CHRISTIAN, CYRANO, two PAGES

[The window of the balcony is now lighted up.]

[He signs to them to speak softly.]

[He passionately kisses one of the hanging branches.]

Enter a capuchin FRIAR, with a lantern. He goes from house to house, looking at every door.]

CHRISTIAN:

Help me!

CYRANO:

Not I!

CHRISTIAN:

But I shall die unless I win her respect back at once!

CYRANO:

And how, in the devil's name, do you expect me to teach you right this moment—

CHRISTIAN:

[seizing his arm] Oh, there she is!

CYRANO:

[with great emotion] Her window!

CHRISTIAN:

Oh! I shall die!

CYRANO:

Shhh! Speak softly!

CHRISTIAN:

[in a whisper] I shall die!

CYRANO:

It's dark now…

CHRISTIAN:

So?

CYRANO:

We can repair the damage—although I'm not sure you deserve it! Stand there, in front of the balcony! I'll hide beneath it and tell you what to say.

CHRISTIAN:

But—

CYRANO:

Hold your tongue!

PAGES:

[reappearing at the back, and shouting to CYRANO] Ho there!

CYRANO:

Hush!

FIRST PAGE:

[in a low voice] We've played the serenade to Montfleury as you asked!

CYRANO:

[quickly, in a low voice] Go! Hide over there! One at this street corner and one at that one! And if a passer-by should intrude, play a tune for him!

SECOND PAGE:

What tune shall we play, oh great student of Gassendi?

CYRANO:

If a woman comes, play something happy. If a man, something sad! [The PAGES disappear, one at each street corner. CYRANO speaks to CHRISTIAN] Call her!

CHRISTIAN:

Roxane!

CYRANO:

[picking up stones and throwing them at the window] Some pebbles! Wait a while!

ROXANE

[half-opening the window] Who calls me?

CHRISTIAN:

It is I!

ROXANE:

Who's that?

CHRISTIAN:

Christian!

ROXANE:

[disdainfully] Oh, you?

CHRISTIAN:

I want to speak with you.

CYRANO:

[under the balcony, to CHRISTIAN] Good. Speak soft and low.

ROXANE:

No, you speak like a fool!

CHRISTIAN:

Oh, have pity on me!

ROXANE:

No! I don't think you love me anymore!

CHRISTIAN:

[prompted by CYRANO] You think I no longer love you? Oh, great heaven, but I love you more and more!

ROXANE:

[who was about to shut the window, pausing] That's a little better.

CHRISTIAN:

[prompted by CYRANO] My love for you grows and grows. It batters me like a cruel and restless child using my heart for a cradle.

ROXANE:

[coming out onto the balcony] That's better! But if you think that Cupid is so cruel, then you should have stifled this newborn love while it was still in its cradle!

CHRISTIAN:

[prompted again] Oh, Madame, I tried. But this love was as strong as Hercules from the moment it was born.

ROXANE:

Still better!

CHRISTIAN:

[prompted again] And this Hercules in my heart strangled the twin serpents of Pride and Doubt!

ROXANE:

[leaning over the balcony] Well said! But why do you halt so much? Has your ability for imagination weakened?

CYRANO:

[drawing CHRISTIAN under the balcony, and slipping into his place] Let me do it! This has become too critical!

ROXANE:

Why do you speak so hesitantly tonight?

CYRANO:

[imitating CHRISTIAN, in a whisper] It is so dark that my words must grope their way in the blackness to find your ear.

ROXANE:

But my words don't have the same difficulty.

CYRANO:

They find their way down to me at once? That's no surprise, then! It's because their home is in my heart, and my heart is so large that they cannot help but fall into the right place. Your ear, however, is small! And of course, your words come fast because they fall from such a height, while mine must climb up to you, and that takes time!

ROXANE:

It seems that your last words have learned to climb.

CYRANO:

They've become better at such exercise!

ROXANE:

It is true that I seem to speak from high above you.

CYRANO:

Yes, and so far above that a hard word from you would kill me if it were to fall on my heart.

ROXANE:

[moving] I'm coming down.

CYRANO:

[hastily] No!

ROXANE:

[showing him the bench under the balcony] Then won't you stand on the bench so I can see you?

CYRANO:

[starting back, alarmed] No!

ROXANE:

Why not?

CYRANO:

[overcome with emotion] Let us stay like this for a while. It's so sweet to have this rare occasion when our hearts can speak without our bodies seeing one another.

ROXANE:

But why should we want to speak without seeing one another?

CYRANO:

Oh, because it's so sweet! We are half-hidden and half-revealed. You see the dark folds of my cloak and I see the glimmering whiteness of your dress. I am but a shadow, and you are a bright shining light! Do you know what such a moment does to me? I may have been eloquent in the past but—

ROXANE:

Oh, you have been!

CYRANO:

Yet not until tonight has my speech sprung so directly from my heart!

ROXANE:

Why not?

CYRANO:

Up until now, I spoke uncertainly. I've been so intoxicated by your beauty. Your eyes radiate and make me dizzy. But tonight, I think I am able to find speech for the first time!

ROXANE:

’Tis true, your voice even sounds a little different.

CYRANO:

[coming nearer, passionately] Yes, I speak with a new tone! In the sheltering dusk, I dare to be myself for once—at last! [He stops, falters.] What have I said? Please pardon me. It's all so enchanting, and so sweet and new!

ROXANE:

New? How so?

CYRANO:

[deeply moved and trying to compose himself again] It's a new feeling for me to at last speak sincerely. Up until now, my heart feared that it would be mocked—

ROXANE:

But why?

CYRANO:

Because of its mad passion! My heart has masked itself with witty words to hide itself from curious eyes. I've aimed to bring stars down from the sky, but, fearing ridicule, I've stooped to pick wild flowers instead!

ROXANE:

Wild flowers are sweet!

CYRANO:

Yes, but not tonight. Tonight I aim for the star!

ROXANE:

Oh! You've never spoken quite like this before!

CYRANO:

Tonight I want to leave behind all of Cupid's arrows and quivers. I don't want to speak about the trite little symbols of love—the senti mental kinds of things that all lovers already speak about. Instead, I want to speak in a fresh, pure language—one that comes directly from my heart. For why should we sip little thimblefuls of dull fashionable waters, when, instead, we can quench our souls’ thirst by drinking from the great flooding river!

ROXANE:

But what about your wit? Your elegant speeches?

CYRANO:

If I have used my witty speech to gain your attention at the first, then it would be an outrage and an insult to this night, and to Nature herself, to speak such sugary, flowery words again. Just look up at the stars! The quiet sky will ease our hearts of all things artificial. If love is expressed in terms too refined, then the real feeling is lost. The truth of love itself becomes buried among all the flowery embellishments of poetic language.

ROXANE:

But wit, and elegant language—

CYRANO:

They are a crime when it comes to love! It is hateful to turn honest loving into a game! When the moment comes—and I pity those who never know that moment—and the real feeling of love exists in us, premeditated words are futile and only make the soul sad!

ROXANE:

Well, if that moment has come for us, what words will you use now?

CYRANO:

All words! Whatever words come to me, and even as they come, I'll fling them in a wild cluster and not wrap them in a careful bouquet. I love you! I am mad! I am suffocating with love for you! Your name rings in my heart like a bell. When I think of you, I tremble, and the bell shakes and rings out your name! Everything you do I love! I remember every action of yours that I ever witnessed! I know that last year on the twelfth of May, you changed the way you wore your hair. I am so used to taking your hair for daylight itself that, just as one stares at the sun and sees a red blot on all things, when I turn away after looking at you, I see a radiant image imprinted on everything!

ROXANE:

[in a trembling voice] Yes, this is love.

CYRANO:

Yes, the feeling which fills me is true love! Fierce and jealous and sad, yet never selfish. I would gladly lay down my own happiness for yours, even if you were never to know it. And even if I end up far away from you and lonely, I will be content just to hear a happy echo of the joy I once brought you! Each glance from you makes me virtuous and brave in new and unknown ways. Do you begin to understand me? Now, after all this time, have you begun to understand? Do you feel my soul climbing up to you through the darkness of this night? Oh, it is too sweet, too incredible, that I should speak this way and that you should listen! Even in moments when my hopes rose so high, I never could have hoped for this much! I could die peacefully right now. My words have had the power to make you tremble! You are trembling, I can feel it! I can feel the quivering of your hand echoing down through the jasmine branches!

ROXANE:

Oh, I am trembling and weeping! I am yours! You have conquered all of me!

CYRANO:

Then let death come! It is I who have conquered you! There is just one thing I dare ask you—

CHRISTIAN:

[under the balcony] A kiss!

ROXANE:

[drawing back] What?

CYRANO:

Oh!

ROXANE:

Did you ask—

CYRANO:

I— [to CHRISTIAN, whispering] Fool! You're moving too fast!

CHRISTIAN:

She is in such a loving mood that I must take advantage of the moment!

CYRANO:

[to ROXANE] Yes, I asked for a kiss, but I spoke thoughtlessly. Shame on me!

ROXANE:

[disappointed] You withdraw your request so quickly!

CYRANO:

Yes, I withdraw, but without really withdrawing! I'm afraid I have offended your modesty. If so, please do not grant me that kiss!

CHRISTIAN:

[to CYRANO, pulling him by his cloak] Why?

CYRANO:

Silence, Christian! Hush!

ROXANE:

[leaning over] What are you whispering?

CYRANO:

I'm chiding myself for my overly bold advances. I say to myself, “Silence, Christian!” [The lutes begin to play.] Hark! Wait a minute! I hear footsteps! [ROXANE shuts the window. CYRANO listens to the lutes, one of which plays a merry tune and the other a melancholy tune.] How strange. They play both a sad tune and a happy one. What does it mean? Neither man nor woman? Aha! It's a monk!