Cyrano de Bergerac

Edmund Rostand

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781780016306
• Topic: Literatura
• Subtopic: Arte dramático

Anthony Burgess' energetically witty translation of this well-loved nineteenth-century French classic about the swordsman-poet with the nose too large to be taken seriously.

This translation was first acclaimed in the 1985 Royal Shakespeare Company production with Derek Jacobi as Cyrano. Six years later Burgess provided the sub-titles for the hit film version with Gerard Depardieu, and the sub-titles won as much praise as did the film itself!

Edmond Rostand (1868-1918) wrote several plays which were mightily successful in their time, providing starring roles for the likes of Sarah Bernhardt and Coquelin. But only Cyrano de Bergerac still survives.

Anthony Burgess was the author of over fifty books, among them the novel, The Clockwork Orange, as well as stage plays, screenplays and translations.

Act I

A theatre

We are in Paris in 1640, the era of Dumas’s Three Musketeers. The theatre is not a theatre as we know theatres. It is rather like a large indoor tennis court roughly converted into a place where plays may be performed before small audiences, or chamber concerts given for even fewer. There is a platform which serves as a stage, and a number of benches accommodate the less patrician spectators. The gentry and aristocracy will be seated in a low gallery with chairs, while a higher one, chairless, from which the view is not good, is intended for their servants. It is evening. The lights have not yet been lit, and a huge candelabrum has still to be raised by its heavy rope to the ceiling. The shadows invite lovers and lechers. Such illumination as there is is provided by odd candles and lanterns set about the floor and on chairs. A PICKPOCKET instructs his pupils in the art they must practise this evening. A DOORKEEPER takes tickets or, from the ticketless, money. A CAVALRYMAN pushes his way in past him.

DOORKEEPER.Hey – where’s your fifteen sous?

CAVALRYMAN.I get in free.

DOORKEEPER.And why?

CAVALRYMAN.His Majesty’s Household Cavalry.

Another man in uniform enters boldly. He is a MUSKETEER.

DOORKEEPER.You –

MUSKETEER.I don’t pay either.

DOORKEEPER.Now look here –

MUSKETEER.You look, friend. See – I’m a musketeer.

CAVALRYMAN (to the MUSKETEER).

Ten minutes before curtain-up. The floor

Is ours.

MUSKETEER.So – what are we waiting for?

They draw their épées and start to fence. A FLUNKEY comes out of the shadows to watch them. Another FLUNKEY appears and addresses the first.

SECOND FLUNKEY.Pssst – see what I’ve got –

It is not easy to see what he has in the dimness.

FIRST FLUNKEY.Champagne?

SECOND FLUNKEY.Cards. Dice.

What’ll it be?

FIRST FLUNKEY (taking the cards).

I’ll deal.

SECOND FLUNKEY.I nicked a slice

Of candle. See.

He lights it from a candle already lighted and sticks it on a bench.

See.

Now they can see well enough to play. A town GUARD appears from the shadows and makes for a FLOWERGIRL who has just come in with her basket of spring blooms.

GUARD.Come on – here’s a nice

Little bit of dark, dear. Give us a kiss.

CAVALRYMAN (lunging).Touché!

GUARD (embracing her).

Come on.

FLOWERGIRL. They can see.

FIRST FLUNKEY.One club.

GUARD. No danger.

A FAT MAN, seated, takes out a cold fowl and a loaf.

FAT MAN.May

As well get a snack in.

A CIT...