SOURCE: "A Foreword," in Cyrano de Bergerac: A Heroic Comedy in 5 Acts by Edmond Rostand, translated by Louis Untermeyer, The Heritage Press, 1954, pp. ix-xvii.

In the following essay, Untermeyer discusses the genesis, development, and reception of Cyrano de Bergerac

A real flesh-and-blood Cyrano won audiences long before Rostand rhymed him into dramatic immortality. The progenitor of the play's swaggering but self-sacrificing hero, the walking gargoyle, Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac, was born near Paris in 1619. He loved his family's Gascon background, and he hated the routine education to which he was subjected. Even as a youth his spirit was both creative and critical. The principal at the College of Beauvais was the target of his young but already dangerous scorn and, later, was caricatured in a comedy, Le Pédant Joué, "The Teacher Tricked." Nevertheless, it was at school that Cyrano formed his closest friendship, a companionship with Henri...