How we cite our quotes: (Act.Line)
Quote #21
CYRANO (Appears on the parapet)
Bergerac, idiot!
LE BRET (Goes to meet him.)
Thank God again!
CYRANO (Signs to him not to wake anyone.)
Hush!
LE BRET
Wounded?
CYRANO
No—They always miss me—quite
A habit by this time!
LE BRET
Yes, you can laugh—
Risking a life like yours to carry letters—
Where are you going now?
CYRANO (At the tent door)
To write another. (IV.29-32)
Le Bret, Cyrano’s closest friend, worries about him risking his life every morning to send a love letter. Obviously not bothered by Le Bret’s concerns, Cyrano makes it clear that he values love more than life.
Quote #22
CYRANO
But the cool, quiet pipe our goatherds play!
Listen—the forest glens… the hills… the downs…
The green sweetness of night on the Dordogne…
Listen, you Gascons! It is all Gascoyne!...
(Every head is bowed; every eye cast down. Here and there a tear is furtively brushed away with the back of a hand, the corner of a cloak.)
CARBON (Softly to Cyrano)
You make them weep—
CYRANO
For homesickness—a hunger
More noble than that hunger of the flesh;
It is their hearts now that are starving. (IV.95-101)
Over and over, Cyrano fights practical reality with overblown romanticism.
Quote #23
CYRANO
So it is!... Well—a poet while he writes
Is like a lover in his lady’s arms,
Believing his imagination—all
Seems true—you understand? There’s half the charm
Of writing—Now, this letter as you see
I have made so pathetic that I wept
While I was writing it!
CHRISTIAN
You—wept?
CYRANO
Why, yes—
Because… it is a little thing to die,
But—not to see her… that is terrible!
And I shall never—
(Christian looks at him.)
We shall never—
(Quickly)
You
Will never—
CHRISTIAN (Snatches the letter.)
Give me that! (IV.215-225)
Despite his best efforts, Cyrano’s love for Roxane is too overwhelming for him to hide.
Quote #24
ROXANE
You do not altogether know me… Dear,
There is more of me than there was—with this
I can love more of you—more of what makes
You your own self—Truly!... If you were less
Lovable—
CHRISTIAN
No!
ROXANE
—Less charming—ugly even—
I should love you still. (IV.458-463)
Roxane’s love transforms from the shallow, appearance-obsessed kind to one of greater depth, a love of the lover’s expression—which is, as Roxane describes, the outpouring of the lover’s soul.
Quote #25
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.524)
Cyrano lies to Christian not because he values the man as a friend, but because his selfless love for Roxane (his desire for her to be happy) has defeated his selfish love (his desire to have her for himself).
Quote #26
DE GUICHE
And his last letter—always at your heart?
ROXANE
It hangs here, like a holy reliquary.
DE GUICHE
Dead—and you love him still! (V.44-46)
Roxane’s love for Christian transcends death; de Guiche, with his shallow vision of love, cannot understand this.
Quote #27
ROXANE
Sometimes I think
He has not altogether died; our hearts
Meet, and his love flows all around me, living. (V.46-48)
This is an expression of Roxane’s immortal love for Christian; for her, he is still alive.
Quote #28
ROXANE
Every week,
My old friend [Cyrano] takes the place of my Gazette,
Brings me all the news. Every Saturday,
Under that tree where you are now, his chair
Stands, if the day be find. I wait for him,
Embroidering; the hour strikes; then I hear,
(I need not turn to look!) at the last stroke,
His cane tapping the steps. He laughs at me
For my eternal needlework. He tells
The story of the past week— (V.49-58)
Cyrano has resigned himself merely to seeing Roxane without having her love; because of his desire to see her happy, this is enough for him.
Quote #29
LE BRET
It is not violence I fear for him,
But solitude—poverty—old gray December,
Stealing on wolf’s feet, with a wolf’s green eyes,
Into his darkening roof. Those bravoes yet
May strike our Swordsman down! Every day now,
He draws his belt up one hold; his poor nose
Looks like old ivory; he has one coat
Left—his old black serge. (V.67-74)
Le Bret knows Cyrano so well that he rightly fears loneliness will be our hero’s undoing, instead of violence at the hands of his enemies. His insight is, for the first time, wrong. Cyrano dies from a chance accident that was motivated by the vengeful Comte.
Quote #30
ROXANE
His letter… and you read it so…
(The darkness increases imperceptibly.)
CYRANO
"Cries out and keeps crying: 'Farewell, my dear,
My dearest—'"
ROXANE
In a voice…
CYRANO
"—My own heart’s own,
My own treasure—"
ROXANE (dreamily)
In such a voice…
CYRANO
"—My love—"
ROXANE
As I remember hearing…
(she trembles)
—long ago…
(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—" (V.239-247)
Roxane can only recognize the letter as Cyrano’s because the room is getting darker; when she can’t see his face, she cannot judge him for his appearance. Her love is then genuine.
Quote #31
ROXANE
It was you.
CYRANO
No, no, Roxane, no!
ROXANE
And I might have known,
Every time that I heard you speak my name!...
CYRANO
No—It was not I—
ROXANE
It was… you!
CYRANO
I swear—
ROXANE
I understand everything now: The letters—
That was you…
CYRANO
No! (V.250-255)
Cyrano denies his own intense love for Roxane just so that she may maintain the beautiful image of Christian’s sacrifice for her love. But does he do this for Christian’s or Roxane’s sake?
Quote #32
ROXANE
You shall not die! I love you— (V.308)
Roxane still plays the part of an innocent and naïve girl, but simply loving Cyrano will do nothing to change the folly of the last fifteen years.
Quote #33
ROXANE
And I—I have done
This to you! All my fault—mine!
CYRANO
You? Why no,
On the contrary! I had never known
Womanhood and its sweetness but for you.
My mother did not love to look at me—
I never had a sister—Later on,
I feared the mistress with a mockery
Behind her smile. But you—because of you
I have had one friend not quite all a friend—
Across my life, one whispering silken gown! (V.313-322)
Although he has died in part because of his love for Roxane, Cyrano is still grateful to her.
Quote #34
CYRANO
Le Bret—I shall be up there presently
In the moon—without having to invent
Any flying machines!
ROXANE
What are you saying?...
CYRANO
The moon—yes, that would be the place for me—
My kind of paradise! I shall find there
Those other souls who should be friends of mine—
Socrates—Galileo—
LE BRET (Revolting)
No! No! No!
It is too idiotic—too unfair—
Such a friend— such a poet—such a man—
To die so—to die so!— (V.326-334)
Even in death, Cyrano still tries to fight practicality with his outlandish dreaming and gallantry.