A small square in the old Marais. Old houses. A perspective of little streets. On
the right Roxane's house and the wall of her garden overhung with thick foliage.
Window and balcony over the door. A bench in front.
From the bench and the stones jutting out of the wall it is easy to climb to the
balcony. In front of an old house in the same style of brick and stone. The
knocker of this door is bandaged with linen like a sore thumb.
At the rising of the curtain the duenna is seated on the bench.
The window on Roxane's balcony is wide open.
Ragueneau is standing near the door in a sort of livery. He has just finished
relating something to the duenna, and is wiping his eyes.
Ragueneau, the duenna. Then Roxane, Cyrano, and two pages.
RAGUENEAU:
--And then, off she went, with a musketeer! Deserted and ruined too, I would
make an end of all, and so hanged myself. My last breath was drawn:
-- then in comes Monsieur de Bergerac! He cuts me down, and begs his cousin
to take me for her steward.
THE DUENNA:
Well, but how came it about that you were thus ruined?
RAGUENEAU:
Oh! Lise loved the warriors, and I loved the poets! What cakes there were that
Apollo chanced to leave were quickly snapped up by Mars. Thus ruin was not
long a-coming.
THE DUENNA (rising, and calling up to the open window):
Roxane, are you ready? They wait for us!
ROXANE'S VOICE (from the window):
I will but put me on a cloak!
