tinkling heard above a roar, like bells about a tambourine!

ALL THE WOMEN [in great glee] Bravo! ... Hurry! ... A mantle! ... A hood!

JODELET Let us go!

CYRANO [to the fiddlers] You will favor us with a tune, messieurs the violinists! [The fiddlers fall into the train. The lighted candles which furnished the footlights are seized and distributed. The procession becomes a torchlight procession.]

CYRANO Bravo! Officers, beauty in fancy dress, and, twenty steps ahead ... [he takes the position he describes]. I, by myself, under the feather stuck, with her own hand, by Glory, in my hat! Proud as a Scipio trebly Nasica!29—It is understood? Formal interdiction to interfere with me!—We are ready? One! Two! Three! Doorkeeper, open the door! [The DOORKEEPER opens wide the folding door. A picturesque corner of Old Paris appears, bathed in moonlight.]

CYRANO Ah! ... Paris floats in dim nocturnal mist.... The sloping blueish roofs are washed with moonlight.... A setting, exquisite indeed, offers itself for the scene about to be enacted.... Yonder, under silvery vapor wreathes, like a mysterious magic mirror, glimmers the Seine.... And you shall see what you shall see!

ALL To the Porte de Nesle!

CYRANO [standing on the threshold] To the Porte de Nesle! [Before crossing it, he turns to the SOLIBRETTE.] Were you not asking, mademoiselle, why upon that solitary rhymster a hundred men were set? [He draws his sword, and tranquilly] Because it was well known he is a friend of mine! [Exit.] [To the sound of the violins, by the flickering light of the candles, the procession—LIGNIÈRE staggering at the head, the ACTRESSES arm in arm with the OFFICERS, the players capering behind,—follows out into the night. Curtain.]

ACT TWO

The Cookshop of Poets

RAGUENEAU’S shop, vast kitchen at the corner of Rue St. Honore and Rue de l’Arbre-Sec, which can be seen at the back, through the glass door, gray in the early dawn.

At the left, in front, a counter overhung by a wrought-iron canopy from which geese, ducks, white peacocks are hanging. In large china jars, tall nosegays composed of the simpler flowers, mainly sunflowers. On the same side, in the middle distance, an enormous fireplace, in front of which, between huge andirons, each of which supports a small iron pot, roasting meats drip into appropriate pans.

At the right, door in the front wing. In the middle distance, a staircase leading to a loft, the interior of which is seen through open shutters; a spread table lighted by a small Flemish candelabrum, shows it to be an eating-room. A wooden gallery continuing the stairway, suggests other similar rooms to which it may lead.

In the center of the shop, an iron hoop—which can be lowered by means of a rope,—to which large roasts are hooked.

In the shadow, under the stairway, ovens are glowing. Copper molds and saucepans are shining; spits turning, hams swinging, pastry pyramids showing fair. It is the early beginning of the workday. Bustling of hurried scullions, portly cooks and young cook’s-assistants; swarming of caps decorated with hen feathers and guinea-fowl wings. Wicker crates and broad sheets of tin are brought in loaded with brioches and tarts.

There are tables covered with meats and cakes; others, surrounded by chairs, await customers. In a corner, a smaller table, littered with papers. At the rise of the curtain,

RAGUENEAU is discovered seated at this table, writing with an inspired air, and counting upon his fingers.

SCENE I

FIRST PASTRYCOOK [bringing in a tall molded pudding] Nougat of fruit!

SECOND PASTRYCOOK [bringing in the dish he names] Custard!

THIRD PASTRYCOOK [bringing in a fowl roasted in its feathers] Peacock!

FOURTH PASTRYCOOK [bringing in a tray of cakes] Mince-pies!

FIFTH PASTRYCOOK [bringing in a deep earthen dish] Beef stew!

RAGUENEAU [laying down his pen, and looking up] Daybreak already plates with silver the copper pans! Time, Ragueneau, to smother within thee the singing divinity! The hour of the lute will come anon—now is that of the ladle! [He rises, speaking to one of the cooks.] You, sir, be so good as to lengthen this gravy,—it is too thick! THE COOK How much?

RAGUENEAU Three feet. [Goesfurther.]

THE COOK What does he mean?

FIRST PASTRYCOOK Let me have the tart!

SECOND PASTRYCOOK The dumpling!

RAGUENEAU [standing before the fireplace] Spread thy wings, Muse, and fly further, that thy lovely eyes may not be reddened at the sordid kitchen fire! [To one of the cooks, pointing at some small loaves of bread. ] You have improperly placed the cleft in those loaves; the cæsura belongs in the middle,—between the hemistichs!30 [To another of the COOKS, pointing at an unfinished pasty.] This