How we cite our quotes: (Act.Line)
Quote #1
A GUARDSMAN (to a flower girl who comes forward)
How sweet
Of you to come before they light the hall!
(Puts his arm around her)
FIRST CAVALIER (Receives a thrust of the foil)
A hit!
SECOND LACKEY
A club!
THE GUARDSMAN (Pursuing the girl)
A kiss!
THE FLOWER GIRL (Pushing away from him)
They’ll see us!
THE GUARDSMAN (Draws her into a dark corner)
No danger! (I.8-10)
Love, or lust in this particular case, is like war in Cyrano de Bergerac. The language of the amorous guardsman and the reluctant flower girl are given in terse, exclaimed language—hits or strikes from verbal sparring.
Quote #2
CHRISTIAN
A little longer! She is always here.
Please! I must find some way of meeting her.
I am dying of love! (I.71-73)
Christian shows us how easily the term "love" is thrown out in the play; his exaggerations and melodrama are par for the course.
Quote #3
CHRISTIAN (Looks up, sees ROXANE, and seizes LIGNIÈRE by the arm.)
There! Quick—up there—
In the box! Look!
LIGNIÈRE (coolly)
Herself?
CHRISTIAN
Quickly—Her name?
LIGNIÈRE (Sipping his wine, and speaking between sips)
Madeleine Robin, called Roxane… refined…
Intellectual…
CHRISTIAN
Ah!
LIGNIÈRE
Unmarried…
CHRISTIAN
Oh!— (I.145-149)
Christian doesn’t even know Roxane’s name before he goes about declaring his love for her.
Quote #4
LE BRET
Hmph!—Well, then, the real reason why you hate
Montfleury—Come, the truth, now!
CYRANO (rises)
That Silenus,
Who cannot hold his belly in his arms,
Still dreams of being sweetly dangerous
Among the women—sighs and languishes,
Making sheeps’ eyes out of his great frog’s face—
I hate him ever since one day he dared
Smile upon—
Oh, my friend, I seemed to see
Over some flower a great snail crawling!
LE BRET
How,
What? Is it possible?
CYRANO (With a bitter smile)
For me to love?
I love. (I.532-542)
Le Bret shows insight into Cyrano’s mind. He knows the man’s anger at Montfleury must have something to do with another intense passion—love.
Quote #5
LE BRET
Who and what is this woman?
CYRANO
Dangerous
Mortally, without meaning; exquisite
Without imagining. Nature’s own snare
To allure manhood. A white rose wherein
Love lies in ambush for his natural prey.
Who knows her smile has known a perfect thing.
She creates grace in her own image, brings
Heaven to earth in one movement of her hand—
Nor thou, O Venus! balancing thy shell
Over the Mediterranean blue, nor thou,
Diana! marching through broad, blossoming woods,
Art so divine as when she mounts her chair,
And goes abroad through Paris! (I.551-563)
One of the most compelling reasons that Cyrano loves Roxane is for her physical beauty—which he describes as divine. But more interesting is the first adjective he uses: dangerous. Indeed, he will ultimately suffer death as penalty (if indirectly) for his love.
Quote #6
CYRANO
…I may grow
Tender, walking alone in the blue cool
Of evening, through some garden fresh with flowers
After the benediction of the rain;
My poor big devil of a nose inhales
April…and so I follow with my eyes
Where some boy, with a girl upon his arm,
Passes a patch of silver… and I feel
Somehow, I wish I had a woman too,
Walking with little steps under the moon.
And holding my arm so, and smiling. (I.571-581)
Despite all his flamboyant bravado, Cyrano has a tender heart and secretly longs for love. To somewhat appease his yearning, he lives vicariously through others.
Quote #7
CYRANO
She knows that I exist—no matter why!
LE BRET
So now, you are going to be happy.
CYRANO
Now!...
(Beside himself)
I—I am going to be a storm—a flame—
I need to fight whole armies all alone;
I have ten hearts; I have a hundred arms; I feel
Too strong to war with mortals—
(He shouts at the top of his voice.)
BRING ME GIANTS! (I.620-625)
Cyrano is so in love with Roxane that her mere acknowledgement of his existence sends him into raptures. This interaction is then responsible for his victory against the assassins.
Quote #8
ROXANE
And such a man!—
He is proud—noble—young—brave—beautiful— (II.201-202)
Roxane pretends her love is based on virtue, but we know that her final description of Christian as "beautiful" is reflective of her actual mindset.
Quote #9
ROXANE
And I thought
You… You were so brave, so invincible
Yesterday, against all those brutes!—If, you,
Whom they all fear—
CYRANO
Oh well—I will defend
Your little Baron.
ROXANE
Will you? Just for me?
Because I have always been—your friend!
CYRANO
Of course…
ROXANE
Will you be his friend?
CYRANO
I will be his friend.
ROXANE
And never let him fight a duel?
CYRANO
No—never.
ROXANE
Oh, but you are a darling!—I must go—
You never told me about last night—Why,
You must have been a hero! Have him write
And tell me all about it—will you?
CYRANO
Of course… (II.233-244)
Does Cyrano help Christian because of Roxane’s request, or does he do it for selfish reasons?
Quote #10
LE BRET
Yes…
(After a silence, draws Cyrano’s arm through his own.)
Tell this to all the world—And then to me
Say very softly that… She loves you not. (II.459-461)
Again, Le Bret is the only character to truly understand Cyrano and the complexity of his love.
Quote #11
CYRANO
Do you not know
I am her brother? Come!
CHRISTIAN
Whose?—
CYRANO
Hers—Roxane!
CHRISTIAN
Her… brother? You?
(Hurries to him.)
CYRANO
Her cousin. Much the same.
CHRISTIAN
And she has told you?...
CYRANO
Everything.
CHRISTIAN
She loves me?
CYRANO
Perhaps.
CHRISTIAN (Takes both his hands.)
My dear sir—more than I can say,
I am honored—
CYRANO
This is rather sudden.
CHRISTIAN
Please
Forgive me— (II.526-532)
Only when Christian learns that Cyrano is Roxane’s cousin does he ask his forgiveness; his actions, like Cyrano’s, are driven entirely by desire for Roxane.
Quote #12
CYRANO (change of tone)
Roxane expects a letter—
CHRISTIAN
Not from me?
Yes. Why not?
CHRISTIAN
Once I write, that ruins all!
CYRANO
And why?
CHRISTIAN
Because… because I am a fool!
Stupid enough to hang myself!
CYRANO
But no—
You are no fool; you call yourself a fool,
There’s proof enough in that. Besides, you did not
Attack me like a fool.
CHRISTIAN
Bah! Any one
Can pick quarrel. Yes, I have a sort
Of rough and ready soldier’s tongue. I know
That. But with any woman—paralyzed,
Speechless, dumb. I can only look at them.
Yet sometimes, when I go away, their eyes…
CYRANO
Why not their hearts, if you would wait and see?
CHRISTIAN
No. I am one of those—I know—those men
Who never can make love.
CYRANO
Strange… Now it seems
I, if I gave my mind to it, I might
Perhaps make love well.
CHRISTIAN
Oh, if I had words
To say what I have here!
CYRANO
If I could be
A handsome little Musketeer with eyes!
CHRISTIAN
Besides—you know Roxane—how sensitive—
One rough word, and the sweet illusion—gone!
CYRANO
I wish you might be my interpreter.
CHRISTIAN
I wish I had your wit—
CYRANO
Borrow it, then!
Your beautiful young manhood—lend me that,
And we two make one hero of romance! (II.536-560)
Both men are so desperate for Roxane’s love that they are willing to manipulate each other to achieve their ends.
Quote #13
RAGUENEAU
And so she ran off with a Musketeer!
I was ruined—I was alone—Remained
Nothing for me to do but hang myself,
So I did that. Presently along comes
Monsieur de Bergerac, and cuts me down,
And makes me steward to his cousin. (III.1-6)
Love seems to bring more misery than happiness in Cyrano de Bergerac.
Quote #14
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)
Love and deception are inseparable in this play.
Quote #15
CHRISTIAN (Same business)
Love grows and struggles like… an angry child…
Breaking my heart… his cradle…
ROXANE
(Coming out on the balcony.)
Better still—
ROXANE
But… such a babe is dangerous; why not
Have it smothered new-born?
CHRISTIAN (Same business)
And so I do…
And yet he lives…I found… as you shall find…
This new-born babe… an infant… Hercules!
ROXANE (Further forward)
Good!—
CHRISTIAN (Same business)
Strong enough… at birth… to strangle those
Two serpents—Doubt and… Pride. (III.218-225)
In a moment of poetic fancy, Cyrano speaks (through Christian) of love as baby Hercules, the child that could not be killed by Hades’s twin snakes, Doubt and Pride. This reflects Cyrano’s view of love, but is such an opinion validated or rejected by the events of the play?
Quote #16
ROXANE
But… Poetry?
CYRANO
Love hates that game of words!
It is a crime to fence with life—I tell you,
There comes one moment, once—and God help those
Who pass that moment by!—when Beauty stands
Looking into the soul with grave, sweet eyes
That sicken at pretty words! (III.293-298)
With Love comfortably established as a personified being now, Cyrano claims that at some point Love comes to hate shallowness, embodied by fancy but fruitless words to one’s lover. Words to Cyrano seem passive in comparison to action.
Quote #17
ROXANE
And when that moment comes to you and me—
What words will you?...
CYRANO
All those, all those, all those
That blossom in my heart, I’ll fling to you—
Armfuls of loose bloom! Love, I love beyond!
Breath, beyond reason, beyond love’s own power
Of loving! Your name is like a golden bell
Hung in my heart; and when I think of you
I tremble, and the bell swings and rings—
"Roxane!"…
"Roxane!"… along my veins, "Roxane!"…
I know
All small forgotten things that once meant You—
I remember last year, the First of May,
A little before noon, you had your hair
Drawn low, that one time only. Is that strange?
You know how, after looking at the sun,
One sees red suns everywhere—so, for hours
After the flood of sunshine that you are,
My eyes are blinded by your burning hair!
ROXANE (very low)
Yes… that is… Love (III.300-316)
Cyrano sees love as obsession; how does this compare to Christian’s view?
Quote #18
CYRANO
Yes, that is Love—that wind
Of terrible and jealous beauty, blowing
Over me—that dark fire, that music…
Yet
Love seeketh not his own! Dear, you may take
My happiness to make you happier,
Even though you never know I gave it you—
Only let me hear sometimes, all alone,
The distant laughter of your joy!... (III.316-323)
Cyrano presents two competing aspects of love, one that is selfish and "jealous" and another that is completely selfless (and wants Roxane to "take / My happiness to make you happier"). These are the two sides of love competing in Cyrano; one side wants Roxane for himself, and the other wants to make her happy by letting her love the one she wants to: Christian.
Quote #19
CYRANO
I never
Look at you, but there’s some new virtue born
In me, some new courage. Do you begin
To understand, a little? Can you feel
My soul, there in the darkness, breathe on you? (III.323-327)
Love inspires new superhuman courage in Cyrano. This recalls the "Bring me giants!" scene in Act I where Cyrano, spurred on by Roxane’s acknowledgement of him, spends his newfound courage fighting off 100 men.
Quote #20
LE BRET
Horrible!
CARBON
Why, yes. All of that.
LE BRET
Mordious!
CARBON (Gesture toward the sleeping Cadets)
Swear gently—You might wake them.
(To Cadets)
Go to sleep—
Hush!—
(To Le Bret)
Who sleeps dines.
LE BRET
I have insomnia.
God! What a famine.
(Firing off stage.)
CARBON
Curse that musketry!
They’ll wake my babies. (IV.1-5)
Though Captain Carbon is ultimately a fighting man, he loves his Cadets with an almost parental tenderness.