Cyrano de Cyrano de BergeracBergerac

By Edmond Rostand

About the author

• born in Marseilles, France in 1868 • as a college student in Paris, he fell in love

with literature and theater. • first play, Le Gant Rouge, was produced

when he was only 20 years old • Each new play proved more successful

than the previous one, and Rostand’s name lured prominent actors and actresses to star in his productions.

•Late 19th century theater was dominated by grim, realistic stories and unsentimental characters (think - A Doll’s House)

Realism - the depiction of subjects as they appear in everyday life In theater, a movement towards greater fidelity to

real life

•Rostand felt that the French people had forgotten the values and ideals that made them a proud and virtuous people, the qualities and character that made them honorable and specifically French.

Drama in the 1800s…

• Cyrano de Bergerac was sensationally popular and Rostand’s greatest triumph

• Rostand departed from the realist tradition to present a historical romance, set in the 1640s and featuring a swashbuckling hero who is also a poet, using words as effectively as weapons.

• Audiences loved the play’s passionate love story, comedy, fast-paced action, and tragic ending.

• Above all, they responded powerfully to the larger-than-life character of Cyrano, the genius hero with a ridiculously long nose.

Along comes Cyrano…

Your nose is . . . very big.

Yes, very.

Valvert:Cyrano:

Rostand Forever

• Rostand died in 1918, but his most popular creation continues to live on in hundreds of productions.

• Most recently, 2 popular films: the French Cyrano de Bergerac, starring Gerard Depardieu, and the modernized American adaptation, Roxanne, starring Steve Martin (1987).

The Play’s the Thing…• Though written in 1897, the play evokes an even older era:

France during the age of Louis XIII.

• In the 19th century, it was popular to recall this seventeenth-century era as France’s golden age—a time when men were musketeers, women were beautiful heiresses, and the wit flashed as brightly as the swordplay.

• In fact, Alexandre Dumas had published his famous romance, The Three Musketeers, a half-century before Cyrano took to the stage. Cyrano parodied, paid homage to, and proved itself a blatant copy of Dumas’s popular novel.

• Nineteenth-century audiences viewed Cyrano’s honesty, courage, wit, passion, and extraordinary willpower as the embodiment of this lost golden age.

• When first performed in Paris on December 28, 1897, the audience applauded for a full hour after the final curtain was drawn. A classic was created on that night, and an unforgettable hero of literature was born.

Will the real Cyrano de Bergerac please stand up?

• The real Cyrano de Bergerac is a novelist and playwright who lived from 1619 to 1655, around the same time as the fictional Cyrano. The real Cyrano probably inspired the idea for Rostand’s protagonist, but the play’s events, as well as its other characters, are solely the product of Rostand’s imagination.

Check out the nose!

Romanticism & the Romantic

HeroRomanticism – the main source of inspiration for

Romanticism came from the events and ideologies of the French Revolution. Romanticism is a movement away from the “Age of Enlightenment” that preceded it, wherein the focus was on reason and logic.

Characteristics of Romantic Literature:Love of Nature, Emotional Expression, Artist - the Creator, Nationalism, Exoticism, and Supernatural

The Romantic HeroRomantic hero - literary archetype of a character that rejects

established norms and conventions, has been rejected by society, and has the self as the center of his or her own existence.

Characteristics of the romantic hero:1.Usually protagonist 2.focus on character's thoughts rather than actions. 3.placed outside the structure of civilization; represents the

force of physical nature, yet with a sense of power and often leadership, that society has impoverished itself by rejecting.

4.introspection, the triumph of the individual over the restraints of theological and social conventions, wanderlust, melancholy, misanthropy, alienation, and isolation.

• However, another common trait of the Romantic hero is regret for his actions, and self-criticism, often leading to philanthropy, which stops the character from ending tragically.

Préciosité• Trend in 17th century Paris of love and proper

courtship• Love considered of the utmost importance• A man must woo a woman over a long period

of time with elegant poetry rather than just coming out and saying, “I love you.”

• Modeled after Medieval ideals of courtly love (see notes)

The Main Characteristics of Courtly Love1.The poet sings the joy of his love, which is an exalted feeling.

2.He praises and extols the woman he loves, who is superior, and can be approached only with veneration and restraint.

3.Love is a passion that affects the lover’s body and soul and tends to unbalance him (love-sickness).

Points 1-3 are sort of general and could be made about love poetry in many different cultures. What gives medieval “courtly love” its peculiar character is the following:

4.The lover becomes his lady’s servant. Her love must be difficult to obtain, and he must prove his valor and faithfulness. The relation between lady and lover is envisioned, often in the poetic imagery used as well as in manuscript illustrations, as a transfer of the feudal relationship between lord and vassal (homage).

Note: In the early nineteenth century, Italians still cultivated a similar relationship in which the male lover became the “cavaliere serviente” of a lady, usually not his wife. Notice the medieval wording.

5.The effect of this love is that the male lover becomes ennobled in his whole being, including his fighting power, social mores, and moral and religious attitudes. “Courtly love” thus becomes the force that generates courtliness or courtesy.

6.In some cases, this ennoblement is caused by the very thought of the beloved lady.

The Main Characteristics of Courtly Love (cont’d)

My, what a big nose you have!

Symbols• Cyrano’s nose

• The love letters• The plume (panache)

• War/fighting

Cyrano’s Themes

• Values and Virtue • Inner and Outer Beauty

• The Danger in Deception • Appearance vs. Reality• Honor/Loyalty/Sacrifice

• The Nature of Love

Timeline of our recent literary studies

1859A Tale of Two

Cities

1879A Doll’s House

1898Cyrano de Bergerac

Victorian Era (named for Britain’s Queen Victoria)

837 – 1901

Character list -1. Cyrano de Bergerac - 2. Roxane -3. Baron Christian de Neuvillette  -4. Comte de Guiche  -5. Ragueneau  -6. Le Bret   -7. Ligniere -8. The duenna - 9. Vicomte de Valvert - 10. Montfleury -11. Carbon de Castel-Jaloux - 12. Bellerose -13. Lise -14. Capuchin -15. Mother Marguerite de Jesus, Sister Claire, Sister

Marthe -16. Cardinal Richelieu -

Panache

• French origin ; connotes a flamboyant manner and reckless courage.

• Literal translation = plume, such as is worn on a hat or a helmet, but the reference is to King Henry IV of France. Pleasure-loving and cynical, but a brave military leader and the best-loved of the kings of France, he was famed for wearing a striking white plume in his helmet and for his war cry: "Follow my white plume!" (Fr. "Ralliez-vous à mon panache blanc!").

• Panache is now used to describe someone who has a dashing confidence of style, or shows a certain flamboyance and courage, and is a familiar word now in English. Its meaning has also been extended to include anything capable of displaying such attributes.

What’s important about “Gascons”?

• The area of France known as Gascony was raided and ruled by Vikings for many years. The people of that area, Gascons, were considered a brutish, rougher class of people.

• Why then is Roxane concerned, in regards to Christian, that most of Cyrano’s brigade (including himself) are Gascons?