CYRANO
Now then, to make His Grace
delay that quarter of an hour
I have it!- up here-
(He steps on the bench, and climbs up the wall, toward the
balcony. The theorbos begin to play a mournful melody)
Sad music – Ah, a man!.. .
(The music pauses on a Sinister tremolo.)
Oh- very much a man!
(He sits astride of the railing and, drawing toward him a long
branch of one of the trees which
border the garden wall, he grasps it with both hands, ready
to swing himself down.)
So- not too
high-
(He peers down at the ground)
I must float gently through the atmosphere-
DE GUICHE
(Enters, masked,
groping in the dark toward the house.)
Where is that cursed, bleating Capuchin?
CYRANO
What if he knows my voice?- the devil !- Tic-tac,
Bergerac- we unlock our Gascon-tongue;
A strong accent-
DE GUICHE
Here is the house-
all dark- Damn this mask!-
(as he is about to enter the house, CYRANO leaps from the
balcony, still holding fast to the branch, which bends and swings him between DE
GUICHE and the door; then he releases the branch, and
pretends, to fall heavily as though from a height. He lands
flatly on the ground where he lies motionless, as if stunned. DE GUICHE leaps back.)
What is that?
(When he ljfts his,eyes,the branch has sprung back into
place. He can see nothing but the sky;
he does not
understand.)
Why. . .
where did this man fall from?
CYRANO
(Sits up, and speaks with a strong accent.)
-The moon!
DE GUICHE
You-
CYRANO
From the
moon, the moon! I fell out of the moon!
DE GUICHE
The fellow
is mad-
CYRANO
(Dreamily) Where am I?
DE GUICHE
Why-
CYRANO
What time
is it? What place
Is this? What day? What season?
DE GUICHE
You-
CYRANO
I am stunned!
DE GUICHE
My dear sir-
CYRANO
Like a bomb-a bomb-I fell from the moon!
DE GUICHE
Now, see
here
CYRANO
(Rising to his feet, and speaking in a terrible voice.)
I say, the moon!
DE GUICHE
(Recoils)
Very well-if you say so-
(Aside)
Raving mad!-
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CYRANO
(Advancing upon him.)
I am not speaking metaphorically!
DE GUICHE
Pardon
CYRANO
A hundred
years-an hour ago
I really
cannot say how long I fell-
I was in yonder shining sphere
DE GUICHE
(Shrugs)
Quite so.
Please let me pass.
CYRANO
(Interposes-himself.)
Where am I? Tell the truth-
I can bear it. In what quarter of the globe
Have I descended like a meteorite?
DE GUICHE
Morbleu!
CYRANO
I could not choose my place to fall-
The earth
spun round so fast- Was it the Earth,
I wonder?-Or is this
another world?
Another moon?
Whither have I been drawn
By the dead weight of
my posterior?
DE GUICHE
Sir, I repeat-
CYRANO
(With a sudden cry, which causes DE GUICHE to recoil again.)
His face! My
God- black!
DE GUICHE
(Carries his hand to
his mask.) Oh!
CYRANO
(Terrified)
Are you a native? Is this Africa?
DE GUICHE
-This mask!
CYRANO
&
(Somewhat reassured)
Are we in Venice?
Genoa?
DE GUICHE
(Tries to pass him)
A lady is waiting for me.
CYRANO
(Quite happy again)
So this is Paris!
DE GUIECE
(Smiling in spite of himself)
This fool becomes amusing.
CYRANO
Ah! You smile?
DE GUICHE
I do. Kindly permit
me
CYRANO(Delighted)
Dear old Paris- Well,
well!
(Wholly at
his ease, smiles, bows, arranges his dress.)
Excuse my appearance. I arrive by the last thunderbolt- a
trifle singed
As I came through the ether. These long journeys
You know! There are so few conveniences!
My eyes are full of star-dust. On my spurs,
Some sort of fur. . . Planet's apparently. . .
(Plucks
something from his sleeve.)
Look-on my doublet- That's a Comet's hair!
(He blows
something from the back of his hand)
Phoo!
DE GUICHE
(Grows angry.)
Monsieur
CYRANO
(As DE
GUICHE is about to push past, thrusts his leg in the way.)
Here's a tooth, stuck in my boot;
From the Great Bear. Trying to get away,
I tripped over the Scorpion and came down slap, into one
scale of the Balances-
The pointer marks my weight this moment. . .
(Pointing
upward.)
See?
(DE GUICHE makes a sudden movement. CYRANO catches his arm.)
Be careful! If you struck: me on the nose,
It would
drip milk !
DE GUICHE Milk?
CYRANO
From the Milky Way!
DE GUICHE
Hell!
CYRANO No, no-Heaven. (Crossing his arms.)
Curious
place up there-
Did you know Sirius wore a nightcap? True!
(Confidentially)
The Little Bear is still too young to bite.
(Laughing)
My foot caught in the Lyre, and broke a string.
(Proudly)
Well- when I write my book, and tell the tale
Of my adventures- all these little stars,
That shake out of my cloak-I must save those
To use for asterisks
DE GUICHE
That will
do now-
I wish-
CYRANO
Yes, yes- I know-
DE GUICHE
Sir-
CYRANO
You desire
To learn from my own lips the character
Of the moon's
surface- its inhabitants
If any-
DE GUICHE
(Loses patience and shouts.)
I desire no
such thing! I-
CYRANO (Rapidly)
You wish to know by what
mysterious means
I reached the moon? –well
–confidentially-
It was a new invention of my own.
DE GUICHE (Discouraged)
Drunk too--as well as mad !
CYRANO
I scorned the eagle
Of Regiomontanus, and the dove of Archytas!
DE GUICHE
A learned lunatic!-
CYRANO
I imitated no one. I myself
I)iscovered not one scheme merely, but six-
Six ways to violate the virgin sky!
(DE GUICHE has succeeded in passing him, and moves toward
the door of ROXANE'S house. CYRANO follows, ready to use violence if necessary.)
DE GUICHE (Looks around.)
Six?
CYRANO
(With increasing volubility)
As for instance-Having stripped myself
Bare as a wax candle, adorn my form
With crystal vials filled with morning dew,
And so be drawn aloft, as the sun rises
Drinking the mist of dawn!
DE GUICHE
(Takes a step toward CYRANO.)
Yes-that
makes one.
CYRANO
(Draws back
to lead him away from the door; speaks faster and faster.)
Or, sealing up the
air in a cedar chest,
Rarefy it by means of mirrors, placed
In an icosahedron.
DE GUICHE
(Takes another step.)
Two.
CYRANO (Still
retreating)
Again, I might construct a rocket, in the form
Of a huge locust, driven by impulses
Of villainous saltpetre from the rear,
Upward, by leaps and bounds.
DE GUICHE
(Interested in spite of himself, and counting on his
fingers.)
Three.
CYRANO (Same business)
Or again,
Smoke having a natural tendency to rise,
Blow in a globe enough to raise me.
DE GUICHE
(Same business, more and more astonished.)
Four !
CYRANO
Or since Diana, as old fables tell,
Draws forth to fill her crescent horn, the marrow
Of bulls and goats- to
anoint myself therewith.
DE GUICHE (Hypnotized)
Five !-
CYRANO
(Has by this time led him all the way across the street,
close to a bench.)
Finally- seated on an iron plate,
To hurl a magnet in the air- the iron
Follows- I catch the magnet- throw again
And so proceed indefinitely.
DE GUICHE
Six!-
All excellent,-and which did you adopt?
CYRANO (Coolly)
Why, none of them... . A seventh.
DE GUICHE
Which was?
CYRANO
Guess !-
DE GUICHE
An interesting idiot,
this!
CYRANO .
(Imitates the sound of waves with his voice, and their
movement by large, vague gestures.)
Hoo !. . . Hoo
! . . .
DE GUICHE
Well?
CYRANO
Have you guessed it yet?
DE GUICHE
Why, no.
CYRANO (Grandiloquent)
The ocean ! . . .
What hour its rising tide seeks the full moon,
I laid me on the
strand, fresh from the spray,
My head fronting the
moonbeams, since the hair
Retains moisture-and so I slowly rose
As upon angels' wings, effortlessly,
Upward-then suddenly I felt a shock!
And then. . .
DE GUICHE
(Overcome by curiosity, sits down on the bench.)
And then?
CYRANO
And then
(Changes
abruptly to his natural voice.)
The time is up! Fifteen minutes, your Grace !- You are now
free; And-they are bound-in wedlock.
DE GUICHE
(Leaping up)
Am I drunk?
That voice. . .
(The door
of ROXANE'S house opens; lackeys appear, bearing lighted candles. Lights up.
CYRANO removes his hat.)
And that nose !-Cyrano !
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