use the sole thing that your -wretched scribblers of halting lines leave behind them by way of payment? - -RAGUENEAU: - Groveling ant!. . .Insult not the divine grasshoppers, the sweet singers! - -LISE: - Before you were the sworn comrade of all that crew, my friend, you did not -call your wife ant and Bacchante! - -RAGUENEAU: - To turn fair verse to such a use! - -LISE: - 'Faith, 'tis all it's good for. - -RAGUENEAU: - Pray then, madam, to what use would you degrade prose? - - - -Scene 2.II. - -The same. Two children, who have just trotted into the shop. - -RAGUENEAU: - What would you, little ones? - -FIRST CHILD: - Three pies. - -RAGUENEAU (serving them): - See, hot and well browned. - -SECOND CHILD: - If it please you, Sir, will you wrap them up for us? - -RAGUENEAU (aside, distressed): - Alas! one of my bags! -(To the children): - What? Must I wrap them up? -(He takes a bag, and just as he is about to put in the pies, he reads): - 'Ulysses thus, on leaving fair Penelope. . .' - Not that one! -(He puts it aside, and takes another, and as he is about to put in the pies, -he reads): - 'The gold-locked Phoebus. . .' - Nay, nor that one!. . . - -(Same play.) - -LISE (impatiently): - What are you dallying for? - -RAGUENEAU: - Here! here! here -(He chooses a third, resignedly): - The sonnet to Phillis!. . .but 'tis hard to part with it! - -LISE: - By good luck he has made up his mind at last! -(Shrugging her shoulders): - Nicodemus! - -(She mounts on a chair, and begins to range plates on a dresser.) - -RAGUENEAU (taking advantage of the moment she turns her back, calls back the -children, who are already at the door): - Hist! children!. . .render me back the sonnet to Phillis, and you shall have -six pies instead of three. - -(The children give him back the bag, seize the cakes quickly, and go out.) - -RAGUENEAU (smoothing out the paper, begins to declaim): - 'Phillis!. . .' On that sweet name a smear of butter! 'Phillis!. . .' - -(Cyrano enters hurriedly.) - - - -Scene 2.III. - -Ragueneau, Lise, Cyrano, then the musketeer. - -CYRANO: - What's o'clock? - -RAGUENEAU (bowing low): - Six o'clock. - -CYRANO (with emotion): - In one hour's time! - -(He paces up and down the shop.) - -RAGUENEAU (following him): - Bravo! I saw. . . - -CYRANO: - Well, what saw you, then? - -RAGUENEAU: - Your combat!. . . - -CYRANO: - Which? - -RAGUENEAU: - That in the Burgundy Hotel, 'faith! - -CYRANO (contemptuously): - Ah!. . .the duel! - -RAGUENEAU (admiringly): - Ay! the duel in verse!. . . - -LISE: - He can talk of naught else! - -CYRANO: - Well! Good! let be! - -RAGUENEAU (making passes with a spit that he catches up): - 'At the envoi's end, I touch!. . .At the envoi's end, I touch!'. . .'Tis -fine, fine! -(With increasing enthusiasm): - 'At the envoi's end--' - -CYRANO: - What hour is it now, Ragueneau? - -RAGUENEAU (stopping short in the act of thrusting to look at the clock): - Five minutes after six!. . .'I touch!' -(He straightens himself): - . . .Oh! to write a ballade! - -LISE (to Cyrano, who, as he passes by the counter, has absently shaken hands -with her): - What's wrong with your hand? - -CYRANO: - Naught; a slight cut. - -RAGUENEAU: - Have you been in some danger? - -CYRANO: - None in the world. - -LISE (shaking her finger at him): - Methinks you speak not the truth in saying that! - -CYRANO: - Did you see my nose quiver when I spoke? 'Faith, it must have been a -monstrous lie that should move it! -(Changing his tone): - I wait some one here. Leave us alone, and disturb us for naught an it were -not for crack of doom! - -RAGUENEAU: - But 'tis impossible; my poets are coming. . . - -LISE (ironically): - Oh, ay, for their first meal o' the day! - -CYRANO: - Prythee, take them aside when I shall make you sign to do so. . .What's -o'clock? - -RAGUENEAU: - Ten minutes after six. - -CYRANO (nervously seating himself at Ragueneau's table, and drawing some paper -toward him): - A pen!. . . - -RAGUENEAU (giving him the one from behind his ear): - Here--a swan's quill. - -A MUSKETEER (with fierce mustache, enters, and in a stentorian voice): - Good-day! - -(Lise goes up to him quickly.) - -CYRANO (turning round): - Who's that? - -RAGUENEAU: - 'Tis a friend of my wife--a terrible warrior--at least so says he himself. - -CYRANO (taking up the pen, and motioning Ragueneau away): - Hush! -(To himself): - I will write, fold it, give it her, and fly! -(Throws down the pen): - Coward!. . .But strike me dead if I dare to speak to her,. . .ay, even one -single word! -(To Ragueneau): - What time is it? - -RAGUENEAU: - A quarter after six!. . . - -CYRANO (striking his breast): - Ay--a single word of all those here! here! But writing, 'tis easier done. . -. -(He takes up the pen): - Go to, I will write it, that love-letter! Oh! I have writ it and rewrit it -in my own mind so oft that it lies there ready for pen and ink; and if I lay -but my soul by my letter-sheet, 'tis naught to do but to copy from it. - -(He writes. Through the glass of the door the silhouettes of their figures -move uncertainly and hesitatingly.) - - - -Scene 2.IV. - -Ragueneau, Lise, the musketeer. Cyrano at the little table writing. The -poets, dressed in black, their stockings ungartered, and covered with mud. - -LISE (entering, to Ragueneau): - Here they come, your mud-bespattered friends! - -FIRST POET (entering, to Ragueneau): - Brother in art!. . . - -SECOND POET (to Ragueneau, shaking his hands): - Dear brother! - -THIRD POET: - High soaring eagle among pastry-cooks! -(He sniffs): - Marry! it smells good here in your eyrie! - -FOURTH POET: - 'Tis at Phoebus' own rays that thy roasts turn! - -FIFTH POET: - Apollo among master-cooks-- - -RAGUENEAU (whom they surround and embrace): - Ah! how quick a man feels at his ease with them!. . . - -FIRST POET: - We were stayed by the mob; they are crowded all round the Porte de Nesle!. . -. - -SECOND POET: - Eight bleeding brigand carcasses strew the pavements there--all slit open -with sword-gashes! - -CYRANO (raising his head a minute): - Eight?. . .hold, methought seven. - -(He goes on writing.) - -RAGUENEAU (to Cyrano): - Know you who might be the hero of the fray? - -CYRANO (carelessly): - Not I. - -LISE (to the musketeer): - And you? Know you? - -THE MUSKETEER (twirling his mustache): - Maybe! - -CYRANO (writing a little way off:--he is heard murmuring a word from time to -time): - 'I love thee!' - -FIRST POET: - 'Twas one man, say they all, ay, swear to it, one man who, single-handed, -put the whole band to the rout! - -SECOND POET: - 'Twas a strange sight!--pikes and cudgels strewed thick upon the ground. - -CYRANO (writing): - . . .'Thine eyes'. . . - -THIRD POET: - And they were picking up hats all the way to the Quai d'Orfevres! - -FIRST POET: - Sapristi! but he must have been a ferocious. . . - -CYRANO (same play): - . . .'Thy lips'. . . - -FIRST POET: - 'Twas a parlous fearsome giant that was the author of such exploits! - -CYRANO (same play): - . . .'And when I see thee come, I faint for fear.' - -SECOND POET (filching a cake): - What hast rhymed of late, Ragueneau? - -CYRANO (same play): - . . .'Who worships thee'. . . -(He stops, just as he is about to sign, and gets up, slipping the letter into -his doublet): - No need I sign, since I give it her myself. - -RAGUENEAU (to second poet): - I have put a recipe into verse. - -THIRD POET (seating himself by a plate of cream-puffs): - Go to! Let us hear these verses! - -FOURTH POET (looking at a cake which he has taken): - Its cap is all a' one side! - -(He makes one bite of the top.) - -FIRST POET: - See how this gingerbread woos the famished rhymer with its almond eyes, and -its eyebrows of angelica! - -(He takes it.) - -SECOND POET: - We listen. - -THIRD POET (squeezing a cream-puff gently): - How it laughs! Till its very cream runs over! - -SECOND POET (biting a bit off the great lyre of pastry): - This is the first time in my life that ever I drew any means of nourishing -me from the lyre! - -RAGUENEAU (who has put himself ready for reciting, cleared his throat, settled -his cap, struck an attitude): - A recipe in verse!. . . - -SECOND POET (to first, nudging him): - You are breakfasting? - -FIRST POET (to second): - And you dining, methinks. - -RAGUENEAU: - How almond tartlets are made. - - Beat your eggs up, light and quick; - Froth them thick; - Mingle with them while you beat - Juice of lemon, essence fine; - Then combine - The burst milk of almonds sweet. - - Circle with a custard paste - The slim waist - Of your tartlet-molds; the top - With a skillful finger print, - Nick and dint, - Round their edge, then, drop by drop, - In its little dainty bed - Your cream shed: - In the oven place each mold: - Reappearing, softly browned, - The renowned - Almond tartlets you behold! - -THE POETS (with mouths crammed full): - Exquisite! Delicious! - -A POET (choking): - Homph! - -(They go up, eating.) - -CYRANO (who has been watching, goes toward Ragueneau): - Lulled by your voice, did you see how they were stuffing themselves? - -RAGUENEAU (in a low voice, smiling): - Oh, ay! I see well enough, but I never will seem to look, fearing to -distress them; thus I gain a double pleasure when I recite to them my poems; -for I leave those poor fellows who have not breakfasted free to eat, even -while I gratify my own dearest foible, see you? - -CYRANO (clapping him on the shoulder): - Friend, I like you right well!. . . -(Ragueneau goes after his friends. Cyrano follows him with his eyes, then, -rather sharply): - Ho there! Lise! -(Lise, who is talking tenderly to the musketeer, starts, and comes down toward -Cyrano): - So this fine captain is laying siege to you? - -LISE (offended): - One haughty glance of my eye can conquer any man that should dare venture -aught 'gainst my virtue. - -CYRANO: - Pooh! Conquering eyes, methinks, are oft conquered eyes. - -LISE (choking with anger): - But-- - -CYRANO (incisively): - I like Ragueneau well, and so--mark me, Dame Lise--I permit not that he be -rendered a laughing-stock by any. . . - -LISE: - But. . . - -CYRANO (who has raised his voice so as to be heard by the gallant): - A word to the wise. . . - -(He bows to the musketeer, and goes to the doorway to watch, after looking at -the clock.) - -LISE (to the musketeer, who has merely bowed in answer to Cyrano's bow): - How now? Is this your courage?. . .Why turn you not a jest on his nose? - -THE MUSKETEER: - On his nose?. . .ay, ay. . .his nose. - -(He goes quickly farther away; Lise follows him.) - -CYRANO (from the doorway, signing to Ragueneau to draw the poets away): - Hist!. . . - -RAGUENEAU (showing them the door on the right): - We shall be more private there. . . - -CYRANO (impatiently): - Hist! Hist!. . . - -RAGUENEAU (drawing them farther): - To read poetry, 'tis better here. . . - -FIRST POET (despairingly, with his mouth full): - What! leave the cakes?. . . - -SECOND POET: - Never! Let's take them with us! - -(They all follow Ragueneau in procession, after sweeping all the cakes off the -trays.) - - - -Scene 2.V. - -Cyrano, Roxane, the duenna. - -CYRANO: - Ah! if I see but the faint glimmer of hope, then I draw out my letter! -(Roxane, masked, followed by the duenna, appears at the glass pane of the -door. He opens quickly): - Enter!. . . -(Walking up to the duenna): - Two words with you, Duenna. - -THE DUENNA: - Four, Sir, an it like you. - -CYRANO: - Are you fond of sweet things? - -THE DUENNA: - Ay, I could eat myself sick on them! - -CYRANO (catching up some of the paper bags from the counter): - Good. See you these two sonnets of Monsieur Beuserade. . . - -THE DUENNA: - Hey? - -CYRANO: - . . .Which I fill for you with cream cakes! - -THE DUENNA (changing her expression): - Ha. - -CYRANO: - What say you to the cake they call a little puff? - -THE DUENNA: - If made with cream, Sir, I love them passing well. - -CYRANO: - Here I plunge six for your eating into the bosom of a poem by Saint Amant! -And in these verses of Chapelain I glide a lighter morsel. Stay, love you hot -cakes? - -THE DUENNA: - Ay, to the core of my heart! - -CYRANO (filling her arms with the bags): - Pleasure me then; go eat them all in the street. - -THE DUENNA: - But. . . - -CYRANO (pushing her out): - And come not back till the very last crumb be eaten! - -(He shuts the door, comes down toward Roxane, and, uncovering, stands at a -respectful distance from her.) - - - -Scene 2.VI. - -Cyrano, Roxane. - -CYRANO: - Blessed be the moment when you condescend-- - Remembering that humbly I exist-- - To come to meet me, and to say. . .to tell?. . . - -ROXANE (who has unmasked): - To thank you first of all. That dandy count, - Whom you checkmated in brave sword-play - Last night,. . .he is the man whom a great lord, - Desirous of my favor. . . - -CYRANO: - Ha, De Guiche? - -ROXANE (casting down her eyes): - Sought to impose on me. . .for husband. . . - -CYRANO: - Ay! Husband!--dupe-husband!. . .Husband a la mode! -(Bowing): - Then I fought, happy chance! sweet lady, not - For my ill favor--but your favors fair! - -ROXANE: - Confession next!. . .But, ere I make my shrift, - You must be once again that brother-friend - With whom I used to play by the lake-side!. . . - -CYRANO: - Ay, you would come each spring to Bergerac! - -ROXANE: - Mind you the reeds you cut to make your swords?. . . - -CYRANO: - While you wove corn-straw plaits for your dolls' hair! - -ROXANE: - Those were the days of games!. . . - -CYRANO: - And blackberries!. . . - -ROXANE: - In those days you did everything I bid!. . . - -CYRANO: - Roxane, in her short frock, was Madeleine. . . - -ROXANE: - Was I fair then? - -CYRANO: - You were not ill to see! - -ROXANE: - Ofttimes, with hands all bloody from a fall, - You'd run to me! Then--aping mother-ways-- - I, in a voice would-be severe, would chide,-- -(She takes his hand): - 'What is this scratch, again, that I see here?' -(She starts, surprised): - Oh! 'Tis too much! What's this? -(Cyrano tries to draw away his hand): - No, let me see! - At your age, fie! Where did you get that scratch? - -CYRANO: - I got it--playing at the Porte de Nesle. - -ROXANE (seating herself by the table, and dipping her handkerchief in a glass -of water): - Give here! - -CYRANO (sitting by her): - So soft! so gay maternal-sweet! - -ROXANE: - And tell me, while I wipe away the blood, - How many 'gainst you? - -CYRANO: - Oh! A hundred--near. - -ROXANE: - Come, tell me! - -CYRANO: - No, let be. But you, come tell - The thing, just now, you dared not. . . - -ROXANE (keeping his hand): - Now, I dare! - The scent of those old days emboldens me! - Yes, now I dare. Listen. I am in love. - -CYRANO: - Ah!. . . - -ROXANE: - But with one who knows not. - -CYRANO: - Ah!. . . - -ROXANE: - Not yet. - -CYRANO: - Ah!. . . - -ROXANE: - But who, if he knows not, soon shall learn. - -CYRANO: - Ah!. . . - -ROXANE: - A poor youth who all this time has loved - Timidly, from afar, and dares not speak. . . - -CYRANO: - Ah!. . . - -ROXANE: - Leave your hand; why, it is fever-hot!-- - But I have seen love trembling on his lips. - -CYRANO: - Ah!. . . - -ROXANE (bandaging his hand with her handkerchief): - And to think of it! that he by chance-- - Yes, cousin, he is of your regiment! - -CYRANO: - Ah!. . . - -ROXANE (laughing): - --Is cadet in your own company! - -CYRANO: - Ah!. . . - -ROXANE: - On his brow he bears the genius-stamp; - He is proud, noble, young, intrepid, fair. . . - -CYRANO (rising suddenly, very pale): - Fair! - -ROXANE: - Why, what ails you? - -CYRANO: - Nothing; 'tis. . . -(He shows his hand, smiling): - This scratch! - -ROXANE: - I love him; all is said. But you must know - I have only seen him at the Comedy. . . - -CYRANO: - How? You have never spoken? - -ROXANE: - Eyes can speak. - -CYRANO: - How know you then that he. . .? - -ROXANE: - Oh! people talk - 'Neath the limes in the Place Royale. . . - Gossip's chat - Has let me know. . . - -CYRANO: - He is cadet? - -ROXANE: - In the Guards. - -CYRANO: - His name? - -ROXANE: - Baron Christian de Neuvillette. - -CYRANO: - How now?. . .He is not of the Guards! - -ROXANE: - To-day - He is not join your ranks, under Captain - Carbon de Castel-Jaloux. - -CYRANO: - Ah, how quick, - How quick the heart has flown!. . .But, my poor child. . . - -THE DUENNA (opening the door): - The cakes are eaten, Monsieur Bergerac! - -CYRANO: - Then read the verses printed on the bags! -(She goes out): - . . .My poor child, you who love but flowing words, - Bright wit,--what if he be a lout unskilled? - -ROXANE: - No, his bright locks, like D'Urfe's heroes. . . - -CYRANO: - Ah! - A well-curled pate, and witless tongue, perchance! - -ROXANE: - Ah no! I guess--I feel--his words are fair! - -CYRANO: - All words are fair that lurk 'neath fair mustache! - --Suppose he were a fool!. . . - -ROXANE (stamping her foot): - Then bury me! - -CYRANO (after a pause): - Was it to tell me this you brought me here? - I fail to see what use this serves, Madame. - -ROXANE: - Nay, but I felt a terror, here, in the heart, - On learning yesterday you were Gascons - All of your company. . . - -CYRANO: - And we provoke - All beardless sprigs that favor dares admit - 'Midst us pure Gascons--(pure! Heaven save the mark! - They told you that as well? - -ROXANE: - Ah! Think how I - Trembled for him! - -CYRANO (between his teeth): - Not causelessly! - -ROXANE: - But when - Last night I saw you,--brave, invincible,-- - Punish that dandy, fearless hold your own - Against those brutes, I thought--I thought, if he - Whom all fear, all--if he would only. . . - -CYRANO: - Good. - I will befriend your little Baron. - -ROXANE: - Ah! - You'll promise me you will do this for me? - I've always held you as a tender friend. - -CYRANO: - Ay, ay. - -ROXANE: - Then you will be his friend? - -CYRANO: - I swear! - -ROXANE: - And he shall fight no duels, promise! - -CYRANO: - None. - -ROXANE: - You are kind, cousin! Now I must be gone. -(She puts on her mask and veil quickly; then, absently): - You have not told me of your last night's fray. - Ah, but it must have been a hero-fight!. . . - --Bid him to write. -(She sends him a kiss with her fingers): - How good you are! - -CYRANO: - Ay! Ay! - -ROXANE: - A hundred men against you? Now, farewell.-- - We are great friends? - -CYRANO: - Ay, ay! - -ROXANE: - Oh, bid him write! - You'll tell me all one day--A hundred men!-- - Ah, brave!. . .How brave! - -CYRANO (bowing to her): - I have fought better since. - -(She goes out. Cyrano stands motionless, with eyes on the ground. A silence. -The door (right) opens. Ragueneau looks in.) - - - -Scene 2.VII. - -Cyrano, Ragueneau, poets, Carbon de Castel-Jaloux, the cadets, a crowd, then -De Guiche. - -RAGUENEAU: - Can we come in? - -CYRANO (without stirring): - Yes. . . - -(Ragueneau signs to his friends, and they come in. At the same time, by door -at back, enters Carbon de Castel-Jaloux, in Captain's uniform. He makes -gestures of surprise on seeing Cyrano.) - -CARBON: - Here he is! - -CYRANO (raising his head): - Captain!. . . - -CARBON (delightedly): - Our hero! We heard all! Thirty or more - Of my cadets are there!. . . - -CYRANO (shrinking back): - But. . . - -CARBON (trying to draw him away): - Come with me! - They will not rest until they see you! - -CYRANO: - No! - -CARBON: - They're drinking opposite, at The Bear's Head. - -CYRANO: - I. . . - -CARBON (going to the door and calling across the street in a voice of -thunder): - He won't come! The hero's in the sulks! - -A VOICE (outside): - Ah! Sandious! - -(Tumult outside. Noise of boots and swords is heard approaching.) - -CARBON (rubbing his hands): - They are running 'cross the street! - -CADETS (entering): - Mille dious! Capdedious! Pocapdedious! - -RAGUENEAU (drawing back startled): - Gentlemen, are you all from Gascony? - -THE CADETS: - All! - -A CADET (to Cyrano): - Bravo! - -CYRANO: - Baron! - -ANOTHER (shaking his hands): - Vivat! - -CYRANO: - Baron! - -THIRD CADET: - Come! - I must embrace you! - -CYRANO: - Baron! - -SEVERAL GASCONS: - We'll embrace - Him, all in turn! - -CYRANO (not knowing whom to reply to): - Baron!. . .Baron!. . .I beg. . . - -RAGUENEAU: - Are you all Barons, Sirs? - -THE CADETS: - Ay, every one! - -RAGUENEAU: - Is it true?. . . - -FIRST CADET: - Ay--why, you could build a tower - With nothing but our coronets, my friend! - -LE BRET (entering, and running up to Cyrano): - They're looking for you! Here's a crazy mob - Led by the men who followed you last night. . . - -CYRANO (alarmed): - What! Have you told them where to find me? - -LE BRET (rubbing his hands): - Yes! - -A BURGHER (entering, followed by a group of men): - Sir, all the Marais is a-coming here! - -(Outside the street has filled with people. Chaises a porteurs and carriages -have drawn up.) - -LE BRET (in a low voice, smiling, to Cyrano): - And Roxane? - -CYRANO (quickly): - Hush! - -THE CROWD (calling outside): - Cyrano!. . . - -(A crowd rush into the shop, pushing one another. Acclamations.) - -RAGUENEAU (standing on a table): - Lo! my shop - Invaded! They break all! Magnificent! - -PEOPLE (crowding round Cyrano): - My friend!. . .my friend. . . - -Cyrano: - Meseems that yesterday - I had not all these friends! - -LE BRET (delighted): - Success! - -A YOUNG MARQUIS (hurrying up with his hands held out): - My friend, - Didst thou but know. . . - -CYRANO: - Thou!. . .Marry!. . .thou!. . .Pray when - Did we herd swine together, you and I! - -ANOTHER: - I would present you, Sir, to some fair dames - Who in my carriage yonder. . . - -CYRANO (coldly): - Ah! and who - Will first present you, Sir, to me? - -LE BRET (astonished): - What's wrong? - -CYRANO: - Hush! - -A MAN OF LETTERS (with writing-board): - A few details?. . . - -CYRANO: - No. - -LE BRET (nudging his elbow): - 'Tis Theophrast, - Renaudet,. . .of the 'Court Gazette'! - -CYRANO: - Who cares? - -LE BRET: - This paper--but it is of great importance!. . . - They say it will be an immense success! - -A POET (advancing): - Sir. . . - -CYRANO: - What, another! - -THE POET: - . . .Pray permit I make - A pentacrostic on your name. . . - -SOME ONE (also advancing): - Pray, Sir. . . - -CYRANO: - Enough! Enough! - -(A movement in the crowd. De Guiche appears, escorted by officers. Cuigy, -Brissaille, the officers who went with Cyrano the night before. Cuigy comes -rapidly up to Cyrano.) - -CUIGY (to Cyrano): - Here is Monsieur de Guiche? -(A murmur--every one makes way): - He comes from the Marshal of Gassion! - -DE GUICHE (bowing to Cyrano): - . . .Who would express his admiration, Sir, - For your new exploit noised so loud abroad. - -THE CROWD: - Bravo! - -CYRANO (bowing): - The Marshal is a judge of valor. - -DE GUICHE: - He could not have believed the thing, unless - These gentlemen had sworn they witnessed it. - -CUIGY: - With our own eyes! - -LE BRET (aside to Cyrano, who has an absent air): - But. . .you. . . - -CYRANO: - Hush! - -LE BRET: - But. . .You suffer? - -CYRANO (starting): - Before this rabble?--I?. . . -(He draws himself up, twirls his mustache, and throws back his shoulders): - Wait!. . .You shall see! - -DE GUICHE (to whom Cuigy has spoken in a low voice): - In feats of arms, already your career - Abounded.--You serve with those crazy pates - Of Gascons? - -CYRANO: - Ay, with the Cadets. - -A CADET (in a terrible voice): - With us! - -DE GUICHE (looking at the cadets, ranged behind Cyrano): - Ah!. . .All these gentlemen of haughty mien, - Are they the famous?. . . - -CARBON: - Cyrano! - -CYRANO: - Ay, Captain! - -CARBON: - Since all my company's assembled here, - Pray favor me,--present them to my lord! - -CYRANO (making two steps toward De Guiche): - My Lord de Guiche, permit that I present-- -(pointing to the cadets): - The bold Cadets of Gascony, - Of Carbon of Castel-Jaloux! - Brawling and swaggering boastfully, - The bold Cadets of Gascony! - Spouting of Armory, Heraldry, - Their veins a-brimming with blood so blue, - The bold Cadets of Gascony, - Of Carbon of Castel-Jaloux: - - Eagle-eye, and spindle-shanks, - Fierce mustache, and wolfish tooth! - Slash-the-rabble and scatter-their-ranks; - Eagle-eye and spindle-shanks, - With a flaming feather that gayly pranks, - Hiding the holes in their hats, forsooth! - Eagle-eye and spindle-shanks, - Fierce mustache, and wolfish tooth! - - 'Pink-your-Doublet' and 'Slit-your-Trunk' - Are their gentlest sobriquets; - With Fame and Glory their soul is drunk! - 'Pink-your-Doublet' and 'Slit-your-Trunk,' - In brawl and skirmish they show their spunk, - Give rendezvous in broil and fray; - 'Pink-your-Doublet' and 'Slit-your-Trunk' - Are their gentlest sobriquets! - - What, ho! Cadets of Gascony! - All jealous lovers are sport for you! - O Woman! dear divinity! - What, ho! Cadets of Gascony! - Whom scowling husbands quake to see. - Blow, 'taratara,' and cry 'Cuckoo.' - What, ho! Cadets of Gascony! - Husbands and lovers are game for you! - -DE GUICHE (seated with haughty carelessness in an armchair brought quickly by -Ragueneau): - A poet! 'Tis the fashion of the hour! - --Will you be mine? - -CYRANO: - No, Sir,--no man's! - -DE GUICHE: - Last night - Your fancy pleased my uncle Richelieu. - I'll gladly say a word to him for you. - -LE BRET (overjoyed): - Great Heavens! - -DE GUICHE: - I imagine you have rhymed - Five acts, or so? - -LE BRET (in Cyrano's ear): - Your play!--your 'Agrippine!' - You'll see it staged at last! - -DE GUICHE: - Take them to him. - -CYRANO (beginning to be tempted and attracted): - In sooth,--I would. . . - -DE GUICHE: - He is a critic skilled: - He may correct a line or two, at most. - -CYRANO (whose face stiffens at once): - Impossible! My blood congeals to think - That other hand should change a comma's dot. - -DE GUICHE: - But when a verse approves itself to him - He pays it dear, good friend. - -CYRANO: - He pays less dear - Than I myself; when a verse pleases me - I pay myself, and sing it to myself! - -DE GUICHE: - You are proud. - -CYRANO: - Really? You have noticed that? - -A CADET (entering, with a string of old battered plumed beaver hats, full of -holes, slung on his sword): - See, Cyrano,--this morning, on the quay - What strange bright-feathered game we caught! - The hats - O' the fugitives. . . - -CARBON: - 'Spolia opima!' - -ALL (laughing): - Ah! ah! ah! - -CUIGY: - He who laid that ambush, 'faith! - Must curse and swear! - -BRISSAILLE: - Who was it? - -DE GUICHE: - I myself. -(The laughter stops): - I charged them--work too dirty for my sword, - To punish and chastise a rhymster sot. - -(Constrained silence.) - -The CADET (in a low voice, to Cyrano, showing him the beavers): - What do with them? They're full of grease!--a stew? - -CYRANO (taking the sword and, with a salute, dropping the hats at De Guiche's -feet): - Sir, pray be good enough to render them - Back to your friends. - -DE GUICHE (rising, sharply): - My chair there--quick!--I go! -(To Cyrano passionately): - As to you, sirrah!. . . - -VOICE (in the street): - Porters for my lord De Guiche! - -DE GUICHE (who has controlled himself--smiling): - Have you read 'Don Quixote'? - -CYRANO: - I have! - And doff my hat at th' mad knight-errant's name. - -DE GUICHE: - I counsel you to study. . . - -A PORTER (appearing at back): - My lord's chair! - -DE GUICHE: - . . .The windmill chapter! - -CYRANO (bowing): - Chapter the Thirteenth. - -DE GUICHE: - For when one tilts 'gainst windmills--it may chance. . . - -CYRANO: - Tilt I 'gainst those who change with every breeze? - -DE GUICHE: - . . .That windmill sails may sweep you with their arm - Down--in the mire!. . . - -CYRANO: - Or upward--to the stars! - -(De Guiche goes out, and mounts into his chair. The other lords go away -whispering together. Le Bret goes to the door with them. The crowd -disperses.) - - - -Scene 2.VIII. - -Cyrano, Le Bret, the cadets, who are eating and drinking at the tables right -and left. - -CYRANO (bowing mockingly to those who go out without daring to salute him): - Gentlemen. . .Gentlemen. . . - -LE BRET (coming back, despairingly): - Here's a fine coil! - -CYRANO: - Oh! scold away! - -LE BRET: - At least, you will agree - That to annihilate each chance of Fate - Exaggerates. . . - -CYRANO: - Yes!--I exaggerate! - -LE BRET (triumphantly): - Ah! - -CYRANO: - But for principle--example too,-- - I think 'tis well thus to exaggerate. - -LE BRET: - Oh! lay aside that pride of musketeer, - Fortune and glory wait you!. . . - -CYRANO: - Ay, and then?. . . - Seek a protector, choose a patron out, - And like the crawling ivy round a tree - That licks the bark to gain the trunk's support, - Climb high by creeping ruse instead of force? - No, grammercy! What! I, like all the rest - Dedicate verse to bankers?--play buffoon - In cringing hope to see, at last, a smile - Not disapproving, on a patron's lips? - Grammercy, no! What! learn to swallow toads? - --With frame aweary climbing stairs?--a skin - Grown grimed and horny,--here, about the knees? - And, acrobat-like, teach my back to bend?-- - No, grammercy! Or,--double-faced and sly-- - Run with the hare, while hunting with the hounds; - And, oily-tongued, to win the oil of praise, - Flatter the great man to his very nose? - No, grammercy! Steal soft from lap to lap, - --A little great man in a circle small, - Or navigate, with madrigals for sails, - Blown gently windward by old ladies' sighs? - No, grammercy! Bribe kindly editors - To spread abroad my verses? Grammercy! - Or try to be elected as the pope - Of tavern-councils held by imbeciles? - No, grammercy! Toil to gain reputation - By one small sonnet, 'stead of making many? - No, grammercy! Or flatter sorry bunglers? - Be terrorized by every prating paper? - Say ceaselessly, 'Oh, had I but the chance - Of a fair notice in the "Mercury"!' - Grammercy, no! Grow pale, fear, calculate? - Prefer to make a visit to a rhyme? - Seek introductions, draw petitions up? - No, grammercy! and no! and no again! But--sing? - Dream, laugh, go lightly, solitary, free, - With eyes that look straight forward--fearless voice! - To cock your beaver just the way you choose,-- - For 'yes' or 'no' show fight, or turn a rhyme! - --To work without one thought of gain or fame, - To realize that journey to the moon! - Never to pen a line that has not sprung - Straight from the heart within. Embracing then - Modesty, say to oneself, 'Good my friend, - Be thou content with flowers,--fruit,--nay, leaves, - But pluck them from no garden but thine own!' - And then, if glory come by chance your way, - To pay no tribute unto Caesar, none, - But keep the merit all your own! In short, - Disdaining tendrils of the parasite, - To be content, if neither oak nor elm-- - Not to mount high, perchance, but mount alone! - -LE BRET: - Alone, an if you will! But not with hand - 'Gainst every man! How in the devil's name - Have you conceived this lunatic idea, - To make foes for yourself at every turn? - -CYRANO: - By dint of seeing you at every turn - Make friends,--and fawn upon your frequent friends - With mouth wide smiling, slit from ear to ear! - I pass, still unsaluted, joyfully, - And cry,--What, ho! another enemy? - -LE BRET: - Lunacy! - -CYRANO: - Well, what if it be my vice, - My pleasure to displease--to love men hate me! - Ah, friend of mine, believe me, I march better - 'Neath the cross-fire of glances inimical! - How droll the stains one sees on fine-laced doublets, - From gall of envy, or the poltroon's drivel! - --The enervating friendship which enfolds you - Is like an open-laced Italian collar, - Floating around your neck in woman's fashion; - One is at ease thus,--but less proud the carriage! - The forehead, free from mainstay or coercion, - Bends here, there, everywhere. But I, embracing - Hatred, she lends,--forbidding, stiffly fluted, - The ruff's starched folds that hold the head so rigid; - Each enemy--another fold--a gopher, - Who adds constraint, and adds a ray of glory; - For Hatred, like the ruff worn by the Spanish, - Grips like a vice, but frames you like a halo! - -LE BRET (after a silence, taking his arm): - Speak proud aloud, and bitter!--In my ear - Whisper me simply this,--She loves thee not! - -CYRANO (vehemently): - Hush! - -(Christian has just entered, and mingled with the cadets, who do not speak to -him; he has seated himself at a table, where Lise serves him.) - - - -Scene 2.IX. - -Cyrano, Le Bret, the cadets, Christian de Neuvillette. - -A CADET (seated at a table, glass in hand): - Cyrano! -(Cyrano turns round): - The story! - -CYRANO: - In its time! - -(He goes up on Le Bret's arm. They talk in low voices.) - -THE CADET (rising and coming down): - The story of the fray! 'Twill lesson well -(He stops before the table where Christian is seated): - This timid young apprentice! - -CHRISTIAN (raising his head): - 'Prentice! Who? - -ANOTHER CADET: - This sickly Northern greenhorn! - -CHRISTIAN: - Sickly! - -FIRST CADET (mockingly): - Hark! - Monsieur de Neuvillette, this in your ear: - There's somewhat here, one no more dares to name, - Than to say 'rope' to one whose sire was hanged! - -CHRISTIAN: - What may that be? - -ANOTHER CADET (in a terrible voice): - See here! -(He puts his finger three times, mysteriously, on his nose): - Do you understand? - -CHRISTIAN: - Oh! 'tis the. . . - -ANOTHER: - Hush! oh, never breathe that word, - Unless you'd reckon with him yonder! - -(He points to Cyrano, who is talking with Le Bret.) - -ANOTHER (who has meanwhile come up noiselessly to sit on the table--whispering -behind him): - Hark! - He put two snuffling men to death, in rage, - For the sole reason they spoke through their nose! - -ANOTHER (in a hollow voice, darting on all-fours from under the table, where -he had crept): - And if you would not perish in flower o' youth, - --Oh, mention not the fatal cartilage! - -ANOTHER (clapping him on the shoulder): - A word? A gesture! For the indiscreet - His handkerchief may prove his winding-sheet! - -(Silence. All, with crossed arms, look at Christian. He rises and goes over -to Carbon de Castel-Jaloux, who is talking to an officer, and feigns to see -nothing.) - -CHRISTIAN: - Captain! - -CARBON (turning and looking at him from head to foot): - Sir! - -CHRISTIAN: - Pray, what skills it best to do - To Southerners who swagger?. . . - -CARBON: - Give them proof - That one may be a Northerner, yet brave! - -(He turns his back on him.) - -CHRISTIAN: - I thank you. - -FIRST CADET (to Cyrano): - Now the tale! - -ALL: - The tale! - -CYRANO (coming toward them): - The tale?. . . -(All bring their stools up, and group round him, listening eagerly. Christian -is astride a chair): - Well! I went all alone to meet the band. - The moon was shining, clock-like, full i' th' sky, - When, suddenly, some careful clockwright passed - A cloud of cotton-wool across the case - That held this silver watch. And, presto! heigh! - The night was inky black, and all the quays - Were hidden in the murky dark. Gadsooks! - One could see nothing further. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - Than one's nose! - -(Silence. All slowly rise, looking in terror at Cyrano, who has stopped-- -dumfounded. Pause.) - -CYRANO: - Who on God's earth is that? - -A CADET (whispering): - It is a man - Who joined to-day. - -CYRANO (making a step toward Christian): - To-day? - -CARBON (in a low voice): - Yes. . .his name is - The Baron de Neuvil. . . - -CYRANO (checking himself): - Good! It is well. . . -(He turns pale, flushes, makes as if to fall on Christian): - I. . . -(He controls himself): - What said I?. . . -(With a burst of rage): - MORDIOUS!. . . -(Then continues calmly): - That it was dark. -(Astonishment. The cadets reseat themselves, staring at him): - On I went, thinking, 'For a knavish cause - I may provoke some great man, some great prince, - Who certainly could break'. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - My nose!. . . - -(Every one starts up. Christian balances on his chair.) - -CYRANO (in a choked voice): - . . .'My teeth! - Who would break my teeth, and I, imprudent-like, - Was poking. . .' - -CHRISTIAN: - My nose!. . . - -CYRANO: - 'My finger,. . .in the crack - Between the tree and bark! He may prove strong - And rap me. . .' - -CHRISTIAN: - Over the nose. . . - -CYRANO (wiping his forehead): - . . .'O' th' knuckles! Ay,' - But I cried, 'Forward, Gascon! Duty calls! - On, Cyrano!' And thus I ventured on. . . - When, from the shadow, came. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - A crack o' th' nose. - -CYRANO: - I parry it--find myself. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - Nose to nose. . . - -CYRANO (bounding on to him): - Heaven and earth! -(All the Gascons leap up to see, but when he is close to Christian he controls -himself and continues): - . . .With a hundred brawling sots, - Who stank. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - A noseful. . . - -CYRANO (white, but smiling): - Onions, brandy-cups! - I leapt out, head well down. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - Nosing the wind! - -CYRANO: - I charge!--gore two, impale one--run him through, - One aims at me--Paf! and I parry. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - Pif! - -CYRANO (bursting out): - Great God! Out! all of you! - -(The cadets rush to the doors.) - -FIRST CADET: - The tiger wakes! - -CYRANO: - Every man, out! Leave me alone with him! - -SECOND CADET: - We shall find him minced fine, minced into hash - In a big pasty! - -RAGUENEAU: - I am turning pale, - And curl up, like a napkin, limp and white! - -CARBON: - Let us be gone. - -ANOTHER: - He will not leave a crumb! - -ANOTHER: - I die of fright to think what will pass here! - -ANOTHER (shutting door right): - Something too horrible! - -(All have gone out by different doors, some by the staircase. Cyrano and -Christian are face to face, looking at each other for a moment.) - - - -Scene 2.X. - -Cyrano, Christian. - -CYRANO: - Embrace me now! - -CHRISTIAN: - Sir. . . - -CYRANO: - You are brave. - -CHRISTIAN: - Oh! but. . . - -CYRANO: - Nay, I insist. - -CHRISTIAN: - Pray tell me. . . - -CYRANO: - Come, embrace! I am her brother. - -CHRISTIAN: - Whose brother? - -CYRANO: - Hers i' faith! Roxane's! - -CHRISTIAN (rushing up to him): - O heavens! - Her brother. . .? - -CYRANO: - Cousin--brother!. . .the same thing! - -CHRISTIAN: - And she has told you. . .? - -CYRANO: - All! - -CHRISTIAN: - She loves me? say! - -CYRANO: - Maybe! - -CHRISTIAN (taking his hands): - How glad I am to meet you, Sir! - -CYRANO: - That may be called a sudden sentiment! - -CHRISTIAN: - I ask your pardon. . . - -CYRANO (looking at him, with his hand on his shoulder): - True, he's fair, the villain! - -CHRISTIAN: - Ah, Sir! If you but knew my admiration!. . . - -CYRANO: - But all those noses?. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - Oh! I take them back! - -CYRANO: - Roxane expects a letter. - -CHRISTIAN: - Woe the day! - -CYRANO: - How? - -CHRISTIAN: - I am lost if I but ope my lips! - -CYRANO: - Why so? - -CHRISTIAN: - I am a fool--could die for shame! - -CYRANO: - None is a fool who knows himself a fool. - And you did not attack me like a fool. - -CHRISTIAN: - Bah! One finds battle-cry to lead th' assault! - I have a certain military wit, - But, before women, can but hold my tongue. - Their eyes! True, when I pass, their eyes are kind. . . - -CYRANO: - And, when you stay, their hearts, methinks, are kinder? - -CHRISTIAN: - No! for I am one of those men--tongue-tied, - I know it--who can never tell their love. - -CYRANO: - And I, meseems, had Nature been more kind, - More careful, when she fashioned me,--had been - One of those men who well could speak their love! - -CHRISTIAN: - Oh, to express one's thoughts with facile grace!. . . - -CYRANO: - . . .To be a musketeer, with handsome face! - -CHRISTIAN: - Roxane is precieuse. I'm sure to prove - A disappointment to her! - -CYRANO (looking at him): - Had I but - Such an interpreter to speak my soul! - -CHRISTIAN (with despair): - Eloquence! Where to find it? - -CYRANO (abruptly): - That I lend, - If you lend me your handsome victor-charms; - Blended, we make a hero of romance! - -CHRISTIAN: - How so? - -CYRANO: - Think you you can repeat what things - I daily teach your tongue? - -CHRISTIAN: - What do you mean? - -CYRANO: - Roxane shall never have a disillusion! - Say, wilt thou that we woo her, double-handed? - Wilt thou that we two woo her, both together? - Feel'st thou, passing from my leather doublet, - Through thy laced doublet, all my soul inspiring? - -CHRISTIAN: - But, Cyrano!. . . - -CYRANO: - Will you, I say? - -CHRISTIAN: - I fear! - -CYRANO: - Since, by yourself, you fear to chill her heart, - Will you--to kindle all her heart to flame-- - Wed into one my phrases and your lips? - -CHRISTIAN: - Your eyes flash! - -CYRANO: - Will you? - -CHRISTIAN: - Will it please you so? - --Give you such pleasure? - -CYRANO (madly): - It!. . . -(Then calmly, business-like): - It would amuse me! - It is an enterprise to tempt a poet. - Will you complete me, and let me complete you? - You march victorious,--I go in your shadow; - Let me be wit for you, be you my beauty! - -CHRISTIAN: - The letter, that she waits for even now! - I never can. . . - -CYRANO (taking out the letter he had written): - See! Here it is--your letter! - -CHRISTIAN: - What? - -CYRANO: - Take it! Look, it wants but the address. - -CHRISTIAN: - But I. . . - -CYRANO: - Fear nothing. Send it. It will suit. - -CHRISTIAN: - But have you. . .? - -CYRANO: - Oh! We have our pockets full, - We poets, of love-letters, writ to Chloes, - Daphnes--creations of our noddle-heads. - Our lady-loves,--phantasms of our brains, - --Dream-fancies blown into soap-bubbles! Come! - Take it, and change feigned love-words into true; - I breathed my sighs and moans haphazard-wise; - Call all these wandering love-birds home to nest. - You'll see that I was in these lettered lines, - --Eloquent all the more, the less sincere! - --Take it, and make an end! - -CHRISTIAN: - Were it not well - To change some words? Written haphazard-wise, - Will it fit Roxane? - -CYRANO: - 'Twill fit like a glove! - -CHRISTIAN: - But. . . - -CYRANO: - Ah, credulity of love! Roxane - Will think each word inspired by herself! - -CHRISTIAN: - My friend! - -(He throws himself into Cyrano's arms. They remain thus.) - - - -Scene 2.XI. - -Cyrano, Christian, the Gascons, the musketeer, Lise. - -A CADET (half opening the door): - Naught here!. . .The silence of the grave! - I dare not look. . . -(He puts his head in): - Why?. . . - -ALL THE CADETS (entering, and seeing Cyrano and Christian embracing): - Oh!. . . - -A CADET: - This passes all! - -(Consternation.) - -THE MUSKETEER (mockingly): - Ho, ho!. . . - -CARBON: - Our demon has become a saint? - Struck on one nostril--lo! he turns the other! - -MUSKETEER: - Then we may speak about his nose, henceforth!. . . -(Calling to Lise, boastfully): - --Ah, Lise, see here! -(Sniffing ostentatiously): - O heavens!. . .what a stink!. . . -(Going up to Cyrano): - You, sir, without a doubt have sniffed it up! - --What is the smell I notice here? - -CYRANO (cuffing his head): - Clove-heads. - -(General delight. The cadets have found the old Cyrano again! They turn -somersaults.) - -Curtain. - - - -Act III. - -Roxane's Kiss. - -A small square in the old Marais. Old houses. A perspective of little -streets. On the right Roxane's house and the wall of her garden overhung with -thick foliage. Window and balcony over the door. A bench in front. - -From the bench and the stones jutting out of the wall it is easy to climb to -the balcony. In front of an old house in the same style of brick and stone. -The knocker of this door is bandaged with linen like a sore thumb. - -At the rising of the curtain the duenna is seated on the bench. - -The window on Roxane's balcony is wide open. - -Ragueneau is standing near the door in a sort of livery. He has just finished -relating something to the duenna, and is wiping his eyes. - - - -Scene 3.I. - -Ragueneau, the duenna. Then Roxane, Cyrano, and two pages. - -RAGUENEAU: - --And then, off she went, with a musketeer! Deserted and ruined too, I -would make an end of all, and so hanged myself. My last breath was drawn:-- -then in comes Monsieur de Bergerac! He cuts me down, and begs his cousin to -take me for her steward. - -THE DUENNA: - Well, but how came it about that you were thus ruined? - -RAGUENEAU: - Oh! Lise loved the warriors, and I loved the poets! What cakes there were -that Apollo chanced to leave were quickly snapped up by Mars. Thus ruin was -not long a-coming. - -THE DUENNA (rising, and calling up to the open window): - Roxane, are you ready? They wait for us! - -ROXANE'S VOICE (from the window): - I will but put me on a cloak! - -THE DUENNA (to Ragueneau, showing him the door opposite): - They wait us there opposite, at Clomire's house. She receives them all -there to-day--the precieuses, the poets; they read a discourse on the Tender -Passion. - -RAGUENEAU: - The Tender Passion? - -THE DUENNA (in a mincing voice): - Ay, indeed! -(Calling up to the window): - Roxane, an you come not down quickly, we shall miss the discourse on the -Tender Passion! - -ROXANE'S VOICE: - I come! I come! - -(A sound of stringed instruments approaching.) - -CYRANO'S VOICE (behind the scenes, singing): - La, la, la, la! - -THE DUENNA (surprised): - They serenade us? - -CYRANO (followed by two pages with arch-lutes): - I tell you they are demi-semi-quavers, demi-semi-fool! - -FIRST PAGE (ironically): - You know then, Sir, to distinguish between semi-quavers and demi-semi- -quavers? - -CYRANO: - Is not every disciple of Gassendi a musician? - -THE PAGE (playing and singing): - La, la! - -CYRANO (snatching the lute from him, and going on with the phrase): - In proof of which, I can continue! La, la, la, la! - -ROXANE (appearing on the balcony): - What? 'Tis you? - -CYRANO (going on with the air, and singing to it): - 'Tis I, who come to serenade your lilies, and pay my devoir to your ro-o- -oses! - -ROXANE: - I am coming down! - -(She leaves the balcony.) - -THE DUENNA (pointing to the pages): - How come these two virtuosi here? - -CYRANO: - 'Tis for a wager I won of D'Assoucy. We were disputing a nice point in -grammar; contradictions raged hotly--''Tis so!' 'Nay, 'tis so!' when suddenly -he shows me these two long-shanks, whom he takes about with him as an escort, -and who are skillful in scratching lute-strings with their skinny claws! 'I -will wager you a day's music,' says he!--And lost it! Thus, see you, till -Phoebus' chariot starts once again, these lute-twangers are at my heels, -seeing all I do, hearing all I say, and accompanying all with melody. 'Twas -pleasant at the first, but i' faith, I begin to weary of it already! -(To the musicians): - Ho there! go serenade Montfleury for me! Play a dance to him! -(The pages go toward the door. To the duenna): - I have come, as is my wont, nightly, to ask Roxane whether. . . -(To the pages, who are going out): - Play a long time,--and play out of tune! -(To the duenna): - . . .Whether her soul's elected is ever the same, ever faultless! - -ROXANE (coming out of the house): - Ah! How handsome he is, how brilliant a wit! And--how well I love him! - -CYRANO (smiling): - Christian has so brilliant a wit? - -ROXANE: - Brighter than even your own, cousin! - -CYRANO: - Be it so, with all my heart! - -ROXANE: - Ah! methinks 'twere impossible that there could breathe a man on this earth -skilled to say as sweetly as he all the pretty nothings that mean so much-- -that mean all! At times his mind seems far away, the Muse says naught--and -then, presto! he speaks--bewitchingly! enchantingly! - -CYRANO (incredulously): - No, no! - -ROXANE: - Fie! That is ill said! But lo! men are ever thus! Because he is fair to -see, you would have it that he must be dull of speech. - -CYRANO: - He hath an eloquent tongue in telling his love? - -ROXANE: - In telling his love? why, 'tis not simple telling, 'tis dissertation, 'tis -analysis! - -CYRANO: - How is he with the pen? - -ROXANE: - Still better! Listen,--here:-- -(Reciting): - 'The more of my poor heart you take - The larger grows my heart!' -(Triumphantly to Cyrano): - How like you those lines? - -CYRANO: - Pooh! - -ROXANE: - And thus it goes on. . . - 'And, since some target I must show - For Cupid's cruel dart, - Oh, if mine own you deign to keep, - Then give me your sweet heart!' - -CYRANO: - Lord! first he has too much, then anon not enough! How much heart does the -fellow want? - -ROXANE: - You would vex a saint!. . .But 'tis your jealousy. - -CYRANO (starting): - What mean you? - -ROXANE: - Ay, your poet's jealousy! Hark now, if this again be not tender-sweet?-- - 'My heart to yours sounds but one cry: - If kisses fast could flee - By letter, then with your sweet lips - My letters read should be! - If kisses could be writ with ink, - If kisses fast could flee!' - -CYRANO (smiling approvingly in spite of himself): - Ha! those last lines are,--hm!. . .hm!. . . -(Correcting himself--contemptuously): - --They are paltry enough! - -ROXANE: - And this. . . - -CYRANO (enchanted): - Then you have his letters by heart? - -ROXANE: - Every one of them! - -CYRANO: - By all oaths that can be sworn,--'tis flattering! - -ROXANE: - They are the lines of a master! - -CYRANO (modestly): - Come, nay. . .a master?. . . - -ROXANE: - Ay, I say it--a master! - -CYRANO: - Good--be it so. - -THE DUENNA (coming down quickly): - Here comes Monsieur de Guiche! -(To Cyrano, pushing him toward the house): - In with you! 'twere best he see you not; it might perchance put him on the -scent. . . - -ROXANE (to Cyrano): - Ay, of my own dear secret! He loves me, and is powerful, and, if he knew, -then all were lost! Marry! he could well deal a deathblow to my love! - -CYRANO (entering the house): - Good! good! - -(De Guiche appears.) - - - -Scene 3.II. - -Roxane, De Guiche, the duenna standing a little way off. - -ROXANE (courtesying to De Guiche): - I was going out. - -DE GUICHE: - I come to take my leave. - -ROXANE: - Whither go you? - -DE GUICHE: - To the war. - -ROXANE: - Ah! - -DE GUICHE: - Ay, to-night. - -ROXANE: - Oh! - -DE GUICHE: - I am ordered away. We are to besiege Arras. - -ROXANE: - Ah--to besiege?. . . - -DE GUICHE: - Ay. My going moves you not, meseems. - -ROXANE: - Nay. . . - -DE GUICHE: - I am grieved to the core of the heart. Shall I again behold you?. . .When? -I know not. Heard you that I am named commander?. . . - -ROXANE (indifferently): - Bravo! - -DE GUICHE: - Of the Guards regiment. - -ROXANE (startled): - What! the Guards? - -DE GUICHE: - Ay, where serves your cousin, the swaggering boaster. I will find a way to -revenge myself on him at Arras. - -ROXANE (choking): - What mean you? The Guards go to Arras? - -DE GUICHE (laughing): - Bethink you, is it not my own regiment? - -ROXANE (falling seated on the bench--aside): - Christian! - -DE GUICHE: - What ails you? - -ROXANE (moved deeply): - Oh--I am in despair! The man one loves!--at the war! - -DE GUICHE (surprised and delighted): - You say such sweet words to me! 'Tis the first time!--and just when I must -quit you! - -ROXANE (collected, and fanning herself): - Thus,--you would fain revenge your grudge against my cousin? - -DE GUICHE: - My fair lady is on his side? - -ROXANE: - Nay,--against him! - -DE GUICHE: - Do you see him often? - -ROXANE: - But very rarely. - -DE GUICHE: - He is ever to be met now in company with one of the cadets,. . .one New-- -villen--viller-- - -ROXANE: - Of high stature? - -DE GUICHE: - Fair-haired! - -ROXANE: - Ay, a red-headed fellow! - -DE GUICHE: - Handsome!. . . - -ROXANE: - Tut! - -DE GUICHE: - But dull-witted. - -ROXANE: - One would think so, to look at him! -(Changing her tone): - How mean you to play your revenge on Cyrano? Perchance you think to put him -i' the thick of the shots? Nay, believe me, that were a poor vengeance--he -would love such a post better than aught else! I know the way to wound his -pride far more keenly! - -DE GUICHE: - What then? Tell. . . - -ROXANE: - If, when the regiment march to Arras, he were left here with his beloved -boon companions, the Cadets, to sit with crossed arms so long as the war -lasted! There is your method, would you enrage a man of his kind; cheat him -of his chance of mortal danger, and you punish him right fiercely. - -DE GUICHE (coming nearer): - O woman! woman! Who but a woman had e'er devised so subtle a trick? - -ROXANE: - See you not how he will eat out his heart, while his friends gnaw their -thick fists for that they are deprived of the battle? So are you best -avenged. - -DE GUICHE: - You love me, then, a little? -(She smiles): - I would fain--seeing you thus espouse my cause, Roxane--believe it a proof -of love! - -ROXANE: - 'Tis a proof of love! - -DE GUICHE (showing some sealed papers): - Here are the marching orders; they will be sent instantly to each company-- -except-- -(He detaches one): - --This one! 'Tis that of the Cadets. -(He puts it in his pocket): - This I keep. -(Laughing): - Ha! ha! ha! Cyrano! His love of battle!. . .So you can play tricks on -people?. . .you, of all ladies! - -ROXANE: - Sometimes! - -DE GUICHE (coming close to her): - Oh! how I love you!--to distraction! Listen! To-night--true, I ought to -start--but--how leave you now that I feel your heart is touched! Hard by, in -the Rue d'Orleans, is a convent founded by Father Athanasius, the syndic of -the Capuchins. True that no layman may enter--but--I can settle that with the -good Fathers! Their habit sleeves are wide enough to hide me in. 'Tis they -who serve Richelieu's private chapel: and from respect to the uncle, fear the -nephew. All will deem me gone. I will come to you, masked. Give me leave to -wait till tomorrow, sweet Lady Fanciful! - -ROXANE: - But, of this be rumored, your glory. . . - -DE GUICHE: - Bah! - -ROXANE: - But the siege--Arras. . . - -DE GUICHE: - 'Twill take its chance. Grant but permission. - -ROXANE: - No! - -DE GUICHE: - Give me leave! - -ROXANE (tenderly): - It were my duty to forbid you! - -DE GUICHE: - Ah! - -ROXANE: - You must go! -(Aside): - Christian stays here. -(Aloud): - I would have you heroic--Antoine! - -DE GUICHE: - O heavenly word! You love, then, him?. . . - -ROXANE: - . . .For whom I trembled. - -DE GUICHE (in an ecstasy): - Ah! I go then! -(He kisses her hand): - Are you content? - -ROXANE: - Yes, my friend! - -(He goes out.) - -THE DUENNA (making behind his back a mocking courtesy): - Yes, my friend! - -ROXANE (to the duenna): - Not a word of what I have done. Cyrano would never pardon me for stealing -his fighting from him! -(She calls toward the house): - Cousin! - - - -Scene 3.III. - -Roxane, The duenna, Cyrano. - -ROXANE: - We are going to Clomire's house. -(She points to the door opposite): - Alcandre and Lysimon are to discourse! - -THE DUENNA (putting her little finger in her ear): - Yes! But my little finger tells me we shall miss them. - -CYRANO: - 'Twere a pity to miss such apes! - -(They have come to Clomire's door.) - -THE DUENNA: - Oh, see! The knocker is muffled up! -(Speaking to the knocker): - So they have gagged that metal tongue of yours, little noisy one, lest it -should disturb the fine orators! - -(She lifts it carefully and knocks with precaution.) - -ROXANE (seeing that the door opens): - Let us enter! -(On the threshold, to Cyrano): - If Christian comes, as I feel sure he will, bid him wait for me! - -CYRANO (quickly, as she is going in): - Listen! -(She turns): - What mean you to question him on, as is your wont, to-night? - -ROXANE: - Oh-- - -CYRANO (eagerly): - Well, say. - -ROXANE: - But you will be mute? - -CYRANO: - Mute as a fish. - -ROXANE: - I shall not question him at all, but say: Give rein to your fancy! Prepare -not your speeches,--but speak the thoughts as they come! Speak to me of love, -and speak splendidly! - -CYRANO (smiling): - Very good! - -ROXANE: - But secret!. . . - -CYRANO: - Secret. - -ROXANE: - Not a word! - -(She enters and shuts the door.) - -CYRANO (when the door is shut, bowing to her): - A thousand thanks! - -(The door opens again, and Roxane puts her head out.) - -ROXANE: - Lest he prepare himself! - -CYRANO: - The devil!--no, no! - -BOTH TOGETHER: - Secret. - -(The door shuts.) - -CYRANO (calling): - Christian! - - - -Scene 3.IV. - -Cyrano, Christian. - -CYRANO: - I know all that is needful. Here's occasion - For you to deck yourself with glory. Come, - Lose no time; put away those sulky looks, - Come to your house with me, I'll teach you. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - No! - -CYRANO: - Why? - -CHRISTIAN: - I will wait for Roxane here. - -CYRANO: - How? Crazy? - Come quick with me and learn. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - No, no! I say. - I am aweary of these borrowed letters, - --Borrowed love-makings! Thus to act a part, - And tremble all the time!--'Twas well enough - At the beginning!--Now I know she loves! - I fear no longer!--I will speak myself. - -CYRANO: - Mercy! - -CHRISTIAN: - And how know you I cannot speak?-- - I am not such a fool when all is said! - I've by your lessons profited. You'll see - I shall know how to speak alone! The devil! - I know at least to clasp her in my arms! -(Seeing Roxane come out from Clomire's house): - --It is she! Cyrano, no!--Leave me not! - -CYRANO (bowing): - Speak for yourself, my friend, and take your chance. - -(He disappears behind the garden wall.) - - - -Scene 3.V. - -Christian, Roxane, the duenna. - -ROXANE (coming out of Clomire's house, with a company of friends, whom she -leaves. Bows and good-byes): - Barthenoide!--Alcandre!--Gremione!-- - -THE DUENNA (bitterly disappointed): - We've missed the speech upon the Tender Passion! - -(Goes into Roxane's house.) - -ROXANE (still bowing): - Urimedonte--adieu! -(All bow to Roxane and to each other, and then separate, going up different -streets. Roxane suddenly seeing Christian): - You! -(She goes to him): - Evening falls. - Let's sit. Speak on. I listen. - -CHRISTIAN (sits by her on the bench. A silence): - Oh! I love you! - -ROXANE (shutting her eyes): - Ay, speak to me of love. - -CHRISTIAN: - I love thee! - -ROXANE: - That's - The theme! But vary it. - -CHRISTIAN: - I. . . - -ROXANE: - Vary it! - -CHRISTIAN: - I love you so! - -ROXANE: - Oh! without doubt!--and then?. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - And then--I should be--oh!--so glad--so glad - If you would love me!--Roxane, tell me so! - -ROXANE (with a little grimace): - I hoped for cream,--you give me gruel! Say - How love possesses you? - -CHRISTIAN: - Oh utterly! - -ROXANE: - Come, come!. . .unknot those tangled sentiments! - -CHRISTIAN: - Your throat I'd kiss it! - -ROXANE: - Christian! - -CHRISTIAN: - I love thee! - -ROXANE (half-rising): - Again! - -CHRISTIAN (eagerly, detaining her): - No, no! I love thee not! - -ROXANE (reseating herself): - 'Tis well! - -CHRISTIAN: - But I adore thee! - -ROXANE (rising, and going further off): - Oh! - -CHRISTIAN: - I am grown stupid! - -ROXANE (dryly): - And that displeases me, almost as much - As 'twould displease me if you grew ill-favored. - -CHRISTIAN: - But. . . - -ROXANE: - Rally your poor eloquence that's flown! - -CHRISTIAN: - I. . . - -ROXANE: - Yes, you love me, that I know. Adieu. - -(She goes toward her house.) - -CHRISTIAN: - Oh, go not yet! I'd tell you-- - -ROXANE (opening the door): - You adore me? - I've heard it very oft. No!--Go away! - -CHRISTIAN: - But I would fain. . . - -(She shuts the door in his face.) - -CYRANO (who has re-entered unseen): - I' faith! It is successful! - - - -Scene 3.VI. - -Christian, Cyrano, two pages. - -CHRISTIAN: - Come to my aid! - -CYRANO: - Not I! - -CHRISTIAN: - But I shall die, - Unless at once I win back her fair favor. - -CYRANO: - And how can I, at once, i' th' devil's name, - Lesson you in. . . - -CHRISTIAN (seizing his arm): - Oh, she is there! - -(The window of the balcony is now lighted up.) - -CYRANO (moved): - Her window! - -CHRISTIAN: - Oh! I shall die! - -CYRANO: - Speak lower! - -CHRISTIAN (in a whisper): - I shall die! - -CYRANO: - The night is dark. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - Well! - -CYRANO: - All can be repaired. - Although you merit not. Stand there, poor wretch! - Fronting the balcony! I'll go beneath - And prompt your words to you. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - But. . . - -CYRANO: - Hold your tongue! - -THE PAGES (reappearing at back--to Cyrano): - Ho! - -CYRANO: - Hush! - -(He signs to them to speak softly.) - -FIRST PAGE (in a low voice): - We've played the serenade you bade - To Montfleury! - -CYRANO (quickly, in a low voice): - Go! lurk in ambush there, - One at this street corner, and one at that; - And if a passer-by should here intrude, - Play you a tune! - -SECOND PAGE: - What tune, Sir Gassendist? - -CYRANO: - Gay, if a woman comes,--for a man, sad! -(The pages disappear, one at each street corner. To Christian): - Call her! - -CHRISTIAN: - Roxane! - -CYRANO (picking up stones and throwing them at the window): - Some pebbles! wait awhile! - -ROXANE (half-opening the casement): - Who calls me? - -CHRISTIAN: - I! - -ROXANE: - Who's that? - -CHRISTIAN: - Christian! - -ROXANE (disdainfully): - Oh! you? - -CHRISTIAN: - I would speak with you. - -CYRANO (under the balcony--to Christian): - Good. Speak soft and low. - -ROXANE: - No, you speak stupidly! - -CHRISTIAN: - Oh, pity me! - -ROXANE: - No! you love me no more! - -CHRISTIAN (prompted by Cyrano): - You say--Great Heaven! - I love no more?--when--I--love more and more! - -ROXANE (who was about to shut the casement, pausing): - Hold! 'tis a trifle better! ay, a trifle! - -CHRISTIAN (same play): - Love grew apace, rocked by the anxious beating. . . - Of this poor heart, which the cruel wanton boy. . . - Took for a cradle! - -ROXANE (coming out on to the balcony): - That is better! But - An if you deem that Cupid be so cruel - You should have stifled baby-love in's cradle! - -CHRISTIAN (same play): - Ah, Madame, I assayed, but all in vain - This. . .new-born babe is a young. . .Hercules! - -ROXANE: - Still better! - -CHRISTIAN (same play): - Thus he strangled in my heart - The. . .serpents twain, of. . .Pride. . .and Doubt! - -ROXANE (leaning over the balcony): - Well said! - --But why so faltering? Has mental palsy - Seized on your faculty imaginative? - -CYRANO (drawing Christian under the balcony, and slipping into his place): - Give place! This waxes critical!. . . - -ROXANE: - To-day. . . - Your words are hesitating. - -CYRANO (imitating Christian--in a whisper): - Night has come. . . - In the dusk they grope their way to find your ear. - -ROXANE: - But my words find no such impediment. - -CYRANO: - They find their way at once? Small wonder that! - For 'tis within my heart they find their home; - Bethink how large my heart, how small your ear! - And,--from fair heights descending, words fall fast, - But mine must mount, Madame, and that takes time! - -ROXANE: - Meseems that your last words have learned to climb. - -CYRANO: - With practice such gymnastic grows less hard! - -ROXANE: - In truth, I seem to speak from distant heights! - -CYRANO: - True, far above; at such a height 'twere death - If a hard word from you fell on my heart. - -ROXANE (moving): - I will come down. . . - -CYRANO (hastily): - No! - -ROXANE (showing him the bench under the balcony): - Mount then on the bench! - -CYRANO (starting back alarmed): - No! - -ROXANE: - How, you will not? - -CYRANO (more and more moved): - Stay awhile! 'Tis sweet,. . . - The rare occasion, when our hearts can speak - Our selves unseen, unseeing! - -ROXANE: - Why--unseen? - -CYRANO: - Ay, it is sweet! Half hidden,--half revealed-- - You see the dark folds of my shrouding cloak, - And I, the glimmering whiteness of your dress: - I but a shadow--you a radiance fair! - Know you what such a moment holds for me? - If ever I were eloquent. . . - -ROXANE: - You were! - -CYRANO: - Yet never till to-night my speech has sprung - Straight from my heart as now it springs. - -ROXANE: - Why not? - -CYRANO: - Till now I spoke haphazard. . . - -ROXANE: - What? - -CYRANO: - Your eyes - Have beams that turn men dizzy!--But to-night - Methinks I shall find speech for the first time! - -ROXANE: - 'Tis true, your voice rings with a tone that's new. - -CYRANO (coming nearer, passionately): - Ay, a new tone! In the tender, sheltering dusk - I dare to be myself for once,--at last! -(He stops, falters): - What say I? I know not!--Oh, pardon me-- - It thrills me,--'tis so sweet, so novel. . . - -ROXANE: - How? - So novel? - -CYRANO (off his balance, trying to find the thread of his sentence): - Ay,--to be at last sincere; - Till now, my chilled heart, fearing to be mocked. . . - -ROXANE: - Mocked, and for what? - -CYRANO: - For its mad beating!--Ay, - My heart has clothed itself with witty words, - To shroud itself from curious eyes:--impelled - At times to aim at a star, I stay my hand, - And, fearing ridicule,--cull a wild flower! - -ROXANE: - A wild flower's sweet. - -CYRANO: - Ay, but to-night--the star! - -ROXANE: - Oh! never have you spoken thus before! - -CYRANO: - If, leaving Cupid's arrows, quivers, torches, - We turned to seek for sweeter--fresher things! - Instead of sipping in a pygmy glass - Dull fashionable waters,--did we try - How the soul slakes its thirst in fearless draught - By drinking from the river's flooding brim! - -ROXANE: - But wit?. . . - -CYRANO: - If I have used it to arrest you - At the first starting,--now, 'twould be an outrage, - An insult--to the perfumed Night--to Nature-- - To speak fine words that garnish vain love-letters! - Look up but at her stars! The quiet Heaven - Will ease our hearts of all things artificial; - I fear lest, 'midst the alchemy we're skilled in - The truth of sentiment dissolve and vanish,-- - The soul exhausted by these empty pastimes, - The gain of fine things be the loss of all things! - -ROXANE: - But wit? I say. . . - -CYRANO: - In love 'tis crime,--'tis hateful! - Turning frank loving into subtle fencing! - At last the moment comes, inevitable,-- - --Oh, woe for those who never know that moment! - When feeling love exists in us, ennobling, - Each well-weighed word is futile and soul-saddening! - -ROXANE: - Well, if that moment's come for us--suppose it! - What words would serve you? - -CYRANO: - All, all, all, whatever - That came to me, e'en as they came, I'd fling them - In a wild cluster, not a careful bouquet. - I love thee! I am mad! I love, I stifle! - Thy name is in my heart as in a sheep-bell, - And as I ever tremble, thinking of thee, - Ever the bell shakes, ever thy name ringeth! - All things of thine I mind, for I love all things; - I know that last year on the twelfth of May-month, - To walk abroad, one day you changed your hair-plaits! - I am so used to take your hair for daylight - That,--like as when the eye stares on the sun's disk, - One sees long after a red blot on all things-- - So, when I quit thy beams, my dazzled vision - Sees upon all things a blonde stain imprinted. - -ROXANE (agitated): - Why, this is love indeed!. . . - -CYRANO: - Ay, true, the feeling - Which fills me, terrible and jealous, truly - Love,--which is ever sad amid its transports! - Love,--and yet, strangely, not a selfish passion! - I for your joy would gladly lay mine own down, - --E'en though you never were to know it,--never! - --If but at times I might--far off and lonely,-- - Hear some gay echo of the joy I bought you! - Each glance of thine awakes in me a virtue,-- - A novel, unknown valor. Dost begin, sweet, - To understand? So late, dost understand me? - Feel'st thou my soul, here, through the darkness mounting? - Too fair the night! Too fair, too fair the moment! - That I should speak thus, and that you should hearken! - Too fair! In moments when my hopes rose proudest, - I never hoped such guerdon. Naught is left me - But to die now! Have words of mine the power - To make you tremble,--throned there in the branches? - Ay, like a leaf among the leaves, you tremble! - You tremble! For I feel,--an if you will it, - Or will it not,--your hand's beloved trembling - Thrill through the branches, down your sprays of jasmine! - -(He kisses passionately one of the hanging tendrils.) - -ROXANE: - Ay! I am trembling, weeping!--I am thine! - Thou hast conquered all of me! - -CYRANO: - Then let death come! - 'Tis I, 'tis I myself, who conquered thee! - One thing, but one, I dare to ask-- - -CHRISTIAN (under the balcony): - A kiss! - -ROXANE (drawing back): - What? - -CYRANO: - Oh! - -ROXANE: - You ask. . .? - -CYRANO: - I. . . -(To Christian, whispering): - Fool! you go too quick! - -CHRISTIAN: - Since she is moved thus--I will profit by it! - -CYRANO (to Roxane): - My words sprang thoughtlessly, but now I see-- - Shame on me!--I was too presumptuous. - -ROXANE (a little chilled): - How quickly you withdraw. - -CYRANO: - Yes, I withdraw - Without withdrawing! Hurt I modesty? - If so--the kiss I asked--oh, grant it not. - -CHRISTIAN (to Cyrano, pulling him by his cloak): - Why? - -CYRANO: - Silence, Christian! Hush! - -ROXANE (leaning over): - What whisper you? - -CYRANO: - I chid myself for my too bold advances; - Said, 'Silence, Christian!' -(The lutes begin to play): - Hark! Wait awhile,. . . - Steps come! -(Roxane shuts the window. Cyrano listens to the lutes, one of which plays a -merry, the other a melancholy, tune): - Why, they play sad--then gay--then sad! What? Neither man nor woman?--oh! -a monk! - -(Enter a capuchin friar, with a lantern. He goes from house to house, looking -at every door.) - - - -Scene 3.VII. - -Cyrano, Christian, a capuchin friar. - -CYRANO (to the friar): - What do you, playing at Diogenes? - -THE FRIAR: - I seek the house of Madame. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - Oh! plague take him! - -THE FRIAR: - Madeleine Robin. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - What would he?. . . - -CYRANO (pointing to a street at the back): - This way! - Straight on. . . - -THE FRIAR - I thank you, and, in your intention - Will tell my rosary to its last bead. - -(He goes out.) - -CYRANO: - Good luck! My blessings rest upon your cowl! - -(He goes back to Christian.) - - - -Scene 3.VIII. - -Cyrano, Christian. - -CHRISTIAN: - Oh! win for me that kiss. . . - -CYRANO: - No! - -CHRISTIAN: - Soon or late!. . . - -CYRANO: - 'Tis true! The moment of intoxication-- - Of madness,--when your mouths are sure to meet - Thanks to your fair mustache--and her rose lips! -(To himself): - I'd fainer it should come thanks to. . . - -(A sound of shutters reopening. Christian goes in again under the balcony.) - - - -Scene 3.IX. - -Cyrano, Christian, Roxane. - -ROXANE (coming out on the balcony): - Still there? - We spoke of a. . . - -CYRANO: - A kiss! The word is sweet. - I see not why your lip should shrink from it; - If the word burns it,--what would the kiss do? - Oh! let it not your bashfulness affright; - Have you not, all this time, insensibly, - Left badinage aside, and unalarmed - Glided from smile to sigh,--from sigh to weeping? - Glide gently, imperceptibly, still onward-- - From tear to kiss,--a moment's thrill!--a heartbeat! - -ROXANE: - Hush! hush! - -CYRANO: - A kiss, when all is said,--what is it? - An oath that's ratified,--a sealed promise, - A heart's avowal claiming confirmation,-- - A rose-dot on the 'i' of 'adoration,'-- - A secret that to mouth, not ear, is whispered,-- - Brush of a bee's wing, that makes time eternal,-- - Communion perfumed like the spring's wild flowers,-- - The heart's relieving in the heart's outbreathing, - When to the lips the soul's flood rises, brimming! - -ROXANE: - Hush! hush! - -CYRANO: - A kiss, Madame, is honorable: - The Queen of France, to a most favored lord - Did grant a kiss--the Queen herself! - -ROXANE: - What then? - -CYRANO (speaking more warmly): - Buckingham suffered dumbly,--so have I,-- - Adored his Queen, as loyally as I,-- - Was sad, but faithful,--so am I. . . - -ROXANE: - And you - Are fair as Buckingham! - -CYRANO (aside--suddenly cooled): - True,--I forgot! - -ROXANE: - Must I then bid thee mount to cull this flower? - -CYRANO (pushing Christian toward the balcony): - Mount! - -ROXANE: - This heart-breathing!. . . - -CYRANO: - Mount! - -ROXANE: - This brush of bee's wing!. . . - -CYRANO: - Mount! - -CHRISTIAN (hesitating): - But I feel now, as though 'twere ill done! - -ROXANE: - This moment infinite!. . . - -CYRANO (still pushing him): - Come, blockhead, mount! - -(Christian springs forward, and by means of the bench, the branches, and the -pillars, climbs to the balcony and strides over it.) - -CHRISTIAN: - Ah, Roxane! - -(He takes her in his arms, and bends over her lips.) - -CYRANO: - Aie! Strange pain that wrings my heart! - The kiss, love's feast, so near! I, Lazarus, - Lie at the gate in darkness. Yet to me - Falls still a crumb or two from the rich man's board-- - Ay, 'tis my heart receives thee, Roxane--mine! - For on the lips you press you kiss as well - The words I spoke just now!--my words--my words! -(The lutes play): - A sad air,--a gay air: the monk! -(He begins to run as if he came from a long way off, and cries out): - Hola! - -ROXANE: - Who is it? - -CYRANO: - I--I was but passing by. . . - Is Christian there? - -CHRISTIAN (astonished): - Cyrano! - -ROXANE: - Good-day, cousin! - -CYRANO: - Cousin, good-day! - -ROXANE: - I'm coming! - -(She disappears into the house. At the back re-enter the friar.) - -CHRISTIAN (seeing him): - Back again! - -(He follows Roxane.) - - - -Scene 3.X. - -Cyrano, Christian, Roxane, the friar, Ragueneau. - -THE FRIAR: - 'Tis here,--I'm sure of it--Madame Madeleine Robin. - -CYRANO: - Why, you said Ro-LIN. - -THE FRIAR: - No, not I. - B,I,N,BIN! - -ROXANE (appearing on the threshold, followed by Ragueneau, who carries a -lantern, and Christian): - What is't? - -THE FRIAR: - A letter. - -CHRISTIAN: - What? - -THE FRIAR (to Roxane): - Oh, it can boot but a holy business! - 'Tis from a worthy lord. . . - -ROXANE (to Christian): - De Guiche! - -CHRISTIAN: - He dares. . . - -ROXANE: - Oh, he will not importune me forever! -(Unsealing the letter): - I love you,--therefore-- -(She reads in a low voice by the aid of Ragueneau's lantern): - 'Lady, - The drums beat; - My regiment buckles its harness on - And starts; but I,--they deem me gone before-- - But I stay. I have dared to disobey - Your mandate. I am here in convent walls. - I come to you to-night. By this poor monk-- - A simple fool who knows not what he bears-- - I send this missive to apprise your ear. - Your lips erewhile have smiled on me, too sweet: - I go not ere I've seen them once again! - I would be private; send each soul away, - Receive alone him,--whose great boldness you - Have deigned, I hope, to pardon, ere he asks,-- - He who is ever your--et cetera.' -(To the monk): - Father, this is the matter of the letter:-- -(All come near her, and she reads aloud): - 'Lady, - The Cardinal's wish is law; albeit - It be to you unwelcome. For this cause - I send these lines--to your fair ear addressed-- - By a holy man, discreet, intelligent: - It is our will that you receive from him, - In your own house, the marriage -(She turns the page): - benediction - Straightway, this night. Unknown to all the world - Christian becomes your husband. Him we send. - He is abhorrent to your choice. Let be. - Resign yourself, and this obedience - Will be by Heaven well recompensed. Receive, - Fair lady, all assurance of respect, - From him who ever was, and still remains, - Your humble and obliged--et cetera.' - -THE FRIAR (with great delight): - O worthy lord! I knew naught was to fear; - It could be but holy business! - -ROXANE (to Christian, in a low voice): - Am I not apt at reading letters? - -CHRISTIAN: - Hum! - -ROXANE (aloud, with despair): - But this is horrible! - -THE FRIAR (who has turned his lantern on Cyrano): - 'Tis you? - -CHRISTIAN: - 'Tis I! - -THE FRIAR (turning the light on to him, and as if a doubt struck him on seeing -his beauty): - But. . . - -ROXANE (quickly): - I have overlooked the postscript--see:-- - 'Give twenty pistoles for the Convent.' - -THE FRIAR: - . . .Oh! - Most worthy lord! -(To Roxane): - Submit you? - -ROXANE (with a martyr's look): - I submit! -(While Ragueneau opens the door, and Christian invites the friar to enter, she -whispers to Cyrano): - Oh, keep De Guiche at bay! He will be here! - Let him not enter till. . . - -CYRANO: - I understand! -(To the friar): - What time need you to tie the marriage-knot? - -THE FRIAR: - A quarter of an hour. - -CYRANO (pushing them all toward the house): - Go! I stay. - -ROXANE (to Christian): - Come!. . . - -(They enter.) - -CYRANO: - Now, how to detain De Guiche so long? -(He jumps on the bench, climbs to the balcony by the wall): - Come!. . .up I go!. . .I have my plan!. . . -(The lutes begin to play a very sad air): - What, ho! -(The tremolo grows more and more weird): - It is a man! ay! 'tis a man this time! -(He is on the balcony, pulls his hat over his eyes, takes off his sword, wraps -himself in his cloak, then leans over): - 'Tis not too high! -(He strides across the balcony, and drawing to him a long branch of one of the -trees that are by the garden wall, he hangs on to it with both hands, ready to -let himself fall): - I'll shake this atmosphere! - - - -Scene 3.XI. - -Cyrano, De Guiche. - -DE GUICHE (who enters, masked, feeling his way in the dark): - What can that cursed Friar be about? - -CYRANO: - The devil!. . .If he knows my voice! -(Letting go with one hand, he pretends to turn an invisible key. Solemnly): - Cric! Crac! - Assume thou, Cyrano, to serve the turn, - The accent of thy native Bergerac!. . . - -DE GUICHE (looking at the house): - 'Tis there. I see dim,--this mask hinders me! -(He is about to enter, when Cyrano leaps from the balcony, holding on to the -branch, which bends, dropping him between the door and De Guiche; he pretends -to fall heavily, as from a great height, and lies flat on the ground, -motionless, as if stunned. De Guiche starts back): - What's this? -(When he looks up, the branch has sprung back into its place. He sees only -the sky, and is lost in amazement): - Where fell that man from? - -CYRANO (sitting up, and speaking with a Gascon accent): - From the moon! - -DE GUICHE: - From?. . . - -CYRANO (in a dreamy voice): - What's o'clock? - -DE GUICHE: - He's lost his mind, for sure! - -CYRANO: - What hour? What country this? What month? What day? - -DE GUICHE: - But. . . - -CYRANO: - I am stupefied! - -DE GUICHE: - Sir! - -CYRANO: - Like a bomb - I fell from the moon! - -DE GUICHE (impatiently): - Come now! - -CYRANO (rising, in a terrible voice): - I say,--the moon! - -DE GUICHE (recoiling): - Good, good! let it be so!. . .He's raving mad! - -CYRANO (walking up to him): - I say from the moon! I mean no metaphor!. . . - -DE GUICHE: - But. . . - -CYRANO: - Was't a hundred years--a minute, since? - --I cannot guess what time that fall embraced!-- - That I was in that saffron-colored ball? - -DE GUICHE (shrugging his shoulders): - Good! let me pass! - -CYRANO (intercepting him): - Where am I? Tell the truth! - Fear not to tell! Oh, spare me not! Where? where? - Have I fallen like a shooting star? - -DE GUICHE: - Morbleu! - -CYRANO: - The fall was lightning-quick! no time to choose - Where I should fall--I know not where it be! - Oh, tell me! Is it on a moon or earth, - that my posterior weight has landed me? - -DE GUICHE: - I tell you, Sir. . . - -CYRANO (with a screech of terror, which makes De Guiche start back): - No? Can it be? I'm on - A planet where men have black faces? - -DE GUICHE (putting a hand to his face): - What? - -CYRANO (feigning great alarm): - Am I in Africa? A native you? - -DE GUICHE (who has remembered his mask): - This mask of mine. . . - -CYRANO (pretending to be reassured): - In Venice? ha!--or Rome? - -DE GUICHE (trying to pass): - A lady waits. . - -CYRANO (quite reassured): - Oh-ho! I am in Paris! - -DE GUICHE (smiling in spite of himself): - The fool is comical! - -CYRANO: - You laugh? - -DE GUICHE: - I laugh, - But would get by! - -CYRANO (beaming with joy): - I have shot back to Paris! -(Quite at ease, laughing, dusting himself, bowing): - Come--pardon me--by the last water-spout, - Covered with ether,--accident of travel! - My eyes still full of star-dust, and my spurs - Encumbered by the planets' filaments! -(Picking something off his sleeve): - Ha! on my doublet?--ah, a comet's hair!. . . - -(He puffs as if to blow it away.) - -DE GUICHE (beside himself): - Sir!. . . - -CYRANO (just as he is about to pass, holds out his leg as if to show him -something and stops him): - In my leg--the calf--there is a tooth - Of the Great Bear, and, passing Neptune close, - I would avoid his trident's point, and fell, - Thus sitting, plump, right in the Scales! My weight - Is marked, still registered, up there in heaven! -(Hurriedly preventing De Guiche from passing, and detaining him by the button -of his doublet): - I swear to you that if you squeezed my nose - It would spout milk! - -DE GUICHE: - Milk? - -CYRANO: - From the Milky Way! - -DE GUICHE: - Oh, go to hell! - -CYRANO (crossing his arms): - I fall, Sir, out of heaven! - Now, would you credit it, that as I fell - I saw that Sirius wears a nightcap? True! -(Confidentially): - The other Bear is still too small to bite. -(Laughing): - I went through the Lyre, but I snapped a cord; -(Grandiloquent): - I mean to write the whole thing in a book; - The small gold stars, that, wrapped up in my cloak, - I carried safe away at no small risks, - Will serve for asterisks i' the printed page! - -DE GUICHE: - Come, make an end! I want. . . - -CYRANO: - Oh-ho! You are sly! - -DE GUICHE: - Sir! - -CYRANO: - You would worm all out of me!--the way - The moon is made, and if men breathe and live - In its rotund cucurbita? - -DE GUICHE (angrily): - No, no! - I want. . . - -CYRANO: - Ha, ha!--to know how I got up? - Hark, it was by a method all my own. - -DE GUICHE (wearied): - He's mad! - -CYRANO(contemptuously): - No! not for me the stupid eagle - Of Regiomontanus, nor the timid - Pigeon of Archytas--neither of those! - -DE GUICHE: - Ay, 'tis a fool! But 'tis a learned fool! - -CYRANO: - No imitator I of other men! -(De Guiche has succeeded in getting by, and goes toward Roxane's door. Cyrano -follows him, ready to stop him by force): - Six novel methods, all, this brain invented! - -DE GUICHE (turning round): - Six? - -CYRANO (volubly): - First, with body naked as your hand, - Festooned about with crystal flacons, full - O' th' tears the early morning dew distils; - My body to the sun's fierce rays exposed - To let it suck me up, as 't sucks the dew! - -DE GUICHE (surprised, making one step toward Cyrano): - Ah! that makes one! - -CYRANO (stepping back, and enticing him further away): - And then, the second way, - To generate wind--for my impetus-- - To rarefy air, in a cedar case, - By mirrors placed icosahedron-wise. - -DE GUICHE (making another step): - Two! - -CYRANO (still stepping backward): - Or--for I have some mechanic skill-- - To make a grasshopper, with springs of steel, - And launch myself by quick succeeding fires - Saltpeter-fed to the stars' pastures blue! - -DE GUICHE (unconsciously following him and counting on his fingers): - Three! - -CYRANO: - Or (since fumes have property to mount)-- - To charge a globe with fumes, sufficiently - To carry me aloft! - -DE GUICHE (same play, more and more astonished): - Well, that makes four! - -CYRANO: - Or smear myself with marrow from a bull, - Since, at the lowest point of Zodiac, - Phoebus well loves to suck that marrow up! - -DE GUICHE (amazed): - Five! - -CYRANO (who, while speaking, had drawn him to the other side of the square -near a bench): - Sitting on an iron platform--thence - To throw a magnet in the air. This is - A method well conceived--the magnet flown, - Infallibly the iron will pursue: - Then quick! relaunch your magnet, and you thus - Can mount and mount unmeasured distances! - -DE GUICHE: - Here are six excellent expedients! - Which of the six chose you? - -CYRANO: - Why, none!--a seventh! - -DE GUICHE: - Astonishing! What was it? - -CYRANO: - I'll recount. - -DE GUICHE: - This wild eccentric becomes interesting! - -CYRANO (making a noise like the waves, with weird gestures): - Houuh! Houuh! - -DE GUICHE: - Well. - -CYRANO: - You have guessed? - -DE GUICHE: - Not I! - -CYRANO: - The tide! - I' th' witching hour when the moon woos the wave, - I laid me, fresh from a sea-bath, on the shore-- - And, failing not to put head foremost--for - The hair holds the sea-water in its mesh-- - I rose in air, straight! straight! like angel's flight, - And mounted, mounted, gently, effortless,. . . - When lo! a sudden shock! Then. . . - -DE GUICHE (overcome by curiosity, sitting down on the bench): - Then? - -CYRANO: - Oh! then. . . -(Suddenly returning to his natural voice): - The quarter's gone--I'll hinder you no more: - The marriage-vows are made. - -DE GUICHE (springing up): - What? Am I mad? - That voice? -(The house-door opens. Lackeys appear carrying lighted candelabra. Light. -Cyrano gracefully uncovers): - That nose--Cyrano? - -CYRANO (bowing): - Cyrano. - While we were chatting, they have plighted troth. - -DE GUICHE: - Who? -(He turns round. Tableau. Behind the lackeys appear Roxane and Christian, -holding each other by the hand. The friar follows them, smiling. Ragueneau -also holds a candlestick. The duenna closes the rear, bewildered, having made -a hasty toilet): - Heavens! - - - -Scene 3.XII. - -The same. Roxane, Christian, the friar, Ragueneau, lackeys, the duenna. - -DE GUICHE (to Roxane): - You? -(Recognizing Christian, in amazement): - He? -(Bowing, with admiration, to Roxane): - Cunningly contrived! -(To Cyrano): - My compliments--Sir Apparatus-maker! - Your story would arrest at Peter's gate - Saints eager for their Paradise! Note well - The details. 'Faith! They'd make a stirring book! - -CYRANO (bowing): - I shall not fail to follow your advice. - -THE FRIAR (showing with satisfaction the two lovers to De Guiche): - A handsome couple, son, made one by you! - -DE GUICHE (with a freezing look): - Ay! -(To Roxane): - Bid your bridegroom, Madame, fond farewell. - -ROXANE: - Why so? - -DE GUICHE (to Christian): - Even now the regiment departs. - Join it! - -ROXANE: - It goes to battle? - -DE GUICHE: - Without doubt. - -ROXANE: - But the Cadets go not? - -DE GUICHE: - Oh ay! they go. -(Drawing out the paper he had put in his pocket): - Here is the order. -(To Christian): - Baron, bear it, quick! - -ROXANE (throwing herself in Christian's arms): - Christian! - -DE GUICHE (sneeringly to Cyrano): - The wedding-night is far, methinks! - -CYRANO (aside): - He thinks to give me pain of death by this! - -CHRISTIAN (to Roxane): - Oh! once again! Your lips! - -CYRANO: - Come, come, enough! - -CHRISTIAN (still kissing Roxane): - --'Tis hard to leave her, you know not. . . - -CYRANO (trying to draw him away): - I know. - -(Sound of drums beating a march in the distance.) - -DE GUICHE: - The regiment starts! - -ROXANE (To Cyrano, holding back Christian, whom Cyrano is drawing away): - Oh!--I trust him you! - Promise me that no risks shall put his life - In danger! - -CYRANO: - I will try my best, but promise. . . - That I cannot! - -ROXANE: - But swear he shall be prudent? - -CYRANO: - Again, I'll do my best, but. . . - -ROXANE: - In the siege - Let him not suffer! - -CYRANO: - All that man can do, - I. . . - -ROXANE: - That he shall be faithful! - -CYRANO: - Doubtless, but. . . - -ROXANE: - That he will write oft? - -CYRANO (pausing): - That, I promise you! - - -Curtain. - - - -ACT IV. - -The Cadets of Gascony. - -Post occupied by company of Carbon de Castel-Jaloux at the siege of Arras. - -In the background an embankment across the whole stage. Beyond, view of plain -extending to the horizon. The country covered with intrenchments. The walls -of Arras and the outlines of its roofs against the sky in the distance. -Tents. Arms strewn about, drums, etc. Day is breaking with a faint glimmer -of yellow sunrise in the east. Sentinels at different points. Watch-fires. -The cadets of Gascony, wrapped in their mantles, are sleeping. Carbon de -Castel-Jaloux and Le Bret are keeping watch. They are very pale and thin. -Christian sleeps among the others in his cloak in the foreground, his face -illuminated by the fire. Silence. - - - -Scene 4.I. - -Christian, Carbon de Castel-Jaloux, Le Bret, the cadets, then Cyrano. - -LE BRET: - 'Tis terrible. - -CARBON: - Not a morsel left. - -LE BRET: - Mordioux! - -CARBON (making a sign that he should speak lower): - Curse under your breath. You will awake them. -(To the cadets): - Hush! Sleep on. -(To Le Bret): - He who sleeps, dines! - -LE BRET: - But that is sorry comfort for the sleepless!. . . - What starvation! - -(Firing is heard in the distance.) - -CARBON: - Oh, plague take their firing! 'Twill wake my sons. -(To the cadets, who lift up their heads): - Sleep on! - -(Firing is again heard, nearer this time.) - -A CADET (moving): - The devil!. . .Again. - -CARBON: - 'Tis nothing! 'Tis Cyrano coming back! - -(Those who have lifted up their heads prepare to sleep again.) - -A SENTINEL (from without): - Ventrebieu! Who goes there? - -THE VOICE Of CYRANO: - Bergerac. - -The SENTINEL (who is on the redoubt): - Ventrebieu! Who goes there? - -CYRANO (appearing at the top): - Bergerac, idiot! - -(He comes down; Le Bret advances anxiously to meet him.) - -LE BRET: - Heavens! - -CYRANO (making signs that he should not awake the others): - Hush! - -LE BRET: - Wounded? - -CYRANO: - Oh! you know it has become their custom to shoot at me every morning and to -miss me. - -LE BRET: - This passes all! To take letters at each day's dawn. To risk. . . - -CYRANO (stopping before Christian): - I promised he should write often. -(He looks at him): - He sleeps. How pale he is! But how handsome still, despite his sufferings. -If his poor little lady-love knew that he is dying of hunger. . . - -LE BRET: - Get you quick to bed. - -CYRANO: - Nay, never scold, Le Bret. I ran but little risk. I have found me a spot -to pass the Spanish lines, where each night they lie drunk. - -LE BRET: - You should try to bring us back provision. - -CYRANO: - A man must carry no weight who would get by there! But there will be -surprise for us this night. The French will eat or die. . .if I mistake not! - -LE BRET: - Oh!. . .tell me!. . . - -CYRANO: - Nay, not yet. I am not certain. . .You will see! - -CARBON: - It is disgraceful that we should starve while we're besieging! - -LE BRET: - Alas, how full of complication is this siege of Arras! To think that while -we are besieging, we should ourselves be caught in a trap and besieged by the -Cardinal Infante of Spain. - -CYRANO: - It were well done if he should be besieged in his turn. - -LE BRET: - I am in earnest. - -CYRANO: - Oh! indeed! - -LE BRET: - To think you risk a life so precious. . .for the sake of a letter. . -.Thankless one. -(Seeing him turning to enter the tent): - Where are you going? - -CYRANO: - I am going to write another. - -(He enters the tent and disappears.) - - - -Scene 4.II. - -The same, all but Cyrano. The day is breaking in a rosy light. The town of -Arras is golden in the horizon. The report of cannon is heard in the -distance, followed immediately by the beating of drums far away to the left. -Other drums are heard much nearer. Sounds of stirring in the camp. Voices of -officers in the distance. - -CARBON (sighing): - The reveille! -(The cadets move and stretch themselves): - Nourishing sleep! Thou art at an end!. . .I know well what will be their -first cry! - -A CADET (sitting up): - I am so hungry! - -ANOTHER: - I am dying of hunger. - -TOGETHER: - Oh! - -CARBON: - Up with you! - -THIRD CADET: - --Cannot move a limb. - -FOURTH CADET: - Nor can I. - -THE FIRST (looking at himself in a bit of armor): - My tongue is yellow. The air at this season of the year is hard to digest. - -ANOTHER: - My coronet for a bit of Chester! - -ANOTHER: - If none can furnish to my gaster wherewith to make a pint of chyle, I shall -retire to my tent--like Achilles! - -ANOTHER: - Oh! something! were it but a crust! - -CARBON (going to the tent and calling softly): - Cyrano! - -ALL THE CADETS: - We are dying! - -CARBON (continuing to speak under his breath at the opening of the tent): - Come to my aid, you, who have the art of quick retort and gay jest. Come, -hearten them up. - -SECOND CADET (rushing toward another who is munching something): - What are you crunching there? - -FIRST CADET: - Cannon-wads soaked in axle-grease! 'Tis poor hunting round about Arras! - -A CADET (entering): - I have been after game. - -ANOTHER (following him): - And I after fish. - -ALL (rushing to the two newcomers): - Well! what have you brought?--a pheasant?--a carp?--Come, show us quick! - -THE ANGLER: - A gudgeon! - -THE SPORTSMAN: - A sparrow! - -ALL TOGETHER (beside themselves): - 'Tis more than can be borne! We will mutiny! - -CARBON: - Cyrano! Come to my help. - -(The daylight has now come.) - - - -Scene 4.III. - -The SAME. Cyrano. - -CYRANO (appearing from the tent, very calm, with a pen stuck behind his ear -and a book in his hand): - What is wrong? -(Silence. To the first cadet): - Why drag you your legs so sorrowfully? - -THE CADET: - I have something in my heels which weighs them down. - -CYRANO: - And what may that be? - -THE CADET: - My stomach! - -CYRANO: - So have I, 'faith! - -THE CADET: - It must be in your way? - -CYRANO: - Nay, I am all the taller. - -A THIRD: - My stomach's hollow. - -CYRANO: - 'Faith, 'twill make a fine drum to sound the assault. - -ANOTHER: - I have a ringing in my ears. - -CYRANO: - No, no, 'tis false; a hungry stomach has no ears. - -ANOTHER: - Oh, to eat something--something oily! - -CYRANO (pulling off the cadet's helmet and holding it out to him): - Behold your salad! - -ANOTHER: - What, in God's name, can we devour? - -CYRANO (throwing him the book which he is carrying): - The 'Iliad'. - -ANOTHER: - The first minister in Paris has his four meals a day! - -CYRANO: - 'Twere courteous an he sent you a few partridges! - -THE SAME: - And why not? with wine, too! - -CYRANO: - A little Burgundy. Richelieu, s'il vous plait! - -THE SAME: - He could send it by one of his friars. - -CYRANO: - Ay! by His Eminence Joseph himself. - -ANOTHER: - I am as ravenous as an ogre! - -CYRANO: - Eat your patience, then. - -THE FIRST CADET (shrugging his shoulders): - Always your pointed word! - -CYRANO: - Ay, pointed words! - I would fain die thus, some soft summer eve, - Making a pointed word for a good cause. - --To make a soldier's end by soldier's sword, - Wielded by some brave adversary--die - On blood-stained turf, not on a fever-bed, - A point upon my lips, a point within my heart. - -CRIES FROM ALL: - I'm hungry! - -CYRANO (crossing his arms): - All your thoughts of meat and drink! - Bertrand the fifer!--you were shepherd once,-- - Draw from its double leathern case your fife, - Play to these greedy, guzzling soldiers. Play - Old country airs with plaintive rhythm recurring, - Where lurk sweet echoes of the dear home-voices, - Each note of which calls like a little sister, - Those airs slow, slow ascending, as the smoke-wreaths - Rise from the hearthstones of our native hamlets, - Their music strikes the ear like Gascon patois!. . . -(The old man seats himself, and gets his flute ready): - Your flute was now a warrior in durance; - But on its stem your fingers are a-dancing - A bird-like minuet! O flute! Remember - That flutes were made of reeds first, not laburnum; - Make us a music pastoral days recalling-- - The soul-time of your youth, in country pastures!. . . -(The old man begins to play the airs of Languedoc): - Hark to the music, Gascons!. . .'Tis no longer - The piercing fife of camp--but 'neath his fingers - The flute of the woods! No more the call to combat, - 'Tis now the love-song of the wandering goat-herds!. . . - Hark!. . .'tis the valley, the wet landes, the forest, - The sunburnt shepherd-boy with scarlet beret, - The dusk of evening on the Dordogne river,-- - 'Tis Gascony! Hark, Gascons, to the music! - -(The cadets sit with bowed heads; their eyes have a far-off look as if -dreaming, and they surreptitiously wipe away their tears with their cuffs and -the corner of their cloaks.) - -CARBON (to Cyrano in a whisper): - But you make them weep! - -CYRANO: - Ay, for homesickness. A nobler pain than hunger,--'tis of the soul, not of -the body! I am well pleased to see their pain change its viscera. Heart-ache -is better than stomach-ache. - -CARBON: - But you weaken their courage by playing thus on their heart-strings! - -CYRANO (making a sign to a drummer to approach): - Not I. The hero that sleeps in Gascon blood is ever ready to awake in them. -'Twould suffice. . . - -(He makes a signal; the drum beats.) - -ALL THE CADETS (stand up and rush to take arms): - What? What is it? - -CYRANO (smiling): - You see! One roll of the drum is enough! Good-by dreams, regrets, native -land, love. . .All that the pipe called forth the drum has chased away! - -A CADET (looking toward the back of the stage): - Ho! here comes Monsieur de Guiche. - -ALL THE CADETS (muttering): - Ugh!. . .Ugh!. . . - -CYRANO (smiling): - A flattering welcome! - -A CADET: - We are sick to death of him! - -ANOTHER CADET: - --With his lace collar over his armor, playing the fine gentleman! - -ANOTHER: - As if one wore linen over steel! - -THE FIRST: - It were good for a bandage had he boils on his neck. - -THE SECOND: - Another plotting courtier! - -ANOTHER CADET: - His uncle's own nephew! - -CARBON: - For all that--a Gascon. - -THE FIRST: - Ay, false Gascon!. . .trust him not. . . - Gascons should ever be crack-brained. . . - Naught more dangerous than a rational Gascon. - -LE BRET: - How pale he is! - -ANOTHER: - Oh! he is hungry, just like us poor devils; but under his cuirass, with its -fine gilt nails, his stomach-ache glitters brave in the sun. - -CYRANO (hurriedly): - Let us not seem to suffer either! Out with your cards, pipes, and dice. . . -(All begin spreading out the games on the drums, the stools, the ground, and -on their cloaks, and light long pipes): - And I shall read Descartes. - -(He walks up and down, reading a little book which he has drawn from his -pocket. Tableau. Enter De Guiche. All appear absorbed and happy. He is -very pale. He goes up to Carbon.) - - - -Scene 4.IV. - -The same. De Guiche. - -DE GUICHE (to Carbon): - Good-day! -(They examine each other. Aside, with satisfaction): - He's green. - -CARBON (aside): - He has nothing left but eyes. - -DE GUICHE (looking at the cadets): - Here are the rebels! Ay, Sirs, on all sides - I hear that in your ranks you scoff at me; - That the Cadets, these loutish, mountain-bred, - Poor country squires, and barons of Perigord, - Scarce find for me--their Colonel--a disdain - Sufficient! call me plotter, wily courtier! - It does not please their mightiness to see - A point-lace collar on my steel cuirass,-- - And they enrage, because a man, in sooth, - May be no ragged-robin, yet a Gascon! -(Silence. All smoke and play): - Shall I command your Captain punish you? - No. - -CARBON: - I am free, moreover,--will not punish-- - -DE GUICHE: - Ah! - -CARBON: - I have paid my company--'tis mine. - I bow but to headquarters. - -DE GUICHE: - So?--in faith! - That will suffice. -(Addressing himself to the cadets): - I can despise your taunts - 'Tis well known how I bear me in the war; - At Bapaume, yesterday, they saw the rage - With which I beat back the Count of Bucquoi; - Assembling my own men, I fell on his, - And charged three separate times! - -CYRANO (without lifting his eyes from his book): - And your white scarf? - -DE GUICHE (surprised and gratified): - You know that detail?. . .Troth! It happened thus: - While caracoling to recall the troops - For the third charge, a band of fugitives - Bore me with them, close by the hostile ranks: - I was in peril--capture, sudden death!-- - When I thought of the good expedient - To loosen and let fall the scarf which told - My military rank; thus I contrived - --Without attention waked--to leave the foes, - And suddenly returning, reinforced - With my own men, to scatter them! And now, - --What say you, Sir? - -(The cadets pretend not to be listening, but the cards and the dice-boxes -remain suspended in their hands, the smoke of their pipes in their cheeks. -They wait.) - -CYRANO: - I say, that Henri Quatre - Had not, by any dangerous odds, been forced - To strip himself of his white helmet plume. - -(Silent delight. The cards fall, the dice rattle. The smoke is puffed.) - -DE GUICHE: - The ruse succeeded, though! - -(Same suspension of play, etc.) - -CYRANO: - Oh, may be! But - One does not lightly abdicate the honor - To serve as target to the enemy -(Cards, dice, fall again, and the cadets smoke with evident delight): - Had I been present when your scarf fell low, - --Our courage, Sir, is of a different sort-- - I would have picked it up and put it on. - -DE GUICHE: - Oh, ay! Another Gascon boast! - -CYRANO: - A boast? - Lend it to me. I pledge myself, to-night, - --With it across my breast,--to lead th' assault. - -DE GUICHE: - Another Gascon vaunt! You know the scarf - Lies with the enemy, upon the brink - Of the stream,. . .the place is riddled now with shot,-- - No one can fetch it hither! - -CYRANO (drawing the scarf from his pocket, and holding it out to him): - Here it is. - -(Silence. The cadets stifle their laughter in their cards and dice-boxes. De -Guiche turns and looks at them; they instantly become grave, and set to play. -One of them whistles indifferently the air just played by the fifer.) - -DE GUICHE (taking the scarf): - I thank you. It will now enable me - To make a signal,--that I had forborne - To make--till now. - -(He goes to the rampart, climbs it, and waves the scarf thrice.) - -ALL: - What's that? - -THE SENTINEL (from the top of the rampart): - See you yon man - Down there, who runs?. . . - -DE GUICHE (descending): - 'Tis a false Spanish spy - Who is extremely useful to my ends. - The news he carries to the enemy - Are those I prompt him with--so, in a word, - We have an influence on their decisions! - -CYRANO: - Scoundrel! - -DE GUICHE (carelessly knotting on his scarf): - 'Tis opportune. What were we saying? - Ah! I have news for you. Last evening - --To victual us--the Marshal did attempt - A final effort:--secretly he went - To Dourlens, where the King's provisions be. - But--to return to camp more easily-- - He took with him a goodly force of troops. - Those who attacked us now would have fine sport! - Half of the army's absent from the camp! - -CARBON: - Ay, if the Spaniards knew, 'twere ill for us, - But they know nothing of it? - -DE GUICHE: - Oh! they know. - They will attack us. - -CARBON: - Ah! - -DE GUICHE: - For my false spy - Came to warn me of their attack. He said, - 'I can decide the point for their assault; - Where would you have it? I will tell them 'tis - The least defended--they'll attempt you there.' - I answered, 'Good. Go out of camp, but watch - My signal. Choose the point from whence it comes.' - -CARBON (to cadets): - Make ready! - -(All rise; sounds of swords and belts being buckled.) - -DE GUICHE: - 'Twill be in an hour. - -FIRST CADET: - Good!. . . - -(They all sit down again and take up their games.) - -DE GUICHE (to Carbon): - Time must be gained. The Marshal will return. - -CARBON: - How gain it? - -DE GUICHE: - You will all be good enough - To let yourselves to be killed. - -CYRANO: - Vengeance! oho! - -DE GUICHE: - I do not say that, if I loved you well, - I had chosen you and yours,--but, as things stand,-- - Your courage yielding to no corps the palm-- - I serve my King, and serve my grudge as well. - -CYRANO: - Permit that I express my gratitude. . . - -DE GUICHE: - I know you love to fight against five score; - You will not now complain of paltry odds. - -(He goes up with Carbon.) - -CYRANO (to the cadets): - We shall add to the Gascon coat of arms, - With its six bars of blue and gold, one more-- - The blood-red bar that was a-missing there! - -(De Guiche speaks in a low voice with Carbon at the back. Orders are given. -Preparations go forward. Cyrano goes up to Christian, who stands with crossed -arms.) - -CYRANO (putting his hand on Christian's shoulder): - Christian! - -CHRISTIAN (shaking his head): - Roxane! - -CYRANO: - Alas! - -CHRISTIAN: - At least, I'd send - My heart's farewell to her in a fair letter!. . . - -CYRANO: - I had suspicion it would be to-day, -(He draws a letter out of his doublet): - And had already writ. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - Show! - -CYRANO: - Will you. . .? - -CHRISTIAN (taking the letter): - Ay! -(He opens and reads it): - Hold! - -CYRANO: - What? - -CHRISTIAN: - This little spot! - -CYRANO (taking the letter, with an innocent look): - A spot? - -CHRISTIAN: - A tear! - -CYRANO: - Poets, at last,--by dint of counterfeiting-- - Take counterfeit for true--that is the charm! - This farewell letter,--it was passing sad, - I wept myself in writing it! - -CHRISTIAN: - Wept? why? - -CYRANO: - Oh!. . .death itself is hardly terrible,. . . - --But, ne'er to see her more! That is death's sting! - --For. . .I shall never. . . -(Christian looks at him): - We shall. . . -(Quickly): - I mean, you. . . - -CHRISTIAN (snatching the letter from him): - Give me that letter! - -(A rumor, far off in the camp.) - -VOICE Of SENTINEL: - Who goes there? Halloo! - -(Shots--voices--carriage-bells.) - -CARBON: - What is it? - -A SENTINEL (on the rampart): - 'Tis a carriage! - -(All rush to see.) - -CRIES: - In the camp? - It enters!--It comes from the enemy! - --Fire!--No!--The coachman cries!--What does he say? - --'On the King's service!' - -(Everyone is on the rampart, staring. The bells come nearer.) - -DE GUICHE: - The King's service? How? - -(All descend and draw up in line.) - -CARBON: - Uncover, all! - -DE GUICHE: - The King's! Draw up in line! - Let him describe his curve as it befits! - -(The carriage enters at full speed covered with dust and mud. The curtains -are drawn close. Two lackeys behind. It is pulled up suddenly.) - -CARBON: - Beat a salute! - -(A roll of drums. The cadets uncover.) - -DE GUICHE: - Lower the carriage-steps! - -(Two cadets rush forward. The door opens.) - -ROXANE (jumping down from the carriage): - Good-day! - -(All are bowing to the ground, but at the sound of a woman's voice every head -is instantly raised.) - - - -Scene 4.V. - -The same. Roxane. - -DE GUICHE: - On the King's service! You? - -ROXANE: - Ay,--King Love's! What other king? - -CYRANO: - Great God! - -CHRISTIAN (rushing forward): - Why have you come? - -ROXANE: - This siege--'tis too long! - -CHRISTIAN: - But why?. . . - -ROXANE: - I will tell you all! - -CYRANO (who, at the sound of her voice, has stood still, rooted to the ground, -afraid to raise his eyes): - My God! dare I look at her? - -DE GUICHE: - You cannot remain here! - -ROXANE (merrily): - But I say yes! Who will push a drum hither for me? -(She seats herself on the drum they roll forward): - So! I thank you. -(She laughs): - My carriage was fired at -(proudly): - by the patrol! Look! would you not think 'twas made of a pumpkin, like -Cinderella's chariot in the tale,--and the footmen out of rats? -(Sending a kiss with her lips to Christian): - Good-morrow! -(Examining them all): - You look not merry, any of you! Ah! know you that 'tis a long road to get -to Arras? -(Seeing Cyrano): - Cousin, delighted! - -CYRANO (coming up to her): - But how, in Heaven's name?. . . - -ROXANE: - How found I the way to the army? It was simple enough, for I had but to -pass on and on, as far as I saw the country laid waste. Ah, what horrors were -there! Had I not seen, then I could never have believed it! Well, gentlemen, -if such be the service of your King, I would fainer serve mine! - -CYRANO: - But 'tis sheer madness! Where in the fiend's name did you get through? - -ROXANE: - Where? Through the Spanish lines. - -FIRST CADET: - --For subtle craft, give me a woman! - -DE GUICHE: - But how did you pass through their lines? - -LE BRET: - Faith! that must have been a hard matter!. . . - -ROXANE: - None too hard. I but drove quietly forward in my carriage, and when some -hidalgo of haughty mien would have stayed me, lo! I showed at the window my -sweetest smile, and these Senors being (with no disrespect to you) the most -gallant gentlemen in the world,--I passed on! - -CARBON: - True, that smile is a passport! But you must have been asked frequently to -give an account of where you were going, Madame? - -ROXANE: - Yes, frequently. Then I would answer, 'I go to see my lover.' At that word -the very fiercest Spaniard of them all would gravely shut the carriage-door, -and, with a gesture that a king might envy, make signal to his men to lower -the muskets leveled at me;--then, with melancholy but withal very graceful -dignity--his beaver held to the wind that the plumes might flutter bravely, he -would bow low, saying to me, 'Pass on, Senorita!' - -CHRISTIAN: - But, Roxane. . . - -ROXANE: - Forgive me that I said, 'my lover!' But bethink you, had I said 'my -husband,' not one of them had let me pass! - -CHRISTIAN: - But. . . - -ROXANE: - What ails you? - -DE GUICHE: - You must leave this place! - -ROXANE: - I? - -CYRANO: - And that instantly! - -LE BRET: - No time to lose. - -CHRISTIAN: - Indeed, you must. - -ROXANE: - But wherefore must I? - -CHRISTIAN (embarrassed): - 'Tis that. . . - -CYRANO (the same): - --In three quarters of an hour. . . - -DE GUICHE (the same): - --Or for. . . - -CARBON (the same): - It were best. . . - -LE BRET (the same): - You might. . . - -ROXANE: - You are going to fight?--I stay here. - -ALL: - No, no! - -ROXANE: - He is my husband! -(She throws herself into Christian's arms): - They shall kill us both together! - -CHRISTIAN: - Why do you look at me thus? - -ROXANE: - I will tell you why! - -DE GUICHE (in despair): - 'Tis a post of mortal danger! - -ROXANE (turning round): - Mortal danger! - -CYRANO: - Proof enough, that he has put us here! - -ROXANE (to De Guiche): - So, Sir, you would have made a widow of me? - -DE GUICHE: - Nay, on my oath. . . - -ROXANE: - I will not go! I am reckless now, and I shall not stir from here!--Besides, -'tis amusing! - -CYRANO: - Oh-ho! So our precieuse is a heroine! - -ROXANE: - Monsieur de Bergerac, I am your cousin. - -A CADET: - We will defend you well! - -ROXANE (more and more excited): - I have no fear of that, my friends! - -ANOTHER (in ecstasy): - The whole camp smells sweet of orris-root! - -ROXANE: - And, by good luck, I have chosen a hat that will suit well with the -battlefield! -(Looking at De Guiche): - But were it not wisest that the Count retire? - They may begin the attack. - -DE GUICHE: - That is not to be brooked! I go to inspect the cannon, and shall return. -You have still time--think better of it! - -ROXANE: - Never! - -(De Guiche goes out.) - - - -Scene 4.VI. - -The same, all but De Guiche. - -CHRISTIAN (entreatingly): - Roxane! - -ROXANE: - No! - -FIRST CADET (to the others): - She stays! - -ALL (hurrying, hustling each other, tidying themselves): - A comb!--Soap!--My uniform is torn!--A needle!--A ribbon!--Lend your -mirror!--My cuffs!--Your curling-iron!--A razor!. . . - -ROXANE (to Cyrano, who still pleads with her): - No! Naught shall make me stir from this spot! - -CARBON (who, like the others, has been buckling, dusting, brushing his hat, -settling his plume, and drawing on his cuffs, advances to Roxane, and -ceremoniously): - It is perchance more seemly, since things are thus, that I present to you -some of these gentlemen who are about to have the honor of dying before your -eyes. -(Roxane bows, and stands leaning on Christian's arm, while Carbon introduces -the cadets to her): - Baron de Peyrescous de Colignac! - -THE CADET (with a low reverence): - Madame. . . - -CARBON (continuing): -Baron de Casterac de Cahuzac,--Vidame de Malgouyre Estressac Lésbas -d'Escarabiot, Chevalier d'Antignac-Juzet, Baron Hillot de -Blagnac-Salechan de Castel Crabioules. . . - -ROXANE: - But how many names have you each? - -BARON HILLOT: - Scores! - -CARBON (to Roxane): - Pray, open the hand that holds your kerchief. - -ROXANE (opens her hand, and the handkerchief falls): - Why? - -(The whole company start forward to pick it up.) - -CARBON (quickly raising it): - My company had no flag. But now, by my faith, they will have the fairest in -all the camp! - -ROXANE (smiling): - 'Tis somewhat small. - -CARBON (tying the handkerchief on the staff of his lance): - But--'tis of lace! - -A CADET (to the rest): - I could die happy, having seen so sweet a face, if I had something in my -stomach--were it but a nut! - -CARBON (who has overheard, indignantly): - Shame on you! What, talk of eating when a lovely woman!. . . - -ROXANE: - But your camp air is keen; I myself am famished. Pasties, cold -_fricassée_, old wines--there is my bill of fare? Pray bring it all -here. - -(Consternation.) - -A CADET: - All that? - -ANOTHER: - But where on earth find it? - -ROXANE (quietly): - In my carriage. - -ALL: - How? - -ROXANE: - Now serve up--carve! Look a little closer at my coachman, gentlemen, and -you will recognize a man most welcome. All the sauces can be sent to table -hot, if we will! - -THE CADETS (rushing pellmell to the carriage): - 'Tis Ragueneau! -(Acclamations): - Oh, oh! - -ROXANE (looking after them): - Poor fellows! - -CYRANO (kissing her hand): - Kind fairy! - -RAGUENEAU (standing on the box like a quack doctor at a fair): - Gentlemen!. . . - -(General delight.) - -THE CADETS: - Bravo! bravo! - -RAGUENEAU: - . . .The Spaniards, gazing on a lady so dainty fair, overlooked the fare so -dainty!. . . - -(Applause.) - -CYRANO (in a whisper to Christian): - Hark, Christian! - -RAGUENEAU: - . . .And, occupied with gallantry, perceived not-- -(He draws a plate from under the seat, and holds it up): - --The galantine!. . . - -(Applause. The galantine passes from hand to hand.) - -CYRANO (still whispering to Christian): - Prythee, one word! - -RAGUENEAU: - And Venus so attracted their eyes that Diana could secretly pass by with-- -(He holds up a shoulder of mutton): - --her fawn! - -(Enthusiasm. Twenty hands are held out to seize the shoulder of mutton.) - -CYRANO (in a low whisper to Christian): - I must speak to you! - -ROXANE (to the cadets, who come down, their arms laden with food): - Put it all on the ground! - -(She lays all out on the grass, aided by the two imperturbable lackeys who -were behind the carriage.) - -ROXANE (to Christian, just as Cyrano is drawing him apart): - Come, make yourself of use! - -(Christian comes to help her. Cyrano's uneasiness increases.) - -RAGUENEAU: - Truffled peacock! - -FIRST CADET (radiant, coming down, cutting a big slice of ham): - By the mass! We shall not brave the last hazard without having had a -gullet-full!-- -(quickly correcting himself on seeing Roxane): - --Pardon! A Balthazar feast! - -RAGUENEAU (throwing down the carriage cushions): - The cushions are stuffed with ortolans! - -(Hubbub. They tear open and turn out the contents of the cushions. Bursts of -laughter--merriment.) - -THIRD CADET: - Ah! Viedaze! - -RAGUENEAU (throwing down to the cadets bottles of red wine): - Flasks of rubies!-- -(and white wine): - --Flasks of topaz! - -ROXANE (throwing a folded tablecloth at Cyrano's head): - Unfold me that napkin!--Come, come! be nimble! - -RAGUENEAU (waving a lantern): - Each of the carriage-lamps is a little larder! - -CYRANO (in a low voice to Christian, as they arrange the cloth together): - I must speak with you ere you speak to her. - -RAGUENEAU: - My whip-handle is an Arles sausage! - -ROXANE (pouring out wine, helping): - Since we are to die, let the rest of the army shift for itself. All for the -Gascons! And mark! if De Guiche comes, let no one invite him! -(Going from one to the other): - There! there! You have time enough! Do not eat too fast!--Drink a - little.—Why are you crying? - -FIRST CADET: - It is all so good!. . . - -ROXANE: - Tut!--Red or white?--Some bread for Monsieur de Carbon!--a knife! Pass your -plate!--a little of the crust? Some more? Let me help you!--Some -champagne?—A wing? - -CYRANO (who follows her, his arms laden with dishes, helping her to wait on -everybody): - How I worship her! - -ROXANE (going up to Christian): - What will you? - -CHRISTIAN: - Nothing. - -ROXANE: - Nay, nay, take this biscuit, steeped in muscat; come!. . . but two - drops! - -CHRISTIAN (trying to detain her): - Oh! tell me why you came? - -ROXANE: - Wait; my first duty is to these poor fellows.--Hush! In a few minutes. . . - -LE BRET (who had gone up to pass a loaf on the end of a lance to the sentry on -the rampart): - De Guiche! - -CYRANO: - Quick! hide flasks, plates, pie-dishes, game-baskets! Hurry!--Let us all -look unconscious! -(To Ragueneau): - Up on your seat!--Is everything covered up? - -(In an instant all has been pushed into the tents, or hidden under doublets, -cloaks, and beavers. De Guiche enters hurriedly--stops suddenly, sniffing the -air. Silence.) - - - -Scene 4.VII. - -The same. De Guiche. - -DE GUICHE: - It smells good here. - -A CADET (humming): - Lo! Lo-lo! - -DE GUICHE (looking at him): - What is the matter?--You are very red. - -THE CADET: - The matter?--Nothing!--'Tis my blood--boiling at the thought of the coming -battle! - -ANOTHER: - Poum, poum--poum. . . - -DE GUICHE (turning round): - What's that? - -THE CADET (slightly drunk): - Nothing!. . .'Tis a song!--a little. . . - -DE GUICHE: - You are merry, my friend! - -THE CADET: - The approach of danger is intoxicating! - -DE GUICHE (calling Carbon de Castel-Jaloux, to give him an order): - Captain! I. . . -(He stops short on seeing him): - Plague take me! but you look bravely, too! - -CARBON (crimson in the face, hiding a bottle behind his back, with an evasive -movement): - Oh!. . . - -DE GUICHE: - I have one cannon left, and have had it carried there-- -(he points behind the scenes): - --in that corner. . .Your men can use it in case of need. - -A CADET (reeling slightly): - Charming attention! - -ANOTHER (with a gracious smile): - Kind solicitude! - -DE GUICHE: - How? they are all gone crazy? -(Drily): - As you are not used to cannon, beware of the recoil. - -FIRST CADET: - Pooh! - -DE GUICHE (furious, going up to him): - But. . . - -THE CADET: - Gascon cannons never recoil! - -DE GUICHE (taking him by the arm and shaking him): - You are tipsy!--but what with? - -THE CADET (grandiloquently): - --With the smell of powder! - -DE GUICHE (shrugging his shoulders and pushing him away, then going quickly to -Roxane): - Briefly, Madame, what decision do you deign to take? - -ROXANE: - I stay here. - -DE GUICHE: - You must fly! - -ROXANE: - No! I will stay. - -DE GUICHE: - Since things are thus, give me a musket, one of you! - -CARBON: - Wherefore? - -DE GUICHE: - Because I too--mean to remain. - -CYRANO: - At last! This is true valor, Sir! - -FIRST CADET: - Then you are Gascon after all, spite of your lace collar? - -ROXANE: - What is all this? - -DE GUICHE: - I leave no woman in peril. - -SECOND CADET (to the first): - Hark you! Think you not we might give him something to eat? - -(All the viands reappear as if by magic.) - -DE GUICHE (whose eyes sparkle): - Victuals! - -THE THIRD CADET: - Yes, you'll see them coming from under every coat! - -DE GUICHE (controlling himself, haughtily): - Do you think I will eat your leavings? - -CYRANO (saluting him): - You make progress. - -DE GUICHE (proudly, with a light touch of accent on the word 'breaking'): - I will fight without br-r-eaking my fast! - -FIRST CADET (with wild delight): - Br-r-r-eaking! He has got the accent! - -DE GUICHE (laughing): - I? - -THE CADET: - 'Tis a Gascon! - -(All begin to dance.) - -CARBON DE CASTEL-JALOUX (who had disappeared behind the rampart, reappearing -on the ridge): - I have drawn my pikemen up in line. They are a resolute troop. - -(He points to a row of pikes, the tops of which are seen over the ridge.) - -DE GUICHE (bowing to Roxane): - Will you accept my hand, and accompany me while I review them? - -(She takes it, and they go up toward the rampart. All uncover and follow -them.) - -CHRISTIAN (going to Cyrano, eagerly): - Tell me quickly! - -(As Roxane appears on the ridge, the tops of the lances disappear, lowered for -the salute, and a shout is raised. She bows.) - -THE PIKEMEN (outside): - Vivat! - -CHRISTIAN: - What is this secret? - -CYRANO: - If Roxane should. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - Should?. . . - -CYRANO: - Speak of the letters?. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - Yes, I know!. . . - -CYRANO: - Do not spoil all by seeming surprised. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - At what? - -CYRANO: - I must explain to you!. . .Oh! 'tis no great matter--I but thought of it to- -day on seeing her. You have. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - Tell quickly! - -CYRANO: - You have. . .written to her oftener than you think. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - How so? - -CYRANO: - Thus, 'faith! I had taken it in hand to express your flame for you!. . .At -times I wrote without saying, 'I am writing!' - -CHRISTIAN: - Ah!. . . - -CYRANO: - 'Tis simple enough! - -CHRISTIAN: - But how did you contrive, since we have been cut off, thus. . .to?. . . - -CYRANO: - . . .Oh! before dawn. . .I was able to get through. . . - -CHRISTIAN (folding his arms): - That was simple, too? And how oft, pray you, have I written?. . .Twice in -the week?. . .Three times?. . .Four?. . . - -CYRANO: - More often still. - -CHRISTIAN: - What! Every day? - -CYRANO: - Yes, every day,--twice. - -CHRISTIAN (violently): - And that became so mad a joy for you, that you braved death. . . - -CYRANO (seeing Roxane returning): - Hush! Not before her! - -(He goes hurriedly into his tent.) - - - -Scene 4.VIII. - -Roxane, Christian. In the distance cadets coming and going. Carbon and De -Guiche give orders. - -ROXANE (running up to Christian): - Ah, Christian, at last!. . . - -CHRISTIAN (taking her hands): - Now tell me why-- - Why, by these fearful paths so perilous-- - Across these ranks of ribald soldiery, - You have come? - -ROXANE: - Love, your letters brought me here! - -CHRISTIAN: - What say you? - -ROXANE: - 'Tis your fault if I ran risks! - Your letters turned my head! Ah! all this month, - How many!--and the last one ever bettered - The one that went before! - -CHRISTIAN: - What!--for a few - Inconsequent love-letters! - -ROXANE: - Hold your peace! - Ah! you cannot conceive it! Ever since - That night, when, in a voice all new to me, - Under my window you revealed your soul-- - Ah! ever since I have adored you! Now - Your letters all this whole month long!--meseemed - As if I heard that voice so tender, true, - Sheltering, close! Thy fault, I say! It drew me, - The voice o' th' night! Oh! wise Penelope - Would ne'er have stayed to broider on her hearthstone, - If her Ulysses could have writ such letters! - But would have cast away her silken bobbins, - And fled to join him, mad for love as Helen! - -CHRISTIAN: - But. . . - -ROXANE: - I read, read again--grew faint for love; - I was thine utterly. Each separate page - Was like a fluttering flower-petal, loosed - From your own soul, and wafted thus to mine. - Imprinted in each burning word was love - Sincere, all-powerful. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - A love sincere! - Can that be felt, Roxane! - -ROXANE: - Ay, that it can! - -CHRISTIAN: - You come. . .? - -ROXANE: - O, Christian, my true lord, I come-- - (Were I to throw myself, here, at your knees, - You would raise me--but 'tis my soul I lay - At your feet--you can raise it nevermore!) - --I come to crave your pardon. (Ay, 'tis time - To sue for pardon, now that death may come!) - For the insult done to you when, frivolous, - At first I loved you only for your face! - -CHRISTIAN (horror-stricken): - Roxane! - -ROXANE: - And later, love--less frivolous-- - Like a bird that spreads its wings, but can not fly-- - Arrested by your beauty, by your soul - Drawn close--I loved for both at once! - -CHRISTIAN: - And now? - -ROXANE: - Ah! you yourself have triumphed o'er yourself, - And now, I love you only for your soul! - -CHRISTIAN (stepping backward): - Roxane! - -ROXANE: - Be happy. To be loved for beauty-- - A poor disguise that time so soon wears threadbare-- - Must be to noble souls--to souls aspiring-- - A torture. Your dear thoughts have now effaced - That beauty that so won me at the outset. - Now I see clearer--and I no more see it! - -CHRISTIAN: - Oh!. . . - -ROXANE: - You are doubtful of such victory? - -CHRISTIAN (pained): - Roxane! - -ROXANE: - I see you cannot yet believe it. - Such love. . .? - -CHRISTIAN: - I do not ask such love as that! - I would be loved more simply; for. . . - -ROXANE: - For that - Which they have all in turns loved in thee?-- - Shame! - Oh! be loved henceforth in a better way! - -CHRISTIAN: - No! the first love was best! - -ROXANE: - Ah! how you err! - 'Tis now that I love best--love well! 'Tis that - Which is thy true self, see!--that I adore! - Were your brilliance dimmed. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - Hush! - -ROXANE: - I should love still! - Ay, if your beauty should to-day depart. . . - -CHRISTIAN: - Say not so! - -ROXANE: - Ay, I say it! - -CHRISTIAN: - Ugly? How? - -ROXANE: - Ugly! I swear I'd love you still! - -CHRISTIAN: - My God! - -ROXANE: - Are you content at last? - -CHRISTIAN (in a choked voice): - Ay!. . . - -ROXANE: - What is wrong? - -CHRISTIAN (gently pushing her away): - Nothing. . .I have two words to say:--one second. . . - -ROXANE: - But?. . . - -CHRISTIAN (pointing to the cadets): - Those poor fellows, shortly doomed to death,-- - My love deprives them of the sight of you: - Go,--speak to them--smile on them ere they die! - -ROXANE (deeply affected): - Dear Christian!. . . - -(She goes up to the cadets, who respectfully crowd round her.) - - - -Scene 4.IX. - -Christian, Cyrano. At back Roxane talking to Carbon and some cadets. - -CHRISTIAN (calling toward Cyrano's tent): - Cyrano! - -CYRANO (reappearing, fully armed): - What? Why so pale? - -CHRISTIAN: - She does not love me! - -CYRANO: - What? - -CHRISTIAN: - 'Tis you she loves! - -CYRANO: - No! - -CHRISTIAN: - --For she loves me only for my soul! - -CYRANO: - Truly? - -CHRISTIAN: - Yes! Thus--you see, that soul is you,. . . - Therefore, 'tis you she loves!--And you--love her! - -CYRANO: - I? - -CHRISTIAN: - Oh, I know it! - -CYRANO: - Ay, 'tis true! - -CHRISTIAN: - You love - To madness! - -CYRANO: - Ay! and worse! - -CHRISTIAN: - Then tell her so! - -CYRANO: - No! - -CHRISTIAN: - And why not? - -CYRANO: - Look at my face!--be answered! - -CHRISTIAN: - She'd love me--were I ugly. - -CYRANO: - Said she so? - -CHRISTIAN: - Ay! in those words! - -CYRANO: - I'm glad she told you that! - But pooh!--believe it not! I am well pleased - She thought to tell you. Take it not for truth. - Never grow ugly:--she'd reproach me then! - -CHRISTIAN: - That I intend discovering! - -CYRANO: - No! I beg! - -CHRISTIAN: - Ay! she shall choose between us!--Tell her all! - -CYRANO: - No! no! I will not have it! Spare me this! - -CHRISTIAN: - Because my face is haply fair, shall I - Destroy your happiness? 'Twere too unjust! - -CYRANO: - And I,--because by Nature's freak I have - The gift to say--all that perchance you feel. - Shall I be fatal to your happiness? - -CHRISTIAN: - Tell all! - -CYRANO: - It is ill done to tempt me thus! - -CHRISTIAN: - Too long I've borne about within myself - A rival to myself--I'll make an end! - -CYRANO: - Christian! - -CHRISTIAN: - Our union, without witness--secret-- - Clandestine--can be easily dissolved - If we survive. - -CYRANO: - My God!--he still persists! - -CHRISTIAN: - I will be loved myself--or not at all! - --I'll go see what they do--there, at the end - Of the post: speak to her, and then let her choose - One of us two! - -CYRANO: - It will be you. - -CHRISTIAN: - Pray God! -(He calls): - Roxane! - -CYRANO: - No! no! - -ROXANE (coming up quickly): - What? - -CHRISTIAN: - Cyrano has things - Important for your ear. . . - -(She hastens to Cyrano. Christian goes out.) - - - -Scene 4.X. - -Roxane, Cyrano. Then Le Bret, Carbon de Castel-Jaloux, the cadets, Ragueneau, -De Guiche, etc. - -ROXANE: - Important, how? - -CYRANO (in despair. to Roxane): - He's gone! 'Tis naught!--Oh, you know how he sees - Importance in a trifle! - -ROXANE (warmly): - Did he doubt - Of what I said?--Ah, yes, I saw he doubted! - -CYRANO (taking her hand): - But are you sure you told him all the truth? - -ROXANE: - Yes, I would love him were he. . . - -(She hesitates.) - -CYRANO: - Does that word - Embarrass you before my face, Roxane? - -ROXANE: - I. . . - -CYRANO (smiling sadly): - 'Twill not hurt me! Say it! If he were - Ugly!. . . - -ROXANE: - Yes, ugly! -(Musket report outside): - Hark! I hear a shot! - -CYRANO (ardently): - Hideous! - -ROXANE: - Hideous! yes! - -CYRANO: - Disfigured. - -ROXANE: - Ay! - -CYRANO: - Grotesque? - -ROXANE: - He could not be grotesque to me! - -CYRANO: - You'd love the same?. . . - -ROXANE: - The same--nay, even more! - -CYRANO (losing command over himself--aside): - My God! it's true, perchance, love waits me there! -(To Roxane): - I. . .Roxane. . .listen. . . - -LE BRET (entering hurriedly--to Cyrano): - Cyrano! - -CYRANO (turning round): - What? - -LE BRET: - Hush! - -(He whispers something to him.) - -CYRANO (letting go Roxane's hand and exclaiming): - Ah, God! - -ROXANE: - What is it? - -CYRANO (to himself--stunned): - All is over now. - -(Renewed reports.) - -ROXANE: - What is the matter? Hark! another shot! - -(She goes up to look outside.) - -CYRANO: - It is too late, now I can never tell! - -ROXANE (trying to rush out): - What has chanced? - -CYRANO (rushing to stop her): - Nothing! - -(Some cadets enter, trying to hide something they are carrying, and close -round it to prevent Roxane approaching.) - -ROXANE: - And those men? -(Cyrano draws her away): - What were you just about to say before. . .? - -CYRANO: - What was I saying? Nothing now, I swear! -(Solemnly): - I swear that Christian's soul, his nature, were. . . -(Hastily correcting himself): - Nay, that they are, the noblest, greatest. . . - -ROXANE: - Were? -(With a loud scream): - Oh! - -(She rushes up, pushing every one aside.) - -CYRANO: - All is over now! - -ROXANE (seeing Christian lying on the ground, wrapped in his cloak): - O Christian! - -LE BRET (to Cyrano): - Struck by first shot of the enemy! - -(Roxane flings herself down by Christian. Fresh reports of cannon--clash of -arms--clamor--beating of drums.) - -CARBON (with sword in the air): - O come! Your muskets. - -(Followed by the cadets, he passes to the other side of the ramparts.) - -ROXANE: - Christian! - -THE VOICE OF CARBON (from the other side): - Ho! make haste! - -ROXANE: - Christian! - -CARBON: - FORM LINE! - -ROXANE: - Christian! - -CARBON: - HANDLE YOUR MATCH! - -(Ragueneau rushes up, bringing water in a helmet.) - -CHRISTIAN (in a dying voice): - Roxane! - -CYRANO (quickly, whispering into Christian's ear, while Roxane distractedly -tears a piece of linen from his breast, which she dips into the water, trying -to stanch the bleeding): - I told her all. She loves you still. - -(Christian closes his eyes.) - -ROXANE: - How, my sweet love? - -CARBON: - DRAW RAMRODS! - -ROXANE (to Cyrano): - He is not dead? - -CARBON: - OPEN YOUR CHARGES WITH YOUR TEETH! - -ROXANE: - His cheek - Grows cold against my own! - -CARBON: - READY! PRESENT! - -ROXANE (seeing a letter in Christian's doublet): - A letter!. . . - 'Tis for me! - -(She opens it.) - -CYRANO (aside): - My letter! - -CARBON: - FIRE! - -(Musket reports--shouts--noise of battle.) - -CYRANO (trying to disengage his hand, which Roxane on her knees is holding): - But, Roxane, hark, they fight! - -ROXANE (detaining him): - Stay yet awhile. - For he is dead. You knew him, you alone. -(Weeping quietly): - Ah, was not his a beauteous soul, a soul - Wondrous! - -CYRANO (standing up--bareheaded): - Ay, Roxane. - -ROXANE: - An inspired poet? - -CYRANO: - Ay, Roxane. - -ROXANE: - And a mind sublime? - -CYRANO: - Oh, yes! - -ROXANE: - A heart too deep for common minds to plumb, - A spirit subtle, charming? - -CYRANO (firmly): - Ay, Roxane. - -ROXANE (flinging herself on the dead body): - Dead, my love! - -CYRANO (aside--drawing his sword): - Ay, and let me die to-day, - Since, all unconscious, she mourns me--in him! - -(Sounds of trumpets in the distance.) - -DE GUICHE (appearing on the ramparts--bareheaded--with a wound on his -forehead--in a voice of thunder): - It is the signal! Trumpet flourishes! - The French bring the provisions into camp! - Hold but the place awhile! - -ROXANE: - See, there is blood - Upon the letter--tears! - -A VOICE (outside--shouting): - Surrender! - -VOICE OF CADETS: - No! - -RAGUENEAU (standing on the top of his carriage, watches the battle over the -edge of the ramparts): - The danger's ever greater! - -CYRANO (to De Guiche--pointing to Roxane): - I will charge! - Take her away! - -ROXANE (kissing the letter--in a half-extinguished voice): - O God! his tears! his blood!. . . - -RAGUENEAU (jumping down from the carriage and rushing toward her): - She's swooned away! - -DE GUICHE (on the rampart--to the cadets--with fury): - Stand fast! - -A VOICE (outside): - Lay down your arms! - -THE CADETS: - No! - -CYRANO (to De Guiche): - Now that you have proved your valor, Sir, -(Pointing to Roxane): - Fly, and save her! - -DE GUICHE (rushing to Roxane, and carrying her away in his arms): - So be it! Gain but time, - The victory's ours! - -CYRANO: - Good. -(Calling out to Roxane, whom De Guiche, aided by Ragueneau, is bearing away in -a fainting condition): - Farewell, Roxane! - -(Tumult. Shouts. Cadets reappear, wounded, falling on the scene. Cyrano, -rushing to the battle, is stopped by Carbon de Castel-Jaloux, who is streaming -with blood.) - -CARBON: - We are breaking! I am wounded--wounded twice! - -CYRANO (shouting to the Gascons): - GASCONS! HO, GASCONS! NEVER TURN YOUR BACKS! -(To Carbon, whom he is supporting): - Have no fear! I have two deaths to avenge: - My friend who's slain;--and my dead happiness! -(They come down, Cyrano brandishing the lance to which is attached Roxane's -handkerchief): - Float there! laced kerchief broidered with her name! -(He sticks it in the ground and shouts to the cadets): - FALL ON THEM, GASCONS! CRUSH THEM! -(To the fifer): - Fifer, play! - -(The fife plays. The wounded try to rise. Some cadets, falling one over the -other down the slope, group themselves round Cyrano and the little flag. The -carriage is crowded with men inside and outside, and, bristling with -arquebuses, is turned into a fortress.) - -A CADET (appearing on the crest, beaten backward, but still fighting, cries): - They're climbing the redoubt! -(and falls dead.) - -CYRANO: - Let us salute them! -(The rampart is covered instantly by a formidable row of enemies. The -standards of the Imperialists are raised): - Fire! - -(General discharge.) - -A CRY IN THE ENEMY'S RANKS: - Fire! - -(A deadly answering volley. The cadets fall on all sides.) - -A SPANISH OFFICER (uncovering): - Who are these men who rush on death? - -CYRANO (reciting, erect, amid a storm of bullets): - The bold Cadets of Gascony, - Of Carbon of Castel-Jaloux! - Brawling, swaggering boastfully, -(He rushes forward, followed by a few survivors): - The bold Cadets. . . - -(His voice is drowned in the battle.) - - -Curtain. - - - -Act V. - -Cyrano's Gazette. - -Fifteen years later, in 1655. Park of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in Paris. -Magnificent trees. On the left the house: broad steps on to which open -several doors. An enormous plane tree in the middle of the stage, standing -alone. On the right, among big boxwood trees, a semicircular stone bench. - -The whole background of the stage is crossed by an alley of chestnut trees -leading on the right hand to the door of a chapel seen through the branches. -Through the double row of trees of this alley are seen lawns, other alleys, -clusters of trees, winding of the park, the sky. - -The chapel opens by a little side door on to a colonnade which is wreathed -with autumn leaves, and is lost to view a little farther on in the right-hand -foreground behind the boxwood. - -It is autumn. All the foliage is red against the fresh green of the lawns. -The green boxwood and yews stand out dark. - -Under each tree a patch of yellow leaves. - -The stage is strewn with dead leaves, which rustle under foot in the alleys, -and half cover the steps and benches. - -Between the benches on the right hand and the tree a large embroidery frame, -in front of which a little chair has been set. - -Baskets full of skeins and balls of wool. A tapestry begun. - -At the rising of the curtains nuns are walking to and fro in the park; some -are seated on the bench around an older Sister. - -The leaves are falling. - - - -Scene 5.I. - -Mother Marguerite, Sister Martha, Sister Claire, other sisters. - -SISTER MARTHA (to Mother Marguerite): - Sister Claire glanced in the mirror, once--nay, twice, to see if her coif -suited. - -MOTHER MARGUERITE (to Sister Claire): - 'Tis not well. - -SISTER CLAIRE: - But I saw Sister Martha take a plum - Out of the tart. - -MOTHER MARGUERITE (to Sister Martha): - That was ill done, my sister. - -SISTER CLAIRE: - A little glance! - -SISTER MARTHA: - And such a little plum! - -MOTHER MARGUERITE: - I shall tell this to Monsieur Cyrano. - -SISTER CLAIRE: - Nay, prithee do not!--he will mock! - -SISTER MARTHA: - He'll say we nuns are vain! - -SISTER CLAIRE: - And greedy! - -MOTHER MARGUERITE (smiling): - Ay, and kind! - -SISTER CLAIRE: - Is it not true, pray, Mother Marguerite, - That he has come, each week, on Saturday - For ten years, to the convent? - -MOTHER MARGUERITE: - Ay! and more! - Ever since--fourteen years ago--the day - His cousin brought here, 'midst our woolen coifs, - The worldly mourning of her widow's veil, - Like a blackbird's wing among the convent doves! - -SISTER MARTHA: - He only has the skill to turn her mind - From grief--unsoftened yet by Time--unhealed! - -ALL THE SISTERS: - He is so droll!--It's cheerful when he comes!-- - He teases us!--But we all like him well!-- - --We make him pasties of angelica! - -SISTER MARTHA: - But, he is not a faithful Catholic! - -SISTER CLAIRE: - We will convert him! - -THE SISTERS: - Yes! Yes! - -MOTHER MARGUERITE: - I forbid, - My daughters, you attempt that subject. Nay, - Weary him not--he might less oft come here! - -SISTER MARTHA: - But. . .God. . . - -MOTHER MARGUERITE: - Nay, never fear! God knows him well! - -SISTER MARTHA: - But--every Saturday, when he arrives, - He tells me, 'Sister, I eat meat on Friday!' - -MOTHER MARGUERITE: - Ah! says he so? Well, the last time he came - Food had not passed his lips for two whole days! - -SISTER MARTHA: - Mother! - -MOTHER MARGUERITE: - He's poor. - -SISTER MARTHA: - Who told you so, dear Mother? - -MOTHER MARGUERITE: - Monsieur Le Bret. - -SISTER MARTHA: - None help him? - -MOTHER MARGUERITE: - He permits not. -(In an alley at the back Roxane appears, dressed in black, with a widow's coif -and veil. De Guiche, imposing-looking and visibly aged, walks by her side. -They saunter slowly. Mother Marguerite rises): - 'Tis time we go in; Madame Madeleine - Walks in the garden with a visitor. - -SISTER MARTHA (to Sister Claire, in a low voice): - The Marshal of Grammont? - -SISTER CLAIRE (looking at him): - 'Tis he, I think. - -SISTER MARTHA: - 'Tis many months now since he came to see her. - -THE SISTERS: - He is so busy!--The Court,--the camp!. . . - -SISTER CLAIRE: - The world! - -(They go out. De Guiche and Roxane come forward in silence, and stop close to -the embroidery frame.) - - - -Scene 5.II. - -Roxane; the Duke de Grammont, formerly Count de Guiche. Then Le Bret and -Ragueneau. - -THE DUKE: - And you stay here still--ever vainly fair, - Ever in weeds? - -ROXANE: - Ever. - -THE DUKE: - Still faithful? - -ROXANE: - Still. - -THE DUKE (after a pause): - Am I forgiven? - -ROXANE: - Ay, since I am here. - -(Another pause.) - -THE DUKE: - His was a soul, you say?. . . - -ROXANE: - Ah!--when you knew him! - -THE DUKE: - Ah, may be!. . .I, perchance, too little knew him! - . . .And his last letter, ever next your heart? - -ROXANE: - Hung from this chain, a gentle scapulary. - -THE DUKE: - And, dead, you love him still? - -ROXANE: - At times,--meseems - He is but partly dead--our hearts still speak, - As if his love, still living, wrapped me round! - -THE DUKE (after another pause): - Cyrano comes to see you? - -ROXANE: - Often, ay. - Dear, kind old friend! We call him my 'Gazette.' - He never fails to come: beneath this tree - They place his chair, if it be fine:--I wait, - I broider;--the clock strikes;--at the last stroke - I hear,--for now I never turn to look-- - Too sure to hear his cane tap down the steps; - He seats himself:--with gentle raillery - He mocks my tapestry that's never done; - He tells me all the gossip of the week. . . -(Le Bret appears on the steps): - Why, here's Le Bret! -(Le Bret descends): - How goes it with our friend? - -LE BRET: - Ill!--very ill. - -THE DUKE: - How? - -ROXANE (to the Duke): - He exaggerates! - -LE BRET: - All that I prophesied: desertion, want!. . . - His letters now make him fresh enemies!-- - Attacking the sham nobles, sham devout, - Sham brave,--the thieving authors,--all the world! - -ROXANE: - Ah! but his sword still holds them all in check; - None get the better of him. - -THE DUKE (shaking his head): - Time will show! - -LE BRET: - Ah, but I fear for him--not man's attack,-- - Solitude--hunger--cold December days, - That wolf-like steal into his chamber drear:-- - Lo! the assassins that I fear for him! - Each day he tightens by one hole his belt: - That poor nose--tinted like old ivory: - He has retained one shabby suit of serge. - -THE DUKE: - Ay, there is one who has no prize of Fortune!-- - Yet is not to be pitied! - -LE BRET (with a bitter smile): - My Lord Marshal!. . . - -THE DUKE: - Pity him not! He has lived out his vows, - Free in his thoughts, as in his actions free! - -LE BRET (in the same tone): - My Lord!. . . - -THE DUKE (haughtily): - True! I have all, and he has naught;. . . - Yet I were proud to take his hand! -(Bowing to Roxane): - Adieu! - -ROXANE: - I go with you. - -(The Duke bows to Le Bret, and goes with Roxane toward the steps.) - -THE DUKE (pausing, while she goes up): - Ay, true,--I envy him. - Look you, when life is brimful of success - --Though the past hold no action foul--one feels - A thousand self-disgusts, of which the sum - Is not remorse, but a dim, vague unrest; - And, as one mounts the steps of worldly fame, - The Duke's furred mantles trail within their folds - A sound of dead illusions, vain regrets, - A rustle--scarce a whisper--like as when, - Mounting the terrace steps, by your mourning robe - Sweeps in its train the dying autumn leaves. - -ROXANE (ironically): - You are pensive? - -THE DUKE: - True! I am! -(As he is going out, suddenly): - Monsieur Le Bret! -(To Roxane): - A word, with your permission? -(He goes to Le Bret, and in a low voice): - True, that none - Dare to attack your friend;--but many hate him; - Yesterday, at the Queen's card-play, 'twas said - 'That Cyrano may die--by accident!' - Let him stay in--be prudent! - -LE BRET (raising his arms to heaven): - Prudent! He!. . . - He's coming here. I'll warn him--but!. . . - -ROXANE (who has stayed on the steps, to a sister who comes toward her): - What is it? - -THE SISTER: - Ragueneau would see you, Madame. - -ROXANE: - Let him come. -(To the Duke and Le Bret): - He comes to tell his troubles. Having been - An author (save the mark!)--poor fellow--now - By turns he's singer. . . - -LE BRET: - Bathing-man. . . - -ROXANE: - Then actor. . . - -LE BRET: - Beadle. . . - -ROXANE: - Wig-maker. . . - -LE BRET: - Teacher of the lute. . . - -ROXANE: - What will he be to-day, by chance? - -RAGUENEAU (entering hurriedly): - Ah! Madame! -(He sees Le Bret): - Ah! you here, Sir! - -ROXANE (smiling): - Tell all your miseries - To him; I will return anon. - -RAGUENEAU: - But, Madame. . . - -(Roxane goes out with the Duke. Ragueneau goes toward Le Bret.) - - - -Scene 5.III. - -Le Bret, Ragueneau. - -RAGUENEAU: - Since you are here, 'tis best she should not know! - I was going to your friend just now--was but - A few steps from the house, when I saw him - Go out. I hurried to him. Saw him turn - The corner. . .suddenly, from out a window - Where he was passing--was it chance?. . .may be! - A lackey let fall a large piece of wood. - -LE BRET: - Cowards! O Cyrano! - -RAGUENEAU: - I ran--I saw. . . - -LE BRET: - 'Tis hideous! - -RAGUENEAU: - Saw our poet, Sir--our friend-- - Struck to the ground--a large wound in his head! - -LE BRET: - He's dead? - -RAGUENEAU: - No--but--I bore him to his room. . . - Ah! his room! What a thing to see!--that garret! - -LE BRET: - He suffers? - -RAGUENEAU: - No, his consciousness has flown. - -LE BRET: - Saw you a doctor? - -RAGUENEAU: - One was kind--he came. - -LE BRET: - My poor Cyrano!--We must not tell this - To Roxane suddenly.--What said this leech?-- - -RAGUENEAU: - Said,--what, I know not--fever, meningitis!-- - Ah! could you see him--all his head bound up!-- - But let us haste!--There's no one by his bed!-- - And if he try to rise, Sir, he might die! - -LE BRET (dragging him toward the right): - Come! Through the chapel! 'Tis the quickest way! - -ROXANE (appearing on the steps, and seeing Le Bret go away by the colonnade -leading to the chapel door): - Monsieur le Bret! -(Le Bret and Ragueneau disappear without answering): - Le Bret goes--when I call! -'Tis some new trouble of good Ragueneau's. - -(She descends the steps.) - - - -Scene 5.IV. - -Roxane alone. Two sisters, for a moment. - -ROXANE: - Ah! what a beauty in September's close! - My sorrow's eased. April's joy dazzled it, - But autumn wins it with her dying calm. -(She seats herself at the embroidery frame. Two sisters come out of the -house, and bring a large armchair under the tree): - There comes the famous armchair where he sits, - Dear faithful friend! - -SISTER MARTHA: - It is the parlor's best! - -ROXANE: - Thanks, sister. -(The sisters go): - He'll be here now. -(She seats herself. A clock strikes): - The hour strikes. - --My silks?--Why, now, the hour's struck! - How strange - To be behind his time, at last, to-day! - Perhaps the portress--where's my thimble?. . . - Here!--Is preaching to him. -(A pause): - Yes, she must be preaching! - Surely he must come soon!--Ah, a dead leaf!-- -(She brushes off the leaf from her work): - Nothing, besides, could--scissors?--In my bag! - --Could hinder him. . . - -A SISTER (coming to the steps): - Monsieur de Bergerac. - - - -Scene 5.V. - -Roxane, Cyrano and, for a moment, Sister Martha. - -ROXANE (without turning round): - What was I saying?. . . -(She embroiders. Cyrano, very pale, his hat pulled down over his eyes, -appears. The sister who had announced him retires. He descends the steps -slowly, with a visible difficulty in holding himself upright, bearing heavily -on his cane. Roxane still works at her tapestry): - Time has dimmed the tints. . . - How harmonize them now? -(To Cyrano, with playful reproach): - For the first time - Late!--For the first time, all these fourteen years! - -CYRANO (who has succeeded in reaching the chair, and has seated himself--in a -lively voice, which is in great contrast with his pale face): - Ay! It is villainous! I raged--was stayed. . . - -ROXANE: - By?. . . - -CYRANO: - By a bold, unwelcome visitor. - -ROXANE (absently, working): - Some creditor? - -CYRANO: - Ay, cousin,--the last creditor - Who has a debt to claim from me. - -ROXANE: - And you - Have paid it? - -CYRANO: - No, not yet! I put it off; - --Said, 'Cry you mercy; this is Saturday, - When I have get a standing rendezvous - That naught defers. Call in an hour's time!' - -ROXANE (carelessly): - Oh, well, a creditor can always wait! - I shall not let you go ere twilight falls. - -CYRANO: - Haply, perforce, I quit you ere it falls! - -(He shuts his eyes, and is silent for a moment. Sister Martha crosses the -park from the chapel to the flight of steps. Roxane, seeing her, signs to her -to approach.) - -ROXANE (to Cyrano): - How now? You have not teased the Sister? - -CYRANO (hastily opening his eyes): - True! -(In a comically loud voice): - Sister! come here! -(The sister glides up to him): - Ha! ha! What? Those bright eyes - Bent ever on the ground? - -SISTER MARTHA (who makes a movement of astonishment on seeing his face): - Oh! - -CYRANO (in a whisper, pointing to Roxane): - Hush! 'tis naught!-- -(Loudly, in a blustering voice): - I broke fast yesterday! - -SISTER MARTHA (aside): - I know, I know! - That's how he is so pale! Come presently - To the refectory, I'll make you drink - A famous bowl of soup. . .You'll come? - -CYRANO: - Ay, ay! - -SISTER MARTHA: - There, see! You are more reasonable to-day! - -ROXANE (who hears them whispering): - The Sister would convert you? - -SISTER MARTHA: - Nay, not I! - -CYRANO: - Hold! but it's true! You preach to me no more, - You, once so glib with holy words! I am - Astonished!. . . -(With burlesque fury): - Stay, I will surprise you too! - Hark! I permit you. . . -(He pretends to be seeking for something to tease her with, and to have found -it): - . . .It is something new!-- - To--pray for me, to-night, at chapel-time! - -ROXANE: - Oh! oh! - -CYRANO (laughing): - Good Sister Martha is struck dumb! - -SISTER MARTHA (gently): - I did not wait your leave to pray for you. - -(She goes out.) - -CYRANO (turning to Roxane, who is still bending over her work): - That tapestry! Beshrew me if my eyes - Will ever see it finished! - -ROXANE: - I was sure - To hear that well-known jest! - -(A light breeze causes the leaves to fall.) - -CYRANO: - The autumn leaves! - -ROXANE (lifting her head, and looking down the distant alley): - Soft golden brown, like a Venetian's hair. - --See how they fall! - -CYRANO: - Ay, see how brave they fall, - In their last journey downward from the bough, - To rot within the clay; yet, lovely still, - Hiding the horror of the last decay, - With all the wayward grace of careless flight! - -ROXANE: - What, melancholy--you? - -CYRANO (collecting himself): - Nay, nay, Roxane! - -ROXANE: - Then let the dead leaves fall the way they will. . . - And chat. What, have you nothing new to tell, - My Court Gazette? - -CYRANO: - Listen. - -ROXANE: - Ah! - -CYRANO (growing whiter and whiter): - Saturday - The nineteenth: having eaten to excess - Of pear-conserve, the King felt feverish; - The lancet quelled this treasonable revolt, - And the august pulse beats at normal pace. - At the Queen's ball on Sunday thirty score - Of best white waxen tapers were consumed. - Our troops, they say, have chased the Austrians. - Four sorcerers were hanged. The little dog - Of Madame d'Athis took a dose. . . - -ROXANE: - I bid - You hold your tongue, Monsieur de Bergerac! - -CYRANO: - Monday--not much--Claire changed protector. - -ROXANE: - Oh! - -CYRANO (whose face changes more and more): - Tuesday, the Court repaired to Fontainebleau. - Wednesday, the Montglat said to Comte de Fiesque. . . - No! Thursday--Mancini, Queen of France! (almost!) - Friday, the Monglat to Count Fiesque said--'Yes!' - And Saturday the twenty-sixth. . . - -(He closes his eyes. His head falls forward. Silence.) - -ROXANE (surprised at his voice ceasing, turns round, looks at him, and rising, -terrified): - He swoons! -(She runs toward him crying): - Cyrano! - -CYRANO (opening his eyes, in an unconcerned voice): - What is this? -(He sees Roxane bending over him, and, hastily pressing his hat on his head, -and shrinking back in his chair): - Nay, on my word - 'Tis nothing! Let me be! - -ROXANE: - But. . . - -CYRANO: - That old wound - Of Arras, sometimes,--as you know. . . - -ROXANE: - Dear friend! - -CYRANO: - 'Tis nothing, 'twill pass soon; -(He smiles with an effort): - See!--it has passed! - -ROXANE: - Each of us has his wound; ay, I have mine,-- - Never healed up--not healed yet, my old wound! -(She puts her hand on her breast): - 'Tis here, beneath this letter brown with age, - All stained with tear-drops, and still stained with blood. - -(Twilight begins to fall.) - -CYRANO: - His letter! Ah! you promised me one day - That I should read it. - -ROXANE: - What would you?--His letter? - -CYRANO: - Yes, I would fain,--to-day. . . - -ROXANE (giving the bag hung at her neck): - See! here it is! - -CYRANO (taking it): - Have I your leave to open? - -ROXANE: - Open--read! - -(She comes back to her tapestry frame, folds it up, sorts her wools.) - -CYRANO (reading): - 'Roxane, adieu! I soon must die! - This very night, beloved; and I - Feel my soul heavy with love untold. - I die! No more, as in days of old, - My loving, longing eyes will feast - On your least gesture--ay, the least! - I mind me the way you touch your cheek - With your finger, softly, as you speak! - Ah me! I know that gesture well! - My heart cries out!--I cry "Farewell"!' - -ROXANE: - But how you read that letter! One would think. . . - -CYRANO (continuing to read): - 'My life, my love, my jewel, my sweet, - My heart has been yours in every beat!' - -(The shades of evening fall imperceptibly.) - -ROXANE: - You read in such a voice--so strange--and yet-- - It is not the first time I hear that voice! - -(She comes nearer very softly, without his perceiving it, passes behind his -chair, and, noiselessly leaning over him, looks at the letter. The darkness -deepens.) - -CYRANO: - 'Here, dying, and there, in the land on high, - I am he who loved, who loves you,--I. . .' - -ROXANE (putting her hand on his shoulder): - How can you read? It is too dark to see! -(He starts, turns, sees her close to him. Suddenly alarmed, he holds his head -down. Then in the dusk, which has now completely enfolded them, she says, -very slowly, with clasped hands): - And, fourteen years long, he has played this part - Of the kind old friend who comes to laugh and chat. - -CYRANO: - Roxane! - -ROXANE: - 'Twas you! - -CYRANO: - No, never; Roxane, no! - -ROXANE: - I should have guessed, each time he said my name! - -CYRANO: - No, it was not I! - -ROXANE: - It was you! - -CYRANO: - I swear! - -ROXANE: - I see through all the generous counterfeit-- - The letters--you! - -CYRANO: - No. - -ROXANE: - The sweet, mad love-words! - You! - -CYRANO: - No! - -ROXANE: - The voice that thrilled the night--you, you! - -CYRANO: - I swear you err. - -ROXANE: - The soul--it was your soul! - -CYRANO: - I loved you not. - -ROXANE: - You loved me not? - -CYRANO: - 'Twas he! - -ROXANE: - You loved me! - -CYRANO: - No! - -ROXANE: - See! how you falter now! - -CYRANO: - No, my sweet love, I never loved you! - -ROXANE: - Ah! - Things dead, long dead, see! how they rise again! - --Why, why keep silence all these fourteen years, - When, on this letter, which he never wrote, - The tears were your tears? - -CYRANO (holding out the letter to her): - The bloodstains were his. - -ROXANE: - Why, then, that noble silence,--kept so long-- - Broken to-day for the first time--why? - -CYRANO: - Why?. . . - -(Le Bret and Ragueneau enter running.) - - - -Scene 5.VI. - -The same. Le Bret and Ragueneau. - -LE BRET: - What madness! Here? I knew it well! - -CYRANO (smiling and sitting up): - What now? - -LE BRET: - He has brought his death by coming, Madame. - -ROXANE: - God! - Ah, then! that faintness of a moment since. . .? - -CYRANO: - Why, true! It interrupted the 'Gazette:' - . . .Saturday, twenty-sixth, at dinner-time, - Assassination of De Bergerac. - -(He takes off his hat; they see his head bandaged.) - -ROXANE: - What says he? Cyrano!--His head all bound! - Ah, what has chanced? How?--Who?. . . - -CYRANO: - 'To be struck down, - Pierced by sword i' the heart, from a hero's hand!' - That I had dreamed. O mockery of Fate! - --Killed, I! of all men--in an ambuscade! - Struck from behind, and by a lackey's hand! - 'Tis very well. I am foiled, foiled in all, - Even in my death. - -RAGUENEAU: - Ah, Monsieur!. . . - -CYRANO (holding out his hand to him): - Ragueneau, - Weep not so bitterly!. . .What do you now, - Old comrade? - -RAGUENEAU (amid his tears): - Trim the lights for Moliere's stage. - -CYRANO: - Moliere! - -RAGUENEAU: - Yes; but I shall leave to-morrow. - I cannot bear it!--Yesterday, they played - 'Scapin'--I saw he'd thieved a scene from you! - -LE BRET: - What! a whole scene? - -RAGUENEAU: - Oh, yes, indeed, Monsieur, - The famous one, 'Que Diable allait-il faire?' - -LE BRET: - Moliere has stolen that? - -CYRANO: - Tut! He did well!. . . -(to Ragueneau): - How went the scene? It told--I think it told? - -RAGUENEAU (sobbing): - Ah! how they laughed! - -CYRANO: - Look you, it was my life - To be the prompter every one forgets! -(To Roxane): - That night when 'neath your window Christian spoke - --Under your balcony, you remember? Well! - There was the allegory of my whole life: - I, in the shadow, at the ladder's foot, - While others lightly mount to Love and Fame! - Just! very just! Here on the threshold drear - Of death, I pay my tribute with the rest, - To Moliere's genius,--Christian's fair face! -(The chapel-bell chimes. The nuns are seen passing down the alley at the -back, to say their office): - Let them go pray, go pray, when the bell rings! - -ROXANE (rising and calling): - Sister! Sister! - -CYRANO (holding her fast): - Call no one. Leave me not; - When you come back, I should be gone for aye. -(The nuns have all entered the chapel. The organ sounds): - I was somewhat fain for music--hark! 'tis come. - -ROXANE: - Live, for I love you! - -CYRANO: - No, In fairy tales - When to the ill-starred Prince the lady says - 'I love you!' all his ugliness fades fast-- - But I remain the same, up to the last! - -ROXANE: - I have marred your life--I, I! - -CYRANO: - You blessed my life! - Never on me had rested woman's love. - My mother even could not find me fair: - I had no sister; and, when grown a man, - I feared the mistress who would mock at me. - But I have had your friendship--grace to you - A woman's charm has passed across my path. - -LE BRET (pointing to the moon, which is seen between the trees): - Your other lady-love is come. - -CYRANO (smiling): - I see. - -ROXANE: - I loved but once, yet twice I lose my love! - -CYRANO: - Hark you, Le Bret! I soon shall reach the moon. - To-night, alone, with no projectile's aid!. . . - -LE BRET: - What are you saying? - -CYRANO: - I tell you, it is there, - There, that they send me for my Paradise, - There I shall find at last the souls I love, - In exile,--Galileo--Socrates! - -LE BRET (rebelliously): - No, no! It is too clumsy, too unjust! - So great a heart! So great a poet! Die - Like this? what, die. . .? - -CYRANO: - Hark to Le Bret, who scolds! - -LE BRET (weeping): - Dear friend. . . - -CYRANO (starting up, his eyes wild): - What ho! Cadets of Gascony! - The elemental mass--ah yes! The hic. . . - -LE BRET: - His science still--he raves! - -CYRANO: - Copernicus - Said. . . - -ROXANE: - Oh! - -CYRANO: - Mais que diable allait-il faire, - Mais que diable allait-il faire dans cette galere?. . . - Philosopher, metaphysician, - Rhymer, brawler, and musician, - Famed for his lunar expedition, - And the unnumbered duels he fought,-- - And lover also,--by interposition!-- - Here lies Hercule Savinien - De Cyrano de Bergerac, - Who was everything, yet was naught. - I cry you pardon, but I may not stay; - See, the moon-ray that comes to call me hence! -(He has fallen back in his chair; the sobs of Roxane recall him to reality; he -looks long at her, and, touching her veil): - I would not bid you mourn less faithfully - That good, brave Christian: I would only ask - That when my body shall be cold in clay - You wear those sable mourning weeds for two, - And mourn awhile for me, in mourning him. - -ROXANE: - I swear it you!. . . - -CYRANO (shivering violently, then suddenly rising): - Not there! what, seated?--no! -(They spring toward him): - Let no one hold me up-- -(He props himself against the tree): - Only the tree! -(Silence): - It comes. E'en now my feet have turned to stone, - My hands are gloved with lead! -(He stands erect): - But since Death comes, - I meet him still afoot, -(He draws his sword): - And sword in hand! - -LE BRET: - Cyrano! - -ROXANE (half fainting): - Cyrano! - -(All shrink back in terror.) - -CYRANO: - Why, I well believe - He dares to mock my nose? Ho! insolent! -(He raises his sword): - What say you? It is useless? Ay, I know - But who fights ever hoping for success? - I fought for lost cause, and for fruitless quest! - You there, who are you!--You are thousands! - Ah! - I know you now, old enemies of mine! - Falsehood! -(He strikes in air with his sword): - Have at you! Ha! and Compromise! - Prejudice, Treachery!. . . -(He strikes): - Surrender, I? - Parley? No, never! You too, Folly,--you? - I know that you will lay me low at last; - Let be! Yet I fall fighting, fighting still! -(He makes passes in the air, and stops, breathless): - You strip from me the laurel and the rose! - Take all! Despite you there is yet one thing - I hold against you all, and when, to-night, - I enter Christ's fair courts, and, lowly bowed, - Sweep with doffed casque the heavens' threshold blue, - One thing is left, that, void of stain or smutch, - I bear away despite you. - -(He springs forward, his sword raised; it falls from his hand; he staggers, -falls back into the arms of Le Bret and Ragueneau.) - -ROXANE (bending and kissing his forehead): - 'Tis?. . . - -CYRANO (opening his eyes, recognizing her, and smiling): - My panache. - - -Curtain. - - - - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CYRANO DE BERGERAC *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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