Analysis — Act I, scenes i–iii
This long scene introduces a host of important
characters, the main facts of the story, and a suspenseful, miniature
story line designed to demonstrate the overwhelming character of
Cyrano de Bergerac. The exchanges between the characters in the
first two scenes provide the ground for the subsequent action of
the play, heightening the suspense surrounding Cyrano’s character
by keeping him physically absent until just after the performance
begins. Cyrano stands apart from the rest of the characters, who
appear to be somewhat dull and predictable.
Rostand’s play romanticizes an era that was looked upon
nostalgically by some nineteenth-century writers. Written around 1897, Cyrano
de Bergerac is set in 1640. The
play is not a realistic interpretation of the time it describes,
but rather a historical romance, designed to evoke the glory of
France during the age of Louis XIII and to provide an entertaining
escape for its audience. The play takes many of its stereotypical
representations from Dumas’s popular novel The Three Musketeers. Several
references to Dumas’s work appear in the play. In Act I, scene iv,
after Cyrano fights in a dramatic duel, his friend Cuigy wittily
claims that Cyrano’s name is Dartagnan. (D’Artagnan is the hero
of Dumas’s novel, written 200 years after
the time in which Cyrano de Bergerac is set.) Later,
Le Bret admonishes Cyrano to “stop trying to be Three Musketeers
in one!”
The opening scenes emphasize the importance of the theater
in seventeenth-century France. The theater patrons include thieves, lackeys,
pages, and cavaliers—a veritable cross section of French society
at the time. Several patrons come to the theater to do everything
but watch the play. Some pick pockets, others play cards, others want
to be seen and improve their social status. Rostand parodies inattentive
audiences and supposedly bad actors like Montfleury to provide a
critique of the theater of his era. By opening
the play with such a critical portrayal, Rostand captures the audience’s
attention and subtly encourages them to listen up and behave appropriately.
Summary — Act I, scene iv
Montfleury cries out to the group of marquises for help,
and several respond. They try to quiet Cyrano, who invokes several
poetic metaphors as he threatens to kill them all: “Please
have pity on my sword: if you don’t stop shouting you’ll frighten
it out of its scabbard.” As the crowd gasps and strains to see,
Cyrano offers a universal challenge to the marquises, saying he
will take their names and fight them each in turn. None of the marquises
take his challenge. He gives Montfleury to the count of three to
leave the stage, and the actor flees.
The crowd is in a tumult. Cyrano proclaims that Montfleury
is a horrible actor and that the play is wretched. Moreover, Cyrano
says he has personal reasons for forbidding Montfleury to perform.
The manager of the stage indignantly asks about the money he will
lose from the performance, and Cyrano dramatically tosses him a
purse full of gold. A meddler storms up to Cyrano and declares that
Montfleury has a powerful patron. Cyrano exclaims that he himself
has no patron or any need for one because he can protect himself
with his sword. He accuses the meddler of staring at his nose, and
he bullies him about the room. Cowed, the meddler insists that he
was not staring and suggests that Cyrano’s nose is small. Cyrano
angrily exclaims that his nose is magnificent.
De Guiche declares to Valvert that Cyrano is tiresome.
Valvert agrees to put him in his place and, approaching Cyrano,
tries to goad him by saying that Cyrano has a “very big” nose. Affecting astonishment
at the man’s lack of wit, Cyrano offers a long list of better insults
that he himself might have used in Valvert’s situation. He continues
to mock Valvert, who challenges him to a duel. Cyrano declares that
as he fights Valvert, he will speak an extemporaneous poem and kill
Valvert on the last line.
