Cyrano de Bergerac [34]
his leg as if to show him something and stops him): In my leg--the calf--there is a tooth Of the Great Bear, and, passing Neptune close, I would avoid his trident's point, and fell, Thus sitting, plump, right in the Scales! My weight Is marked, still registered, up there in heaven! (Hurriedly preventing De Guiche from passing, and detaining him by the button of his doublet): I swear to you that if you squeezed my nose It would spout milk!
DE GUICHE: Milk?
CYRANO: From the Milky Way!
DE GUICHE: Oh, go to hell!
CYRANO (crossing his arms): I fall, Sir, out of heaven! Now, would you credit it, that as I fell I saw that Sirius wears a nightcap? True! (Confidentially): The other Bear is still too small to bite. (Laughing): I went through the Lyre, but I snapped a cord; (Grandiloquent): I mean to write the whole thing in a book; The small gold stars, that, wrapped up in my cloak, I carried safe away at no small risks, Will serve for asterisks i' the printed page!
DE GUICHE: Come, make an end! I want. . .
CYRANO: Oh-ho! You are sly!
DE GUICHE: Sir!
CYRANO: You would worm all out of me!--the way The moon is made, and if men breathe and live In its rotund cucurbita?
DE GUICHE (angrily): No, no! I want. . .
CYRANO: Ha, ha!--to know how I got up? Hark, it was by a method all my own.
DE GUICHE (wearied): He's mad!
CYRANO(contemptuously): No! not for me the stupid eagle Of Regiomontanus, nor the timid Pigeon of Archytas--neither of those!
DE GUICHE: Ay, 'tis a fool! But 'tis a learned fool!
CYRANO: No imitator I of other men! (De Guiche has succeeded in getting by, and goes toward Roxane's door. Cyrano follows him, ready to stop him by force): Six novel methods, all, this brain invented!
DE GUICHE (turning round): Six?
CYRANO (volubly): First, with body naked as your hand, Festooned about with crystal flacons, full O' th' tears the early morning dew distils; My body to the sun's fierce rays exposed To let it suck me up, as 't sucks the dew! DE GUICHE (surprised, making one step toward Cyrano): Ah! that makes one!
CYRANO (stepping back, and enticing him further away): And then, the second way, To generate wind--for my impetus-- To rarefy air, in a cedar case, By mirrors placed icosahedron-wise.
DE GUICHE (making another step): Two!
CYRANO (still stepping backward): Or--for I have some mechanic skill-- To make a grasshopper, with springs of steel, And launch myself by quick succeeding fires Saltpeter-fed to the stars' pastures blue!
DE GUICHE (unconsciously following him and counting on his fingers): Three!
CYRANO: Or (since fumes have property to mount)-- To charge a globe with fumes, sufficiently To carry me aloft!
DE GUICHE (same play, more and more astonished): Well, that makes four!
CYRANO: Or smear myself with marrow from a bull, Since, at the lowest point of Zodiac, Phoebus well loves to suck that marrow up!
DE GUICHE (amazed): Five!
CYRANO (who, while speaking, had drawn him to the other side of the square near a bench): Sitting on an iron platform--thence To throw a magnet in the air. This is A method well conceived--the magnet flown, Infallibly the iron will pursue: Then quick! relaunch your magnet, and you thus Can mount and mount unmeasured distances!
DE GUICHE: Here are six excellent expedients! Which of the six chose you?
CYRANO: Why, none!--a seventh!
DE GUICHE: Astonishing! What was it?
CYRANO: I'll recount.
DE GUICHE: This wild eccentric becomes interesting!
CYRANO (making a noise like the waves, with weird gestures): Houuh! Houuh!
DE GUICHE: Well.
CYRANO: You have guessed?
DE GUICHE: Not I!
CYRANO: The tide! I' th' witching hour when the moon woos the wave, I laid me, fresh from a sea-bath, on the shore-- And, failing not to put head foremost--for The hair holds the sea-water in its mesh-- I rose in air, straight! straight! like angel's flight,
DE GUICHE: Milk?
CYRANO: From the Milky Way!
DE GUICHE: Oh, go to hell!
CYRANO (crossing his arms): I fall, Sir, out of heaven! Now, would you credit it, that as I fell I saw that Sirius wears a nightcap? True! (Confidentially): The other Bear is still too small to bite. (Laughing): I went through the Lyre, but I snapped a cord; (Grandiloquent): I mean to write the whole thing in a book; The small gold stars, that, wrapped up in my cloak, I carried safe away at no small risks, Will serve for asterisks i' the printed page!
DE GUICHE: Come, make an end! I want. . .
CYRANO: Oh-ho! You are sly!
DE GUICHE: Sir!
CYRANO: You would worm all out of me!--the way The moon is made, and if men breathe and live In its rotund cucurbita?
DE GUICHE (angrily): No, no! I want. . .
CYRANO: Ha, ha!--to know how I got up? Hark, it was by a method all my own.
DE GUICHE (wearied): He's mad!
CYRANO(contemptuously): No! not for me the stupid eagle Of Regiomontanus, nor the timid Pigeon of Archytas--neither of those!
DE GUICHE: Ay, 'tis a fool! But 'tis a learned fool!
CYRANO: No imitator I of other men! (De Guiche has succeeded in getting by, and goes toward Roxane's door. Cyrano follows him, ready to stop him by force): Six novel methods, all, this brain invented!
DE GUICHE (turning round): Six?
CYRANO (volubly): First, with body naked as your hand, Festooned about with crystal flacons, full O' th' tears the early morning dew distils; My body to the sun's fierce rays exposed To let it suck me up, as 't sucks the dew! DE GUICHE (surprised, making one step toward Cyrano): Ah! that makes one!
CYRANO (stepping back, and enticing him further away): And then, the second way, To generate wind--for my impetus-- To rarefy air, in a cedar case, By mirrors placed icosahedron-wise.
DE GUICHE (making another step): Two!
CYRANO (still stepping backward): Or--for I have some mechanic skill-- To make a grasshopper, with springs of steel, And launch myself by quick succeeding fires Saltpeter-fed to the stars' pastures blue!
DE GUICHE (unconsciously following him and counting on his fingers): Three!
CYRANO: Or (since fumes have property to mount)-- To charge a globe with fumes, sufficiently To carry me aloft!
DE GUICHE (same play, more and more astonished): Well, that makes four!
CYRANO: Or smear myself with marrow from a bull, Since, at the lowest point of Zodiac, Phoebus well loves to suck that marrow up!
DE GUICHE (amazed): Five!
CYRANO (who, while speaking, had drawn him to the other side of the square near a bench): Sitting on an iron platform--thence To throw a magnet in the air. This is A method well conceived--the magnet flown, Infallibly the iron will pursue: Then quick! relaunch your magnet, and you thus Can mount and mount unmeasured distances!
DE GUICHE: Here are six excellent expedients! Which of the six chose you?
CYRANO: Why, none!--a seventh!
DE GUICHE: Astonishing! What was it?
CYRANO: I'll recount.
DE GUICHE: This wild eccentric becomes interesting!
CYRANO (making a noise like the waves, with weird gestures): Houuh! Houuh!
DE GUICHE: Well.
CYRANO: You have guessed?
DE GUICHE: Not I!
CYRANO: The tide! I' th' witching hour when the moon woos the wave, I laid me, fresh from a sea-bath, on the shore-- And, failing not to put head foremost--for The hair holds the sea-water in its mesh-- I rose in air, straight! straight! like angel's flight,