How we cite our quotes: (Act.Line)
Quote #1
THE PAGES (Dance in, holding hands and singing:)
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-lère…
THE PORTER
You pages there—no nonsense!
FIRST PAGE (With wounded dignity)
Oh, monsieur!
Really! How could you?
(To the Second, the moment the Porter turns his back)
Pst!—a bit of string?
SECOND PAGE (Shows fishline with hook)
Yes—and a hook.
FIRST PAGE
Up in the gallery,
And fish for wigs! (I.19-23)
The pages set the tone for Cyrano in the first act with their frippery and zany antics.
Quote #2
FIRST MARQUIS (Seeing the hall half empty)
How now! We enter
Like tradespeople—no crowding, no disturbance!—
No treading on the toes of citizens?
Oh fie! Oh fie! (I.38-41)
Rostand satirizes the pretentiousness of noblemen by making the first marquis so concerned with appearing important. He is indignant that their entrance has not caused a stir among the little people.
Quote #3
RAGUENEAU
Have you not heard? Monsieur de Bergerac
So hates Montfleury, he has forbidden him
For three weeks to appear upon the stage. (I.108-110)
Cyrano here shows a bit of frivolity. He bans Montfleury from the stage though he doesn’t have the authority (or just cause) to do so.
Quote #4
(The melody of a Musette is heard. Montfleury appears upon the scene, a ponderous figure in the costume of a rustic shepherd, a hat garlanded with roses tilted over one ear, playing upon a beribboned pastoral pipe)
THE CROWD (Applauds)
Montfleury!... Bravo!...
MONTFLEURY (After bowing to the applause, begins the role of Phedon)
"Thrice happy he who hides from pomp and power
In sylvan shade or solitary bower;
Where balmy zephyrs fan his burning cheeks—" (I.212-215)
The fact that Montfleury is acting in a play gives the whole scene a sense of artificiality. His lines are ridiculously fanciful and overblown; Cyrano hates him for this very reason, yet our hero’s own language isn’t exactly drastically different.
Quote #5
THE BOY (To Cyrano)
After all, Monsieur, what reason have you
To hate this Montfleury?
CYRANO (Graciously, still seated)
My dear young man,
I have two reasons, either one alone
Conclusive. Primo: A lamentable actor,
Who mouths his verse and moans his tragedy,
And heaves up—Ugh!—like a hod-carrier, lines
That ought to soar on their own wings. Secundo:—
Well—that’s my secret. (I.279-285)
Though he doesn’t reveal it here, Cyrano hates Montfleury simply for looking at Roxane the wrong way. Also, Cyrano’s speech has a hint of pretentiousness in its Italian "primo" and "secundo," echoing the manner in which stage drama is written.
Quote #6
ANOTHER COMEDIENNE (Jumps down, speaks to a Comedian costumed as an old man.)
You, Cassandre?
CYRANO Come all of you—the Doctor, Isabelle,
Léandre—the whole company—a swarm
Of murmuring, golden bees—we’ll parody
Italian farce and Tragedy-of-Blood;
Ribbons for banners, masks for blazonry,
And tambourines to be our rolling drums! (I.654-660)
The stage actors and Cyrano both steep their speech in the language of a drama, calling each other by their Italian stage names (Cassandre, Isabelle, Léandre) and discussing Cyrano’s upcoming fight with de Guiche’s one hundred men as an "Italian farce and Tragedy-of-Blood." In reality, of course, it is a much more serious and real fight to death. That these men speak of it so lightly gets at the central conflict of Cyrano de Bergerac—the juxtaposition of a comedic and overblown tone with a more dramatic, underlying tragedy.
Quote #7
CYRANO
Look—Paris dreams—nocturnal, nebulous,
Under blue moonbeams hung from wall to wall—
Nature’s own setting for the scene we play!—
Yonder, behind her veil of mist, the Seine,
Like a mysterious and magic mirror
Trembles—
And you shall see what you shall see! (I.669-674)
Cyrano’s description of the night makes it seem like a setting from a stage play. There is also a fantastic aura, as if this is taking place within a fairy tale, full of "blue moonbeams" and "magic mirror[s]". This gives the whole scene—even the impending battle—a sense of artificiality, as if it is all scripted and nothing can go wrong for Cyrano.
Quote #8
THE APPRENTICE (Advances with a dish covered by a napkin.)
Master, I thought of you when I designed
This, hoping it might please you.
RAGUENEAU
Ah! A lyre—
THE APPRENTICE
In puff-paste—
RAGUENEAU
And the jewels—candied fruit!
THE APPRENTICE
And the strings, barley-sugar!
RAGUENEAU (Gives him money.)
Go and drink
My health.
(Lise enters.)
St!—My wife—Circulate, and hide
That money!
(Shows the lyre to Lise, with a languid air.)
Graceful—yes?
LISE
Ridiculous! (II.20-25)
Ragueneau’s apprentice presents him with a fanciful and frivolous creation. That such a whimsical shape is made out of something as light and insubstantial as a pastry puff makes it even more eccentric.
Quote #9
CYRANO (To Ragueneau)
Do you not see
Those fellows fattening themselves?—
RAGUENEAU
I know.
I would not look—it might embarrass them—
You see, I love a friendly audience.
Besides—another vanity—I am pleased
When they enjoy my cooking. (II.127-132)
Ragueneau admits that he loves being the flamboyant showman, even if his work is not critically acclaimed. He simply revels in the attention that his ostentation brings him—whether it is for his sappy poetry or saccharine pastries.
Quote #10
CYRANO
Captain?
CARBON
Our troop being all present, be so kind
As to present them to the Comte de Guiche!
CYRANO
The Cadets of Gascoyne—the defenders
Of Carbon de Castel-Jaloux:
Free fighters, free lovers, free spenders—
The Cadets of Gascoyne—the defenders
Of old homes, old names, and old splendors—
A proud and a pestilent crew!
The Cadets of Gascoyne, the defenders
Of Carbon de Castel-Jaloux.
Hawk eyed, they stare down all contenders—
The wolf bares his fangs as they do—
Make way there, you fat money-lenders!
(Hawk eyed, they stare down all contenders)
Old boots that have been to the menders,
Old cloaks that are worn through and through—
Hawk eyed, they stare down all contenders!—
The wolf bares his fangs as they do!
Skull-breakers they are, and sword-benders;
Red blood is their favorite brew;
Hot haters and loyal befrienders,
Skull-breakers they are, and sword-benders.
Wherever a quarrel engenders,
They’re read and waiting for you!
Skull-breakers they are, and sword-benders;
Red blood is their favorite brew!
Behold them, our Gascon defenders
Who win every woman they woo!
There’s never a dame but surrenders—
Behold them, our Gascon defenders!
Young wives who are clever pretenders—
Old husbands who house the cuckoo—
Behold them—our Gascon defenders
Who win every woman they woo! (II.296-329)
This whole scene has an aura of artifice in it because Cyrano makes up a perfectly rhymed song in the moment. Again, even the most impromptu of moments seems overblown and scripted in the "reality" we see up onstage.
Quote #11
CYRANO
I marched on, all alone
To meet those devils. Overhead, the moon
Hung like a gold watch at the fob of heaven,
Till suddenly some Angel rubbed a cloud,
As it might be his handkerchief, across
The shining crystal, and—the night came down.
No lamps in those back streets—It was so dark— (II.483-489)
Cyrano’s recounting of his adventures the night before is presented in overwrought, poetical language. Perhaps this is part of the reason why Christian begins to insult Cyrano so doggedly; he is sick of hearing such pretentious stories lionized.
Quote #12
CYRANO (passionately, moves nearer.)
How should it be?
I have another voice—my own,
Myself, daring—
(he stops, confused; then tries to recover himself.)
Where was I?... I forget!...
Forgive me. This is all sweet like a dream…
Strange—like a dream…
ROXANE
How, strange? (III.263-268)
Cyrano’s passion is so feverish that he feels as if he is living a dream. This whole passage evokes a languid and surreal feeling that renders it decidedly unrealistic.
Quote #13
ROXANE
But… Poetry?
CYRANO
I have made rimes for you—
Not now—Shall we insult Nature, this night,
These flowers, this moment—shall we set all these
To phrases from a letter by Voiture?
Look once at the high stars that shine in heaven,
And put off artificiality!
Have you not seen great gaudy hothouse flowers,
Barren, without fragrance?—Souls are like that:
Forced to show all, they soon become all show—
The means to Nature’s end ends meaningless!
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.282-296)
Words, according to Cyrano, are not as true as emotion or action. This statement brings consequences on two scales: the first is that Cyrano lives by and is defined by his voice, his wit, his language; the second and grander scale is that Cyrano de Bergerac is a play, and therefore driven solely by the speech of its characters. The entire work of literature itself, then, operates within its own falsity.
Quote #14
ROXANE
Oh,
Frequently! Then I drooped my eyes and said:
"I have a lover…" Whereupon, the Spaniard
With an air of ferocious dignity
Would close the carriage door—with such a gesture
As any king might envy, wave aside
The muskets that were leveled at my breast,
Fall back three paces, equally superb
In grace and gloom, draw himself up, thrust forth
A spur under his cloak, sweeping the air
With his long plumes, bow very low, and say:
"Pass, Senorita!" (IV.262-272)
Roxane’s narrative sounds like something out of a chivalrous romance novel; again, Cyrano mocks the very genre it purports to take part in.
Quote #15
CARBON (Having, like the others, tightened his belt, dusted himself, brushed off his hat, smoothed out his plume and put on his lace cuffs, advances to Roxane ceremoniously)
In that case, may I not present to you
Some of these gentlemen who are to have
The honor of dying in your presence?
ROXANE (Bows)
Please!—
(She waits, standing on the arm of Christian, while)
CARBON (—presents)
Baron de Peyrescous de Colignac!
THE CADETS (Salutes)
Madame…
ROXANE
Monsieur…
CARBON (Continues) Baron de Casterac
De Cahuzac—Vidame de Malgouyre
Estressac Lésbas d’Escarabiot—
THE VIDAME
Madame…
CARBON
Chevalier d’Antignac-Juzet—
Baron Hillot de Blagnac-Saléchan
De Castel-Crabioules (IV.300-309)
This is another instance of a scene so overblown and pretentious that it seems to have come from a romance novel.
Quote #16
ROXANE
Tell me now
The Court news—my gazette!
CYRANO
Let me see—
ROXANE
Ah!
CYRANO (More and more pale, struggling against pain)
Saturday, the nineteenth: The King fell ill,
After eight helpings of grape marmalade.
His malady was brought before the court,
Found guilty of high treason; whereupon
His Majesty revived. The royal pulse
Is now normal. Sunday, the twentieth:
The Queen gave a grand ball, at which they burned
Seven hundred and sixty-three wax candles. Note:
They say our troops have been victorious
In Austria. Later: Three sorcerers
Have been hung. Special post: The little dog
Of Madame d’Athis was obliged to take
Four pills before—
ROXANE
Monsieur de Bergerac,
Will be kindly be quiet!
CYRANO
Monday… nothing.
Lygdamire has a new lover.
ROXANE
Oh! (V.193-209)
Roxane’s concerns are frivolous when compared to Cyrano’s state of near-death. She wants only news of the court, a circle of society in which she no longer plays a part. Cyrano’s recounting tells of the trivial details of love affairs and the pets of famous names. Cyrano’s Gazette recalls our modern-day tabloids.
Quote #17
CYRANO (To Ragueneau)
The Scene
Went well?...
RAGUENEAU
Ah, monsieur, they laughed—and laughed—
How they did laugh!
CYRANO
Yes—that has been my life…
Do you remember that night Christian spoke
Under your window? It was always so!
While I stood in the darkness underneath,
Others climbed up to win the applause—the kiss!—
Well—that seems only justice—I still say,
Even now, on the threshold of my tomb—
"Molière has genius—Christian had good looks—" (V.295-303)
Cyrano’s words about himself, that while he "stood in the darkness underneath, / Others climbed up to win the applause" likens his life to a play, a made-up story, and somewhat deprives it of a gritty sense of reality.
Quote #18
ROXANE
You shall not die! I love you!
CYRANO
No—
That is not in the story! You remember
When Beauty said "I love you" to the Beast
That was a fairy prince, his ugliness
Changed and dissolved, like magic… But you see
I am still the same. (V.308-313)
Cyrano likens his tragic life to a fairy tale. Though we would expect such a story to end happily, Cyrano deals us a reality check; he has not transformed into a handsome prince and his ending is far from happy.