Cyrano de Bergerac Read online

  CYRANO [folding his arms] God ha’ mercy! can you think of nothing but eating? ... Come here, Bertrandou the fifer, once the shepherd! Take from the double case one of your fifes: breathe into it, play to this pack of guzzlers and of gluttons our homely melodies, of haunting rhythm, every note of which appeals like a little sister, through whose every strain are heard strains of beloved voices... mild melodies whose slowness brings to mind the slowness of the smoke upcurling from our native hamlet hearths... melodies that seem to speak to a man in his native dialect! ... [The old fifer sits down and makes ready his fife.] To-day let the fife, martial unwillingly, be reminded, while your fingers upon its slender stem flutter like birds in a delicate minuet, that before being ebony it was reed; surprise itself by what you make it sing, ... let it feel restored to it the soul of its youth, rustic and peaceable! [The old man begins playing Languedoc tunes] Listen, Gascons! It is no more, beneath his fingers, the shrill fife of the camp, but the soft flute of the woodland! It is no more, between his lips, the whistling note of battle, but the lowly lay of goatherds leading their flocks to feed! ... Hark! ... It sings of the valley, the heath, the forest! ... of the little shepherd, sunburned under his crimson cap! ... the green delight of evening on the river! ... Hark, Gascons all! It sings of Gascony! [Every head has drooped; all eyes have grown dreamy; tears are furtively brushed away with a sleeve, the hem of a cloak]

  CARBON [to CYRANO, low] You are making them weep!

  CYRANO With homesickness! ... a nobler pain than hunger... not physical: mental! I am glad the seat of their suffering should have removed... that the gripe should now afflict their hearts!

  CARBON But you weaken them, making them weep!

  CYRANO [beckoning to a drummer] Never fear! The hero in their veins is quickly roused. It is enough to ... [He signs to the drummer who begins drumming.]

  ALL [starting to their feet and snatching up their arms] Hein?... What? ... What is it?

  CYRANO [smiling] You see? ... The sound of the drum was enough! Farewell dreams, regrets, old homestead, love... What comes with the fife with the drum may go ...

  ONE OF THE CADETS [looking off at the back] Ah! ah! ... Here comes Monsieur de Guiche!

  ALL THE CADETS [grumbling] Hoo...

  CYRANO [smiling] Flattering murmur...

  ONE OF THE CADETS He bores us! ...

  OTHER CADET Showing himself off, with his broad point collar on top of his armor! ...

  OTHER CADET As if lace were worn with steel!

  FIRST CADET Convenient, if you have a boil on your neck to cover...

  SECOND CADET There is another courier for you!

  OTHER CADET His uncle’s own nephew!

  CARBON He is a Gascon, nevertheless!

  FIRST CADET Not genuine! ... Never trust him. For a Gascon, look you, must be something of a madman: nothing is so deadly to deal with as a Gascon who is completely rational!

  LE BRET He is pale!

  OTHER CADET He is hungry, as hungry as any poor devil of us! But his corslet being freely embellished with gilt studs, his stomach-ache is radiant in the sun!

  CYRANO [eagerly] Let us not appear to suffer, either! You, your cards, your pipes, your dice... [All briskly set themselves to playing with cards and dice, on the heads of drums, on stools, on cloaks spread over the ground. They light long tobacco pipes.] And I will be reading Descartes... [He Walks to and fro, forward and backward, reading a small book which he has taken from his pocket. Tableau. Enter DE GUICHE. Every one appears absorbed and satisfied. DE GUICHE is very pale. He goes toward CARBON.]

  SCENE IV

  The Same, De Guiche

  DE GUICHE [to CARBON] Ah, good-morning. [They look at each other attentively. Aside, with satisfaction] He is pale as plaster.

  CARBON [same business] His eyes are all that is left of him.

  DE GUICHE [looking at the CADETS] So here are the wrong-headed rascals? ... Yes, gentlemen, it is reported to me on every side that I am your scoff and derision; that the cadets, highland nobility, Béarn clodhoppers, Perigord baronets, cannot express sufficient contempt for their colonel; call me intriguer, courtier, find it irksome to their taste that I should wear, with my cuirass, a collar of Genoese point, and never cease to air their wondering indignation that a man should be a Gascon without being a vagabond! [Silence. The CADETS continue smoking and playing] Shall I have you punished by your captain? ... I do not like to.

  CARBON Did you otherwise, however, ... I am free, and punish only ...

  DE GUICHE Ah? ...

  CARBON My company is paid by myself, belongs to me. I obey no orders but such as relate to war.

  DE GUICHE Ah, is it so? Enough, then. I will treat your taunts with simple scorn. My fashion of deporting myself under fire is well known. You are not unaware of the manner in which yesterday, at Bapaume, I forced back the columns of the Comte de Bucquoi; gathering my men together to plunge forward like an avalanche, three times I charged him....

  CYRANO [without lifting his nose from his book] And your white scarf?

  DE GLIICHE [surprised and self-satisfied) You heard of that circumstance ? ... In fact, it happened that as I was wheeling about to collect my men for the third charge, I was caught in a stream of fugitives which bore me onward to the edge of the enemy. I was in danger of being captured and cut off with an arquebuse, when I had the presence of mind to untie and let slip to the ground the white scarf which proclaimed my military grade. Thus was I enabled, undistinguished, to withdraw from among the Spaniards, and thereupon returning with my reinspirited men, to defeat them. Well? . . . What do you say to the incident? [The CADETS have appeared not to be listening; at this point, however, hands with cards and dice-boxes remain suspended in the air; no pipe-smoke is ejected; all expresses expectation.]

  CYRANO That never would Henry the Fourth, however great the number of his opponents, have consented to diminish his presence by the size of his white plume.60 [Silent joy. Cards fall, dice rattle, smoke upwreathes.]

  DE GUICHE The trick was successful, however! [As before, expectation suspends gambling and smoking.]

  CYRANO Very likely. But one should not resign the honor of being a target. [Cards, dice, smoke, fall, rattle, and upwreathe, as before, in expression of increasing glee.] Had I been at hand when you allowed your scarf to drop—the quality of our courage, monsieur, shows different in this,-I would have picked it up and worn it....

  DE GUICHE Ah, yes,-more of your Gascon bragging! ...

  CYRANO Bragging? ... Lend me the scarf. I engage to mount, ahead of all, to the assault, wearing it crosswise upon my breast!

  DE GUICHE A Gascon’s offer, that too! You know that the scarf was left in the enemy’s camp, by the banks of the Scarpe, where bullets since then have hailed... whence no one can bring it back!

  CYRANO [taking a white scarf from his pocket and handing it to DE GUICHE] Here it is. [Silence. The CADETS smother their laughter behind cards and in dice-boxes. DE GUICHE turns around, looks at them; instantly they become grave; one of them, with an air if unconcern, whistles the tune played earlier by the fifer]

  DE GUICHE [taking the scarf] I thank you. I shall be able with this shred of white to make a signal... which I was hesitating to make ... [He goes to the top of the bank and waves the scarf.]

  ALL What now? ... What is this?

  THE SENTINEL [at the top of the bank] A man ... over there ... running off ...

  DE GUICHE [coming forward again] It is a supposed Spanish spy. He is very useful to us. The information he carries to the enemy is that which I give him,—so that their decisions are influenced by us.

  CYRANO He is a scoundrel!

  DE GUICHE [coolly tying on his scarf] He is a convenience. We were saying? ... Ah, I was about to tell you. Last night, having resolved upon a desperate stroke to obtain supplies, the Marshal secretly set out for Dourlens. The royal sutlers61 are encamped there. He expects to join them by way of the tilled fields; but, to provide against interference, he took with him troops in such numb
er that, certainly, if we were now attacked, the enemy would find easy work. Half of the army is absent from the camp.

  CARBON If the Spaniards knew that, it might be serious. But they do not know.

  DE GUICHE They do. And are going to attack us.

  CARBON Ah!

  DE GUICHE My pretended spy came to warn me of their intention. He said, moreover: I can direct the attack. At what point shall it be? I will lead them to suppose it the least strong, and they will centre their efforts against it. I answered: Very well. Go from the camp. Look down the line. Let them attack at the point I signal from.

  CARBON [to the CADETS] Gentlemen, get ready! [All get up. Noise of swords and belts being buckled on.]

  DE GUICHE They will be here in an hour.

  FIRST CADET Oh! ... if there is a whole hour! ... [All sit down again, and go on with their games.]

  DE GUICHE [to CARBON] The main object is to gain time. The Marshal is on his way back.

  CARBON And to gain time?

  DE GUICHE You will be so obliging as to keep them busy killing you.

  CYRANO Ah, this is your revenge!

  DE GUICHE I will not pretend that if I had been fond of you, I would have thus singled out you and yours; but, as your bravery is unquestionably beyond that of others, I am serving my King at the same time as my inclination.

  CYRANO Suffer me, monsieur, to express my gratitude.

  DE GUICHE I know that you affect fighting one against a hundred. You will not complain of lacking opportunity. [He goes toward the back with CARBON.]

  CYRANO [to the CADETS] We shall now be able, gentlemen, to add to the Gascon escutcheon, which bears, as it is, six chevrons, or62 and azure, the chevron that was wanting to complete it,—blood-red! [DE GUICHE at the back speaks low with CARBON. Orders are given. All is made ready to repel an attack. CYRANO goes toward CHRISTIAN, who stands motionless, with folded arms.]

  CYRANO [laying his hand on CHRISTIAN’s shoulder] Christian?

  CHRISTIAN [shaking his head] Roxane!

  CYRANO Ah me!

  CHRISTIAN I wish I might at least put my whole heart’s last blessing in a beautiful letter!

  CYRANO I mistrusted that it would come to-day ... [he takes a letter from his doublet] and I have written your farewells.

  CHRISTIAN Let me see!

  CYRANO You wish to see it? ...

  CHRISTIAN [taking the letter] Yes! [He opens the letter, begins to read, stops short.] Ah? ...

  CYRANO What?

  CHRISTIAN That little round blister?

  CYRANO [hurriedly taking back the letter, and looking at it with an artless air] A blister?

  CHRISTIAN It is a tear!

  CYRANO It looks like one, does it not? ... A poet, you see, is sometimes caught in his own snare,—that is what constitutes the interest, the charm! ... This letter, you must know, is very touching. In writing it I apparently made myself shed tears.

  CHRISTIAN Shed tears? ...

  CYRANO Yes, because ... well, to die is not terrible at all ... but never to see her again, ... never! ... that, you know, is horrible beyond all thinking.... And, things having taken the turn they have, I shall not see her ... [CHRISTIAN looks at him] we shall not see her ... [Hastily] you will not see her. . . .

  CHRISTIAN [snatching the letter from him] Give me the letter! [Noise in the distance.]

  VOICE OF A SENTINEL Ventrebieu, who goes there? [Shots. Noise of voices, tinkling of bells.]

  CARBON What is it?

  THE SENTINEL [on the top of the bank] A coach! [All run to see.] [Noisy exclamations.] What?—In the camp?—It is driving into the camp!—It comes from the direction of the enemy! The devil! Fire upon it!—No! the coachman is shouting something!—What does he say?—He shouts: Service of the King!

  DE GUICHE What? Service of the King? [All come down from the bank and fall into order.]

  CARBON Hats off, all!

  DE GUICHE [at the corner] Service of the King! Stand back, low rabble, and give it room to turn around with a handsome sweep! [The coach comes in at a trot. It is covered with mud and dust. The curtains are drawn. Two lackeys behind. It comes to a standstill.]

  CARBON [shouting] Salute! [Drums roll. All the CADETS uncover.]

  DE GUICHE Let down the steps! [Two men hurry forward. The coach door opens.]

  ROXANE [stepping from the carriage] Good-morning! [At the sound of a feminine voice, all the men, in the act of bowing low, straighten themselves. Consternation.]

  SCENE V

  The Same, Roxane

  DE GUICHE Service of the King! You?

  ROXANE Of the only King! ... of Love!

  CYRANO Ah, great God!

  CHRISTIAN [rushing to her] You! Why are you here?

  ROXANE This siege lasted too long!

  CHRISTIAN Why have you come?

  ROXANE I will tell you!

  CYRANO [who at the sound of her voice has started, then stood motionless without venturing to look her way] God! ... can I trust myself to look at her?

  DE GUICHE You cannot remain here.

  ROXANE But I can,—I can, indeed! Will you favor me with a drum? [She seats herself upon a drum brought forward for her.] There! I thank you! [She laughs.] They fired upon my carriage. [Proudly.] A patrol! It does look rather as if it were made out of a pumpkin, does it not? like Cinderella’s coach! and the footmen made out of rats! [Blowing a kiss to CHRISTIAN.] How do you do? [Looking at them all.] You do not look overjoyed! ... Arras is a long way from Paris, do you know it? [Catching sight of CYRANO.] Cousin, delighted!

  CYRANO [coming toward her] But how did you ... ?

  ROXANE How did I find the army? Dear me, cousin, that was simple: I followed straight along the line of devastation.... Ah, I should never have believed in such horrors had I not seen them! Gentlemen, if that is the service of your King, I like mine better!

  CYRANO But this is mad! ... By what way did you come?

  ROXANE Way? ... I drove through the Spaniards’ camp.

  FIRST CADET Ah, what will keep lovely woman from her way!

  DE GUICHE But how did you contrive to get through their lines?

  LE BRET That must have been difficult ...

  ROXANE No, not very. I simply drove through them, in my coach, at a trot. If a hidalgo,63 with arrogant front, showed likely to stop us, I put my face at the window, wearing my sweetest smile, and, those gentlemen being,—let the French not grudge my saying so!—the most gallant in the world, ... I passed!

  CARBON Such a smile is a passport, certainly! ... But you must have been not unfrequently bidden to stand and deliver where you were going?

  ROXANE Not unfrequently, you are right. Whereupon I would say, “I am going to see my lover!” At once, the fiercest looking Spaniard of them all would gravely close my carriage door; and, with a gesture the King might emulate, motion aside the musket-barrels levelled at me; and, superb at once for grace and haughtiness, bringing his spurs together, and lifting his plumed hat, bow low and say, “Pass, senorita, pass!”

  CHRISTIAN But, Roxane ...

  ROXANE I said, “My lover!” yes, forgive me!—You see, if I had said, “My husband!” they would never have let me by!

  CHRISTIAN But ...

  ROXANE What troubles you?

  DE GUICHE You must leave at once.

  ROXANE I?

  CYRANO At once!

  LE BRET As fast as you can.

  CHRISTIAN Yes, you must.

  ROXANE But why?

  CHRISTIAN [embarrassed] Because ...

  CYRANO [embarrassed too] In three quarters of an hour ...

  DE GUICHE [the same] Or an hour ...

  CARBON [the same] You had much better ...

  LE BRET [the same] You might ...

  ROXANE I shall remain. You are going to fight.

  ALL Oh, no! ... No!

  ROXANE He is my husband! [She throws herself in CHRISTIAN’s arms.] Let me be killed with you!

  CHRISTIAN How your eyes shine!

  ROXANE I will tell you
why they shine!

  DE GUICHE [desperately] It is a post of horrible probabilities!

  ROXANE [turning toward him] What—of horrible? ...

  CYRANO In proof of which he appointed us to it! ...

  ROXANE Ah, you wish me made a widow?

  DE GUICHE I swear to you ...

  ROXANE No! Now I have lost all regard.... Now I will surely not go.... Besides, I think it fun!

  CYRANO What? The precieuse contained a heroine?

  ROXANE Monsieur de Bergerac, I am a cousin of yours!

  ONE OF THE CADETS Never think but that we will take good care —of you!

  ROXANE [more and more excited] I am sure you will, my friends!

  OTHER CADET The whole camp smells of iris!

  ROXANE By good fortune I put on a hat that will look well in battle! [Glancing toward DE GUICHE.] But perhaps it is time the Count should go.—The battle might begin.

  DE GUICHE Ah, it is intolerable!—I am going to inspect my guns, and coming back.—You still have time: think better of it!

  ROXANE Never! [Exit DE GUICHE]

  SCENE VI

  The Same, without De Guiche

  CHRISTIAN [imploring] Roxane!

  ROXANE No!

  FIRST CADET She is going to stay!

  ALL [hurrying about, pushing one another, snatching things from one another] A comb!—Soap!—My jacket is torn, a needle!—A ribbon!—Lend me your pocket-mirror!—My cuffs!—Curling-irons!-A razor!

  ROXANE [to CYRANO, who is still’pleading with her] No! Nothing shall prevail upon me to stir from this spot!

  CARBON [after having, like the others, tightened his belt, dusted himself, brushed his hat, straightened his feather, pulled down his cuffs, approaches ROXANE, and ceremoniously] It is, perhaps, proper, since you are going to stay, that I should present to you a few of the gentlemen about to have the honor of dying in your presence ... [ROXANE bows, and stands waiting, with her arm through CHRISTIAN’s.] Baron Peyrescous de Colignac!

  THE CADET [bowing] Madame!

  CARBON [continuing to present the CADETS] Baron de Casterac de Cahuzac,—Vidame do Malgouyre Estressac Lesbas d‘Escarabiot, —Chevalier d’Antignac-Juzet,—Baron Hillot de Blagnac-Salechan de Castel Crabioules ...