Cyrano de Bergerac Read online

  A Play at the Hôtel de Bourgogne 1

  The great hall of the Hôtel de Bourgogne, in 1640. A sort of tennis-court arranged and decorated for theatrical performances.

  The hall is a long rectangle, seen obliquely, so that one side of it constitutes the background, which runs from the position of the front wing at the right, to the line of the furthest wing at the left, and forms an angle with the stage, which is equally seen obliquely.

  This stage is furnished, on both sides, along the wings, with benches. The drop-curtain is composed of two tapestry hangings, which can be drawn apart. Above a Harlequin cloak, the royal escutcheon. Broad steps lead from the raised platform of the stage into the house. On either side of these steps, the musicians’ seats. A row of candles fills the office of footlights.

  Two galleries run along the side; the lower one is divided into boxes. No seats in the pit, which is the stage proper. At the back of the pit, that is to say, at the right, in the front, a few seats raised like steps, one above the other; and, under a stairway which leads to the upper seats, and of which the lower end only is visible, a stand decked with small candelabra, jars full of flowers, flagons and glasses, dishes heaped with sweetmeats, etc.

  In the centre of the background, under the box-tier, the entrance to the theatre, large door which half opens to let in the spectators. On the panels of this door, and in several corners, and above the sweetmeat stand, red playbills, announcing LA CLORISE.2

  At the rise of the curtain, the house is nearly dark, and still empty. The chandeliers are let down in the middle of the pit, until time to light them.

  SCENE I

  The audience, arriving gradually. Cavaliers, burghers, lackeys, pages, the fiddlers, etc.

  A tumult of voices is heard beyond the door; enter brusquely a

  CAVALIER.

  DOORKEEPER [running in after him] Not so fast! Your fifteen pence!

  CAVALIER I come in admission free!

  DOORKEEPER And why?

  CAVALIER I belong to the king’s light cavalry!

  DOORKEEPER [to another CAVALIER who has entered] You?

  SECOND CAVALIER I do not pay!

  DOORKEEPER But...

  SECOND CAVALIER I belong to the mousquetaires!

  FIRST CAVALIER [to the SECOND] It does not begin before two. The floor is empty. Let us have a bout with foils. [They fence with foils they have brought.]

  A LACKEY [entering] Pst!... Flanquin!

  OTHER LACKEY [arrived a moment before] Champagne? ...

  FIRST LACKEY [taking a pack of cards from his doublet and showing it to SECOND LACKEY] Cards. Dice. [Sits down on the floor.] Let us have a game.

  SECOND LACKEY [sitting down likewise] You rascal, willingly!

  FIRST LACKEY [taking from his pocket a bit of candle which he lights and sticks on the floor] I prigged an eyeful of my master’s light!

  ONE OF THE WATCH [to a flower-girl, who comes forward] It is pleasant getting here before the lights. [Puts his arm around her waist. ]

  ONE OF THE FENCERS [taking a thrust] Hit!

  ONE OF THE GAMBLERS Clubs!

  THE WATCHMAN [pursuing the girl] A kiss!

  THE FLOWER-GIRL [repulsing him] We shall be seen!

  THE WATCHMAN [drawing her into a dark corner] No, we shall not!

  A MAN [sitting down on the floor with others who have brought provisions] By coming early, you get a comfortable chance to eat.

  A BURGHER [leading his son] This should be a good place, my boy. Let us stay here.

  ONE OF THE GAMBLERS Ace wins!

  A MAN [taking a bottle from under his cloak and sitting down] A proper toper, toping Burgundy, [drinks] I say should tope it in Burgundy House!3

  THE BURGHER [to his son] Might one not suppose we had stumbled into some house of evil fame? [Points with his cane at the drunkard. ] Guzzlers! ... [In breaking guard one of the fencers jostles him.] Brawlers! ... [He falls between the gamblers.] Gamesters! ...

  THE WATCHMAN [behind him, still teasing the flower-girl] A kiss!

  THE BURGHER [dragging his son precipitately away.] Bless my soul! ... And to reflect that in this very house, my son, were given the plays of the great Rotrou!

  THE YOUTH And those of the great Corneille! 4 [A band of PAGES holding hands rush in performing a farandole and singing.]

  PAGES Tra la la la la la la la! ...

  DOORKEEPER [severely to the PAGES] Look, now! ... you pages, you! none of your tricks!

  FIRST PAGE [with wounded dignity.] Sir!... this want of confidence ... [As soon as the doorkeeper has turned away, briskly to the SECOND

  PAGE.] Have you a string about you?

  SECOND PAGE With a fish-hook at the end!

  FIRST PAGE We will sit up there and angle for wigs!

  A PICKPOCKET [surrounded by a number of individuals of dubious appearance. ] Come, now, my little hopefuls, and learn your ABC’s of trade. Being as you’re not used to hooking...

  SECOND PAGE [shouting to other PAGES who have already taken seats in the upper gallery] Ho!... Did you bring any pea-shooters?

  THIRD PAGE [from above] Yes!... And pease! ... [shoots down a volley of pease]

  THE YOUTH [to his father] What are we going to see?

  THE BURGHER Clorise.

  THE YOUTH By whom?

  THE BURGHER By Balthazar Baro. Ah, what a play it is! ... [Goes toward the back on his son’s arm.]

  PICKPOCKET [to his disciples] Particularly the lace-ruffles at the knees, ... you’re to snip off carefully!

  A SPECTATOR [to another, pointing toward an upper seat] Look! On the first night of the Cid, I was perched up there!

  PICKPOCKET [with pantomimic suggestion of spiriting away] Watches ...

  THE BURGHER [coming forward again with his son] The actors you are about to see, my son, are among the most illustrious...

  PICKPOCKET [with show of subtracting with furtive little tugs] Pocket-handkerchiefs...

  THE BURGHER Montfleury...

  SOMEBODY [shouting from the upper gallery] Make haste, and light the chandeliers!

  THE BURGHER Bellerose, l’Épy, the Beaupré, Jodelet ... 5

  A PAGE [in the pit] Ah!... Here comes the goody-seller!

  THE SWEETMEAT VENDER [appearing behind the stand] Oranges... Milk... Raspberry cordial... citron-wine... [Hubbub at the door.]

  FALSETTO VOICE [outside] Make room, ruffians!

  ONE OF THE LACKEYS [astonished] The marquises... in the pit!

  OTHER LACKEY Oh, for an instant only! Enter a band of foppish YOUNG MARQUISES.

  ONE OF THE MARQUISES [looking around the half-empty house] What? ... We happen in like so many linen-drapers? Without disturbing anybody? treading on any feet?... Too bad! too bad! too bad! [He finds himself near several other gentlemen, come in a moment before.] Cuigy, Brissaille! [Effusive embraces]

  CUIGY We are of the faithful indeed. We are here before the lights.

  THE MARQUIS Ah, do not speak of it! ... It has put me in such a humor!

  OTHER MARQUIS Be comforted, marquis... here comes the candle-lighter!

  THE AUDIENCE [greeting the arrival of the candle-lighter] Ah!... [Many gather around the chandeliers while they are being lighted. A few have taken seats in the galleries. LIGNIÈRE enters, arm in arm with CHRISTIAN DE NEUVILLETTE. LIGNIERE, in somewhat disordered apparel, appearance of gentlemanly drunkard. CHRISTIAN, becomingly dressed, but in clothes of a slightly obsolete elegance.]

  SCENE II

  The Same, with Christian and Lignière, then Ragueneau and Le Bret

  CUIGY Lignière!

  BRISSAILLE [laughing] Not tipsy yet?

  LIGNIERE [low to CHRISTIAN] Shall I present you? [CHRISTIAN nods assent.] Baron de Neuvillette ... [Exchange of bows]

  THE AUDIENCE [cheering the ascent of the first lighted chandelier] Ah!...

  CUIGY [to BRISSAILLE, looking at CHRISTIAN] A charming head... charming!

  FIRST MARQUIS [who has overheard] Pooh!...

  LIGNIERE [presenting CHRISTIAN]
Messieurs de Cuigy ... de Brissaille...

  CHRISTIAN [bowing] Delighted!...

  FIRST MARQUIS [to SECOND] He is a pretty fellow enough, but is dressed in the fashion of some other year!

  LIGNIERE [to CUIGY] Monsieur is lately arrived from Touraine.

  CHRISTIAN Yes, I have been in Paris not over twenty days. I enter the Guards to-morrow, the Cadets.

  FIRST MARQUIS [looking at those who appear in the boxes] There comes the présidente Aubry!

  SWEETMEAT VENDER Oranges! Milk!

  THE FIDDLERS [tuning] La... la ...

  CUIGY [to CHRISTIAN, indicating the house which is filling] A good house! ...

  CHRISTIAN Yes, crowded.

  FIRST MARQUIS The whole of fashion! [They give the names of the women, as, very brilliantly attired, these enter the boxes. Exchange of bows and smiles.]

  SECOND MARQUIS Mesdames de Guéménée ...

  CUIGY De Bois-Dauphin...

  FIRST MARQUIS Whom... time was! ... we loved! ... BRISSAILLE ... de Chavigny ...6

  SECOND MARQUIS Who still plays havoc with our hearts!

  LIGNIERE Tiens! Monsieur de Corneille has come back from Rouen!

  THE YOUTH [to his father] The Academy is present?7

  THE BURGHER Yes ... I perceive more than one member of it. Yonder are Boudu, Boissat and Cureau ... Porchères, Colomby, Bourzeys, Bourdon, Arbaut ... All names of which not one will be forgotten. What a beautiful thought it is!8

  FIRST MARQUIS Attention! Our précieuses are coming into their seats... Barthénoide, Urimédonte, Cassandace, Félixérie ...9

  SECOND MARQUIS Ah, how exquisite are their surnames! ... Marquis, can you tell them off, all of them?

  FIRST MARQUIS I can tell them off, all of them, Marquis!

  LIGNIERE [drawing CHRISTIAN aside] Dear fellow, I came in here to be of use to you. The lady does not come. I revert to my vice!

  CHRISTIAN [imploring] No! No! ... You who turn into ditties Town and Court, stay by me: you will be able to tell me for whom it is I am dying of love!

  THE LEADER OF THE VIOLINS [rapping on his desk with his bow] Gentlemen! ... [He raises his bow.]

  SWEETMEAT VENDER Macaroons... Citronade ... [The fiddles begin playing.]

  CHRISTIAN I fear... oh, I fear to find that she is fanciful and intricate! I dare not speak to her, for I am of a simple wit. The language written and spoken in these days bewilders and baffles me. I am a plain soldier... shy, to boot.—She is always at the right, there, the end: the empty box.

  LIGNIERE [with show of leaving] I am going.

  CHRISTIAN [still attempting to detain him] Oh, no! ... Stay, I beseech you!

  LIGNIERE I cannot. D’ Assoucy‡ is expecting me at the pot-house. Here is a mortal drought!

  SWEETMEAT VENDER [passing before him with a tray] Orangeade? ...

  LIGNIÈRE Ugh!

  SWEETMEAT VENDER Milk?..

  LIGNIERE Pah!...

  SWEETMEAT VENDER Lacrima?10 ...

  LIGNIÈRE Stop! [To CHRISTIAN] I will tarry a bit.... Let us see this lacrima? [Sits down at the sweetmeat stand. The VENDER pours him a glass of lacrima] [Shouts among the audience at the entrance of a little, merry-faced, roly-poly man.]

  AUDIENCE Ah, Ragueneau! ...

  LIGNIERE [to CHRISTIAN] Ragueneau, who keeps the great cookshop.

  RAGUENEAU [attired like a pastrycook in his Sunday best, coming quickly toward LIGNIERE] Monsieur, have you seen Monsieur de Cyrano?

  LIGNIERE [presenting RAGUENEAU to CHRISTIAN] The pastrycook of poets and of players!

  RAGUENEAU [abashed] Too much honor....

  LIGNIERE No modesty! ... Mecaenas! ...†

  RAGUENEAU It is true, those gentlemen are among my customers ...

  LIGNIERE Debitors! ... A considerable poet himself.... RAGUENEAU It has been said! ...

  LIGNIERE Daft on poetry! ...

  RAGUENEAU It is true that for an ode...

  LIGNIERE You are willing to give at any time a tart! RAGUENEAU ... let. A tart-let.

  LIGNIERE Kind soul, he tries to cheapen his charitable acts! And for a triolet# were you not known to give ... ?

  RAGUENEAU Rolls. Just rolls.

  LIGNIERE [severely] Buttered!... And the play, you are fond of the play?

  RAGUENEAU It is with me a passion!

  LIGNIERE And you settle for your entrance fee with a pastry currency. Come now, among ourselves, what did you have to give today for admittance here?

  RAGUENEAU Four custards... eighteen lady-fingers. [He looks all around] Monsieur de Cyrano is not here. I wonder at it.

  LIGNIERE And why?

  RAGUENEAU Montfleury is billed to play.

  LIGNIERE So it is, indeed. That ton of man will to-day entrance us in the part of Phœdo ... Phoedo!11 ... But what is that to Cyrano?

  RAGUENEAU Have you not heard? He interdicted Montfleury, whom he has taken in aversion, from appearing for one month upon the stage.

  LIGNIERE [who is at his fourth glass] Well?

  RAGUENEAU Montfleury is billed to play.

  CUIGY [who has drawn near with his companions] He cannot be prevented.

  RAGUENIEAU He cannot? ... Well, I am here to see!

  FIRST MARQUIS What is this Cyrano?

  CUIGY A crack-brain!

  SECOND MARQUIS Of quality?

  CUIGY Enough for daily uses. He is a cadet in the Guards. [Pointing out a gentleman who is coming and going about the pit, as if in search of somebody] But his friend Le Bret can tell you. [Calling] Le Bret! ...

  [LE BRET comes toward them] . You are looking for Bergerac?

  LE BRET Yes. I am uneasy.

  CUIGY Is it not a fact that he is a most uncommon fellow?

  LE BRET [affectionately] The most exquisite being he is that walks beneath the moon!

  RAGUENEAU Poet!

  CUIGY Swordsman!

  BRISSAILLE Physicist!

  LE BRET. Musician!

  LIGNIERE And what an extraordinary aspect he presents!

  RAGUENEAU I will not go so far as to say that I believe our grave Philippe de Champaigne12 will leave us a portrait of him; but, the bizarre, excessive, whimsical fellow that he is would certainly have furnished the late Jacques Callot with a type of madcap fighter for one of his masques.13 Hat with triple feather, doublet with twice-triple skirt, cloak which his interminable rapier lifts up behind, with pomp, like the insolent tail of a cock; prouder than all the Artabans that Gascony ever bred,‡ he goes about in his stiff Punchinello ruff, airing a nose.... Ah, gentlemen, what a nose is that! One cannot look upon such a specimen of the nasigera without exclaiming, “No! truly, the man exaggerates,” ... After that, one smiles, one says: “He will take it off.” ... But Monsieur de Bergerac never takes it off at all.

  LE BRET [shaking his head] He wears it always... and cuts down whoever breathes a syllable in comment.

  RAGUENEAU [proudly] His blade is half the shears of Fate!

  FIRST MARQUIS [shrugging his shoulders] He will not come!

  RAGUENEAU He will. I wager you a chicken a la Ragueneau.

  FIRST MARQUIS [laughing] Very well! [Murmur of admiration in the house. ROXANE has appeared in her box. She takes a seat in the front, her duenna at the back. CHRISTIAN, engaged in paying the sweetmeat vender, does not look.]

  SECOND MARQUIS [uttering a series of small squeals] Ah, gentlemen, she is horrifically enticing!

  FIRST MARQUIS A strawberry set in a peach, and smiling!

  SECOND MARQUIS So fresh, that being near her, one might catch cold in his heart!

  CHRISTIAN [looks up, sees ROXANE, and, agitated, seizes LIGNIÈRE by the arm] That is she!

  LIGNIERE [looking] Ah, that is she! ...

  CHRISTIAN Yes. Tell me at once.... Oh, I am afraid! ...

  LIGNIERE [sipping his wine slowly] Magdeleine Robin, surnamed Roxane. Subtle. Euphuistic.

  CHRISTIAN Alack-a-day!

  LIGNIERE Unmarried. An orphan. A cousin of Cyrano’s... the one of whom they were talking. [While he is speaking, a richly dr
essed nobleman, wearing the order of the Holy Ghost on a blue ribbon across his breast,14 enters ROXANE’s box, and, without taking a seat, talks with her a moment.]

  CHRISTIAN [starting] That man? ...

  LIGNIERE [who is beginning to be tipsy, winking] He! He! Comte de Guiche. Enamored of her. But married to the niece of Armand de Richelieu. Wishes to manage a match between Roxane and certain sorry lord, one Monsieur de Valvert, vicomte and ... easy. She does not subscribe to his views, but De Guiche is powerful: he can persecute to some purpose a simple commoner. But I have duly set forth his shady machinations in a song which... Ho! he must bear me a grudge! The end was wicked... Listen! ... [He rises, staggering, and lifting his glass, is about to sing.]

  CHRISTIAN No. Good-evening.

  LIGNIERE You are going? ...

  CHRISTIAN To find Monsieur de Valvert.

  LIGNIERE Have a care. You are the one who will get killed. [Indicating ROXANE by a glance.] Stay. Some one is looking...

  CHRISTIAN It is true ... [He remains absorbed in the contemplation of ROXANE. The pickpockets, seeing his abstracted air, draw nearer to him.]

  LIGNIERE Ah, you are going to stay. Well, I am going. I am thirsty! And I am looked for ... at all the public-houses! [Exit unsteadily. ]

  LE BRET [who has made the circuit of the house, returning toward RAGUENEAU, in a tone of relief] Cyrano is not here.

  RAGUENEAU And yet...

  LE BRET I will trust to Fortune he has not seen the announcement.

  THE AUDIENCE Begin! Begin!

  SCENE III

  The same, except for Lignière; De Guiche, Valvert, then Montfleury

  ONE OF THE MARQUISES [watching DE GUICHE, who comes from ROXANE’s box, and crosses the pit, surrounded by obsequious satellites, among whom the VICOMTE DEVALVERT] Always a court about him, De Guiche!

  OTHER MARQUIS Pf!... Another Gascon!

  FIRST MARQUIS A Gascon, of the cold and supple sort. That sort succeeds. Believe me, it will be best to offer him our duty. [They approach DE GUICHE.]

  SECOND MARQUIS These admirable ribbons! What color, Comte de Guiche? Should you call it Kiss-me-Sweet or ... Expiring Fawn?

  DE GUICHE This shade is called Sick Spaniard.

  FIRST MARQUIS Appropriately called, for shortly, thanks to your valor, the Spaniard will be sick indeed, in Flanders!15