Cyrano de Bergerac writer Edmond Rostand is celebrated in today’s Google Doodle.
(Picture: Google Doodle)Google Doodle is celebrating French poet and playwright, Edmond Rostand, who is best known for writing the play Cyrano de Bergerac.
“Today’s artwork celebrates Rostand’s literary brilliance,” according to the Google Doodle, which says: “More than a century later, his endearing tales continue to be performed and resonate with hopeless romantics all over the world.”
But who was Edmond Rostand, and what is the play Cyrano de Bergerac about?
Who was Edmond Rostand?
Edmond Rostand was born in 1868 in Marseille, France. He came from a wealthy, cultured family–his father was a poet, economist, and a member of scholarly societies.
Rostand studied literature, history, and philosophy at a college in Paris, and had written his first play by the age of 20. The play was a one-act comedy called Le Gant Rouge, which was performed at Cluny Theatre in 1888.
But it wasn’t until 1894 that the playwright first achieved success in playwriting, with his satirical play, Les Romanesques, which was a parody of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
The play was very popular, both in France and internationally, and Rostand became a prominent figure in the theatre world.
Who was Cyrano de Bergerac?
In 1897, Edmond Rostand produced his most famous play, Cyrano de Bergerac, which remains one of the most popular plays in France.
It has been performed and adapted ever since–most recently, with the 2021 film, Cyrano, starring Peter Dinklage, as well as a revival of the play starring James McAvoy, which was performed in London earlier this year.
Cyrano de Bergerac was a real person, and the play is a fictionalisation of his life. He was a French satirist and dramatist, born in 1619 in Paris, and had a remarkably large nose.
The real Cyrano was sent away to a university in Paris when he was just 12 years old, before later joining the French army and becoming a fencing and duelling expert.
He served in the Franco-Spanish War, and was wounded during the Siege of Arras in 1640. After leaving the army, Cyrano returned to writing, and wrote plays and pamphlets.
In the Cyrano de Bergerac play, Cyrano is a poet and swordsman in love with his cousin, Roxane. Despite being brilliant and charming, Cyrano believes he is ugly due to his large nose, and cannot tell Roxane how he feels.
Meanwhile, Roxane loves a young, handsome nobleman named Christian, who will soon join Cyrano’s company of guards. Cyrano tells Christian about Roxane’s feelings, and has the idea that he will write to Roxane pretending to be Christian, so he can express his feelings secretly.
