Cyrano de Bergerac [29]
The night is dark. . .
CHRISTIAN: Well!
CYRANO: All can be repaired. Although you merit not. Stand there, poor wretch! Fronting the balcony! I'll go beneath And prompt your words to you. . .
CHRISTIAN: But. . .
CYRANO: Hold your tongue!
THE PAGES (reappearing at back--to Cyrano): Ho!
CYRANO: Hush!
(He signs to them to speak softly.)
FIRST PAGE (in a low voice): We've played the serenade you bade To Montfleury!
CYRANO (quickly, in a low voice): Go! lurk in ambush there, One at this street corner, and one at that; And if a passer-by should here intrude, Play you a tune!
SECOND PAGE: What tune, Sir Gassendist?
CYRANO: Gay, if a woman comes,--for a man, sad! (The pages disappear, one at each street corner. To Christian): Call her!
CHRISTIAN: Roxane!
CYRANO (picking up stones and throwing them at the window): Some pebbles! wait awhile!
ROXANE (half-opening the casement): Who calls me?
CHRISTIAN: I!
ROXANE: Who's that?
CHRISTIAN: Christian!
ROXANE (disdainfully): Oh! you?
CHRISTIAN: I would speak with you.
CYRANO (under the balcony--to Christian): Good. Speak soft and low.
ROXANE: No, you speak stupidly!
CHRISTIAN: Oh, pity me!
ROXANE: No! you love me no more!
CHRISTIAN (prompted by Cyrano): You say--Great Heaven! I love no more?--when--I--love more and more!
ROXANE (who was about to shut the casement, pausing): Hold! 'tis a trifle better! ay, a trifle!
CHRISTIAN (same play): Love grew apace, rocked by the anxious beating. . . Of this poor heart, which the cruel wanton boy. . . Took for a cradle!
ROXANE (coming out on to the balcony): That is better! But An if you deem that Cupid be so cruel You should have stifled baby-love in's cradle!
CHRISTIAN (same play): Ah, Madame, I assayed, but all in vain This. . .new-born babe is a young. . .Hercules!
ROXANE: Still better!
CHRISTIAN (same play): Thus he strangled in my heart The. . .serpents twain, of. . .Pride. . .and Doubt!
ROXANE (leaning over the balcony): Well said! --But why so faltering? Has mental palsy Seized on your faculty imaginative?
CYRANO (drawing Christian under the balcony, and slipping into his place): Give place! This waxes critical!. . .
ROXANE: To-day. . . Your words are hesitating.
CYRANO (imitating Christian--in a whisper): Night has come. . . In the dusk they grope their way to find your ear.
ROXANE: But my words find no such impediment.
CYRANO: They find their way at once? Small wonder that! For 'tis within my heart they find their home; Bethink how large my heart, how small your ear! And,--from fair heights descending, words fall fast, But mine must mount, Madame, and that takes time!
ROXANE: Meseems that your last words have learned to climb.
CYRANO: With practice such gymnastic grows less hard!
ROXANE: In truth, I seem to speak from distant heights!
CYRANO: True, far above; at such a height 'twere death If a hard word from you fell on my heart.
ROXANE (moving): I will come down. . .
CYRANO (hastily): No!
ROXANE (showing him the bench under the balcony): Mount then on the bench!
CYRANO (starting back alarmed): No!
ROXANE: How, you will not?
CYRANO (more and more moved): Stay awhile! 'Tis sweet,. . . The rare occasion, when our hearts can speak Our selves unseen, unseeing!
ROXANE: Why--unseen?
CYRANO: Ay, it is sweet! Half hidden,--half revealed-- You see the dark folds of my shrouding cloak, And I, the glimmering whiteness of your dress: I but a shadow--you a radiance fair! Know you what such a moment holds for me? If ever I were eloquent. . .
ROXANE: You were!
CYRANO: Yet never till to-night my speech has sprung Straight from my heart as now it springs.
ROXANE: Why not?
CYRANO: Till now I spoke haphazard. . .
ROXANE: What?
CYRANO: Your eyes Have beams that turn men dizzy!--But to-night Methinks I shall find speech
CHRISTIAN: Well!
CYRANO: All can be repaired. Although you merit not. Stand there, poor wretch! Fronting the balcony! I'll go beneath And prompt your words to you. . .
CHRISTIAN: But. . .
CYRANO: Hold your tongue!
THE PAGES (reappearing at back--to Cyrano): Ho!
CYRANO: Hush!
(He signs to them to speak softly.)
FIRST PAGE (in a low voice): We've played the serenade you bade To Montfleury!
CYRANO (quickly, in a low voice): Go! lurk in ambush there, One at this street corner, and one at that; And if a passer-by should here intrude, Play you a tune!
SECOND PAGE: What tune, Sir Gassendist?
CYRANO: Gay, if a woman comes,--for a man, sad! (The pages disappear, one at each street corner. To Christian): Call her!
CHRISTIAN: Roxane!
CYRANO (picking up stones and throwing them at the window): Some pebbles! wait awhile!
ROXANE (half-opening the casement): Who calls me?
CHRISTIAN: I!
ROXANE: Who's that?
CHRISTIAN: Christian!
ROXANE (disdainfully): Oh! you?
CHRISTIAN: I would speak with you.
CYRANO (under the balcony--to Christian): Good. Speak soft and low.
ROXANE: No, you speak stupidly!
CHRISTIAN: Oh, pity me!
ROXANE: No! you love me no more!
CHRISTIAN (prompted by Cyrano): You say--Great Heaven! I love no more?--when--I--love more and more!
ROXANE (who was about to shut the casement, pausing): Hold! 'tis a trifle better! ay, a trifle!
CHRISTIAN (same play): Love grew apace, rocked by the anxious beating. . . Of this poor heart, which the cruel wanton boy. . . Took for a cradle!
ROXANE (coming out on to the balcony): That is better! But An if you deem that Cupid be so cruel You should have stifled baby-love in's cradle!
CHRISTIAN (same play): Ah, Madame, I assayed, but all in vain This. . .new-born babe is a young. . .Hercules!
ROXANE: Still better!
CHRISTIAN (same play): Thus he strangled in my heart The. . .serpents twain, of. . .Pride. . .and Doubt!
ROXANE (leaning over the balcony): Well said! --But why so faltering? Has mental palsy Seized on your faculty imaginative?
CYRANO (drawing Christian under the balcony, and slipping into his place): Give place! This waxes critical!. . .
ROXANE: To-day. . . Your words are hesitating.
CYRANO (imitating Christian--in a whisper): Night has come. . . In the dusk they grope their way to find your ear.
ROXANE: But my words find no such impediment.
CYRANO: They find their way at once? Small wonder that! For 'tis within my heart they find their home; Bethink how large my heart, how small your ear! And,--from fair heights descending, words fall fast, But mine must mount, Madame, and that takes time!
ROXANE: Meseems that your last words have learned to climb.
CYRANO: With practice such gymnastic grows less hard!
ROXANE: In truth, I seem to speak from distant heights!
CYRANO: True, far above; at such a height 'twere death If a hard word from you fell on my heart.
ROXANE (moving): I will come down. . .
CYRANO (hastily): No!
ROXANE (showing him the bench under the balcony): Mount then on the bench!
CYRANO (starting back alarmed): No!
ROXANE: How, you will not?
CYRANO (more and more moved): Stay awhile! 'Tis sweet,. . . The rare occasion, when our hearts can speak Our selves unseen, unseeing!
ROXANE: Why--unseen?
CYRANO: Ay, it is sweet! Half hidden,--half revealed-- You see the dark folds of my shrouding cloak, And I, the glimmering whiteness of your dress: I but a shadow--you a radiance fair! Know you what such a moment holds for me? If ever I were eloquent. . .
ROXANE: You were!
CYRANO: Yet never till to-night my speech has sprung Straight from my heart as now it springs.
ROXANE: Why not?
CYRANO: Till now I spoke haphazard. . .
ROXANE: What?
CYRANO: Your eyes Have beams that turn men dizzy!--But to-night Methinks I shall find speech