Edmond Rostand, author of "Cyrano de Bergerac": biography of the playwright

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Edmond Rostand, the future French playwright and author of the comedy Cyrano de Bergerac, was born on the first day of April 1868 in the city of Marseille. His parents, we althy and educated people, hosted the entire color of the Provencal intelligentsia. They had Aubanel and Mistral in their house, and there was talk of reviving the local culture of the Languedoc. A couple more years passed, the family moved to Paris, and Edmond continued his education at St. Stanislaus College. But he failed to become a lawyer. He became interested in literature, especially dramaturgy. The plays of Alfred de Musset and Victor Hugo served as models for the young Rostand.

Becoming a playwright

After graduating from college, Edmond began to lead the life of a dandy. The state of his parents allowed him to do this. He visited salonsexhibitions, theaters. At the age of twenty, he wrote his first play, The Red Glove, which did not bring him success, despite the fact that it was staged at the Cluny Theater (Paris, 1888). The comedy "Two Pierrots" and the collection of poems "Pranks of the Muse" also went unnoticed. The first success came to Rostand with the Romantics. This comedy in verse was written in 1891, and presented to the eyes of the audience in 1894 on the stage of the Comédie Francaise. But the dramatic comedy "Cyrano de Bergerac" glorified E. Rostand. The author radically changed the biography of a real writer of the 17th century, but the public forgave him for this in exchange for the exciting action of the play.

Who is Bergerac

Hercule Sauvignon Cyrano was born in Paris at the beginning of the 17th century. Since he had an estate in Gascony, he added the noble "de Bergerac" to his surname. At first he opposed Louis the Sun, but later changed his political views and became a fierce champion of the monarchy. He became famous for his epigrams and pamphlets. The French consider him one of the founders of science fiction, because among other works he wrote a philosophical work about a trip to the moon. Bergerac's long nose glorified no less literary opuses. Since then, the name Cyrano has become a household name for a person with this prominent facial feature. Edmond Rostand, author of Cyrano de Bergerac, took only this detail from a real historical character. The rest is the love of duels, the beautiful cousin and so on are myths.

Short plot of the play

This heroic comedy is about love in versea Gascon nobleman to his witty cousin Roxana. The author of Cyrano de Bergerac endows his hero with a noble heart. Knowing his physical handicap (a huge nose), he is afraid to even hint to the beauty about his feelings. Between them only sincere friendship. One day, Roxana admits that she is carried away by a certain Christian, who just entered the Gascon regiment, in which Cyrano also serves. The girl fears that behind the handsome appearance of the hussar lies an uncouth fool.

Bergerac meets with Christian and is convinced that he, alas, is not seven spans in the forehead. Otherwise, the young man is impeccable: good-looking, brave, kind and noble. And then the poet decides to create an ideal image for his beloved, weaving together the beautiful appearance of Christiano and his wit and eloquence. Further, the author of Cyrano de Bergerac transfers the action to the battlefield. Christian dies, hit by a bullet, but the protagonist sacredly keeps his secret. Inconsolable Roxana goes to the monastery. The poet and duelist confesses everything to her only ten years later, when he himself is mortally wounded.

The author of "Cyrano de Bergerac" actually revived and gave a new meaning to romantic comedy and poetic drama - forms of poetry that had almost disappeared by that time. Edmond Rostand died during a Spanish flu pandemic in Paris in 1918.