The Romancers: A Comedy in Three Acts
1894
The Romancers: A Comedy in Three Acts
1894
Translated by Barrett H. (Barrett Harper) Clark
Three years before conquering the world with Cyrano, Edmond Rostand wrote this glittering farce about the theatricality of love itself. Two young people, Sylvette and Percinet, fall desperately in love across the wall separating their feuding families, believing their romance is forbidden and their passion unprecedented. What they don't know: their fathers have been staging the entire feud, stage-managing secret meetings, and engineering a fake abduction to bring their children together. Rostand's comedy pulses with youthful energy and verbal brilliance, a play that knows love is always partly performance yet celebrates the beautiful absurdity of believing in one's own unique, unprecedented romance. The Romancers is a sparkling comedy about the lies we tell to make love possible, and the truth that sometimes grows from those fictions.
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“A kiss is a secret which takes the lips for the ear.””
— Edmond Rostand
“A great nose may be an indexOf a great soul””
— Edmond Rostand
“My heart always timidly hides itself behind my mind. I set out to bring down stars from the sky, then, for fear of ridicule, I stop and pick little flowers of eloquence.””
— Edmond Rostand
“All our souls are written in our eyes.””
— Edmond Rostand
“I have a different idea of elegance. I don't dress like a fop, it's true, but my moral grooming is impeccable. I never appear in public with a soiled conscience, a tarnished honor, threadbare scruples, or an insult that I haven't washed away. I'm always immaculately clean, adorned with independence and frankness. I may not cut a stylish figure, but I hold my soul erect. I wear my deeds as ribbons, my wit is sharper then the finest mustache, and when I walk among men I make truths ring like spurs.””
— Edmond Rostand
“And what is a kiss, specifically? A pledge properly sealed, a promise seasoned to taste, a vow stamped with the immediacy of a lip, a rosy circle drawn around the verb 'to love.' A kiss is a message too intimate for the ear, infinity captured in the bee's brief visit to a flower, secular communication with an aftertaste of heaven, the pulse rising from the heart to utter its name on a lover's lip: 'Forever.””
— Edmond Rostand
“I-I am going to be a storm-a flame-I need to fight whole armies alone;I have ten hearts; I have a hundred arms;I feel too strong to war with mortals-BRING ME GIANTS!””
— Edmond Rostand
“...But...to sing,to dream, to smile, to walk, to be alone, be free,with a voice that stirs and an eye that still can see!To cock your hat to one side, when you pleaseat a yes, a no, to fight, or- make poetry!To work without a thought of fame or fortune,on that journey, that you dream of, to the moon!Never to write a line that's not your own...””
— Edmond Rostand
“My soul, be satisfied with flowers,With fruit, with weeds even; but gather themIn the one garden you may call your own.””
— Edmond Rostand
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<a href="https://lex-books.com/book/the-romancers-a-comedy-in-three-acts-46a624af-7f55-4fc4-9c81-1d371b19ab01"><img src="https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg" alt="Read The Romancers: A Comedy in Three Acts by Edmond Rostand free on Lex" width="160" height="40"></a>[](https://lex-books.com/book/the-romancers-a-comedy-in-three-acts-46a624af-7f55-4fc4-9c81-1d371b19ab01)[url=https://lex-books.com/book/the-romancers-a-comedy-in-three-acts-46a624af-7f55-4fc4-9c81-1d371b19ab01][img]https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg[/img][/url]Read The Romancers: A Comedy in Three Acts by Edmond Rostand free on Lex: https://lex-books.com/book/the-romancers-a-comedy-in-three-acts-46a624af-7f55-4fc4-9c81-1d371b19ab01Cite this book
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Rostand, Edmond. The Romancers: A Comedy in Three Acts. Lex, lex-books.com/book/the-romancers-a-comedy-in-three-acts-46a624af-7f55-4fc4-9c81-1d371b19ab01.Rostand, E. (1894). The Romancers: A Comedy in Three Acts. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-romancers-a-comedy-in-three-acts-46a624af-7f55-4fc4-9c81-1d371b19ab01Rostand, Edmond. The Romancers: A Comedy in Three Acts. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-romancers-a-comedy-in-three-acts-46a624af-7f55-4fc4-9c81-1d371b19ab01.
