Cyrano de Bergerac

Edmund Rostand, Edmond Rostand, Anthony Burgess

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781854591173
• eBook ISBN: 9781780016306
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

The nineteenth-century French classic about the swordsman-poet with the nose too large to be taken seriously, in an acclaimed English translation by Anthony Burgess.

This translation of Edmond Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac was first performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican Theatre, London, in July 1983, with Derek Jacobi as Cyrano.

Burgess's translation was subsequently used as the basis of the sub-titles for the 1990 film version of Cyrano de Bergerac starring Gérard Depardieu.

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...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Original Stage Production
• Extract from a Letter by Jean-Paul Rappeneau
• Original Film Production
• Characters
• Act I
• Act II
• Act III
• Act IV
• Act V
• About the Author
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information