How we cite our quotes: (Act.Line)
Quote #1
CYRANO
I go caparisoned in gems unseen,
Trailing white plumes of freedom, garlanded
With my good name—no figure of a man,
But a soul clothed in shining armor, hung
With deeds for decorations, twirling—thus—
A bristling wit, and swinging at my side
Courage, and on the stones of this old town
Making the sharp truth ring, like golden spurs! (I.424-231)
The ideals that Cyrano holds closest to his heart—freedom, reputation, wit, courage, and truth—are abstract concepts that nobody can see. Here is a beautiful example of Cyrano’s inner beauty, despite his outward ugliness.
Quote #2
CYRANO
My old friend—look at me,
And tell me how much hope remains for me
With his protuberance! Oh, I have no more
Illusions! (I.568-571)
Cyrano believes his "illusion" is that Roxane could love him despite appearances. In fact, his real self-deception is that his looks preclude her love.
Quote #3
CYRANO
"Your Friend—who loves you..."
So, no signature (II.100-101)
Cyrano is too timid to sign his name even before the Christian alliance comes about; therefore, his deception of Roxane has more to do with his own nerves than it does with helping Christian.
Quote #4
CYRANO (Calls to Lise)
Madame!—
(She leaves the Musketeer and comes down to him.)
This musketeer—
He is making love to you?
LISE (Haughtily)
If any man
Offends my virtue—all I have to do
Is look at him—once!
CYRANO (Looks at her gravely; she drops her eyes.)
I do not find
Those eyes of yours unconquerable.
LISE (Panting)
—Ah!
CYRANO (Raising his voice a little.)
Now listen—I am fond of Ragueneau;
I allow no one—do you understand?—
To…take his name in vain! (II.133-140)
Unlike Ragueneau, Cyrano is not deceived by Lise. He read from her looks and gestures earlier that Lise was having an affair with the musketeer.
Quote #5
ROXANE
Listen:
I…love someone.
CYRANO
Ah!...
ROXANE
Someone who does not know.
CYRANO
Ah!...
ROXANE
At least—not yet.
CYRANO
Ah!...
ROXANE
But he will know
Some day.
CYRANO
Ah!...
ROXANE
A big boy who loves me too,
And is afraid of me, and keeps away.
And never says one word.
CYRANO
Ah!...
ROXANE
Let me have
Your hand a moment—why how hot it is!—
I know. I see him trying…
CYRANO
Ah!...
ROXANE
There now!
Is that better?—
(She finishes bandaging the hand with her handkerchief.)
Besides—only to think—
(This is a secret.) He is a soldier too,
In your own regiment—
CYRANO:
Ah!...
ROXANE:
Yes, in the Guards,
Your company too.
CYRANO
Ah!...
ROXANE
And such a man!—
He is proud— noble—young—brave—beautiful—
CYRANO (Turns pale; rises.)
Beautiful?—
ROXANE
What’s the matter?
CYRANO (Smiling)
Nothing—this—
My sore hand!
ROXANE
Well, I love him. That is all.
Oh—and I never saw him anywhere
Except the Comedie.
CYRANO
You have never spoken?—
ROXANE
Only our eyes…
CYRANO
Why then—How do you know?—
ROXANE People talk about people; and I hear
Things…and I know.
CYRANO
You say he is in the Guards.
His name?
ROXANE
Baron Christian de Neuvillette. (II.192-211)
This is a good example of dramatic irony: Cyrano thinks Roxane is talking about him while the audience knows she is really talking about Christian. Cyrano is blind to the fact that other men can have the same qualities as he (except beauty), and Roxane is blind to the fact that Cyrano is deeply, hopelessly in love with her.
Quote #6
CHRISTIAN
Does it mean
So much to you?
CYRANO (Beside himself)
It means—
(Recovers, changes tone.)
A Comedy,
A situation for a poet! Come,
Shall we collaborate? I’ll be your cloak
Of darkness, your enchanted sword, your ring
To charm the fairy Princess!
CHRISTIAN
But the letter—
I cannot write—
CYRANO
Oh yes, the letter.
(He takes from his pocket the letter which he has written.)
Here. (II.573-579)
Cyrano dupes Christian into thinking that wooing Roxane means nothing more to him than a poetic challenge, an exercise in wordsmanship. So throughout the play, he is guilty of deceiving both of the would-be lovers.
Quote #7
ROXANE
But Cyrano? What will you do to him?
Order him into danger? He loves that!
I know what I should do.
DE GUICHE
What?
ROXANE
Leave him here
With his Cadets, while all the regiment
Goes on to glory! That would torture him—
To sit all through the war with folded arms—
I know his nature. If you hate that man,
Strike at his self-esteem.
DE GUICHE
Oh woman—woman!
Who but a woman would have thought of this?
ROXANE
He’ll eat his heart out, while his Gascon friends
Bite their nails all day long in Paris here.
And you will be avenged! (III.99-110)
Love and deception are inseparable in Cyrano de Bergerac.
Quote #8
DE GUICHE
You love me then,
A little?...
(She smiles.)
Making my enemies your own,
Hating them—I should like to see in that
A sign of love, Roxane.
ROXANE
Perhaps it is one…(III.110-113)
Roxane’s conversation with de Guiche is much like the "I love someone" conversation she had with Cyrano in Quote #5.
Quote #9
CYRANO
—Oh, but to-night, now, I dare say these things—
I… to you… and you hear them!... It is too much!
In my most sweet unreasonable dreams,
I have not hoped for this! Now let me die,
Having lived. It is my voice, mine, my own,
That makes you tremble there in the green gloom
Above me (III.328-334)
Here we see that Cyrano takes pride in winning Roxane over—even though he can’t have her himself. His line "It is my voice, mine, my own / that makes you tremble" suggests that this knowledge is enough for him.
Quote #10
ROXANE
(To the Capuchin)
Father, this letter concerns you…
(To Christian)
and you.
Listen:
(The others gather around her. She pretends to read from the letter, aloud.)
"Mademoiselle:
The Cardinal
Will have his way, although against your will;
That is why I am sending this to you
By a most holy man, intelligent,
Discreet. You will communicate to him
Our order to perform, here and at once
The rite of…
(Turns the page)
Holy Matrimony. You
And Christian will be married privately
In your house. (III.413-32)
Notice the deception here on the individual level of the word. Roxane changes the words about the Capuchin from "simple as a sheep" to "intelligent, / discreet" in order to convince the holy man that de Guiche wants her to marry Christian. Indeed, like Cyrano, Roxane uses verbal acrobatics to carry out her duplicities.
Quote #11
DE GUICHE
Damn this mask!—
(As he is about to enter the house, Cyrano leaps from the balcony, still holding fast to the branch, which bends and swings him between De Guiche and the door; then he releases the branch and pretends to fall heavily as though from a great height. He lands flatly on the ground, where he lies motionless, as if stunned. De Guiche leaps back.)
What is that?
(When he lifts his eyes, the branch has sprung back into place. He can see nothing but the sky; he does not understand.)
Why… where did this man
Fall from?
CYRANO (Sits up and speaks with a strong accent.)
—The moon!
DE GUICHE
You—
CYRANO
From the moon, the moon!
I fell out of the moon!
[…]
CYRANO (Grandiloquent)
The ocean!...
What hour its rising tide seeks the full moon,
I laid me on the strand, fresh from the spray,
My head fronting the moonbeams, since the hair
Retains moisture—and so I slowly rose
As upon angels’ wings, effortlessly,
Upward – then suddenly I felt a shock!—
And then…
DE GUICHE (Overcome by curiosity, sits down on the bench.)
And then?
CYRANO
And then—
(Changes abruptly to his natural voice.)
The time is up!—
Fifteen minutes, your Grace!—You are now free;
And—they are bound—in wedlock. (III.463-553 )
That Cyrano’s story is so outlandish makes a fool out of de Guiche—for fifteen minutes, while Roxane and Christian are married.
Quote #12
CYRANO
Even
Grotesque?
ROXANE
How could he ever be grotesque—
Ever— to me!
CYRANO
But you could love him so,
As much as?
ROXANE
Yes—and more!
CYRANO (aside, excitedly)
It is true!—true!—
Perhaps— God! This is too much happiness…
[…]
(ROXANE throws herself on upon the body of CHRISTIAN. Shots; at first scattered, then increasing. Drums. Voices shouting.)…
CHRISTIAN (faintly)
Roxane!...
CYRANO (low and quick, in Christian’s ear, while ROXANE is dipping into the water a strip of linen torn from her dress.)
I have told her; she loves you.
(CHRISTIAN closes his eyes.) (IV.514-524)
Just as Cyrano is about to tell Roxane the truth, Christian dies and it changes everything. Cyrano, burdened with guilt, cannot bear to tell Roxane the whole story. So he lies to her, insisting on Christian’s great soul, and then compounds it by lying to Christian, claiming that he has told Roxane the truth and that she loves him nonetheless. In his gracious lie to Christian, Cyrano effectively gives up all hope of ever winning Roxane’s hand.
Quote #13
ROXANE
How is it with our friend?
LE BRET
Badly.
DE GUICHE
Indeed?
ROXANE (To De Guiche)
Oh, he exaggerates! (V.59-60)
Even now, fifteen years after Christian’s death, Roxane is still stubbornly blind to Cyrano. She believes him invincible and never quite grasps that he can be killed as easily as Christian.
Quote #14
RAGUENEAU (Enters hurriedly.)
Madame!
(He sees Le Bret.) Monsieur!—
ROXANE (Smiling)
First tell your troubles
To Le Bret for a moment.
RAGUENEAU
But Madame—
(She goes out, with De Guiche, not hearing him. Ragueneau comes to Le Bret.)
After all, I had rather—You are here—
She need not know so soon—I went to see him
Just now—Our friend—As I came near his door,
I saw him coming out. I hurried on
To join him. At the corner of the street,
As he passed—Could it be an accident?—
I wonder!—At the window overhead,
A lackey with a heavy log of wood
Let it fall— (V.110-120)
Roxane now deceives herself as to Cyrano’s condition.
Quote #15
ROXANE
The hour!—He will be coming now—my silks—
All done striking? He never was so late
Before! The sister at the door—my thimble…
Here it is—she must be exhorting him
(A pause)
He ought to be
Converted, by this time—Another leaf—
(A dead leaf falls on her work ; she brushes it away.)
Certainly nothing could—my scissors— ever
Keep him away—
A NUN (Appears at the steps.)
Monsieur de Bergerac.
ROXANE (Without turning)
What was I saying?... Hard, sometimes, to match
These faded colors!...
(While she goes on working, Cyrano appears at the top of the steps, very pale, his hat drawn over
his eyes. The Nun who has brought him in goes away. He begins to descend the steps leaning on his
cane, and holding himself of his feet only by an evident effort. Roxane turns to him, with a tone of
friendly banter.)
After fourteen years,
Late—for the first time!
To repent all his sins…
CYRANO (Reaches the chair, and sinks into it; his gay tone contrasting with his tortured face.)
Yes, yes—maddening!
I was detained by—
ROXANE
Well?
CYRANO
A visitor,
Most unexpected. (V.144-156)
That Roxane keeps her back turned complements her mental refusal to see things as they are. In fact, she metaphorically had her back turned during her entire "relationship" with Christian.
Quote #16
SISTER MARTHE (Looks up, smiling.)
You—
(She sees his face.)
Oh!—
CYRANO (Indicates Roxane.)
Sh!—Careful!
(Resumes his burlesque tone.)
Yesterday,
I ate meat again!
SISTER MARTHE
Yes, I know.
(Aside)
That is why
He looks so pale…
(V.170-174)
Even Sister Marthe is willing to help Cyrano deceive Roxane.
Quote #17
ROXANE
Cyrano!
CYRANO (Opens his eyes.)
What!... What is it?...
(He sees Roxane leaning over him, and quickly pulls his hat down over his head and leans back away from her in the chair.)
No—oh no—
It is nothing—truly!
ROXANE
But—
CYRANO
My old wound—
At Arras—sometimes—you know…
ROXANE
My poor friend!
CYRANO
Oh it is nothing; it will soon be gone… (V.216-220)
This scene exactly mirrors the earlier interaction (in Act II) when Cyrano tries to hide his injured hand from Roxane. Just as the severity of his injury has increased, so have the repercussions for what were once just petty deceptions.
Quote #18
(She comes near him, softly without his seeing her passes the chair, leans over silently, looking at the letter. The darkness increases.)
CYRANO
"—I am never away from you. Even now,
I shall not leave you. In another world,
I shall be still that one who loves you, loves you
Beyond measure, beyond—"
ROXANE (Lays her hand on his shoulder.)
How can you read
Now? It is dark…
(He starts, turns, and sees her there, close to him. A little movement of surprise, almost of fear; then he bows his head. A long pause; then in the twilight now completely fallen, she says very softly, clasping her hands)
And all these fourteen years,
He has been the old friend who came to me
To be amusing.
CYRANO
Roxane!—
ROXANE
It was you. (V.242-250)
The blindness is reversed here: in the dark, Cyrano cannot see Roxane, yet she finally realizes he was the man to woo her all those years ago.