OTHER CADET What these walls are about to behold gives me gooseflesh to think upon!

OTHER CADET [closing the door at the right] Ghastly!... Ghastly! Ghastly!... Ghastly! [All have left, by the back or the sides, a few up the stairway. CYRANO and CHRISTIAN remain face to face, and look at each other a moment.] [All have left, by the back or the sides, a few up the stairway. CYRANO and CHRISTIAN remain face to face, and look at each other a moment.]

SCENE X.

Cyrano, Christian

CYRANO Embrace me!

CHRISTIAN Monsieur ...

CYRANO Brave fellow.

CHRISTIAN But what does this ...

CYRANO Very brave fellow. I wish you to.

CHRISTIAN Will you tell me? ...

CYRANO Embrace me, I am her brother.

CHRISTIAN Whose?

CYRANO Hers!

CHRISTIAN What do you mean?

CYRANO Roxane's!

CHRISTIAN [running to him] Heavens! You, her brother?

CYRANO Or the same thing: her first cousin.

CHRISTIAN And she has...

CYRANO Told me everything!

CHRISTIAN Does she love me?

CYRANO Perhaps!

CHRISTIAN [seizing his hands] How happy I am, Monsieur, to make your acquaintance! ...

CYRANO That is what I call a sudden sentiment!

CHRISTIAN Forgive me! ...

CYRANO [looking at him, laying his hand upon his shoulder [looking at him, laying his hand upon his shoulder] It is true that he is handsome, the rascal!

CHRISTIAN If you but knew, Monsieur, how greatly I admire you!...

CYRANO But all those noses which you...

CHRISTIAN I take them back!

CYRANO Roxane expects a letter to-night...

CHRISTIAN Alas!

CYRANO What is the matter?

CHRISTIAN I am lost if I cease to be dumb!

CYRANO How is that?

CHRISTIAN Alas! I am such a dunce that I could kill myself for shame!

CYRANO But, no ... no.... You are surely not a dunce, if you believe you are! Besides, you scarcely attacked me like a dunce.

CHRISTIAN Oh, it is easy to find words in mounting to the a.s.sault! Indeed, I own to a certain cheap military readiness, but when I am before women, I have not a word to say.... Yet their eyes, when I pa.s.s by, express a kindness toward me ...

CYRANO And do their hearts not express the same when you stop beside them?

CHRISTIAN No!... for I am of those-I recognize it, and am dismayed! -who do not know how to talk of love.

CYRANO Tiens! . . . Tiens! . . . It seems to me that if Nature had taken more pains with my shape, I should have been of those who do know how to talk of it. It seems to me that if Nature had taken more pains with my shape, I should have been of those who do know how to talk of it.

CHRISTIAN Oh, to be able to express things gracefully!

CYRANO Oh, to be a graceful little figure of a pa.s.sing mousquetaire!

CHRISTIAN Roxane is a precieuse, ... 49 49 there is no chance but that I shall be a disillusion to Roxane! there is no chance but that I shall be a disillusion to Roxane!

CYRANO [looking at CHRISTIAN] If I had, to express my soul, such an interpreter! ... CHRISTIAN] If I had, to express my soul, such an interpreter! ...

CHRISTIAN [desperately] I ought to have eloquence! ...

CYRANO [abruptly] Eloquence I will lend you! ... And you, to me, shall lend all-conquering physical charm... and between us we will compose a hero of romance!

CHRISTIAN What?

CYRANO Should you be able to say, as your own, things which I day by day would teach you?

CHRISTIAN You are suggesting? ...

CYRANO Roxane shall not have disillusions! Tell me, shall we win her heart, we two as one? will you submit to feel, transmitted from my leather doublet into your doublet st.i.tched with silk, the soul I wish to share?

CHRISTIAN But Cyrano! ...

CYRANO Christian, will you?

CHRISTIAN You frighten me!

CYRANO Since you fear, left to yourself, to chill her heart, will you consent,-and soon it will take fire, I vouch for it!-to contribute your lips to my phrases?

CHRISTIAN Your eyes shine! ...

CYRANO Will you?

CHRISTIAN What, would it please you so much?

CYRANO [with rapture] [with rapture] It would... It would... [Remembering, and confining himself to expressing an artistic pleasure] [Remembering, and confining himself to expressing an artistic pleasure] ... amuse me! It is an experiment fit surely to tempt a poet. Will you complete me, and let me in exchange complete you? We will walk side by side: you in full light, I in your shadow.... I will be wit to you... you, to me, shall be good looks! ... amuse me! It is an experiment fit surely to tempt a poet. Will you complete me, and let me in exchange complete you? We will walk side by side: you in full light, I in your shadow.... I will be wit to you... you, to me, shall be good looks!

CHRISTIAN But the letter, which should be sent to her without delay? ... Never shall I be able...

CYRANO [taking from his doublet the letter written in the first part of the act] The letter? Here it is!

CHRISTIAN How?...

CYRANO It only wants the address.

CHRISTIAN I...

CYRANO You can send it without uneasiness. It is a good letter. CHRISTIAN You had? ...

CYRANO You shall never find us-poets!-without epistles in our pockets to the Chlorises ... of our imagining! For we are those same that have for mistress a dream blown into the bubble of a name! Take,-you shall convert this feigning into earnest; I was sending forth at random these confessions and laments: you shall make the wandering birds to settle... Take it!You shall see... I was as eloquent as if I had been sincere! Take, and have done!

CHRISTIAN But will it not need to be altered in any part? ... Written without object, will it fit Roxane?

CYRANO Like a glove!

CHRISTIAN But...

CYRANO Trust to the blindness of love... and vanity! Roxane will never question that it was written for her.

CHRISTIAN Ah, my friend! [He throws himself into [He throws himself into CYRANO's CYRANO's arms. They stand embraced.] arms. They stand embraced.]

SCENE XI.

Cyrano, Christian, the Cadets, the Mousquetaire, Lise

ONE OF THE CADETS [opening the door a very little] Nothing more.... The stillness of death.... I dare not look... Nothing more.... The stillness of death.... I dare not look... [He thrusts in his head. [He thrusts in his head. ] What is this? ] What is this?

ALL THE CADETS [entering and seeing CYRANO CYRANO and and CHRISTIAN CHRISTIAN locked in each others arms locked in each others arms] Ah!... Oh! ...

ONE OF THE CADETS This pa.s.ses bounds! [Consternation]. [Consternation].

THE MOUSQUETAIRE [impudent] [impudent] Ouais? Ouais?

CARBON DE CASTEL-JALOUX Our demon is waxen mild as an apostle; smitten upon one nostril, he turns the other also!

THE MOUSQUETAIRE It is in order now to speak of his nose, is it? [Calling LISE, LISE, with a swaggering air with a swaggering air] Hey, Lise! now listen and look. [Pointedly sniffing the air.] Oh, ... oh, ... it is surprising! ... what an odor! [Going to [Going to CYRANO.] But Monsieur must have smelled it, too? Can you tell me what it is, so plain in the air? CYRANO.] But Monsieur must have smelled it, too? Can you tell me what it is, so plain in the air?

CYRANO [beating him] Why, sundry blows! him] Why, sundry blows! [Joyful antics of the CADETS in beholding CYRANO himself again. Curtain.] [Joyful antics of the CADETS in beholding CYRANO himself again. Curtain.]

ACT THREE.

Roxane's Kiss A small square in the old Marais. Old-fashioned houses. Narrow streets seen in perspective. At the right, ROXANE'S house and the wall ofher garden, above which spreading tree-tops. Over the house-door, a balcony and window. A bench beside the doorstep.The wall is overclambered by ivy, the balcony wreathed with jasmine.By means of the bench and projecting stones in the wall, the balcony can easily be scaled.On the opposite side, old house in the same style of architecture, brick and stone, with entrance-door. The door-knocker is swaddled in linen.At the rise of the curtain, the DUENNA is seated on the bench. The window on ROXANE'S balcony is wide open.

RAGUENEAU, in a sort of livery, stands near the DUENNA; he is finishing the tale of his misfortunes, drying his eyes.

SCENE I.

Ragueneau, the Duenna, then Roxane, Cyrano, and two Pages

RAGUENEAU And then, she eloped with a mousquetaire! Ruined, forsaken, I was hanging myself. I had already taken leave of earth, when Monsieur de Bergerac happening along, unhanged me, and proposed me to his cousin as her steward...

THE DUENNA But how did you fall into such disaster?

RAGUENEAU Lise was fond of soldiers, I, of poets! Mars ate up all left over by Apollo. Under those circ.u.mstances, you conceive, the pantry soon was bare.

THE DUENNA [rising and calling toward the open window] [rising and calling toward the open window] Roxane, are you ready? ... They are waiting for us! ... Roxane, are you ready? ... They are waiting for us! ...

ROXANE' S VOICE [through the window] I am putting on my mantle! the window] I am putting on my mantle!

THE DUENNA [to RAGUENEAU, pointing at the door opposite] pointing at the door opposite] It is over there, opposite, we are expected. At Clomire's. She holds a meeting in her little place. A disquisition upon the Softer Sentiments is to be read. It is over there, opposite, we are expected. At Clomire's. She holds a meeting in her little place. A disquisition upon the Softer Sentiments is to be read.50 RAGUENEAU Upon the Softer Sentiments?

THE DUENNA [coyly] Yes! ... [Calling toward the window.] Roxane, you must make haste, or we shall miss the disquisition upon the Softer Sentiments! Roxane, you must make haste, or we shall miss the disquisition upon the Softer Sentiments!

ROXANE'S VOICE I am coming! [A sound of string-instruments is heard, drawing nearer.] [A sound of string-instruments is heard, drawing nearer.]

CYRANO'S VOICE [singing in the wings] La! la! la! la! la! ... La! la! la! la! la! ...

THE DUENNA [surprised] We are to have music?