



Produced by Sue Asscher









CYRANO DE BERGERAC


A Play in Five Acts

by

Edmond Rostand

Translated from the French by Gladys Thomas and Mary F. Guillemard



The Characters
CYRANO DE BERGERAC
CHRISTIAN DE NEUVILLETTE
COUNT DE GUICHE
RAGUENEAU
LE BRET
CARBON DE CASTEL-JALOUX
THE CADETS
LIGNIERE
DE VALVERT
A MARQUIS
SECOND MARQUIS
THIRD MARQUIS
MONTFLEURY
BELLEROSE
JODELET
CUIGY
BRISSAILLE
THE DOORKEEPER
A LACKEY
A SECOND LACKEY
A BORE
A MUSKETEER
ANOTHER
A SPANISH OFFICER
A PORTER
A BURGHER
HIS SON
A PICKPOCKET
A SPECTATOR
A GUARDSMAN
BERTRAND THE FIFER
A MONK
TWO MUSICIANS
THE POETS
THE PASTRY COOKS
ROXANE
SISTER MARTHA
LISE
THE BUFFET-GIRL
MOTHER MARGUERITE
THE DUENNA
SISTER CLAIRE
AN ACTRESS
THE PAGES
THE SHOP-GIRL

The crowd, troopers, burghers (male and female), marquises, musketeers,
pickpockets, pastry-cooks, poets, Gascons cadets, actors (male and female),
violinists, pages, children, soldiers, Spaniards, spectators (male and
female), precieuses, nuns, etc.



Act I.

A Representation at the Hotel de Bourgogne.

The hall of the Hotel de Bourgogne, in 1640.  A sort of tennis-court arranged
and decorated for a theatrical performance.

The hall is oblong and seen obliquely, so that one of its sides forms the back
of the right foreground, and meeting the left background makes an angle with
the stage, which is partly visible.

On both sides of the stage are benches.  The curtain is composed of two
tapestries which can be drawn aside.  Above a harlequin's mantle are the royal
arms.  There are broad steps from the stage to the hall; on either side of
these steps are the places for the violinists.  Footlights.

Two rows, one over the other, of side galleries:  the highest divided into
boxes.  No seats in the pit of the hall, which is the real stage of the
theater; at the back of the pit, i.e., on the right foreground, some benches
forming steps, and underneath, a staircase which leads to the upper seats.  An
improvised buffet ornamented with little lusters, vases, glasses, plates of
tarts, cakes, bottles, etc.

The entrance to the theater is in the center of the background, under the
gallery of the boxes.  A large door, half open to let in the spectators.  On
the panels of this door, in different corners, and over the buffet, red
placards bearing the words, 'La Clorise.'

At the rising of the curtain the hall is in semi-darkness, and still empty.
The lusters are lowered in the middle of the pit ready to be lighted.



Scene 1.I.

The public, arriving by degrees.  Troopers, burghers, lackeys, pages, a
pickpocket, the doorkeeper, etc., followed by the marquises.  Cuigy,
Brissaille, the buffet-girl, the violinists, etc.

(A confusion of loud voices is heard outside the door.  A trooper enters
hastily.)

THE DOORKEEPER (following him):
  Hollo!  You there!  Your money!

THE TROOPER:
  I enter gratis.

THE DOORKEEPER:
  Why?

THE TROOPER:
  Why?  I am of the King's Household Cavalry, 'faith!

THE DOORKEEPER (to another trooper who enters):
  And you?

SECOND TROOPER:
  I pay nothing.

THE DOORKEEPER:
  How so?

SECOND TROOPER:
  I am a musketeer.

FIRST TROOPER (to the second):
  The play will not begin till two.  The pit is empty.  Come, a bout with the
foils to pass the time.

(They fence with the foils they have brought.)

A LACKEY (entering):
  Pst...Flanquin...!

ANOTHER (already there):
  Champagne?...

THE FIRST (showing him cards and dice which he takes from his doublet):
  See, here be cards and dice.
(He seats himself on the floor):
  Let's play.

THE SECOND (doing the same):
  Good; I am with you,