Introduction
Was Cyrano de Bergerac, the real life hero of
Edmond Rostand's play, murdered? In March of 1654, as Cyrano was
entering the residence of his patron, the Duke d'Arpajon, he was
struck on the head by a falling wooden beam; sick and bedridden,
vision impaired, he died fourteen months later at the age of 36.
An Accident?
In these sonnets, written during those last months, Cyrano gives
an unequivocal answer.
On August 25, 1944, units of the U.S. Army entered Paris. The soldiers
were mobbed in the street by the liberated population and received
hugs, kisses, and flowers.
Others received more.
A certain sergeant of the U.S. Fourth Infantry Division, after a brief
conversation with a very old and thankful Jesuit priest (the soldier
had studied French in high school), was carefully handed a yellowing
packet of papers - perhaps the only thing of value the priest had.
Before the surprised sergeant could respond, the priest disappeared
into the tumult.
The sergeant, naturally preoccupied with other matters, was tempted
to throw the papers into the cistern. Yet something the priest had
said - "SONGÉS À LIVREMENT VIVRE" - urged him to examine them more
closely. It was obviously poetry of some kind. Slowly, and
incredulity, he read the faded signature at the bottom of the first
page of the manuscript:
SAVININEN CYRANO DE BERGERAC
His heart began to sprint - as if German panzers were bearing down on
him. His mind was seized with questions: could these sonnets (the soldier
wrote a little poetry himself) be authentic?
If so, how had the priest acquired them? And why had he given such a
priceless literary document to an American soldier and not, at least,
to a member of the French Resistance? In vain his eyes examined the
spot where the priest had vanished.
The sergeant's questions would never be answered: he died in the
Battle of the Bulge a few months later, on December 16, but not
before he had mailed his treasure, along with a note describing its
acquisition, home to his wife.
The manuscript and notification of death arrived on the same day,
January 24, 1945. Grief-stricken, his wife stored away her husband's
belongings in the attic until her own death in 1992.
Her daughter, Margaret, my former French Literature student, found
the moldering papers in the process of preparing to sell her mother's
house. Excited, she copied them by hand (they were too faint to
reproduce) and mailed them to the only authority she knew - myself.
I urged her to have the manuscript authenticated at once. She
promised that she would do so after the sale of the house.
Tragically, Margaret died in a house fire a few months later, in February
of 1993. Her few friends were questioned (she had no
living relatives) in the hope that she may have given them the
manuscript to examine. They were not even aware of its existence.
In any event, the house was gutted and Cyrano's precious manuscript
lost forever. With only Margaret's copy to go by, I began the
translation on June 19, 1993.
At first glance, the sonnets are not what one would have expected
from Cyrano, at least in form. He mated a twelve-syllable metrical
line - typical for French sonnets of the time, as brought to
perfection by Pierre Ronsard - with Petrach's sonnet format (the
octave/sestet separation) and William Shakespeare's couplet
innovation.
In fact, Cyrano seemed so enamored of the sestet couplet that he
ended many of his octaves with a couplet as well. Although there is
no historical basis for Cyrano having had knowledge of and regard for
Shakespeare's works, thematic similarties and his occasional use of
English words clearly make the case. As well, Cyrano was a scholar and
surely would have discovered -- and appreciated -- Shakespeare's great
sonnets. The Bard's first Quarto was published in 1609, ten years before
Cyrano's birth.
Now a few words about the rhyme scheme and sonnet order. To keep
the music and meaning of the originals I have altered the rhyme
scheme from a rigid - abbaccdd cecdee - to one fitting each
individual sonnet. Concerning the sonnet order: according to
Margaret the original papers were out of sequence (the few that were
dated were either out of order or illegible), and none of them were
numbered. Thus, the present order, after much thought - and agony -
is of my own.
These sonnets illuminate much of Cyrano's life, and answer at least
two major questions that have puzzled historians: was it an accident
that eventually took his life, or was it murder? And did Cyrano
really convert to Christianity on his death bed as his life long
friend, Henri Le Bret, claimed?
Although those questions have now been answered, new ones have
surfaced. Who were these women in Cyrano's sonnets? Unlike the French
Poet Pierre de Ronsard, Cyrano did not name names. Were they real
at all or figments of his feverish brain? At least we know that Cyrano
was not the ascetic portrayed by Edmond Rostand.
And, perhaps, the most intriguing question of all: who originally
discovered and suppressed Cyrano's manuscript? Was it Pierre
Cyrano, the poet's brother, in whose house the poet died? Was it
his cousin, Madeleine, ever nurturing and protective? Or was it
Henri Le Bret, fearing that Cyrano's heresies would ruin his own
standing in the church (he was a Jesuit) and even, perhaps, endanger
his own life as well?
My vote is for Le Bret.
After Cyrano died, Le Bret did edit and publish two of his friend's
works - satires about fantastic voyages to the moon and sun. Only
later, when one of the original manuscripts surfaced, was it apparent
how much Le Bret had censored criticisms of the Church - and State.
Le Bret can be forgiven. It was a dangerous time. Giordan Bruno had
been burned at the stake just nine years before Cyrano's birth for
espousing the belief that the earth revolved about the sun, and Cardinal
Richelieu's following boast was seriously heeded: "Give me four lines
written by a man, and I can have him tried as a criminal."
Yet, though fearful, was Le Bret enough of a friend, and lover of poetry,
to be satisfied with suppression and not destruction?
Finally, I wish to thank Rolleen Garrision for her critical input, computer
expertise - and love; Sally Driscoll for her editorial suggestions;
Raphael Renta for his lifelong friendship and support, and, finally,
Professor C. Edward Caregreb for his invaluable historical insights.
Here, then, are lost sonnets of Cyrano de Bergerac.
NOTE TO THE KINDLE EBOOK EDITION: This is the expanded 2nd edition including 10 additional sonnets, expanded notes, and a selective bibliography that was missing in the paperback edition.
COPYRIGHT © by James L. Carcioppolo 1998
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