By Edmond Rostand

“The last great romantic

dramatist”

CYRANO DE BERGERAC

THE AUTHOR- EDMOND ROSTAND

• Lived in Paris with his wife (also a writer)

• Completed Cyrano in 1897

• Wrote plays for Sarah Bernhardt – great French actress

• Coquelin – legendary comic star played the lead in Cyrano

• Rostand died in Paris in 1918

HISTORY OF 17TH CENTURY PARIS

• 1610 – Louis XIII becomes King of France.

• 1618 – The Thirty Years War begins – Austria and Spain go to war with a group of German Princes.

• 1635 – France declares war on Austria and Spain.

1639 - The real Cyrano is 1639 - The real Cyrano is wounded in battle.wounded in battle.

1641 – Cyrano leaves the army 1641 – Cyrano leaves the army and takes up literature.and takes up literature.

1645 – Cyrano dies from head1645 – Cyrano dies from headinjuries from a log droppedinjuries from a log droppedon his head.on his head.

TERMS YOU SHOULD KNOW

• Comic relief – a witty exchange, skit, or soliloquy that the author inserts to ease tensions within a serious work.

• Melodrama – a romantic or sensational plot carried to the extremes of emotion in weeping, or dismay. The final act of Cyrano has been labeled melodrama

TROUBADOURS • lyric poets in Southern France,

northern Italy, and northern Spain, who composed songs about courtly love.

• A strolling minstrel.

• The “real” Cyrano was said to be a minstrel and great swordsmen.

UNREQUITED LOVE

"Let no one who loves be unhappy. Even love unreturned has it's rainbow." -James Matthew Barrie

"Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love."

-"Charlie Brown"

            

TRAGEDY

A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances.

THEMES AND MOTIFS IN CYRANO• Unrequited love• Physical beauty vs. spiritual beauty (is one more

real than the other?)• Heroism• Arrogance• Loyalty• Sacrifice

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