Cyrano de Bergerac

In the autumn of 1655, 15 years after the previous acts, several nuns sit around Mother Marguerite de Jesus on a bench outside their convent. They tease each other for minor indiscretions and discuss how Cyrano has been visiting Roxane every week for 10 years. The nuns also discuss Roxane living among them during that time. Sister Claire wants to convert Cyrano to Catholicism, but Mother Marguerite tells her to leave him alone. She notes that he is impoverished but too proud to accept charity.

Roxane and Guiche enter as the sisters leave. Roxane says she remains faithful to Christian and carries his last letter with her always. Cyrano, she says, visits her weekly to share the news. Le Bret joins them and discusses Cyrano’s poverty and works of satire with Guiche. Guiche envies Cyrano’s freedom of speech, despite being richer and more powerful than Cyrano. Privately, Guiche mentions to Le Bret that people have threatened to murder Cyrano, and Le Bret agrees to warn Cyrano.

As Ragueneau approaches, the others discuss the many careers he has pursued after being a Poet, such as singer and actor. Roxane goes off with Guiche, and Ragueneau tells Le Bret that he saw Cyrano get in an accident—a lackey dropped a log of wood out a window, and it fell on Cyrano. Ragueneau carried Cyrano into his home and called a doctor, who diagnosed Cyrano with fevers and lesions, in addition to being rendered unconscious from the impact. Le Bret wants to see him immediately, so the men hurry off before Roxane returns. Nuns bring her a chair and she wonders where Cyrano is as she embroiders.

Cyrano arrives, barely able to walk with his cane, and forces out some happy banter about being delayed by an unexpected visitor. When she says he must stay until dark, he replies that he might have to leave a bit earlier than that, foreshadowing his death. He closes his eyes momentarily, and Roxane tells him to tease Sister Marthe. Cyrano opens his eyes, and claims to have eaten meat, but the nun does not believe him, and insists he have a bowl of soup before he leaves. He agrees to let him pray for her, and she says she already has done so. When Sister Marthe leaves, they talk about Roxane’s embroidery and the falling autumn leaves. Roxane asks for the news, and Cyrano offers up tidbits about a Queen’s ball, troops winning in Austria, conversations between the Comte de Fiesque and Madame de Montglat, and more, eventually fainting. This causes Roxane to become concerned about him. He comes to and claims it is only his old war wound.        

When Roxane mentions her wound (her heartbreak over Christian’s death), Cyrano asks to see the letter she always carries with her. She gives it to him, and he begins to read it aloud. As the letter describes his love for her and her hair, Roxane notices the way Cyrano reads and how he continues to read after it begins to get dark. Then, she realizes he—not Christian—is the author of the letter. Cyrano denies it, and Roxane argues with him, saying he was also the one talking under her balcony and shedding tears on the letter. Cyrano also denies these actions. She asks why he never told her.

Le Bret and Ragueneau come in, looking for Cyrano. They say leaving his bed in his condition will be fatal. He says he was not finished with his gazette, or accounting of the news. He says he has been murdered by a log of wood and not given the opportunity to die while sword fighting, as he wished. Ragueneau starts crying and tells Cyrano he works for Moliere instead of writing poetry these days. Also, Ragueneau mentions that a scene in Scapin plagiarized some of Cyrano’s work. Cyrano asks if the audience liked it, and Ragueneau assures him they did. Cyrano comments that he is always behind the scenes, winning applause and kisses for others.

Roxane tries to alert the nuns, but Cyrano asks her to stay with him, since he doesn’t have much time left. Roxane tells him she loves him, but Cyrano says that is not part of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale. Then, Cyrano says she has been his closest friend. Le Bret points at the moon, commenting that it is Cyrano’s other closest friend. Cyrano talks about the moon, recalling the earlier scene where he describes how he got to the moon to Guiche, and recites poetry about the adventure to the moon and back. Ragueneau, Le Bret, and Roxane are all crying at this point. Cyrano asks Roxane to mourn him as well as Christian.

He refuses to die sitting down, stands, and draws his sword. He duels against a hundred imaginary opponents—ones who insult him as well as the concepts of falsehood, prejudice, compromise, cowardice, surrender, and vanity. In the end, he says, all he has left that is pure is his “white plume” (227).