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Scene VI

The same, with LE BRET and RAGUENEAU.

LE BRET:

What madness! He's here! I knew it!

CYRANO:

[smiling and sitting up] Of course I am! What is it?

LE BRET:

Madame, he has brought his death by coming here.

ROXANE:

Oh, God! That moment just now, when you fainted—!

CYRANO:

Ah, yes! The moment that so rudely interrupted the “Gazette.” As I was saying, on Saturday, the twenty-sixth, at dinner-time, Monsieur de Bergerac was murdered.

[He takes off his hat. They all see that his head is bandaged.]

ROXANE:

What is he talking about? Cyrano! Those bandages! What's hap- pened? How? Who?

CYRANO:

To be struck down by a sword in the heart, from a worthy oppo- nent's hand! That's what I had dreamed of! Oh, how Fate mocks me! I, of all men, killed in an ambush! Struck from behind, and by a lackey's hand! ’Tis very fitting. I've failed in everything, even in death.

RAGUENEAU:

Oh, Sir!

CYRANO:

[holding out his hand to him] Ragueneau, don't weep so bitterly! What are you doing for money now, old comrade?

RAGUENEAU:

[amid his tears] I snuff out the lights in the theater. I work for Molière.

CYRANO:

Molière!

RAGUENEAU:

Yes, but I'm quitting tomorrow. I cannot bear it! Yesterday, they played Scapin, and they used a scene stolen from you!

LE BRET:

The whole scene!

RAGUENEAU:

Yes, the famous one: “What the devil is he doing?”

LE BRET:

Molière stole that from you!

CYRANO:

Hush! I'm glad he took it. Tell me, how was the scene?

RAGUENEAU:

[sobbing] Oh! It was wonderful! The audience laughed and laughed!

CYRANO:

It's been my life's role to prompt others to greatness and to be forgotten myself. [to ROXANE] Do you remember that night, when Christian spoke to you from under your balcony? Well, there was the allegory of my whole life: I stand in the shadows, at the foot of the lad- der, while others lightly climb their way up to Love and Fame! Here, on the threshold of death, I see the justice of it—Molière has genius and Christian had beauty! [The chapel-bell chimes. The nuns are seen passing down the alley at the back, to say their prayers.] Let them go pray. Their bell is ringing!

ROXANE:

[rising and calling] Sister! Sister!

CYRANO:

[holding her fast] Don't go after them! If you leave me, I'll be gone for good when you come back. [The nuns have all entered the chapel. The organ sounds.] Ah! I was in need of some music, and here it is!

ROXANE:

Please live! I love you!

CYRANO:

In fairy tales, when the lady says “I love you” to the beast, his ugli- ness disappears. But this is no fairy tale. I remain the same, even after you speak the magic words.

ROXANE:

I am the source of your life's unhappiness! I!

CYRANO:

No. You have blessed my life! Never in my life had I been loved by a woman. Even my mother could not see past my ugliness. I had no sister and, when grown a man, I feared all women would mock me. But I have had your gracious friendship. Because of you, a woman's charm has finally passed across my path.

LE BRET:

[pointing to the moon, which is seen between the trees] Your other lady-love has come.

CYRANO:

[smiling] I see.

ROXANE:

I loved one man, and now I've lost him twice!

CYRANO:

Tonight, Le Bret, I shall reach the moon, without the aid of any projectile!

LE BRET:

What are you saying?

CYRANO:

I tell you, it's there that I'll have my Paradise. There I shall find at last the exiled souls that I love—Galileo, Socrates…

LE BRET:

[rebelliously] No, no! This is too unjust! So great a poet! So great a heart! To die like this?

CYRANO:

Listen to Le Bret, always scolding!

LE BRET:

[weeping] Dear friend…

CYRANO:

[starting up, his eyes wild] The bold cadets of Gascony!…The elemental mass!…Ah, yes!…There's the thing…

LE BRET:

Still speaking science, even in his delirium.

CYRANO:

Copernicus said…

ROXANE:

Oh!

CYRANO:

“But what the devil was he doing there? What the devil was he doing there, on that galley?” [He declaims.] Philosopher, physician, poet, brawler, musician; famed for his lunar expedition and for duels and battles no less; and lover too, to his own distress! Here lies Hercule Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac, who was everything yet was nothing. I beg your pardon, but I cannot stay. See, the moon's rays come to call me up! [He has fallen back in his chair. The sobs of ROXANE call him back to reality. He looks for a long moment at her and touches her veil.] I would not ask you to mourn that good, brave Christian less faithfully. I would only ask that when my body is cold and in the ground, that you wear your mourning clothes for two, and mourn me for a while, as you mourn him.

ROXANE:

I swear I will!

CYRANO:

[shivering violently, then suddenly rising] No! Not seated! [They all spring toward him.] Let no one hold me up! [He props himself up against the tree.] Only this tree! [There is silence.] It comes. Even now my feet have turned to stone. My hands are heavy like lead. [He stands erect.] But since Death comes, I'll meet him standing. [He draws his sword.] And with sword in hand!

LE BRET:

Cyrano!

ROXANE:

[half fainting] Cyrano!

[Everyone shrinks back in terror.]

CYRANO:

I see him! He, the noseless one, dares to mock my nose! How insolent! [He raises his sword.] You say it's useless. That I know. But who fights believing that every battle will be a success? I fought for lost causes and fruitless quests! You there! I see you! Thousands of you! All enemies of mine, I know you now! Ah! There's Falsehood! [He strikes the air with his sword.] And Compromise! Prejudice! Treachery! [He strikes.] Will I surrender? Strike an agreement? Never! And there you are, Folly! I know you'll be the one to take me down, at last. Yet I'll fall fighting, fighting still! [He makes passes in the air, and stops, breath- less.] You've stripped me of the laurel and the rose! Of glory and love! Take it all! But there is still one thing I hold against you, and when I enter God's house tonight, I shall wave one thing in salutation, across heaven's blue threshold. For there is one thing I have left, void of smear or stain, and I take it with me despite you. [He springs forward, his sword raised. It falls from his hand. He staggers and falls back into the arms of LE BRET and RAGUENEAU.]

• Originally named Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, Molière (1622 – 1673) was a famous French playwright who owned his own theatre company and wrote plays for it; many of them were classified as sophisticated comedies.
• a 1671 farce by Molière
• While it is true that Molière did use the real Cyrano's lines in his play, Scapin, Cyrano could not have known this because the play was written sixteen years after the actual Cyrano died.
• a story that is written symbolically to represent didactic ideals or abstract notions
• an object that is propelled in some way, like a rocket or a bullet
• banished; sent away
• Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642), an Italian astronomer and mathematician who was the first to look at the sky through a telescope; Galileo confirmed Copernicus’ theory that the planets revolve around the Sun. Because of this confirmation, Galileo was tried for heresy by the church and forced to recant his ideas.
• (469 BC – 399 BC), a Greek philosopher who spent his life searching for moral truths; as an old man, Socrates was charged with heresy and the corruption of youth. Found guilty of the charges, he was sentenced to death by the lawmakers in Athens. He performed his own execution by drinking poisonous hemlock, and since then, he has been considered a martyr for philosophy and truth seeking.
• in a state of frenzy, confusion, disorientation
• Nicolas Copernicus (1473 – 1543) was a Polish astronomer and mathematician who theorized that the Earth was not the center of the universe and that the Earth and other planets revolved around the Sun; his radical discovery is considered to be the starting point of the scientific revolution (see note: Galileo above).
• rude, disrespectful
• a greeting

1. Notes
2. Reading Pointers for Sharper Insights
3. Dedication
4. Dramatis Personae
5. Act I
   1. A Performance at the Hotel de Bourgogne
   2. Scene I
   3. Scene II
   4. Scene III
   5. Scene IV
   6. Scene V
   7. Scene VI
   8. Scene VII
6. Act II
   1. The Poet's Eating-House
   2. Scene I
   3. Scene II
   4. Scene III
   5. Scene IV
   6. Scene V
   7. Scene VI
   8. Scene VII
   9. Scene VIII
   10. Scene IX
   11. Scene X
   12. Scene XI
7. Act III
   1. Roxane's Kiss
   2. Scene I
   3. Scene II
   4. Scene III
   5. Scene IV
   6. Scene V
   7. Scene VI
   8. Scene VII
   9. Scene VIII
   10. Scene IX
   11. Scene X
   12. Scene XI
   13. Scene XII
8. Act IV
   1. The Cadets of Gascony
   2. Scene I
   3. Scene II
   4. Scene III
   5. Scene IV
   6. Scene V
   7. Scene VI
   8. Scene VII
   9. Scene VIII
   10. Scene IX
   11. Scene X
9. Act V
   1. Cyrano's Gazette
   2. Scene I
   3. Scene II
   4. Scene III
   5. Scene IV
   6. Scene V
   7. Scene VI
10. Copyright