You know the plot: The misshapen hero who cannot hope to win the woman he loves agrees to woo her for his rival. The story and episodes such as the balcony scene are so well known as to be clichés. But this familiarity can mask the hilarity, bombast and humanity of this wonderful play. If you have not read the play or seen a production of it, you have missed a lot of fun.
Cyrano de Bergerac is in all ways—not just his nose—larger than life. His love, his hatreds, his loyalty, his pride and his courage are all outsized. “I am going to be a storm—a flame!” he says in a moment of exultation.
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—BRING ME GIANTS!
There is no vanity in this boast. Cyrano goes on to fight 100 men single-handed, and Paris is amazed the next morning at the bodies strewn on the streets.
Cyrano loves with more than mortal devotion, and the romance of the play is accompanied throughout by humor, excitement and ultimately tragedy. There is no real villain in the story; the adversary is fate. In the end Cyrano proves himself mortal but still a match for fate.
Larger than life
French playwright Edmond Rostand based Cyrano de Bergerac loosely on a 17th
century soldier and writer of the same name. Although the plot is entirely fictional, the original Cyrano apparently was a colorful character in his own right. Pictures of him show a man with a decidedly large, although not grotesque, nose. Rostand’s story takes place around 1640, not long after the events of The Three Musketeers; in fact, D’Artagnan makes a cameo appearance.
The fictional Cyrano compensates for his looks by striving, and usually succeeding, to be the best at everything he does. He is uncompromising in his pride, even of his nose, as he makes clear to one observer:
Magnificent, my nose! You pug, you knob, you button-head,
Know that I glory in this nose of mine,
For a great nose indicates a great man–
Genial, courteous intellectual,
Virile, courageous—as I am—and such
As you—poor wretch—will never date to be,
Even in imagination.
In the opening scene he engages in a duel of words with an adversary who insults his nose, then goes on to a duel with swords during which he composes a ballad, “and at the end of the last line—thrust home!” He suits action to words, killing his opponent as he finishes the ballad.
The heart of the story is his heartbreak over his cousin Roxanne’s love for a handsome but shallow rival, Christian, who is afraid to face her without Cyrano’s help. Cyrano remains faithful to his love, and to the lovers, until the end. Some find the ending sad. I find it bittersweet.
The play has been a staple on Broadway for decades, earning a Tony Award for Jose Ferrer, who also won an Oscar for the role in the 1950 movie. The story has been reused in dozens of movies, one of the best of which is 1987’s Roxanne with Steve Martin and Darryl Hannah, which is a surprisingly faithful adaptation despite its modern setting and happy ending.
There are several English translations of the play. Probably the best known is by Brian Hooker from 1923, which is the one I am familiar with. This is a poetic but clear translation, easily accessible. The play is written in verse, but reads as easily as prose for those of us who don’t spend a lot of time with poetry.
You should be able to find a copy of Cyrano de Bergerac in some format, either book or performance, at your library or bookstore. Read or watch it sometime when you want to feel good about yourself.