Cover of The Ways of Men
    Philosophical

    The Ways of Men

    by LovelyMay
    The Ways of Men by Eliot Gregory is a novel that examines the complexities of human nature and relationships as a young man grapples with societal expectations, personal ambition, and moral dilemmas in his pursuit of self-discovery.

    In Chap­ter 3 of “The Ways of Men,” the nar­ra­tive delves into the sig­nif­i­cance of Edmond Ros­tand’s play, “Cyra­no de Berg­er­ac,” paint­ing a vivid pic­ture of the dra­ma’s impact when trans­lat­ed into Eng­lish. Despite a weak trans­la­tion, the orig­i­nal’s charm—its humor, emo­tion, and satir­i­cal sharpness—shines through, much like good wine unaf­fect­ed by the qual­i­ty of its con­tain­er. Richard Mans­field­’s ded­i­ca­tion to pre­sent­ing the play in its unal­tered form, adher­ing close­ly to Ros­tand’s vision and the play’s aes­thet­ic details, earns him admi­ra­tion for pre­serv­ing the integri­ty of this mas­ter­piece, there­by allow­ing the Eng­lish-speak­ing audi­ence to appre­ci­ate the exten­sive effort Ros­tand and the esteemed actor Coquelin invest­ed in the orig­i­nal pro­duc­tion.

    The chap­ter recounts the author’s vis­it to Paris, where the imme­di­ate pri­or­i­ty becomes wit­ness­ing “Cyra­no de Berg­er­ac” at the Porte St. Mar­tin. After the per­for­mance, a vis­it to Coquelin’s dress­ing room pro­vides a per­son­al glimpse into the actor’s vibrant ener­gy and ded­i­ca­tion, con­trast­ing sharply with the exhaus­tive effort of per­form­ing. The nar­ra­tive then tran­si­tions to a pri­vate set­ting, Coquelin’s apart­ment, where the focus shifts to the gen­e­sis of Ros­tand’s play, high­light­ing Coquelin’s foun­da­tion­al role in its cre­ation and pro­duc­tion.

    Coquelin nar­rates his ini­tial encounter with Ros­tand, who was then rec­og­nized for his less­er-known works, elab­o­rat­ing on how Ros­tand’s tal­ent for sto­ry­telling and dra­mat­ic inter­pre­ta­tion of lines cap­ti­vat­ed him from their first meet­ing. This admi­ra­tion led Coquelin to com­mit uncon­di­tion­al­ly to any of Rostand’s future works, a rare ges­ture of faith in the play­wright’s poten­tial. This promise cul­mi­nat­ed in the devel­op­ment of “Cyra­no de Berg­er­ac,” spurred by Ros­tand’s sud­den inspi­ra­tion from the his­tor­i­cal fig­ure’s life and poet­ry, illus­trat­ing the unpre­dictable nature of cre­ative inspi­ra­tion.

    Despite ini­tial skep­ti­cism regard­ing the play’s set­ting in a his­tor­i­cal­ly worn-out epoch and the chal­leng­ing inte­gra­tion of a grotesque­ly over­sized nose on the pro­tag­o­nist, Rostand’s blend of poignant and com­ic ele­ments, com­ple­ment­ed by his con­vic­tion in the play’s poten­tial, ulti­mate­ly sways Coquelin. The chap­ter vivid­ly recounts Rostand’s relent­less ded­i­ca­tion, his with­draw­al from Parisian soci­ety, and his exhaus­tive yet pas­sion­ate approach to refin­ing the play, demon­strat­ing a pur­suit of artis­tic per­fec­tion that bor­ders on obses­sion.

    The rehearsal process unveils anoth­er facet of Rostand’s character—his tire­less ener­gy, metic­u­lous atten­tion to detail, and his respect­ful, uplift­ing engage­ment with the cast, under­lin­ing his lead­er­ship and vision in bring­ing the play to life. The pre­miere of “Cyra­no de Berg­er­ac” emerges as a mon­u­men­tal event in Paris’s cul­tur­al scene, marked by an over­whelm­ing response from the audi­ence, sig­nal­ing not just a per­son­al tri­umph for Ros­tand and Coquelin, but a land­mark moment in the­atri­cal his­to­ry.

    This deep dive encap­su­lates the con­flu­ence of tal­ent, vision, and unwa­ver­ing ded­i­ca­tion that char­ac­ter­izes the jour­ney of “Cyra­no de Berg­er­ac” from con­cep­tion to stage, affirm­ing the trans­for­ma­tive pow­er of authen­tic, pas­sion­ate the­ater.

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