About Cyrano
Youth
Cyrano de Bergerac was born in Paris, on March 6,
1619. In 1622, when Cyrano was three, the family moved to Mauvières.
There, Cyrano spent most of his youth wandering the countryside,
absorbed in the flora and fauna while fantasizing about duels, rescuing maidens, and other
heroic exploits. In the local school, he met and became boyhood
friends with Henri Le Bret. Their friendship lasted a lifetime. Le
Bret eventually became Cyrano's editor and biographer - and also a
Jesuit priest eventually attaining the rank of Grand Provost. He died at 93,
in 1710.
In 1629, Cyrano de Bergerac was sent to the College of Beauvais. Precocious
and eager to learn, his expectations were destroyed by Master Jean
Grangier, the principal of the college. For eight years, Cyrano was
more beaten than taught. His father, Abel, ignored his son's pleas
to be transferred to another institution. Hurt and angered, Cyrano
turned to the sword and began to practice relentlessly. Ironically,
Cyrano eventually got his revenge on Grangier not by the blade, but by
the pen: in 1648 he wrote THE PEDANT TRICKED, a play which criticized
his former instructor as fat, bald and filthy.
Military
In 1636, Cyrano's father sold the family properties in Mauvières and
Bergerac and moved back to Paris. A year later, Cyrano left Beauvais
and enlisted, along with his friend Le Bret, in Carbon de
Casteljaloux's private company of musketeers composed of Gascons.
To survive their company and to belong, Cyrano embraced the heritage
of Gascony. Anyway, temperamentally, he was a Gascon. His long nose
and swaggering manner, his readiness to duel - and win - and his
ability to debauch with the best of them, soon earned him the 'respect'
and trust of his new companions. Cyrano had dreams of eventually
earning, by valor, a Marshal's baton. A year later, in 1639, he had his chance
when the Croats besieged Carbon's Gascons at Mouzon. Cyrano
volunteered to reprovision his garrison - and was promptly wounded
by a pistol ball. He took several months to recover. Undaunted,
in 1640, Cyrano and Le Bret joined the Gendarmes of Conti. In the
fight with the Spanish at Arras, Cyrano suffered a second serious
war wound - a sword thrust to the neck.
Again, Cyrano de Bergerac underwent a long convalescence. Yet this time his
recovery found him utterly disillusioned about his military prospects;
he returned to Paris depressed and financially impoverished. His
father, as usual, was of no help (Abel Cyrano died soon after,
leaving most of his wealth to a female servant). Cyrano was, however,
aided by his cousin, Madeleine Robineau, the Baroness de Neuvillette
(the Roxane of Rostand's play). She was related to him through his
mother, Espérance Bellenger. Madeleine married Christophe de
Champagne, the Baron de Neuvillette, at 25 and became very active
socially.
Her support enabled the still young Cyrano to swagger about in a
crimson doublet, velvet breeches, and green satin gloves - all for
the purpose of attracting some rich heiress. But tragedy soon struck
Madeleine: she lost her husband, her mother, and her child - all
within a year. She turned to prayer and found solace by giving service
to the poor. The romance of Cyrano and Roxane has little
historical support.
Libertines and Literature
Cyrano de Bergerac soon came under the influence of the Libertines - freethinkers
who questioned the doctrine and morality of religion; many lived a
very dissolute lifestyle, and many were executed. One of Cyrano's
heroes was Theophile de Viau, one of the original Libertines - and a
man who did not recant his beliefs, even under torture. Meeting
many literary men among them, Cyrano felt his old hunger for learning
returning. He began to write poetry, sketch out ideas for plays,
and debate philosophy. He would exchange a sword for a pen - or so
he thought. His star, he felt, would yet rise.
At this time, Cyrano met a teacher whose influence he was to
feel for the remainder of his life, a man that was everything that
Master Jean Grangier was not: Pierre Gassendi, a philosopher trying
to revive Epicureanism in an attempt to reconcile mechanistic atomism
and Christian theology. He taught that one ought to perceive and
understand reality through one's own eyes. It was in Gassendi's
study group that Cyrano first met Molière. Later, Cyrano would
complain that the great playwright had stolen lines from his THE
PEDANT TRICKED - though, in Cyrano's day, published material was
considered common property.
Yet Cyrano could not completely stifle his Gascon temperament and
sense of honor - he had fully assimilated his image. His nose was,
afterall, 'rather large,' (as remarked upon by a character in Rostand's
play). He continued to fight duels, both as principal and as a chosen
second to others. His swordsmanship was phenomenal, and he became
even more feared. The fray at the Porte de Nesle gate, as portrayed
by Rostand, was, for the most part, historically accurate. A dozen
men - not the hundred envisioned by Rostand - were supposedly hired
by a certain gentleman (the Monsieur de Grammont - not Rostand's Comte
de Guiche) to punish one of Cyrano's friends(the Chevalier de Lignières)
for having written a quatrain highly critical of the good man's honor.
Cyrano, hearing of the danger, insisted on walking his friend home;
he encountered and fought the men - killing two and wounding seven.
The incident greatly added to Cyrano's fame.
And so it is not surprising that Cyrano de Bergerac made powerful enemies. These
escapades, along with his outspokenness, intellectual honesty, and
criticisms of the Church may well have cost him literary renown in
his lifetime. When most creative men of the time sought patrons to
finance their activities, Cyrano did little to cajole them. Most
feared the association. It was only in 1652 that he relented, and
entered the service of the Duke d'Arpajon, who financed the production
of Cyrano's THE DEATH OF AGRIPPINA. Their relationship, however, was
short-lived: AGRIPPINA had but one performance before it was banned
for blasphemy. The Duke apparently had not anticipated the reaction
and blamed Cyrano for deceiving him.
Death
A short time later, in early 1654, Cyrano was struck on the head by
a large falling wooden beam while entering the Duke's residence.
History has not decided whether the incident was an accident or an
assassination attempt. Initially, Cyrano was treated inside his
patron's residence - and then unceremoniously evicted. He was moved
to a room in the house of a friend, Tanneguy Des Bois-Clairs, where
he remained until July of the following year. Cyrano's condition
gradually deteriorated. He died on July 28, 1655, at the age of 36.
A few days prior, he had been moved, per his request, to the
residence of his brother, Pierre Cyrano, in the township of Sannois -
probably to avoid the intense efforts of his friend Le Bret - and
Madeliene Robineau - to convert him to Christianity.
Cyrano's works received little acclaim in his lifetime. It was only
after his death that they came into their own. The COMICAL HISTORY
OF THE STATES AND EMPIRES OF THE MOON, written in 1648, was published
posthumously in 1657 by Le Bret - Cyrano's heretical passages having
been edited out by his old friend. The COMICAL HISTORY OF THE STATES
AND EMPIRES OF THE SUN, begun in 1650 and left unfinished, was
published in 1662, also by Le Bret, and similarly censored. Both
works were a unique mix of satire, philosophy and imaginative
science anticipating Swift's GULLIVER'S TRAVELS.
JimCarci@Pacbell.net
COPYRIGHT © by James L. Carcioppolo 1998
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