Edmond Rostand

Rostand, Edmond (1868–1918), playwright. The romantic French dramatist is known in this country primarily for one work, his masterpiece, Cyrano de Bergerac (1898). His L'Aiglon is recalled largely as a vehicle for Sarah Bernhardt, who included it in her American tours. Much was expected of his Chanticleer, which Charles Frohman offered in 1911 with Maude Adams as star, but the production was a costly failure. Also, it was Rostand's Les Romantics that provided the basic plot for the long‐running musical The Fantasticks (1960).

For more information on Edmond-Eugène Rostand, visit Britannica.com.

Rostand, Edmond (1868-1918). French playwright who marks the reaction against the seriousness and gloom of Naturalist drama. At their best his plays have warmth, charm, wit, and poetic feeling, but they can be contrived and sentimental. Les Romanesques (1894), with its version of Romeo and Juliet, and La Princesse lointaine (1895), with its revival of the troubadours, are winsome but cloying. His great success is Cyrano de Bergerac (1897), a swashbuckling romantic drama, brilliantly ingenious in its versifying and still exciting and touching in performance. Chantecler (1910), an allegory using masks of birds and beasts, is an ambitious experiment.

[S. Beynon John]

Rostand, Edmond (ĕdmôN' rôstäN') , 1868–1918, French poet and dramatist. In 1890 appeared his first volume of verse, Les Musardises. His first plays were light, fanciful, and charmingly poetic, though of slight substance—Les Romanesques (1894, tr., The Romancers, 1899); La Princesse lointaine (1895, tr. The Princess Faraway, 1899), written for Sarah Bernhardt; and La Samaritaine (1897, tr. The Woman of Samaria, from his Plays, 1921). They were followed by Cyrano de Bergerac (1897, tr. 1923), a tour de force of dramatic poetry. The role of Cyrano was made memorable by the acting of Coquelin aîné, Richard Mansfield, and, on the screen (1950), Jose Ferrer. In 1900 Rostand wrote L'Aiglon, whose central figure is the pathetic duke of Reichstadt (Napoleon II), a role long played by Sarah Bernhardt. His barnyard fable Chantecler (1910) was played in the United States by Maude Adams.

1868–1918.

French playwright known for his light, entertaining works, particularly Cyrano de Bergerac (1897).

Quotes:

"A kiss, when all is said, what is it? A rosy dot placed on the I in loving; Tis a secret told to the mouth instead of to the ear."

"What would you have me do?Search out some powerful patronage, and beLike crawling ivy clinging to a tree?No thank you. Dedicate, like all the others,Verses to plutocrats, while caution smothersWhatever might offend my lord and master?No thank you. Kneel until my knee-caps fester,Bend my back until I crack my spine,And scratch anothers back if hell scratch mine?No thank you. Dining out to curry favour,Meeting the influential till I slaver,Suiting my style to what the critics wantWith slavish copy of the latest cant?No thanks! Ready to jump through any hoopTo be the great man of a little group?Be blown off course, with madrigals for sails,By the old women sighing through their veils?Labouring to write a line of such good breedingIts only fault isthat its not worth reading?To ingratiate myself, abject with fear,And fawn and flatter to avoid a sneer?No thanks, no thanks, no thanks! But just to sing,Dream, laugh, and take my tilt of wing,To cock a snook whenever I shall choose,To fight for yes and no, come win or lose,To travel without thought of fame or fortuneWherever I care to go to under the moon!Never to write a line that hasnt comeDirectly from my heart: and so, with someModesty, to tell myself: My boy,Be satisfied with a flower, a fruit, the joyOf a single leaf, so long as it was grownIn your own garden. Then, if success is wonBy any chance, you have nothing to render toA hollow Caesar: the merit belongs to you. In short, I wont be a parasite; Ill beMy own intention, stand alone and free,And suit my voice to what my own eyes see!"

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