Seduces Roxanne by telling Christian what to say

CYRANO:
We can repair the damage—although I'm not sure you deserve it! Stand there, in front of the balcony!
I'll hide beneath it and tell you what to say.
CHRISTIAN:
But—
CYRANO:
Hold your tongue!
PAGES:
[reappearing at the back, and shouting to CYRANO] Ho there!
CYRANO:
Hush!
[He signs to them to speak softly.]
FIRST PAGE:
[in a low voice] We've played the serenade to Montfleury as you asked!
CYRANO:
[quickly, in a low voice] Go! Hide over there! One at this street corner and one at that one! And if a
passer-by should intrude, play a tune for him!
SECOND PAGE:
What tune shall we play, oh great student of Gassendi?
CYRANO:
If a woman comes, play something happy. If a man, something sad! [The PAGES disappear, one at
each street corner. CYRANO speaks to CHRISTIAN] Call her!
CHRISTIAN:
Roxane!
CYRANO:
[picking up stones and throwing them at the window] Some pebbles! Wait a while!
ROXANE
[half-opening the window] Who calls me?
CHRISTIAN:
It is I!
ROXANE:
Who's that?
CHRISTIAN:
Christian!
ROXANE:
[disdainfully] Oh, you?
CHRISTIAN:
I want to speak with you.
CYRANO:
[under the balcony, to CHRISTIAN] Good. Speak soft and low.
ROXANE:
No, you speak like a fool!
CHRISTIAN:
Oh, have pity on me!
ROXANE:
No! I don't think you love me anymore!
CHRISTIAN:
[prompted by CYRANO] You think I no longer love you? Oh, great heaven, but I love you more and
more!
ROXANE:
[who was about to shut the window, pausing] That's a little better.
CHRISTIAN:
[prompted by CYRANO] My love for you grows and grows. It batters me like a cruel and restless
child using my heart for a cradle.
ROXANE:
[coming out onto the balcony] That's better! But if you think that Cupid is so cruel, then you should
have stifled this newborn love while it was still in its cradle!
CHRISTIAN:
[prompted again] Oh, Madame, I tried. But this love was as strong as Hercules from the moment it
was born.
ROXANE:
Still better!
CHRISTIAN:
[prompted again] And this Hercules in my heart strangled the twin serpents of Pride and Doubt!
ROXANE:
[leaning over the balcony] Well said! But why do you halt so much? Has your ability for imagination
weakened?
CYRANO:
[drawing CHRISTIAN under the balcony, and slipping into his place] Let me do it! This has become
too critical!
ROXANE:
Why do you speak so hesitantly tonight?
CYRANO:
[imitating CHRISTIAN, in a whisper] It is so dark that my words must grope their way in the
blackness to find your ear.
ROXANE:
But my words don't have the same difficulty.
CYRANO:
They find their way down to me at once? That's no surprise, then! It's because their home is in my
heart, and my heart is so large that they cannot help but fall into the right place. Your ear, however, is
small! And of course, your words come fast because they fall from such a height, while mine must
climb up to you, and that takes time!
ROXANE:
It seems that your last words have learned to climb.
CYRANO:
They've become better at such exercise!
ROXANE:
It is true that I seem to speak from high above you.
CYRANO:
Yes, and so far above that a hard word from you would kill me if it were to fall on my heart.
ROXANE:
[moving] I'm coming down.
CYRANO:
[hastily] No!
ROXANE:
[showing him the bench under the balcony] Then won't you stand on the bench so I can see you?
CYRANO:
[starting back, alarmed] No!
ROXANE:
Why not?
CYRANO:
[overcome with emotion] Let us stay like this for a while. It's so sweet to have this rare occasion when
our hearts can speak without our bodies seeing one another.
ROXANE:
But why should we want to speak without seeing one another?
CYRANO:
Oh, because it's so sweet! We are half-hidden and half-revealed. You see the dark folds of my cloak
and I see the glimmering whiteness of your dress. I am but a shadow, and you are a bright shining
light! Do you know what such a moment does to me? I may have been eloquent in the past but—
ROXANE:
Oh, you have been!
CYRANO:
Yet not until tonight has my speech sprung so directly from my heart!
ROXANE:
Why not?
CYRANO:
Up until now, I spoke uncertainly. I've been so intoxicated by your beauty. Your eyes radiate and
make me dizzy. But tonight, I think I am able to find speech for the first time!
ROXANE:
’Tis true, your voice even sounds a little different.
CYRANO:
[coming nearer, passionately] Yes, I speak with a new tone! In the sheltering dusk, I dare to be
myself for once—at last! [He stops, falters.] What have I said? Please pardon me. It's all so
enchanting, and so sweet and new!
ROXANE:
New? How so?
CYRANO:
[deeply moved and trying to compose himself again] It's a new feeling for me to at last speak
sincerely. Up until now, my heart feared that it would be mocked—
ROXANE:
But why?
CYRANO:
Because of its mad passion! My heart has masked itself with witty words to hide itself from curious
eyes. I've aimed to bring stars down from the sky, but, fearing ridicule, I've stooped to pick wild
flowers instead!
ROXANE:
Wild flowers are sweet!
CYRANO:
Yes, but not tonight. Tonight I aim for the star!
ROXANE:
Oh! You've never spoken quite like this before!
CYRANO:
Tonight I want to leave behind all of Cupid's arrows and quivers. I don't want to speak about the trite
little symbols of love—the senti mental kinds of things that all lovers already speak about. Instead, I
want to speak in a fresh, pure language—one that comes directly from my heart. For why should we
sip little thimblefuls of dull fashionable waters, when, instead, we can quench our souls’ thirst by
drinking from the great flooding river!
ROXANE:
But what about your wit? Your elegant speeches?
CYRANO:
If I have used my witty speech to gain your attention at the first, then it would be an outrage and an
insult to this night, and to Nature herself, to speak such sugary, flowery words again. Just look up at
the stars! The quiet sky will ease our hearts of all things artificial. If love is expressed in terms too
refined, then the real feeling is lost. The truth of love itself becomes buried among all the flowery
embellishments of poetic language.
ROXANE:
But wit, and elegant language—
CYRANO:
They are a crime when it comes to love! It is hateful to turn honest loving into a game! When the
moment comes—and I pity those who never know that moment—and the real feeling of love exists in
us, premeditated words are futile and only make the soul sad!
ROXANE:
Well, if that moment has come for us, what words will you use now?
CYRANO:
All words! Whatever words come to me, and even as they come, I'll fling them in a wild cluster and
not wrap them in a careful bouquet. I love you! I am mad! I am suffocating with love for you! Your
name rings in my heart like a bell. When I think of you, I tremble, and the bell shakes and rings out
your name! Everything you do I love! I remember every action of yours that I ever witnessed! I know
that last year on the twelfth of May, you changed the way you wore your hair. I am so used to taking
your hair for daylight itself that, just as one stares at the sun and sees a red blot on all things, when I
turn away after looking at you, I see a radiant image imprinted on everything!
ROXANE:
[in a trembling voice] Yes, this is love.
CYRANO:
Yes, the feeling which fills me is true love! Fierce and jealous and sad, yet never selfish. I would
gladly lay down my own happiness for yours, even if you were never to know it. And even if I end up
far away from you and lonely, I will be content just to hear a happy echo of the joy I once brought
you! Each glance from you makes me virtuous and brave in new and unknown ways. Do you begin to
understand me? Now, after all this time, have you begun to understand? Do you feel my soul climbing
up to you through the darkness of this night? Oh, it is too sweet, too incredible, that I should speak
this way and that you should listen! Even in moments when my hopes rose so high, I never could have
hoped for this much! I could die peacefully right now. My words have had the power to make you
tremble! You are trembling, I can feel it! I can feel the quivering of your hand echoing down through
the jasmine branches!
[He passionately kisses one of the hanging branches.]
ROXANE:
Oh, I am trembling and weeping! I am yours! You have conquered all of me!

(Scene VI, Page 94)