Cyrano de Bergerac. Edmond Rostand. Translated by Gladys Thomas and Mary F Guillemard. 1897. 240 pages. [Source: Bought]
First sentence: Hollo! You there! Your money!
Premise/plot: Cyrano de Bergerac is in love with his cousin, Roxane. The
problem? He lacks the courage to tell her so because he feels his (large) nose will prevent her from ever loving him in return. To be fair, readers can't be sure either. For the most part, he is content loving her from afar. To be in her orbit at all--as a cousin, as a memory from the past, a friend--is enough for him. But when he receives a message from her asking for a private meeting, well, he lets his imagination run away with him--briefly. His heart is uplifted and hope begins to blossom. But when he realizes his mistake the next day, well, once again he puts her needs ahead of his (silly, foolish) hopes and dreams. Of course, Roxane has fallen head over heels with someone she's NEVER spoken to. Of course, Roxane is dreaming of a happily ever after with a super dreamy oh-so-handsome soldier. His name is Christian de
Neuvillette. And she has a favor to ask of him--do everything in his power to befriend and protect Christian. And, oh, by the way can you tell him I love and adore him.
Cyrano tells Christian that Roxane does love him, but,
instead of that being the end of it...it is just the start. For Roxane
is determined that the man she loves will be brilliant and exceptionally
well-spoken. He must win her heart through his words. The problem?
Christian's idea of wooing is to say "I love you" and go in for a kiss. NOT WHAT ROXANE WANTS AT ALL. The solution is for Cyrano to give
Christian the words to speak to win her heart for once and all. But is
that a real solution?! Is a happily ever after possible in this love
triangle?!
Cyrano de Bergerac is a five act (French) play by Edmond Rostand
written/performed in 1897. It is set in seventeenth century France
around the same time as The Three Musketeers. And like The Three
Musketeers, it has sword fighting. Lots and lots of sword fighting. The musketeers make a few appearances throughout the play--look for them in the background. It's like playing Where's Waldo.
My thoughts: I love, love, love Cyrano de Bergerac. I'm not sure I
equally adore Roxane. Cyrano is already madly in love with her before
Act I. His love for her is never in question, and never in doubt. To
him, she is absolute perfection. His longed-for ideal. But is he seeing only what he wants to see? How well does he know the
real her? Does he love her because she is beautiful? Does he love her
because she is so out of reach and unattainable? Does his love of her
have roots from their shared childhood?
Roxane may or may not be everything Cyrano believes her to be. That's the truth. Christian and Cyrano both think the world of her. As does the MARRIED Duke de Guiche. So maybe there's good reason--besides her outside beauty--for attracting all the guys. Maybe. But maybe not. Again, what do readers know besides the fact that she is a) BEAUTIFUL b) believes in love at first sight c) has preconceived notions of what LOVE is all about d) knows exactly what she wants and doesn't want in a romantic partner. I get the impression that she has mapped out her happily ever after in her imagination and nothing less than perfect will do. (At least at the start.)
Roxane doesn't see the real worth of Cyrano until it is too late. She has known him most of her life and never actually seen him. That is incredibly sad. I'm just trying to guess if she really was all
that he imagined her to be. Was his love a 'storybook love'-- and the
stuff of daydreams only. Surely Roxane had flaws! Who doesn't have
flaws?! Surely Roxane would have proved disappointing or irritating at
times if they'd lived together closely.
Christian. How do I feel about him?! I think Cyrano and Christian are
using each other--taking advantage of one another. This agreed upon
dishonesty isn't all that healthy when all is said and done. Christian
realizes--on a fateful day--that he needs more, deserves more. He
doesn't want to be loved for his 'fairness' his fineness. He wants to be
loved heart and soul for himself. He doesn't want to be an object of
lust. Does Christian love Roxane for more than her looks? her body? Does
he love her truly heart, soul, mind, body. I'm not sure. Perhaps the
play--when scrutinized--reveals how silly "true love" is and how
deceptive the human heart can be. Roxane didn't have a clue who
Christian was--not really. She never saw him for who he really was. And
if Christian had lived instead of died, chances are Roxane would have
broken his heart.
Quotes:
A description of Roxane
When one looks at her one thinks of a peach smiling at a strawberry!
Cyrano to Christian
None is a fool who knows himself a fool. And you did not attack me like a fool.
Cyrano to Christian
Will you complete me, and let me complete you? Let me be wit for you, be you my beauty!
Christian speaks for himself....
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: I
am grown stupid!
ROXANE (dryly): And that displeases me, almost as much
As 'twould displease me if you grew ill-favored.
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!
Cyrano "saves" the night by speaking for Christian in shadows...
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: Meseems that your last words have learned to climb.
CYRANO: With practice such gymnastic grows less hard!
CYRANO (more
and more moved): Stay awhile! 'Tis sweet,. . . The rare occasion, when
our hearts can speak Our selves unseen, unseeing! Your eyes Have beams that turn men dizzy!--But to-night Methinks I shall find speech for the first time!
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
Cyrano on kisses...
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!
Cyrano before the last battle
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. . .
Cyrano confesses to Christian
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!.
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.
Roxane says a little too much...(abbreviated)
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! 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! 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: 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: I do not ask such love as that! I would be loved more simply; for.. 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.
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?
Christian speaks his mind...
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's aside...
CYRANO (aside--drawing his sword): Ay, and let me die to-day, Since, all unconscious, she mourns me--in him!
Cyrano reveals all to Roxane...
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.
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: You read in such a voice--so strange--and yet-- It is not the first time I hear that voice!
CYRANO: 'Here, dying, and there, in the land on high, I am he who loved, who loves you,--I. . .'
ROXANE: How can you read? It is too dark to see!
CYRANO: Roxane!
ROXANE: 'Twas you!
CYRANO: No, never; Roxane, no!
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!
ROXANE: --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...
I loved but once, yet twice I lose my love!
Cyrano gets the last word in...
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.
© 2022 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
48. Goblin Market. Diane Zahler. 2022. [August] 256 pages. [Source: Review copy]
