The World of Edmond Rostand and

CYRANO DE BERGERAC

1619	Savinien de Cyrano, the real Cyrano de Bergerac, is born in Paris.
1640	While fighting for France in the Thirty Years War, de Bergerac receives a stab wound to the throat during the siege of the town of Arras in northern France and leaves the military.
1641	Cyrano begins studying at the College de Lisieux under the philosopher Pierre Gassendi, known for his libertine views.
1654	Two of Cyrano’s plays, La Mort d‘Agrippine (The Death ofAgrippine) and Le Pédant joué (The Pedant Imitated), are published.
1655	Cyrano dies on July 28, possibly of injuries sustained when a scrap of wood falls from a building and strikes him on the head (some believe the accident was planned) or from complications of a venereal disease.
1657	Cyrano’s Histoire comique des états et empires de la lune (Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon) appears posthumously . In this and a companion volume, Histoire comique des états et empires de la soleil (Comical History of the States and Empires of the Sun), published in 1662, he satirizes contemporary socety and the prevailing belief that Earth is the center of the universe.
1858	Cyrano’s works are published for the first time since the seventeenth century.
1868	Edmond Rostand is born into a well-off family in Marseille on May 1.
1872	De Bergerac’s tragedy Le Mort d’ Agrippine is revived for one performance in Paris.
1878	Rostand begins his studies at the lycee of Marseille.
1884	The Rostands move to Paris, and Edmond continues his studies at the College Stanislas. Miguel de Cervantes, William Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, and Theodore de Banville are his literary heroes.
1887	The Académie de Marseille gives Rostand top honors for his entry in the essay contest “Deux romanciers de Provence: Honoré d‘Urfé et Emile Zola” (“Two Provencal Romantic Writers: Honoré d’ Urfé and Emile Zola”).
1888	While on vacation in the Pyrenees, Rostand meets aspiring poet Rosemonde Gerard, goddaughter of the poet Leconte de Lisle, and falls in love.
1889	The Eiffel Tower is completed. Rostand’s first play, a four-act, vaudeville-style piece called Le Gant rouge (The Red Glove), written with Gérard’s half-brother, William Lee, premiers without success.
1890	Rostand and Gerard marry. Gerard helps Rostand publish his first collection of verse, Les Musardises, to critical praise.
1892	The Comédie-Française accepts Rostand’s Les Romanesques (The Romancers), Rostand’s first full-length play.
1894	Les Romanesques premiers at the Comédie-Française. An innocent Jewish army officer named Alfred Dreyfus is convicted of leaking French military secrets to Germany, beginning the disastrous Dreyfus Affair, which deeply divides France.
1895	Sarah Bernhardt stars in the premiere of La Princesse lointaine (The Faraway Princess), which Rostand wrote with the star in mind, but it closes before finishing its 35-performance contract . Bernhardt introduces Rostand to well-known actor Constant Coquelin, who asks Rostand to write him a part in his next play. The role and the play will be Cyrano de Bergerac.
1897	La Samaritaine (The Woman of Samaria), starring Bernhardt, premiers in April, and has a brief yet popular run. President François Grévy is forced to resign upon the revelation that his son-in-law, Daniel Wilson, has been selling membership in the
	Legion d‘Honneur. The Dreyfus Affair reaches its peak, rocking France, as Mathieu Dreyfus discovers that the army and government are suppressing evidence that would exonerate his brother, Alfred. In the midst of the turmoil Cyrano de Bergerac premieres on December 28, to enormous success.
1898	Four days after the premiere of Cyrano, Rostand is created chevalier de la Legion d’ Honneur and President Felix Faure attends a performance. Emile Zola publishes the immensely influential pro-Dreyfus article “J’ accuse,” which results in Zola’s imprisonment. Despite Rostand’s conservative background, he sides quietly with the Dreyfus supporters, who include Marcel Proust and Anatole France. Cyrano premieres simultaneously in Philadelphia and New York. The Paris Metro opens.
1899	A comic opera based on Cyrano opens in New York. The Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court) orders a retrial for Dreyfus, who receives a presidential pardon.
1900	Rostand’s L‘Aiglon (The Eaglet), starring Bernhardt, premiers to moderate success. Rostand’s health is declining, and he withdraws to Cambo-les-bains in the Pyrenees. He does not complete another play for ten years. Coquelin and Bernhardt perform Cyrano in New York.
1901	Rostand is elected to the Académie française, but his continuing poor health prevents him from making an acceptance address . He is created officier de la Legion d’ Honneur. Coquelin and Bernhardt perform Cyrano in London. Henri Toulouse- Lautrec, who created a lithograph of Coquelin playing Cyrano, dies.
1902	Rostand receives a commission to travel to Hernani, Spain, to participate in festivities marking the centenary of Victor Hugo’s birth. André Gide’s The Immoralist appears. Zola dies.
1905	Rostand more or less retires to a residence he has built near Cambo-les-bains with his earnings from Cyrano. He will spend the rest of his life living in this house.
1910	Chantecler, an experimental drama based on stories of fabulist Jean de La Fontaine, premiers to disappointing reviews. The next year Rostand finishes most of his final play, Le Dernière Nuit de Don Juan (The Last Night of Don Juan), inspired by Miguel de Cervantes’s novel Don Quixote, but does not release it.
1913	Cyrano has its thousandth performance in Paris. Marcel Proust publishes the first part of A la recherche du temps perdu.
1914	World War I begins.
1915	Rostand visits the trenches.
1916	Le Vol de la Marseillaise (The Flight of the Marseillaise), a collection of Rostand’s World War I poetry, appears.
1918	Rostand falls victim to the Spanish flu and dies in Paris on December 2, six weeks after the end of World War I. His current partner, Mary Marquet, as well as Gerard and their two sons, Maurice, a novelist and critic, and Jean, a notable scientist and writer, survive him.
1922	Le Dernière Nuit de Don Juan premiers.