Cyrano de Bergerac

Edmond Rostand, Glyn Maxwell

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781783190331
• eBook ISBN: 9781783195329
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

Swordsman, Philosopher, Poet, Raconteur Cyrano de Bergerac is all these things, but none of them makes him happy. What he desires above all is the love of the beautiful Roxane. But his problem is as plain as the nose on his face. Surely he is too ugly ever to be loved? Salvation of a kind arrives in the form of the handsome yet tongue-tied Christian de Neuvillette might not Cyrano's eloquence and Christian s beauty together win Roxane? Yet duelling foes, powerful rivals, and a war against Spain will all put our hero to the test before he finds his way at last into his lady's arms.

ACT ONE

The secluded garden of a convent. TERESA, MARTHA and ROSA come.

ROSA:	Where is this man of mystery?
TERESA: (pointing at a bench) He’s – oh.
	He isn’t there.
ROSA:	A mystery indeed!
MARTHA:	Sister Rosa, I assure you he has sat there every night for – ten?
TERESA:	Twelve?
MARTHA:	Fifteen years, precisely at this hour!
TERESA:	It’s how we time
	our walk to vespers.
MARTHA:	When the battle comes –
TERESA:	The best part –
MARTHA:	No the saddest part –
TERESA:	Then we know it’s time to go –
ROSA:	Does it have a happy ending?
TERESA:	Don’t tell her, Sister Martha.
ROSA:	Only tell me
	if it does!
MOTHER MARGARET comes, with two SISTERS, CLAIRE and AGNES.
CLAIRE:	Where’s our old madman?
MARGARET:	Sister Claire!
ROSA:	He didn’t come! My first day and the old times disappear! Now I’ll never know his story.
AGNES:	It is not a story for the young to hear.
ROSA:	All stories are for everyone to hear!
MARGARET:	It’s an old man’s tale.
TERESA:	It’s true!
ROSA:	It doesn’t matter!
	I want to know!
MARGARET:	And because you want to know, Sister Rose, shall all Creation stop to tell you?
ROSA:	Yes, why not?
AGNES:	Because it’s time
	we could spend in contemplation.
ROSA:	Sister Agnes, if we never hear the stories of the world then what are we compen – conten –
MARTHA:	Contemplating!
ROSA:	What she said.
TERESA:	You don’t have to like it, Agnes, you can disapprove as we tell it, that’s fun too!
MARGARET:	Fun?
TERESA:	I mean, educational.
CLAIRE:	Every night we hear it, if we don’t – it would be like he’s passed away!
ROSA:	Or never been, please Mother!
MARGARET:	I shall turn like the yellow leaf before the first illumination.
ROSA:	Where does it start?
CLAIRE:	It starts in a place you’ve never been to...
ROSA:	Merrie England!
AGNES...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Characters
• Act One
• Act Two
• Act Three
• Act Four
• Act Five