Cyrano De Bergerac Part 14

CHRISTIAN It is I ...

ROXANE Who is ... I?

CHRISTIAN Christian!

ROXANE [disdainfully] Oh, you!

CHRISTIAN I wish to speak with you.

CYRANO [under the balcony, [under the balcony, to CHRISTIAN] Speak low! ... to CHRISTIAN] Speak low! ...

ROXANE No, your conversation is too common.You may go home!

CHRISTIAN In mercy! ...

ROXANE No... you do not love me any more!

CHRISTIAN [whom CYRANO is prompting prompting] You accuse me ... just Heaven! of loving you no more.... when I can love you no more!

ROXANE [who was about to close her window, stopping] Ah, that is a little better! Ah, that is a little better!

CHRISTIAN [same business] [same business] To what a ... size has Love grown in my... sigh-rocked soul which the ... cruel cherub has chosen for his cradle! To what a ... size has Love grown in my... sigh-rocked soul which the ... cruel cherub has chosen for his cradle!

ROXANE [stepping nearer to the edge of the balcony] That is distinctly better! ... But, since he is so cruel, this Cupid, you were unwise not to smother him in his cradle!

CHRISTIAN [same business] I tried to, but, Madame, the... attempt was futile. This... new-born Love is... a little Hercules... I tried to, but, Madame, the... attempt was futile. This... new-born Love is... a little Hercules...

ROXANE Much, much better!

CHRISTIAN [same business] [same business] ... Who found it merest baby-play to ... strangle the serpents... twain, Pride and... Mistrust. ... Who found it merest baby-play to ... strangle the serpents... twain, Pride and... Mistrust.

ROXANE [leaning her elbows on the balcony-rail] Ah, that is very good indeed! ... But why do you speak so slowly and stintedly? Has your imagination gout in its wings? Ah, that is very good indeed! ... But why do you speak so slowly and stintedly? Has your imagination gout in its wings?

CYRANO [drawing [drawing CHRISTIAN CHRISTIAN under the balcony, and taking his place] under the balcony, and taking his place] Hus.h.!.+ It is becoming too difficult! Hus.h.!.+ It is becoming too difficult!

ROXANE To-night your words come falteringly.... Why is it?

CYRANO [talking low like CHRISTIAN] Because of the dark. They have to grope to find your ear. CHRISTIAN] Because of the dark. They have to grope to find your ear.

ROXANE My words do not find the same difficulty.

CYRANO They reach their point at once? Of course they do! That is because I catch them with my heart. My heart, you see, is very large, your ear particularly small.... Besides, your words drop... that goes quickly; mine have to climb... and that takes longer!

ROXANE They have been climbing more nimbly, however, in the last few minutes.

CYRANO They are becoming used to this gymnastic feat!

ROXANE It is true that I am talking with you from a very mountain top!

CYRANO It is sure that a hard word dropped from such a height upon my heart would shatter it!

ROXANE [with the motion of leaving [with the motion of leaving] I will come down.

CYRANO [quickly] Do not!

ROXANE [pointing at the bench at the foot of the balcony] [pointing at the bench at the foot of the balcony] Then do you get up on the seat! ... Then do you get up on the seat! ...

CYRANO [drawing away in terror] No! No!

ROXANE How do you mean... no?

CYRANO [with ever-increasing emotion] [with ever-increasing emotion] Let us profit a little by this chance of talking softly together without seeing each other... Let us profit a little by this chance of talking softly together without seeing each other...

ROXANE Without seeing each other? ...

CYRANO Yes, to my mind, delectable! Each guesses at the other, and no more. You discern but the trailing blackness of a mantle, and I a dawn-grey glimmer which is a summer gown. I am a shadow merely, a pearly phantom are you! You can never know what these moments are to me! If ever I was eloquent . . .

ROXANE You were!

CYRANO My words never till now surged from my very heart...

ROXANE And why?

CYRANO Because, till now, they must strain to reach you through...

ROXANE What?

CYRANO Why, the bewildering emotion a man feels who sees you, and whom you look upon! ... But this evening, it seems to me that I am speaking to you for the first time!

ROXANE It is true that your voice is altogether different.

CYRANO [coming nearer, feverishly] [coming nearer, feverishly] Yes, altogether different, because, protected by the dark, I dare at last to be myself. I dare . . . Yes, altogether different, because, protected by the dark, I dare at last to be myself. I dare . . . [He stops, and distractedly [He stops, and distractedly.] What was I saying? ... I do not know.... All this... forgive my incoherence! ... is so delicious ... is so new to me!

ROXANE So new? ...

CYRANO [in extreme confusion, still trying to mend his expressions] [in extreme confusion, still trying to mend his expressions] So new... yes, new, to be sincere; the fear of being mocked always constrains my heart... So new... yes, new, to be sincere; the fear of being mocked always constrains my heart...

ROXANE Mocked... for what?

CYRANO Why,... for its impulses, its flights! ... Yes, my heart always cowers behind the defence of my wit. I set forth to capture a star . . . and then, for dread of laughter, I stop and pick a flower... of rhetoric!

ROXANE That sort of flower has its pleasing points...

CYRANO But yet, to-night, let us scorn it!

ROXANE Never before had you spoken as you are speaking! ...

CYRANO Ah, if far from Cupid-darts and quivers, we might seek a place of somewhat fresher things! If instead of drinking, flat sip by sip, from a chiselled golden thimble, drops distilled and dulcified, we might try the sensation of quenching the thirst of our souls by stooping to the level of the great river, and setting our lips to the stream!

ROXANE But yet, wit ... fancy . . . delicate conceits....

CYRANO I gave my fancy leave to frame conceits, before, to make you linger, ... but now it would be an affront to this balm-breathing night, to Nature and the hour, to talk like characters in a pastoral performed at Court! ... Let us give Heaven leave, looking at us with all its earnest stars, to strip us of disguise and artifice: I fear, ... oh, fear! ... lest in our mistaken alchemy sentiment should be subtilized to evaporation; lest the life of the heart should waste in these empty pastimes, and the final refinement of the fine be the undoing of the refined!

ROXANE But yet, wit, ... aptness, ... ingenuity...

CYRANO I hate them in love! Criminal, when one loves, to prolong over-much that paltry thrust and parry! The moment, however, comes inevitably,-and I pity those for whom it never conies!-in which, we apprehending the n.o.ble depth of the love we harbor, a shallow word hurts us to utter!

ROXANE If... if, then, that moment has come for us two, what words will you say to me?

CYRANO All those, all those, all those that come to me! Not in formal nosegay order, . . . I will throw them to you in a wild sheaf! I love you, choke with love, I love you, dear.... My brain reels, I can bear no more, it is too much.... Your name is in my heart the golden clapper in a bell; and as I know no rest, Roxane, always the heart is shaken, and ever rings your name! ... Of you, I remember all, all have I loved! Last year, one day, the twelfth of May, in going out at morning you changed the fas.h.i.+on of your hair.... I have taken the light of your hair for my light, and as having stared too long at the sun, on everything one sees a scarlet wheel, on everything when I come from my chosen light, my dazzled eye sets swimming golden blots! ...

ROXANE [in a voice unsteady with emotion] Yes . . . this is love... Yes . . . this is love...

CYRANO Ah, verily! The feeling which invades me, terrible and jealous, is love... with all its mournful frenzy! It is love, yet self-forgetting more than the wont of love! Ah, for your happiness now readily would I give mine, though you should never know it, might I but, from a distance, sometimes, hear the happy laughter bought by my sacrifice! Every glance of yours breeds in me new strength, new valor! Are you beginning to understand? Tell me, do you grasp my love's measure? Does some little part of my soul make itself felt of you there in the darkness? ... Oh, what is happening to me this evening is too sweet, too deeply dear! I tell you all these things, and you listen to me, you! Not in my least modest hoping did I ever hope so much! I have now only to die! It is because of words of mine that she is trembling among the dusky branches! For you are trembling, like a flower among leaves! Yes, you tremble, ... for whether you will or no, I have felt the wors.h.i.+pped trembling of your hand all along this thrilled and blissful jasmin-bough! [He madly kisses the end of a pendant bough. [He madly kisses the end of a pendant bough. ] ]

ROXANE Yes, I tremble... and weep... and love you... and am yours! ... For you have carried me away... away! ...

CYRANO Then, let death come! I have moved you, I! ... There is but one thing more I ask...

CHRISTIAN [under the balcony] [under the balcony] A kiss! A kiss!

ROXANE [drawing hastily back [drawing hastily back] What?

CYRANO Oh!

ROXANE You ask? ...

CYRANO Yes . . . I ... [To CHRISTIAN.] You are in too great haste!

CHRISTIAN Since she is so moved, I must take advantage of it!

CYRANO [to [to ROXANE] I... Yes, it is true I asked... but, merciful heavens! ... I knew at once that I had been too bold. ROXANE] I... Yes, it is true I asked... but, merciful heavens! ... I knew at once that I had been too bold.

ROXANE [a shade disappointed] You insist no more than so? You insist no more than so?

CYRANO Indeed, I insist... without insisting! Yes! yes! but your modesty shrinks! . . . I insist, but yet... the kiss I begged . . . refuse it me!

CHRISTIAN [to [to CYRANO, CYRANO, pulling at his mantle] pulling at his mantle] Why? Why?

CYRANO Hush, Christian!

ROXANE [bending over the balcony-rail] What are you whispering? What are you whispering?

CYRANO Reproaches to myself for having gone too far; I was saying "Hush, Christian!" [The theorbos are heard playing [The theorbos are heard playing] Your pardon!... a second! ... Someone is coming! [ROXANE closes the window. [ROXANE closes the window. CYRANO CYRANO listens to the theorbos, one of which plays a lively, and the other a lugubrious tune] listens to the theorbos, one of which plays a lively, and the other a lugubrious tune]

CYRANO A dance? ... A dirge? ... What do they mean? Is it a man or a woman? ... Ah, it is a monk! [Enter a CAPUCHIN MONK, who goes from house to house, with a lantern, examining the doors.] [Enter a CAPUCHIN MONK, who goes from house to house, with a lantern, examining the doors.]

SCENE VIII.

Cyrano, Christian, a Capuchin

CYRANO [to THE CAPUCHIN] What are you looking for, Diogenes?53 THE CAPUCHIN I am looking for the house of Madame...

CHRISTIAN He is in the way!

THE CAPUCHIN Magdeleine Robin...

CYRANO [pointing up one of the streets] [pointing up one of the streets] This way! . . . Straight ahead... go straight ahead... This way! . . . Straight ahead... go straight ahead...

THE CAPUCHIN I thank you. I will say ten Aves for your peace. [Exit.]

CYRANO My good wishes speed your cowl! [He comes forward toward [He comes forward toward CHRISTIAN.] CHRISTIAN.]

SCENE IX.

Cyrano, Christian

CHRISTIAN Insist upon the kiss! ...

CYRANO No, I will not!

CHRISTIAN Sooner or later...

CYRANO It is true! It must come, the moment of inebriation when your lips shall imperiously be impelled toward each other, because the one is fledged with youthful gold and the other is so soft a pink! ... [To himself [To himself.] had rather it should be because... [Sound of the window reopening; [Sound of the window reopening; CHRISTIAN CHRISTIAN hides under the balcony.] hides under the balcony.]

SCENE X.

Cyrano, Christian, Roxane

ROXANE [stepping forward on the balcony] [stepping forward on the balcony] Are you there? We were speaking of... of...of a... Are you there? We were speaking of... of...of a...

CYRANO Kiss. The word is sweet. Why does your fair lip stop at it? If the mere word burns it, what will be of the thing itself? Do not make it into a fearful matter, and then fear! Did you not a moment ago insensibly leave playfulness behind and slip without trepidation from a smile to a sigh, from a sigh to a tear? Slip but a little further in the same blessed direction: from a tear to a kiss there is scarcely a dividing s.h.i.+ver!

ROXANE Say no more!

CYRANO A kiss! When all is said, what is a kiss? An oath of allegiance taken in closer proximity, a promise more precise, a seal on a confession, a rose-red dot upon the letter i in loving; a secret which elects the mouth for ear; an instant of eternity murmuring like a bee; balmy communion with a flavor of flowers; a fas.h.i.+on of inhaling each other's heart, and of tasting, on the brink of the lips, each other's soul!