{"id":1064,"date":"2018-11-23T08:12:24","date_gmt":"2018-11-23T15:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/?p=1064"},"modified":"2018-11-25T22:30:31","modified_gmt":"2018-11-26T05:30:31","slug":"the-author-of-cyrano","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/the-author-of-cyrano\/","title":{"rendered":"The Author of Cyrano"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\">[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\n<h3>Episode 27\u2022<\/h3>\n<h1>The Author of Cyrano<\/h1>\n<p>\u2022\u00a0<em>I said that whatever he would write for me, on what ever subject, at what ever time, I would accept without question or reservation, and put on the stage at my own theater: rather a remarkable pledge, seeing that our acquaintance dated from about ten minutes back; but I meant exactly what I said.<\/em><\/p>\n<pre><div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_5814\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-1064-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/byline\/Byline_27_FINAL.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/byline\/Byline_27_FINAL.mp3\">http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/byline\/Byline_27_FINAL.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/byline\/Byline_27_FINAL.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/?powerpress_pinw=1064-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/byline\/Byline_27_FINAL.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"Byline_27_FINAL.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/byline-old-news-is-good-news\/id1280440129?mt=2&amp;ls=1#episodeGuid=http%3A%2F%2Fclearwaterpress.com%2Fbyline%2F%3Fp%3D1064\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_itunes\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe on Apple Podcasts\" rel=\"nofollow\">Apple Podcasts<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/subscribebyemail.com\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/feed\/podcast\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_email\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe by Email\" rel=\"nofollow\">Email<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/Byline-Old-News-Is-Good-News-p1030588\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_tunein\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe on TuneIn\" rel=\"nofollow\">TuneIn<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/feed\/podcast\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p><\/pre>\n<div style=\"height: 15px; clear:both;\"><\/div>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-855\" src=\"https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/09\/Extra-Extra-newsie-horizontal.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"115\" srcset=\"https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/09\/Extra-Extra-newsie-horizontal.jpg 900w, https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/09\/Extra-Extra-newsie-horizontal-300x38.jpg 300w, https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/09\/Extra-Extra-newsie-horizontal-768x98.jpg 768w, https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/09\/Extra-Extra-newsie-horizontal-800x102.jpg 800w, https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/09\/Extra-Extra-newsie-horizontal-567x72.jpg 567w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>SHOW NOTES ____________<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">The Author of Cyrano<\/span><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>A Study of Edmond Rostand\u2019s Personality and Methods of Writing<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>By Cleveland Moffett<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>From <em>McClure&#8217;s<\/em>, Vol 14, 1900<\/p>\n<p>AND now, in this period of young great men, steps forth another to join the growing company of those become famous before thirty. On the morning of December 29, 1897, Edmond Rostand, aged twenty seven, and little enough known up to that time, awoke in Paris to find all things at his feet: this because a five-act play of his in verse, \u201cCyrano de Bergerac,\u201d had been received the night before at the Porte St. Martin Theater with mad demonstrations. The play marked a new era in the drama, some said; it certainly ushered in a stage triumph such as Victor Hugo scarcely knew, a greater triumph than the English stage had seen for an even century. Here are some facts: To begin with, a run in Paris of 400 performances and Coquelin scarcely started in the r\u00f4le; an amazing success in America, with ten rival companies playing to packed houses in spite of bad translations (all but one); Germans delighted with Ludwig Fulda\u2019s exquisite version; Spaniards wild over their version; ten performances in St. Petersburg, which is counted a memorable thing in Russia; Norway and Sweden playing \u201cCyrano&#8217;; Denmark playing \u201cCyrano&#8217;; half-forgotten little countries down Servia way playing \u201cCyrano\u201d in queer tongues like the Croatian; and critics for once led meekly by the noses after \u201cCyrano,\u201d the venerable autocrat \u201cUncle\u2019\u201d Sarcey (since deceased) heading the procession. Only one judgment, then, from public and press in all countries rated civilized\u2014\u201cCyrano\u201d is a masterpiece.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-1065\" src=\"https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Coquelin_aine\u0301-416x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"416\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Coquelin_aine\u0301-416x800.jpg 416w, https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Coquelin_aine\u0301-156x300.jpg 156w, https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Coquelin_aine\u0301-768x1476.jpg 768w, https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Coquelin_aine\u0301-567x1090.jpg 567w, https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Coquelin_aine\u0301.jpg 778w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 416px) 100vw, 416px\" \/>And hear what \u201cCyrano&#8217; himself has to say in this matter, the flesh-and-blood realization of Rostand\u2019s ideal, the elder Coquelin, one who knows the stage and its traditions in and out\u2014a veteran of the Com\u00e9die Fran\u00e7aise, actor-manager at present in his own theater, the Porte St.-Martin, the strongest figure of a man on the stage of France today. Here is the little narrative of personal experience that I got from him one morning in his pleasant Paris home overlooking Napoleon\u2019s arch:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was in the fall of 1894, I think, that I met Rostand first. I chanced to be at the house of Madame Sarah Bernhardt one day while Rostand was reading to her his \u2018Princesse Lointaine,\u201d produced later at the Renaissance. I was present only as a friend, but was greatly struck by the beauty of the lines and the high artistic quality of the author\u2019s rendering. Bernhardt was stirred to tears, in fact was ill in bed for two days afterwards from the emotion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter the reading I was presented to Rostand, and told him how sincerely I admired his work. Then, just as I was going, he said: \u201cI should like to write something for you. I think I have a good idea.&#8217; Now, see how completely I had come under his spell, for at once I said that whatever he would write for me, on what ever subject, at what ever time, I would accept without question or reservation, and put on the stage at my own theater: rather a remarkable pledge, seeing that our acquaintance dated from about ten minutes back; but I meant exactly what I said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome weeks later he came to me with his subject, and went over it in detail. I was pleased, and he went away. A month later he came back, and told me he had changed his mind and chosen another subject. There should be two men in love with a woman-one handsome, the other homely. The handsome man was stupid, the homely man extremely clever. These two should become friends, and the love-making go on as you know. I was delighted, and marveled that no dramatist had ever hit upon that theme. A few nights later he came into my loge, and read me the duel verses. Ah, but that made an impression on me! What words, I said to myself, what action in every line! I can hear him yet declaiming it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA little later he read me the famous lines where Cyrano introduces the cadets. I told him he would do a masterpiece if he kept on this way, and he did keep on. Little by little, scene by scene, he brought me the play as it grew, until finally I had it all. In the summer he withdrew to the country, at Boissy St.-L\u00e9ger, where most of the writing was done, and where I went down often to pass the night and hear how things were going. Here was genius in full operation, the real thing and no mistake. He worked furiously, without restriction or moderation; he could work in no other way. Sometimes it was a delight to watch him cherishing and smoothing his verses as a fond gardener who waters the flowers he loves and gives them sun. Again he wrought out his lines in torture, like a spirit driven through hell with rest forbidden. There are men, you know, like Sardou, who can rise every day at a certain hygienic hour, work so long, and refuse to work any longer. Rostand is not of that kind.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnother thing I soon observed was this, that the critical power in him is perhaps as remarkable as the creative power. He knows with unerring judgment when a thing is good and when it is bad. He judges his work exactly as if someone else had written it, and you may be sure when he pronounces a thing good, though it be his own, he makes no mistake.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen \u201cCyrano\u2019 went into rehearsal my wonder grew again, for here was a novice in stage-craft handling a hundred people without effort, solving difficult dramatic problems as they arose by flashes of intuition, and withal showing an understanding of technique, a sureness in his effects, that not even Sardou could surpass, and a delicacy of artistic perception surpassing any one. Yet he did it smoothly, with few words, the company outdoing themselves under him, like musicians led by a great conductor. We were in rehearsal about two months and a half, with some sixty repetitions, and during that time I never knew Rostand to be in doubt before any dramatic tangle or to make an error in judgment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn one point I was much troubled. It seemed to me that \u201cCyrano&#8217; was too long; twenty-five hundred lines went beyond all precedent. Even \u2018Ruy Blas\u2019 is several hundred lines shorter than that, and \u2018Ruy Blas &#8216;plays from eight o&#8217;clock to midnight. \u201cI\u2019m afraid it\u2019s too long,&#8217; I would say to Rostand. \u2018We must cut something out.\u201d \u201cWell, what shall it be?\u2019 he would say. \u2018I don\u2019t know,\u201d I would answer, \u201cbut we must surely make it shorter.\u201d Then Rostand would laugh, and agree to cut out whatever I decided could be spared. And though I spent hours over the lines searching for weak ones, and lay awake of nights saying them over, I never found one that could be spared.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo the play was not cut, after all, and, thanks to fast marching under Rostand\u2019s generalship, we managed to run it through in reasonable time. And had we gone on past midnight, I am sure the people would have stayed; for when were so many elements of popularity ever brought together in one play! \u201cCyrano\u2019 is full of action, it stirs the noblest emotions, it is amusing, it is clever, it contains charming lyrics, a delightful love story, plenty of fighting, swagger, pathos, nonsense, what is there like it! I played through the run of 400 representations (missing only one week, when I was ill), and I can honestly say I enjoyed them all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-1067\" src=\"https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Cyrano-581x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"581\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Cyrano-581x800.jpg 581w, https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Cyrano-218x300.jpg 218w, https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Cyrano-768x1057.jpg 768w, https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Cyrano-567x780.jpg 567w, https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Cyrano.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 581px) 100vw, 581px\" \/>In seeking knowledge of this young dramatist, it was natural to go from Coquelin to Bernhardt, for if the former has thus far had the greater play by Rostand, the latter has had three of his plays by no means of small value\u2014\u201cLa Princesse Lointaine,\u201d \u201cLa Samaritaine,\u201d and \u201cL\u2019Aiglon.\u201d It was at her own theater that she received me, just as she had come from a rehearsal of \u201cHamlet,\u201d and she was weary from an hour&#8217;s work of the intensest kind. Yet what change of manner, what brightening of the eyes at Rostand&#8217;s name! One would think him a sovereign or demi-god. The great actress is even more ardent than Coquelin in her tribute. Rostand is admirable, he is wonderful, and she speaks of her own relations to him with a glow of gratitude. He is the master, she the willing instrument. What he writes is beyond compare, what he wishes is the law. \u201cI thank God, monsieur, that he has let me be alive now to interpret a part, at least, of what this great genius will produce. If Rostand were to die, it would be a calamity to mankind, for he is bringing in a new period in the drama\u2014a clean, wholesome period. If Rostand were to die, I think\u2014why, I think I should want to die too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She went on to tell of her own strong emotions in paying \u201cLa Samaritaine,\u201d and of its effect upon the people. \u201cThe r\u00f4le exhausts me more than any I have ever interpreted, because of its spiritual intensity. You know I am a believer, as Rostand is, and the play becomes a reality to me every time I go through it. And the audience\u2014ah, if you could only see how they crowd the theater every year at Easter-tide when we put on \u201cLa Samaritaine.\u2019 All kinds of people come, those who never go to church, women who have done wrong, priests, children, old men. And as they listen to the simple story, they are moved to the heart, they weep, they pray. I am sure that play does more good in the world than many sermons.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After these glimpses of Rostand at second hand, let us come now to the real man (since we may be so fortunate), and judge of him for ourselves; talk with him, too, in his own delightful h\u00f4tel in the Rue Alphonse de Neuville, not three minutes&#8217; walk from Bernhardt\u2019s bijou of a home.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-1068\" src=\"https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Edmond-Rostand-587x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"587\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Edmond-Rostand-587x800.jpg 587w, https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Edmond-Rostand-220x300.jpg 220w, https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Edmond-Rostand-768x1047.jpg 768w, https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Edmond-Rostand-567x773.jpg 567w, https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Edmond-Rostand.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 587px) 100vw, 587px\" \/>The house forms an arc behind the point of two streets where another house stands, the two built in harmony, with happiest result. Within are wide staircases and high ceilings, and the eye travels freely from room to room between columns and draped arches and wide glass doors. On the walls are tapestries and somber paintings, under foot soft rugs and polished wood, while the spacious halls and salons are furnished with pieces to delight a collector. Here, then, is fame met with fortune, youth with genius, and into the bargain, I am told, this most favored man has a lovely and accomplished wife. As for the money, Rostand comes of a wealthy family, and his own earnings have, of course, been large.<\/p>\n<p>It is of interest sometimes to recall little things that strike one, on first meeting a person of importance. In the case of Rostand, I noticed that he came into the room walking stiff and straight, with a certain dapper dignity, and that his hands were extremely white, with rings on the fingers, a fine sapphire among them. Then I saw that he was small and slender, very pale, and quite bald for a man of twenty-nine; also that he wore a reddish, bristling mustache, and the Legion of Honor ribbon in his coat. In his right eye was a single staring glass that fixed you rather coldly, and added to his general impassiveness. You felt that here was a man to keep his reserve until he saw reason for leaving it and make sure a person was worth talking to before he said much. This self-withholding attitude is, no doubt, part of the armor he has learned to wear since his great success came; for a whole city, and that Paris, has flung itself at his head, with women pursuing him and men pursuing him, and all sorts of people lying in wait for him on all sorts of pretexts, the only certainty being that they will waste his time. Lately, people have taken to calling him a savage, and they tell exaggerated stories of how he never answers letters and seldom receives visitors, and is often brusque and rude. It is said, for instance, and with truth, I believe, that he recently declined the invitation of a certain continental royalty to be guest of honor at a special performance of \u201cCyrano.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I asked M. Rostand about his first literary work, and he went back with pride to his twentieth year, when his maiden book of poems, \u201cLes Musardises,\u201d was reviewed in the \u201cRevue Bleue&#8217;\u2019 with highest commendation, hailed, in fact, as \u201cthe most brilliant poetic d\u00e9but since Alfred de Musset published his \u201cContes d\u2019Espagne.\u2019\u201d The writer of this was laughed at then, but he is not laughed at now. I asked Rostand what authors he had admired most from his youth, and he answered without hesitation: Shakespeare, Dickens, and Victor Hugo. Could he read Dickens in English? No, unfortunately. Had he been in England? Not to know anything about it, only ten days at a London hotel. Had he traveled in other countries? No, he had stayed at home.<\/p>\n<p>I asked him about sports and manly exercises. Was he at all like Cyrano in his own tastes? Was he fond of fencing or sword practice? He was not, thought it too fatiguing. Did he go in for horseback-riding? No, that was also too fatiguing. Then his love of excitement and stirring deeds was more of the head than of the body? Yes, he supposed it was.<\/p>\n<p>Coming to the chief purpose of my visit, I was glad to learn that the play \u201cCyrano de Bergerac\u201d was a fruit of slow ripening. Already in his student days at Stanislas College, Paris, and in vacations at Marseilles (his home), it had been in his mind to make a play where the hero&#8217;s nobility of soul should be offset by some physical defect. And he hit upon Cyrano in the histories (a real hero who had lived), caught at him, in fact, as the very type of what he wanted. Then the love theme grew accidentally from a real happening one summer while he was at the sea-side. There was a young fellow, a friend of the Rostands, deeply in love with a very attractive girl. And she was coy, while he was rather clumsy in his wooing. So in good nature and to amuse himself, Rostand helped out the unsuccessful swain with hints and counsels. Do this, he would say; talk to her about that. Give her certain flowers. Speak of such a poet and such a musician. All this based on a knowledge of the young lady\u2019s tastes and aptitudes. And presently Rostand was rewarded by hearing from his wife that the girl had declared the young man much less of a fool than she had thought him. In fact, from that moment things went smoothly for these two, and the affair began to take literary form in Rostand\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n<p>As to the actual writing of the play, it was as nearly as may be a work of inspiration. It was not done by any rule. There were no fixed hours for it, no thought of duty. Rostand wrote early or late, much or little, precisely as he pleased, and never when he did not please; in short, he worked when he loved his work, and as he generally loved it, he worked well in the main.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI never force my pen,\u201d he told me. \u201cIf I feel that my vein is tiring, yet might run on for an hour or two, I stop and let it rest. And I assure you it has happened to me many times to look with wonder, as if it were a miracle, at words and thoughts that have come to me.\u2019\u2019<br \/>\nNot at all a man this to say, with the business-like positiveness of certain authors: \u201cI write so many words an hour, sir, so many before dinner, so many after dinner; in a week I do so many pages, in a month so many chapters; and here is my time-table of novels for three years ahead, if you care to glance it over.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I asked Rostand if I might see a page of his \u201cCyrano&#8221; manuscript, and he shook his head with a rueful smile. \u201cThere is no manuscript of \u201cCyrano&#8217; to show you,\u201d he said; \u201cI only wish there were. If I had known what demand there would be for it, I should have taken good care not to throw it in the waste-paper basket. You see, I like things neat\u2014in fact, I hate things when they&#8217;re not neat; so a page with lines scratched out and words written in distresses me. I always copy it over in a clean hand, or get my wife to copy it, and then the old page is destroyed. This process of making fresh changes and fresh copies went on with \u201cCyrano\u2019 until the play was finished, when I had it typewritten. And all the earlier drafts were thrown away except some fragments of r\u00f4les that I gave to Coquelin and which he has preserved. These are all that remain of what I wrote with my own hand. It is only the great success that gives them value, and who could have foreseen that?\u2019\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Rostand often goes to the play for the pleasure of it and to study effects. His own \u201cCyrano&#8217; he saw no less than sixty times in the first hundred performances, then found that enough, and scarcely went again until the four-hundredth, the last of the great run. And in the whole time he made no speech, nor ever came before the curtain, though the audience cheered and shouted for full twenty minutes after the premi\u00e8re, call ing repeatedly for the author, until M. Coquelin had to tell them he had left the theater, though he was actually in hiding under the stage at the time.<\/p>\n<p>He is unwearying in attendance at rehearsals, and first, last, and always dominates the situation. Even Bernhardt bows to his authority. He listens willingly to suggestions from the actors (though these are rarely made), but never allows the slightest change without his full approval. Of his own accord, both during rehearsals and after, he makes many slight modifications as he sees room for improvement, and is his own severest critic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn one point I stand firm,\u201d he said to me, \u201cI will have no line or situation in any play of mine that is not wholly my own. If one of my company were to give me a splendid climax, just what I was seeking, I would not use it; for if I did, I should no longer be the master, and that I must be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Not only does he give the actors detailed directions for their r\u00f4les, for tone and gesture and facial expression, but he actually does the thing for them, acts the r\u00f4le out as he wants it done, and changes from part to part with astonishing ease. Bernhardt says he is a finished actor, and Rostand told me himself that it would delight him to act on occasions in his own plays were not the usage against it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs it is,\u201d he said, \u201cI do act them all many times over and through every r\u00f4le. When I have written a scene, I rehearse it to myself. I swing my arms and stamp about, declaiming the lines in different ways, with cutting out and putting in, until they come right from my lips to my ear, until they fit and feel comfortable, like a well-made coat. Then I try them on my wife or my friends.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHave you any idea how long it took you to write &#8216;Cyrano&#8217;?&#8221; &#8211;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI gave only a few months to the actual writing, but years to perfecting the conception. Then I wrote it skipping about from act to act, a bit here and a bit there, with out any order or system. Besides that, while I was writing &#8216;Cyrano,&#8217; I was working at intervals on other things. You See, I always have two or three plays ripening in my head at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rostand certainly talks modestly enough about what he has done. No doubt he knows his own value, but he seems to take it as something outside of himself, for which he deserves no especial credit. And one feels that he has known his power all along. He does not regard \u201cCyrano\u201d as so much better than \u201cLa Samaritaine\u201d or the \u201cPrincesse Lointaine.\u201d In fact, he will tell you frankly of merits that did not get their due in the very first piece he ever wrote for the stage. \u201cI was just out of college,\u201d he said, \u201cand one day I showed M. Jules Clare tie, of the Com\u00e9die Fran\u00e7aise, a one-act comedy I had done. He urged me to submit it formally, and said he was sure it would be accepted. I was delighted, of course, and submitted it; but the little play was rejected, partly, I believe, because I entrusted the reading to an actor instead of doing it myself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, M. Claretie stood by me anyhow, and told me to go ahead with a three-act comedy and submit it as soon as I could. So I wrote \u201cLes Romanesques,\u2019 and it was accepted with special honor at the Com\u00e9die Fran\u00e7aise; and the first thing I knew, Sarcey was proclaiming me \u201cthe modern Regnard,\u2019 and I found myself booked to write light comedy all my life. But I had no intention of accepting any such narrow mission. Comedy was well enough, but I realized that comedy alone was as unsatisfactory as tragedy alone or melodrama alone. What I wanted to study and depict was life. So I wrote a play forth with, \u201cLa Princesse Lointaine,\u201d which was delicate and sad and tender-in fact, as far as possible from light comedy\u2014and I let the critics reprove me as they pleased (although it often hurt). Yes, I knew what I was doing. And then I wrote \u201cCyrano,\u201d which, I suppose, has a little of everything in it, like the world about us.\u201d &#8211;<\/p>\n<p>I asked M. Rostand if he had in mind any moral effect in writing \u201cCyrano.\u201d Was there any lesson of courage and chivalry he had wished to teach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnly indirectly,\u201d he said. \u201cI have never been attracted to purpose plays or problem plays. If you build a work on some theme of passing interest, say a question of marriage law or divorce procedure, it is evident your work loses its reason for existence so soon as this question is settled. There fore, I choose rather themes made from the old eternal motives that guide our lives, for these are neither new nor old, but always the same and always diverting. The chief business of a playwright, I take it, is to entertain his public. If he does not entertain them, he will try in vain to teach them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYet I recognize the responsibility of a dramatist, especially one who wields great power by reason of success. Whether he intend it or not, it is certain that his plays do teach and influence many people for good or ill. I hope I shall always keep to the purpose that has so far guided me, of set ting forth the fine and worthy in life rather than the despicable, the clean and beautiful rather than the ugly, the noble and inspiring rather than the perverted. In a broad sense, \u201cCyrano\u2019 was intended as a lesson; that is, a stirring of sympathy for loyalty and chivalry and courage, just as \u201cL\u2019Aiglon&#8217; [the play on which M. Rostand was at this time engaged] will, I hope, bring a national thrill for unsullied patriotism and love of country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo you ever feel that your creations are real, even while you are writing them?\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-1066\" src=\"https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Cyrano-death-581x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"581\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Cyrano-death-581x800.jpg 581w, https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Cyrano-death-218x300.jpg 218w, https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Cyrano-death-768x1058.jpg 768w, https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Cyrano-death-567x781.jpg 567w, https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/27-Cyrano-death.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 581px) 100vw, 581px\" \/>\u201cNot to the same extent as when I see them on the stage; but many times I have felt most keenly the emotions of my characters. I have suffered and rejoiced with them to the crowding out of actual things in my own life. I was an impossible person to live with while I was doing the pages of Cyrano&#8217;s death, there in the fifth act, and I don\u2019t know that any real happening ever stirred me so deeply as the writing of that second act in \u2018La Samaritaine,\u201d where Jesus forgives and comforts the penitent woman.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After this the talk drifted into less important channels, getting finally to bicycling and amateur photography, in both of which Rostand finds diversion from his work. And with so much we may leave him, my own judgment being, after several interviews in which he talked freely, that he is a charming man, with a delightful blending of seriousness and fun, quite free from nonsense and conceit, one who is absorbed in his work, an goes at it in the most sensible way possible for a man of his temperament.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=&#8221;cs-1&#8243; title=&#8221;Subscribe&#8221;][vc_column_text]<strong>By subscribing, you will automatically receive the latest episodes downloaded to your computer or portable device. Select your preferred subscription method above.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>To subscribe via a different application: <\/strong>Go to your favorite podcast application or news reader and enter this URL:\u00a0 https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/byline\/feed\/podcast\/[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Episode 27\u2022 The Author of Cyrano \u2022\u00a0I said that whatever he would write for me, on what ever subject, at what ever time, I would accept without question or reservation, and put on the stage at my own theater: rather a remarkable pledge, seeing that our acquaintance dated from about ten minutes back; but&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14771,"featured_media":1060,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[20],"post_series":[],"class_list":["post-1064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast-episode","tag-cleveland-moffett","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.6 (Yoast SEO v27.6) - 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