ACT THREE

Roxane’s Kiss

A small square in the old Marais. Old-fashioned houses. Narrow streets seen in perspective. At the right, ROXANE’S house and the wall ofher garden, above which spreading tree-tops. Over the house-door, a balcony and window. A bench beside the doorstep.

The wall is overclambered by ivy, the balcony wreathed with jasmine.

By means of the bench and projecting stones in the wall, the balcony can easily be scaled.

On the opposite side, old house in the same style of architecture, brick and stone, with entrance-door. The door-knocker is swaddled in linen.

At the rise of the curtain, the DUENNA is seated on the bench. The window on ROXANE’S balcony is wide open.

RAGUENEAU, in a sort of livery, stands near the DUENNA; he is finishing the tale of his misfortunes, drying his eyes.

SCENE I

Ragueneau, the Duenna, then Roxane, Cyrano, and two Pages

RAGUENEAU And then, she eloped with a mousquetaire! Ruined, forsaken, I was hanging myself. I had already taken leave of earth, when Monsieur de Bergerac happening along, unhanged me, and proposed me to his cousin as her steward...

THE DUENNA But how did you fall into such disaster?

RAGUENEAU Lise was fond of soldiers, I, of poets! Mars ate up all left over by Apollo. Under those circumstances, you conceive, the pantry soon was bare.

THE DUENNA [rising and calling toward the open window] Roxane, are you ready? ... They are waiting for us! ...

ROXANE’ S VOICE [through the window] I am putting on my mantle!

THE DUENNA [to RAGUENEAU, pointing at the door opposite] It is over there, opposite, we are expected. At Clomire’s. She holds a meeting in her little place. A disquisition upon the Softer Sentiments is to be read.⁵⁰

RAGUENEAU Upon the Softer Sentiments?

THE DUENNA [coyly] Yes! ... [Calling toward the window.] Roxane, you must make haste, or we shall miss the disquisition upon the Softer Sentiments!

ROXANE’S VOICE I am coming! [A sound of string-instruments is heard, drawing nearer.]

CYRANO’S VOICE [singing in the wings] La! la! la! la! la! ...

THE DUENNA [surprised] We are to have music?

CYRANO [enters followed by two PAGES with theorbos]⁵¹ I tell you it is a demi-semi-quaver! ... you demi-semi-noddle!

FIRST PAGE [ironically] Monsieur knows then about quavers, semi and demi?

CYRANO I know music, as do all Gassendi’s disciples!^‡

THE PAGE [playing and singing] La! la!

CYRANO [snatching the theorbo from him and continuing the musical phrase] I can carry on the melody.... La, la, la, la, ...

ROXANE [appearing on the balcony] It is you?

CYRANO [singing upon the tune he is continuing] I, indeed, who salute your lilies and present my respects to your ro-o-oses! ...

ROXANE I am coming down! [She leaves the balcony.]

THE DUENNA [pointing at the PAGES] What is the meaning of these two virtuosi?

CYRANO A wager I won, from D’Assoucy. We were disputing upon a question of grammar. Yes! No! Yes! No! Suddenly pointing at these two tall knaves, expert at clawing strings, by whom he constantly goes attended, he said, “I wager a day long of music!” He lost. Until therefore the next rise of the sun, I shall have dangling after me these arch-lute players, harmonious witnesses of all I do! ...At first I liked it very well, but now it palls a little. [To the musicians] Hey! ... Go, from me, to Montfleury, and play him a pavane! ... [The PAGES go toward the back. To the DUENNA.] I have come to inquire of Roxane, as I do every evening.... [To the PAGES who are leaving.] Play a long time... and out of tune! [To the DUENNA] ... whether in the friend of her soul she can still detect no fault?

ROXANE [coming out of the house] Ah, how beautiful he is, what wit he has, how deeply I love him!

CYRANO [smiling] Christian has so much wit? ...

ROXANE Cousin, more than yourself!

CYRANO I grant you.

ROXANE There is not one alive, I truly believe, more apt at turning those pretty nothings which yet are everything.... Sometimes he is of an absent mood, his muse is wool-gathering, then, suddenly, he will say the most enchanting things!

CYRANO [incredulous] Come!...

ROXANE Oh, it is too bad! Men are all alike, narrow, narrow: because he is handsome, he cannot possibly be witty!

CYRANO So he talks of the heart in acceptable fashion? ROXANE Talks, cousin, is feeble.... He dissertates!

CYRANO And writes? ...

ROXANE Still better! Listen now to this ... [Declaiming.] “The more of my heart you steal from me, the more heart I have!” [Triumphantly to CYRANO]. Well? ...

CYRANO Pooh!

ROXANE And to this: “Since you have stolen my heart, and since I must suffer, to suffer with send me your own!”

CYRANO Now he has too much heart, now he has not enough, ... just what does he want, in the matter of quantity?

ROXANE You vex me! You are eaten up with jealousy....

CYRANO [starting] Hein?

ROXANE Author’s jealousy! And this, could anything be more exquisitely tender? “Unanimously, believe it, my heart cries out to you, and if kisses could be sent in writing, Love, you should read my letter with your lips....”

CYRANO [in spite of himself smiling with satisfaction] Ha! Ha! Those particular lines seem to me ... ho! ... ho! ... [Remembering himself, disdainfully] ... puny, pretty...

ROXANE This, then...

CYRANO [delighted] You know his letters by heart?

ROXANE All!

CYRANO It is flattering, one cannot deny.

ROXANE In this art of expressing love he is a master!

CYRANO [modest] Oh, ... a master!

ROXANE [peremptory] A master!

CYRANO As you please, then... a master!

THE DUENNA [who had gone toward the back, coming quickly forward] Monsieur de Guiche! [To CYRANO, pushing him toward the house] Go in! It is perhaps better that he should not see you here! it might put him on the scent...

ROXANNE [to CYRANO] Yes, of my dear secret! He loves me, he is powerful, ... he must not find out! He might cut in sunder our loves... with an axe!

CYRANO [going into the house] Very well, very well. [DE GUICHE appears.]

SCENE II

Roxane, De Guiche, the Duenna in the background

ROXANE [to DE GUICHE, with a curtsey] I was leaving the house.

DE GUICHE I have come to bid you farewell.

ROXANE You are going away?

DE GUICHE To war.

ROXANE Ah!

DE GUICHE I have my orders. Arras is besieged.

ROXANE Ah!... it is besieged?

DE GUICHE Yes.... I see that my departure does not greatly affect you.

ROXANE Oh!...

DE GUICHE As for me, I own it wrings my heart. Shall I see you again? ... When? ... You know that I am made commander-in-general?

ROXANE [uninterested] I congratulate you.

DE GUICHE Of the Guards.

ROXANE [starting] Ah,... of the Guards?

DE GUICHE Among whom your cousin serves, ... the man of the boasts and tirades. I shall have opportunity in plenty to retaliate upon him down there.

ROXANE [suffocating] What? The Guards are going down there? DE GUICHE Surely. It is my regiment.

ROXANE [falls sitting upon the bench; aside] Christian!

DE GUICHE What is it troubles you?

ROXANE [greatly moved] This departure... grieves me mortally. When one cares for a person... to know him away at the war!

DE GUICHE [surprised and charmed] For the first time you utter a kind and feeling word, when I am leaving!

ROXANE [in a different tone, fanning herself] So ... you are thinking of revenge upon my cousin?

DE GUICHE [smiling] You side with him?

ROXANE No... against him.

DE GUICHE Do you see much of him?

ROXANE Very little.

DE GUICHE He is everywhere to be met with one of the cadets... [trying to remember] that Neu ...villen ... viller ...

ROXANE A tall man?

DE GUICHE Light haired.

ROXANE Red haired.

DE GUICHE Good looking.

ROXANE Pooh!

DE GUICHE But a fool!

ROXANE He looks like one. [In a different tone.] Your vengeance upon Cyrano is then to place him within reach of shot, which is the thing of all he loves! ... A miserable vengeance! ... I know, I do, what would more seriously concern him!

DE GUICHE And that is?

ROXANE Why... that the regiment should march, and leave him behind, with his beloved cadets, arms folded, the whole war through, in Paris! That is the only way to cast down a man like him. You wish to punish him? Deprive him of danger.

DE GUICHE A woman! A woman! None but a woman could devise a vengeance of the sort!

ROXANE His friends will gnaw their fists, and he his very soul, with chagrin at not being under fire; and you will be abundantly avenged! DE GUICHE [coming nearer] Then you do love me a little? [ROXANE smiles.] I wish to see in this fact of your espousing my grudge a proof of affection, Roxane ...

ROXANE ... You may!

DE GUICHE [showing several folded papers] I have here upon me the orders to be transmitted at once to each of the companies... except... [he takes one from among the others.] This one! ... the company of the cadets... [He puts it in his pocket.] This, I will keep. [Laughing] Ah, ah, ah! Cyrano! his belligerent humor! ... So you sometimes play tricks upon people, you? ...

ROXANE Sometimes.

DE GUICHE [very near her] I love you to distraction! This evening... listen, ... it is true that I must be gone. But to go when I feel that it is a matter for your caring! Listen! ... There is, not far from here, in Rue Orléans, a convent founded by the Capuchins. Father Athanasius. A layman may not enter. But the good fathers... I fear no difficulty with them! They will hide me up their sleeve... their sleeve is wide. They are the Capuchins that serve Richelieu at home. Fearing the uncle, they proportionately fear the nephew. I shall be thought to have left. I will come to you masked. Let me delay by a single day, wayward enchantress!

ROXANE But if it should transpire... your fame...

DE GUICHE Bah!

ROXANE But... the siege... Arras! ...

DE GUICHE Must wait! Allow me, I beg...

ROXANE No!

DE GUICHE I beseech!

ROXANE [tenderly] No! Love itself bids me forbid you!

DE GUICHE Ah!

ROXANE You must go! [Aside.] Christian will stay! [Aloud.] For my sake, be heroic ... Antony!⁵²

DE GUICHE Ah, heavenly word upon your lips! ... Then you love the one who...

ROXANE Who shall have made me tremble for his sake...

DE GUICHE [in a transport of joy] Ah, I will go! [He kisses her hand.] Are you satisfied with me?

ROXANE My friend, I am.

[Exit DE GUICHE]

THE DUENNA [dropping a mocking curtsey toward his back] My friend, we are!

SCENE III

Roxane, the Duenna, Cyrano

ROXANE [to the DUENNA] Not a word of what I have done: Cyrano would never forgive me for defrauding him of his war! [She calls toward the house.] Cousin! [CYRANO comes out.] We are going to Clomire’s. [She indicates the house opposite.] Alcandre has engaged to speak, and so has Lysimon.

THE DUENNA [putting her little finger to her ear] Yes, but my little finger tells me that we shall be too late to hear them!

CYRANO [to ROXANE] Of all things do not miss the trained monkeys! [They have reached Clomire’s door]

THE DUENNA See!... See! they have muffled the doorknocker! [To the door-knocker.] You have been gagged, that your voice should not disturb the beautiful lecture, ... little brutal disturber! [She lifts it with infinite care and knocks softly]

ROXANE [seeing the door open] Come! [From the threshold to CYRANO.] If Christian should come, as probably he will, say he must wait!

CYRANO [hurriedly, as she is about to disappear] Ah! [She turns.] Upon what shall you, according to your custom, question him to-day?

ROXANE Upon...

CYRANO [eagerly] Upon?...

ROXANE But you will be silent...

CYRANO As that wall!

ROXANE Upon nothing! I will say: Forward! Free rein! No curb! Improvise! Talk of love! Be magnificent!

CYRANO [smiling] Good.

ROXANE Hush!

CYRANO Hush!

ROXANE Not a word! [She goes in and closes the door.]

CYRANO [bowing, when the door is closed] A thousand thanks! [The door opens again and ROXANE looks out]

ROXANE He might prepare his speeches...

CYRANO Ah no!... the devil, no!

BOTH [together] Hush!...

[The door closes]

SCENE IV

Cyrano, Christian

CYRANO [calling] Christian! [Enter CHRISTIAN.] I know all that we need to. Now make ready your memory. This is your chance to cover yourself with glory. Let us lose no time. Do not look sullen, like that. Quick! Let us go to your lodgings and I will rehearse you...

CHRISTIAN No!

CYRANO What?

CHRISTIAN No, I will await Roxane here.

CYRANO What insanity possesses you? Come quickly and learn...

CHRISTIAN No, I tell you! I am weary of borrowing my letters, my words... of playing a part, and living in constant fear.... It was very well at first, but now I feel that she loves me. I thank you heartily. I am no longer afraid. I will speak for myself... CYRANO Ouais? ...

CHRISTIAN And what tells you that I shall not know how? I am not such an utter blockhead, after all! You shall see! Your lessons have not been altogether wasted. I can shift to speak without your aid! And, that failing, by Heaven! I shall still know enough to take her in my arms! [Catching sight of ROXANE who is coming out from Clomire’s.] She is coming! Cyrano, no, do not leave me! . . .

CYRANO [bowing to him] I will not meddle, Monsieur. [He disappears behind the garden wall]

SCENE V

Christian, Roxane, briefly the Duenna, several Prieux and Précieuses

ROXANE [coming from CLOMIRE’s house with a number of people from whom she is taking leave. Curtseys and farewells.] Barthénoide!... Alcandre! ... Grémione! ...

THE DUENNA [comically desperate] We missed the disquisition upon the Softer Sentiments! [She goes into ROXANE’s house.]

ROXANE [still taking leave of this one and that] Urimédonte! ... Good-bye! [All bow to ROXANE, to one another, separate and go off by the various streets. ROXANE sees CHRISTIAN.]

ROXANE You are here! [She goes to him.] Evening is closing round.... Wait! ... They have all gone.... The air is so mild.... Not a passer in sight.... Let us sit here.... Talk! ... I will listen.

CHRISTIAN [sits beside her, on the bench. Silence.] I love you.

ROXANE [closing her eyes] Yes. Talk to me of love.

CHRISTIAN I love you.

ROXANE Yes. That is the theme. Play variations upon it.

CHRISTIAN I love...

ROXANE Variations!

CHRISTIAN I love you so much...

ROXANE I do not doubt it. What further? ...

CHRISTIAN And further. I should be so happy if you loved me! Tell me, Roxane, that you love me ...

ROXANE [pouting] You proffer cider to me when I was hoping for champagne! ... Now tell me a little how you love me?

CHRISTIAN Why... very, very much.

ROXANE Oh!... unravel, disentangle your sentiments!

CHRISTIAN Your throat! ... I want to kiss it! ...

ROXANE Christian!

CHRISTIAN I love you! ...

ROXANE [attempting to rise] Again! ...

CHRISTIAN [hastily, holding her back]. No, I do not love you! ...

ROXANE [sitting down again] That is fortunate!

CHRISTIAN I adore you!

ROXANE [rising and moving away] Oh!...

CHRISTIAN Yes,... love makes me into a fool!

ROXANE [drily] And I am displeased at it! as I should be displeased at your no longer being handsome.

CHRISTIAN But . . .

ROXANE Go, and rally your routed eloquence!

CHRISTIAN I...

ROXANE You love me. I have heard it. Good-evening. [She goes toward the house.]

CHRISTIAN No, no, not yet! ... I wish to tell you...

ROXANE [pushing open the door to go in] That you adore me. Yes, I know. No! No! Go away! ... Go! ... Go! ...

CHRISTIAN But I ... [She closes the door in his face.]

CYRANO [who has been on the scene a moment, unnoticed] Unmistakably a success.

SCENE VI

Christian, Cyrano, briefly the Pages

CHRISTIAN Help me!

CYRANO No, sir, no.

CHRISTIAN I will go kill myself if I am not taken back into favor at once... at once!

CYRANO And how can I ... how, the devil? ... make you learn on the spot...

CHRISTIAN [seizing him by the arm] Oh, there! ... Look! ... See! [Light has appeared in the balcony window.]

CYRANO [with emotion] Her window!

CHRISTIAN Oh, I shall die!

CYRANO Not so loud!

CHRISTIAN [in a whisper] I shall die!

CYRANO It is a dark night....

CHRISTIAN Well?

CYRANO All may be mended. But you do not deserve.... There! stand there, miserable boy! ... in front of the balcony! I will stand under it and prompt you.

CHRISTIAN But...

CYRANO Do as I bid you!

THE PAGES [reappearing at the back, to CYRANO] Hey! CYRANO Hush! [He signs to them to lower their voices.]

FIRST PAGE [in a lower voice] We have finished serenading Montfleury!

CYRANO [low, quickly] Go and stand out of sight. One at this street corner, the other at that; and if any one comes near, play! ...

SECOND PAGE What sort of tune, Monsieur the Gassendist?

CYRANO Merry if it be a woman, mournful if it be a man. [The pages disappear, one at each street corner. To CHRISTIAN.] Call her!

CHRISTIAN Roxane!

CYRANO [picking up pebbles and throwing them at the window-pane] Wait! A few pebbles...

SCENE VII

Roxane, Christian, Cyrano, at first hidden under the balcony

ROXANE [opening the window] Who is calling me?

CHRISTIAN It is I ...

ROXANE Who is ... I?

CHRISTIAN Christian!

ROXANE [disdainfully] Oh, you!

CHRISTIAN I wish to speak with you.

CYRANO [under the balcony, to CHRISTIAN] Speak low! ...

ROXANE No, your conversation is too common.You may go home!

CHRISTIAN In mercy! ...

ROXANE No... you do not love me any more!

CHRISTIAN [whom CYRANO is prompting] You accuse me ... just Heaven! of loving you no more.... when I can love you no more!

ROXANE [who was about to close her window, stopping] Ah, that is a little better!

CHRISTIAN [same business] To what a ... size has Love grown in my... sigh-rocked soul which the ... cruel cherub has chosen for his cradle!

ROXANE [stepping nearer to the edge of the balcony] That is distinctly better! ... But, since he is so cruel, this Cupid, you were unwise not to smother him in his cradle!

CHRISTIAN [same business] I tried to, but, Madame, the... attempt was futile. This... new-born Love is... a little Hercules...

ROXANE Much, much better!

CHRISTIAN [same business] ... Who found it merest baby-play to ... strangle the serpents... twain, Pride and... Mistrust.

ROXANE [leaning her elbows on the balcony-rail] Ah, that is very good indeed! ... But why do you speak so slowly and stintedly? Has your imagination gout in its wings?

CYRANO [drawing CHRISTIAN under the balcony, and taking his place] Hush! It is becoming too difficult!

ROXANE To-night your words come falteringly.... Why is it?

CYRANO [talking low like CHRISTIAN] Because of the dark. They have to grope to find your ear.

ROXANE My words do not find the same difficulty.

CYRANO They reach their point at once? Of course they do! That is because I catch them with my heart. My heart, you see, is very large, your ear particularly small.... Besides, your words drop... that goes quickly; mine have to climb... and that takes longer!

ROXANE They have been climbing more nimbly, however, in the last few minutes.

CYRANO They are becoming used to this gymnastic feat!

ROXANE It is true that I am talking with you from a very mountain top!

CYRANO It is sure that a hard word dropped from such a height upon my heart would shatter it!

ROXANE [with the motion of leaving] I will come down.

CYRANO [quickly] Do not!

ROXANE [pointing at the bench at the foot of the balcony] Then do you get up on the seat! ...

CYRANO [drawing away in terror] No!

ROXANE How do you mean... no?

CYRANO [with ever-increasing emotion] Let us profit a little by this chance of talking softly together without seeing each other...

ROXANE Without seeing each other? ...

CYRANO Yes, to my mind, delectable! Each guesses at the other, and no more. You discern but the trailing blackness of a mantle, and I a dawn-grey glimmer which is a summer gown. I am a shadow merely, a pearly phantom are you! You can never know what these moments are to me! If ever I was eloquent . . .

ROXANE You were!

CYRANO My words never till now surged from my very heart...

ROXANE And why?

CYRANO Because, till now, they must strain to reach you through...

ROXANE What?

CYRANO Why, the bewildering emotion a man feels who sees you, and whom you look upon! ... But this evening, it seems to me that I am speaking to you for the first time!

ROXANE It is true that your voice is altogether different.

CYRANO [coming nearer, feverishly] Yes, altogether different, because, protected by the dark, I dare at last to be myself. I dare . . . [He stops, and distractedly.] What was I saying? ... I do not know.... All this... forgive my incoherence! ... is so delicious ... is so new to me!

ROXANE So new? ...

CYRANO [in extreme confusion, still trying to mend his expressions] So new... yes, new, to be sincere; the fear of being mocked always constrains my heart...

ROXANE Mocked... for what?

CYRANO Why,... for its impulses, its flights! ... Yes, my heart always cowers behind the defence of my wit. I set forth to capture a star . . . and then, for dread of laughter, I stop and pick a flower... of rhetoric!

ROXANE That sort of flower has its pleasing points...

CYRANO But yet, to-night, let us scorn it!

ROXANE Never before had you spoken as you are speaking! ...

CYRANO Ah, if far from Cupid-darts and quivers, we might seek a place of somewhat fresher things! If instead of drinking, flat sip by sip, from a chiselled golden thimble, drops distilled and dulcified, we might try the sensation of quenching the thirst of our souls by stooping to the level of the great river, and setting our lips to the stream!

ROXANE But yet, wit ... fancy . . . delicate conceits....

CYRANO I gave my fancy leave to frame conceits, before, to make you linger, ... but now it would be an affront to this balm-breathing night, to Nature and the hour, to talk like characters in a pastoral performed at Court! ... Let us give Heaven leave, looking at us with all its earnest stars, to strip us of disguise and artifice: I fear, ... oh, fear! ... lest in our mistaken alchemy sentiment should be subtilized to evaporation; lest the life of the heart should waste in these empty pastimes, and the final refinement of the fine be the undoing of the refined!

ROXANE But yet, wit, ... aptness, ... ingenuity...

CYRANO I hate them in love! Criminal, when one loves, to prolong over-much that paltry thrust and parry! The moment, however, comes inevitably,—and I pity those for whom it never conies!—in which, we apprehending the noble depth of the love we harbor, a shallow word hurts us to utter!

ROXANE If... if, then, that moment has come for us two, what words will you say to me?

CYRANO All those, all those, all those that come to me! Not in formal nosegay order, . . . I will throw them to you in a wild sheaf! I love you, choke with love, I love you, dear.... My brain reels, I can bear no more, it is too much.... Your name is in my heart the golden clapper in a bell; and as I know no rest, Roxane, always the heart is shaken, and ever rings your name! ... Of you, I remember all, all have I loved! Last year, one day, the twelfth of May, in going out at morning you changed the fashion of your hair.... I have taken the light of your hair for my light, and as having stared too long at the sun, on everything one sees a scarlet wheel, on everything when I come from my chosen light, my dazzled eye sets swimming golden blots! ...

ROXANE [in a voice unsteady with emotion] Yes . . . this is love...

CYRANO Ah, verily! The feeling which invades me, terrible and jealous, is love... with all its mournful frenzy! It is love, yet self-forgetting more than the wont of love! Ah, for your happiness now readily would I give mine, though you should never know it, might I but, from a distance, sometimes, hear the happy laughter bought by my sacrifice! Every glance of yours breeds in me new strength, new valor! Are you beginning to understand? Tell me, do you grasp my love’s measure? Does some little part of my soul make itself felt of you there in the darkness? ... Oh, what is happening to me this evening is too sweet, too deeply dear! I tell you all these things, and you listen to me, you! Not in my least modest hoping did I ever hope so much! I have now only to die! It is because of words of mine that she is trembling among the dusky branches! For you are trembling, like a flower among leaves! Yes, you tremble, ... for whether you will or no, I have felt the worshipped trembling of your hand all along this thrilled and blissful jasmin-bough! [He madly kisses the end of a pendant bough. ]

ROXANE Yes, I tremble... and weep... and love you... and am yours! ... For you have carried me away... away! ...

CYRANO Then, let death come! I have moved you, I! ... There is but one thing more I ask...

CHRISTIAN [under the balcony] A kiss!

ROXANE [drawing hastily back] What?

CYRANO Oh!

ROXANE You ask? ...

CYRANO Yes . . . I ... [To CHRISTIAN.] You are in too great haste!

CHRISTIAN Since she is so moved, I must take advantage of it!

CYRANO [to ROXANE] I... Yes, it is true I asked... but, merciful heavens! ... I knew at once that I had been too bold.

ROXANE [a shade disappointed] You insist no more than so?

CYRANO Indeed, I insist... without insisting! Yes! yes! but your modesty shrinks! . . . I insist, but yet... the kiss I begged . . . refuse it me!

CHRISTIAN [to CYRANO, pulling at his mantle] Why?

CYRANO Hush, Christian!

ROXANE [bending over the balcony-rail] What are you whispering?

CYRANO Reproaches to myself for having gone too far; I was saying “Hush, Christian!” [The theorbos are heard playing] Your pardon!... a second! ... Someone is coming! [ROXANE closes the window. CYRANO listens to the theorbos, one of which plays a lively, and the other a lugubrious tune]

CYRANO A dance? ... A dirge? ... What do they mean? Is it a man or a woman? ... Ah, it is a monk! [Enter a CAPUCHIN MONK, who goes from house to house, with a lantern, examining the doors.]

SCENE VIII

Cyrano, Christian, a Capuchin

CYRANO [to THE CAPUCHIN] What are you looking for, Diogenes?⁵³

THE CAPUCHIN I am looking for the house of Madame...

CHRISTIAN He is in the way!

THE CAPUCHIN Magdeleine Robin...

CYRANO [pointing up one of the streets] This way! . . . Straight ahead... go straight ahead...

THE CAPUCHIN I thank you. I will say ten Aves for your peace. [Exit.]

CYRANO My good wishes speed your cowl! [He comes forward toward CHRISTIAN.]

SCENE IX

Cyrano, Christian

CHRISTIAN Insist upon the kiss! ...

CYRANO No, I will not!

CHRISTIAN Sooner or later...

CYRANO It is true! It must come, the moment of inebriation when your lips shall imperiously be impelled toward each other, because the one is fledged with youthful gold and the other is so soft a pink! ... [To himself.] had rather it should be because... [Sound of the window reopening; CHRISTIAN hides under the balcony.]

SCENE X

Cyrano, Christian, Roxane

ROXANE [stepping forward on the balcony] Are you there? We were speaking of... of...of a...

CYRANO Kiss. The word is sweet. Why does your fair lip stop at it? If the mere word burns it, what will be of the thing itself? Do not make it into a fearful matter, and then fear! Did you not a moment ago insensibly leave playfulness behind and slip without trepidation from a smile to a sigh, from a sigh to a tear? Slip but a little further in the same blessed direction: from a tear to a kiss there is scarcely a dividing shiver!

ROXANE Say no more!

CYRANO A kiss! When all is said, what is a kiss? An oath of allegiance taken in closer proximity, a promise more precise, a seal on a confession, a rose-red dot upon the letter i in loving; a secret which elects the mouth for ear; an instant of eternity murmuring like a bee; balmy communion with a flavor of flowers; a fashion of inhaling each other’s heart, and of tasting, on the brink of the lips, each other’s soul!

ROXANE Say no more... no more!

CYRANO A kiss, Madame, is a thing so noble that the Queen of France, on the most fortunate of lords, bestowed one, did the queen herself!

ROXANE If that be so ...

CYRANO [with increasing fervor] Like Buckingham ⁵⁴ I have suffered in long silence, like him I worship a queen, like him I am sorrowful and unchanging...

ROXANE Like him you enthrall through the eyes the heart that follows you!

CYRANO [to himself, sobered] True, I am handsome... I had forgotten!

ROXANE Come then and gather it, the supreme flower...

CYRANO [pushing CHRISTIAN toward the balcony] Go!

ROXANE ... tasting of the heart.

CYRANO Go!...

ROXANE ... murmuring like a bee...

CYRANO Go!

CHRISTIAN [hesitating] But now I feel as if I ought not!

ROXANE ... making Eternity an instant...

CYRANO [pushing CHRISTIAN] Scale the balcony, you donkey! [CHRISTIAN springs toward the balcony, and climbs by means of the bench, the vine, the posts and balusters]

CHRISTIAN Ah, Roxane! [He clasps her to him, and bends over her lips]

CYRANO Ha!... What a turn of the screw to my heart! ... Kiss, banquet of Love at which I am Lazarus, a crumb drops from your table even to me,⁵⁵ here in the shade.... Yes, in my outstretched heart a little falls, as I feel that upon the lip pressing her lip Roxane kisses the words spoken by me! ... [The theorbos are heard.] A merry tune... a mournful one... The monk! [He goes through the pretence of arriving on the spot at a run, as if from a distance; calling. ] Ho, there!

ROXANE What is it?

CYRANO It is I. I was passing this way. Is Christian there?

CHRISTIAN [astonished] Cyrano!

ROXANE Good-evening, cousin!

CYRANO Cousin, good-evening!

ROXANE I will come down. [ROXANE disappears in the house. THE CAPUCHIN re-enters at the back.]

CHRISTIAN [seeing him] Oh, again! [He follows ROXANE.]

SCENE XI

Cyrano, Christian, Roxane, the Capuchin, Ragueneau

THE CAPUCHIN It is here she lives, I am certain... Magdeleine Robin.

CYRANO You said Ro-lin.

THE CAPUCHIN No, bin, ... b, i, n, bin!

ROXANE [appearing upon the threshold, followed by RAGUENEAU carrying a lantern, and CHRISTIAN] What is it?

THE CAPUCHIN A letter.

CHRISTIAN What?

THE CAPUCHIN [to ROXANE] Oh, the contents can be only of a sacred character! It is from a worthy nobleman who . . .

ROXANE [to CHRISTIAN] It is from De Guiche!

CHRISTIAN He dares to ... ?

ROXANE Oh, he will not trouble me much longer! [Opening the letter.] I love you, and if... [By the light of RAGUENEAU’s lantern she reads, aside, low.] Mademoiselle: The drums are beating. My regiment is buckling on its corselet. It is about to leave. I am thought to have left already, but lag behind. I am disobeying you. I am in the convent here. I am coming to you, and send you word by a friar, silly as a sheep, who has no suspicion of the import of this letter. You smiled too sweetly upon me an hour ago: I must see you smile again. Provide to be alone, and deign graciously to receive the audacious worshipper, forgiven already, I can but hope, who signs himself your—etc.... [To THE CAPUCHIN.] Father, this is what the letter tells me ... Listen: [All draw nearer; she reads aloud.] Mademoiselle: The wishes of the cardinal may not be disregarded, however hard compliance with them prove. I have therefore chosen as bearer of this letter a most reverend, holy, and sagacious Capuchin; it is our wish that he should at once, in your own dwelling, pronounce the nuptial blessing over you. Christian must secretly become your husband. I send him to you. You dislike him. Bow to Heaven’s will in resignation, and be sure that it will bless your zeal, and sure, likewise, Mademoiselle, of the respect of him who is and will be ever your most humble and... etc.

THE CAPUCHIN [beaming] The worthy gentleman! ... I knew it! You remember that I said so: The contents of that letter can be only of a sacred character!

ROXANE [low, to CHRISTIAN] I am a fluent reader, am I not?

CHRISTIAN Hm!

ROXANE [with feigned despair] Ah ... it is horrible!

THE CAPUCHIN [who has turned the light of his lantern upon CYRANO] You are the one?

CHRISTIAN No, I am.

THE CAPUCHIN [turning the light upon him, and as if his good looks aroused suspicion] But...

ROXANE [quickly] Postscript: You will bestow upon the convent two hundred and fifty crowns.

THE CAPUCHIN The worthy, worthy gentleman! [To ROXANE.] Be reconciled!

ROXANE [with the expression of a martyr] I will endeavor! [While RAGUENEAU opens the door for THE CAPUCHIN, whom CHRISTIAN is showing into the house, ROXANE says low to CYRANO.] De Guiche is coming! ... Keep him here! Do not let him enter until...

CYRANO I understand! [To THE CAPUCHIN.] How long will it take to marry them?

THE CAPUCHIN A quarter of an hour.

CYRANO [pushing all toward the house] Go in! I shall be here!

ROXANE [to CHRISTIAN] Come! [They go in.]

SCENE XII

Cyrano, alone

CYRANO How can I detain De Guiche for a quarter of an hour? [He jumps upon the bench, climbs the wall toward the balcony rail. So! ... I climb up here! ... I know what I will do! ... [The theorbos play a melancholy tune.] Ho, it is a man! [The tune quavers lugubriously.] Ho, ho, this time there is no mistake! [He is on the balcony; he pulls the brim of his hat over his eyes, takes off his sword, wraps his cloak about him, and bends over the balcony-rail.] No, it is not too far! [He climbs over the balcony-rail, and reaching for a long bough that projects beyond the garden wall, holds on to it with both hands, ready to let himself drop.] I shall make a slight commotion in the atmosphere!

SCENE XIII

Cyrano, De Guiche

DE GUICHE [enters masked, groping in the dark] What can that thrice-damned Capuchin be about?

CYRANO The devil! if he should recognize my voice? [Letting go with one hand, he makes show of turning a key.] Cric! crac! [Solemnly.] Cyrano, resume the accent of Bergerac!

DE GUICHE [looking at ROXANE’s house] Yes, that is it. I can scarcely see. This mask bothers my eyes! [He is about to enter ROXANE’s house; CYRANO swings from the balcony, holding on to the bough, which bends and lets him down between the door and DE GUICHE. He intentionally drops very heavily, to give the effect of dropping from a great height, and lies flattened upon the ground, motionless, as if stunned.]

DE GUICHE What is it? [When he looks up, the bough has swung into place; sees nothing but the sky] Where did this man drop from?

CYRANO [rising to a sitting posture] From the moon!

lo2 CYRANO DE BERGERAC.

DE GUICHE From the ... ?

CYRANO [in a dreamy voice] What time is it?

DE GUICHE Is he mad?

CYRANO What time? What country? What day? What season?

DE GUICHE But...

CYRANO I am dazed!

DE GUICHE Monsieur...

CYRANO I have dropped from the moon like a bomb!

DE GUICHE [impatiently] What are you babbling about?

CYRANO [rising, in a terrible voice] I tell you I have dropped from the moon!

DE GUICHE [backing a step] Very well. You have dropped from the moon! ... He is perhaps a lunatic!

CYRANO [walking up close to him] Not metaphorically, mind that! DE GUICHE But...

CYRANO A hundred years ago, or else a minute,—for I have no conception how long I have been falling,—I was up there, in that saffron-colored ball!

DE GUICHE [shrugging his shoulders] You were. Now, let me pass!

CYRANO [standing in his way] Where am I? Be frank with me! Keep nothing from me! In what region, among what people, have I been shot like an aerolite?

DE GUICHE I wish to pass!

CYRANO While falling I could not choose my way, and have no notion where I have fallen! Is it upon a moon, or is it upon an earth, I have been dragged by my posterior weight?

DE GUICHE I tell you, sir...

CYRANO [with a scream of terror at which DE GUICHE starts backward a step] Great God! ... In this country men’s faces are soot-black!

DE GUICHE [lifting his hand to his face] What does he mean?

CYRANO [still terrified] Am I in Algeria? Are you a native? ...

DE GUICHE [who has felt his mask] Ah, my mask!

CYRANO [pretending to be easier] So I am in Venice! ... Or am I in Genoa?

DE GUICHE [attempting to pass] A lady is expecting me!

CYRANO [completely reassured] Ah, then I am in Paris.

DE GUICHE [smiling in spite of himself] The rogue is not far from amusing!

CYRANO Ah, you are laughing!

DE GUICHE I laugh... but intend to pass!

CYRANO [beaming] To think I should strike Paris! [Quite at his ease, laughing, brushing himself, bowing.] I arrived—pray, pardon my appearance! —by the last whirlwind. I am rather unpresentable—Travel, you know! My eyes are still full of star-dust. My spurs are clogged with bristles off a planet. [Appearing to pick something off his sleeve.] See, on my sleeve, a comet’s hair! [He makes a feint of blowing it away.]

DE GUICHE [beside himself] Sir...

CYRANO [as DE GUICHE is about to pass, stretching out his leg as if to show something on it, thereby stopping him.] Embedded in my calf, I have brought back one of the Great Bear’s teeth... and as, falling too near the Trident, I strained aside to clear one of its prongs, I landed sitting in Libra, ... yes, one of the scales! ... and now my weight is registered up there! [Quickly preventing DE GUICHE from passing, and taking hold of a button on his doublet.] And if, Monsieur, you should take my nose between your fingers and compress it ... milk would result!

DE GUICHE What are you saying? Milk? ...

CYRANO Of the Milky Way.

DE GUICHE Go to the devil!

CYRANO No! I am sent from Heaven, literally. [Folding his arms.] Will you believe—I discovered it in passing—that Sirius at night puts on a night-cap? [Confidentially.] The lesser Bear is too little yet to bite.... [Laughing.] I tumbled plump through Lyra, and snapped a string! ... [Magnificent.] But I intend setting all this down in a book, and the golden stars I have brought back caught in my shaggy mantle, when the book is printed, will be seen serving as asterisks!

DE GUICHE I have stood this long enough! I want ...

CYRANO I know perfectly what you want!

DE GUICHE Man ...

CYRANO You want to know, from me, at first hand, what the moon is made of, and whether that monumental pumpkin is inhabited?

DE GUICHE [shouting] Not in the very least! I want ...

CYRANO To know how I got there? I got there by a method of my own invention.

DE GUICHE [discouraged] He is mad! ... stark!

CYRANO [disdainfully] Do not imagine that I resorted to anything so absurd as Regiomontanus’s eagle, or anything so lacking in enterprise as Archytas’s pigeon! ...⁵⁶

DE GUICHE The madman is erudite.

CYRANO I drew up nothing that had ever been thought of before! [DE GUICHE has succeeded in getting past CYRANO, and is nearing ROXANE’s door; CYRANO follows him, ready to buttonhole him.] I invented no less than six ways of storming the blue fort of Heaven!

DE GUICHE [turning around] Six, did you say?

CYRANO [volubly] One way was to stand naked in the sunshine, in a harness thickly studded with glass phials, each filled with morning dew. The sun in drawing up the dew, you see, could not have helped drawing me up too!

DE GUICHE [surprised, taking a step toward CYRANO] True. That is one!

CYRANO [taking a step backward, with a view to drawing DE GUICHE away from the door] Or else, I could have let the wind into a cedar coffer, then rarified the imprisoned element by means of cunningly adjusted burning-glasses, and soared up with it!

DE GUICHE [taking another step toward CYRANO] Two!

CYRANO [backing] Or else, mechanic as well as artificer, I could have fashioned a giant grasshopper, with steel joints, which, impelled by successive explosions of salt-peter, would have hopped with me to the azure meadows where graze the starry flocks!

DE GUICHE [unconsciously following CYRANO, and counting on his fingers] That makes three!

CYRANO Since smoke by its nature ascends, I could have blown into an appropriate globe a sufficient quantity to ascend with me!

DE GUICHE [as above, more and more astonished] Four!

CYRANO Since Phoebe, the moon-goddess, when she is at wane, is greedy, 0 beeves! of your marrow,... with that marrow have besmeared myself!

DE GUICHE [amazed] Five!

CYRANO [who while talking has backed, followed by DE GUICHE, to the further side of the square, near a bench] Or else, I could have placed myself upon an iron plate, have taken a magnet of suitable size, and thrown it in the air! That way is a very good one! The magnet flies upward, the iron instantly after; the magnet no sooner overtaken than you fling it up again.... The rest is clear! You can go upward indefinitely.

DE GUICHE Six!... But here are six excellent methods! Which of the six, my dear sir, did you select?

CYRANO A seventh!

DE GUICHE Did you, indeed? And what was that?

CYRANO I give you a hundred guesses!

DE GUICHE I must confess that I should like to know!

CYRANO [imitating the noise of the surf, and making great, mysterious gestures] Hoo-ish! hoo-ish!

DE GUICHE Well! What is that?

CYRANO Cannot you guess?

DE GUICHE No!

CYRANO The tide! ... At the hour in which the moon attracts the deep, I lay down upon the sands, after a sea-bath... and, my head being drawn up first,—the reason of this, you see, that the hair will hold a quantity of water in its mop!—I rose in the air, straight, beautifully straight, like an angel. I rose... I rose softly... without an effort... when, suddenly, I felt a shock. Then...

DE GUICHE [lured on by curiosity, taking a seat on the bench] Well, then? ...

CYRANO Then... [resuming his natural voice.] The time is up, Monsieur, and I release you. They are married.

DE GUICHE [getting to his feet with a leap] I am dreaming or drunk! That voice? [The door of ROXANE’s house opens; lackeys appear carrying lighted candelabra. CYRANO removes his hat.] And that nose! ... Cyrano!

CYRANO [bowing] Cyrano. They have exchanged rings within the quarter of the hour.

DE GUICHE Who have? [He turns round. Tableau. Behind the lackey stand ROXANE and CHRISTIAN holding hands. THE CAPUCHIN follows them smiling. RAGUENEAU holds high a flambeau. THE DUENNA closes the procession, bewildered, in her bedgown.]