Cyrano de Bergerac

In Ragueneau’s pastry shop, cooks bring out dishes as Ragueneau attempts to write poetry. He discusses the dishes, comparing cooking to writing verse. His apprentice brings out a lute made of pastry, and Ragueneau gives him a bonus. His wife Lise brings out packaging for pastries made out of his poets’ manuscripts. He is dismayed, and she is exasperated. Children arrive, order, and Ragueneau reads the poems on the packaging, unwilling to part with them. When Lise turns, he exchanges the packaging for extra pastries, recovering the poetry.

Cyrano enters and they talk about his fencing match in the theater. Then Cyrano tells Ragueneau that he is meeting someone and to clear out, but Ragueneau’s poet friends are coming by. Cyrano encourages them to go elsewhere when his appointment time arrives. As a Musketeer enters, Cyrano takes a pen from Ragueneau and writes a letter to Roxane after debating over doing so. The poets talk about eight men they met along the way—losers of a fight. Cyrano does not admit to beating the men, but the poets describe their injuries as Cyrano writes.

After describing the pastries poetically, the poets ask Ragueneau to read his work. He recites “A Recipe for Making Almond Tarts”—a recipe in rhyme. Cyrano observes that the poets are eating all of Ragueneau’s wares, and he admits he likes a kind audience as well as people enjoying his cooking. Ragueneau asks Lise if she is sleeping with the Musketeer, and Cyrano warns her and the Musketeer against committing adultery.

When Roxane and her duenna arrive, Ragueneau leads the poets inside at Cyrano’s urging. Cyrano gives the duenna pastries wrapped in poems and sends her outside to eat them. Roxane thanks Cyrano for fighting Valvert because she does not want to marry him. They talk about playing together when they were children in Bergerac. She notices his hand is injured from the fight for Lignière the previous night. He notes that he fought a hundred men but does not want to recount what happened. Instead, he asks why she wanted to meet, and she tells him she’s in love with someone who is in his regiment in the Guards. Cyrano thinks she might like him at first, but eventually she reveals she loves Christian even though they have never spoken.

Cyrano mentions her love of wit, but she focuses on Christian’s beauty, saying she’ll die if he turns out to be unintelligent. Roxane asks Cyrano to look out for Christian—keep him from dueling—and ask Christian to write to her. She also wants to hear about Cyrano’s fight at some point.

Ragueneau and his friends enter as Roxane leaves. The Captain of the Guards, Carbon, also comes by and praises Cyrano. Other cadets, Gascons, come in also praising Cyrano for the fight the previous night. A large crowd gathers outside and many people try to talk to Cyrano. He points out how he doesn’t know them—they were not friendly before witnessing the fight. Cyrano is uninterested in being featured in the newspaper or having poems written about him. However, he does warm to a message of admiration from the Marshal de Gassion. Cyrano introduces Guiche to the Cadets of Gascoyne with a poem about their fighting, loving, spending, and defending as well as their ability to stare down their opponents. The poem also includes a stanza about them being skull-breakers and sword-benders, and a stanza about them winning the hearts of all the women they woo.

Guiche asks Cyrano to join his followers, but Cyrano refuses. Guiche offers to give his uncle, the Cardinal, a tragic play written by Cyrano, saying the Cardinal would produce it if allowed to alter a few lines. Cyrano doesn’t want his work changed, even for money. A cadet comes in with a sword stuck through many hats from the defeated men. Guiche admits he hired the men, talks about Don Quixote with Cyrano, and goes out.

Le Bret and Cyrano debate Cyrano’s choice to refuse Guiche’s patronage. Cyrano refuses to write poetry for others and network with wealthy people. Instead, he prefers to only write what he is inspired to write—not to work for others and write what they ask him to. He does not want to serve someone else’s whims and finds freedom in solitude. Cyrano enjoys hating others, unlike Le Bret, who Cyrano compares to a dog who loves to make friends. Le Bret points out that Roxane not loving him is truly what upsets Cyrano.

Christian comes in and joins the cadets. Some Cadets ask Cyrano to tell them about his fight while other Cadets warn Christian to not mention the size of Cyrano’s nose. Christian, a Norman, wants to demonstrate that he is better than the Gascons, so he ignores the advice and interrupts Cyrano’s story of his fight with a comment about his nose. Cyrano tries to ignore Christian’s comments since he promised Roxane he would befriend and protect Christian. Christian continues to goad him, and Cyrano continues to ignore him. When Cyrano begins to lose his temper at Christian’s continuing to insult his nose, he tells the other men to leave them alone. As they leave, the Cadets and Ragueneau discuss how Cyrano will destroy Christian.

In private, Cyrano tells Christian he is Roxane’s cousin and to embrace him. Christian apologizes for his comments. Cyrano tells Christian that Roxane wants him to write her letters. Christian admits he has trouble talking to women and is not a good writer. Then, Cyrano offers to write letters for Christian and win Roxane’s love together. He gives Christian the letter he wrote for Roxane, claiming it was just a poetic exercise. When they embrace, the Cadets peek in and think that Cyrano now tolerates jokes about his nose. A Musketeer comes in and tries to make a crack about Cyrano’s nose, and Cyrano knocks him over a bench and insults him. This excites the Cadets.