Who was the real Cyrano de Bergerac?

But that original play is also loosely based on something else – the real-life story of Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac, a novelist, playwright, epistolarian, and duellist who lived in 17th century France.

Read on for everything you need to know about the real man.

Who was the real Cyrano de Bergerac?

Although Cyrano de Bergerac was a real person, the famous play is a heavily fictionalised account of his life – even if there are some clear similarities with the historical record.

One thing that does appear to be true is that he did indeed have a notably large nose – although it seems unlikely it was quite as large as has been depicted in some stage and film versions – and this appears to have caused him much distress throughout his life.

Born in Paris in 1619, the real Cyrano was reportedly mistreated by the adults in his life from a young age and was sent away by his father to the University of Paris when he was just 12 years old.

After leaving university, he joined the French army and became an expert in fencing and duelling, while also serving in the Franco-Spanish War, suffering a serious wound during the Siege of Arras in 1640 – a fictionalised version of which appears in the play.

It's also true that Cyrano was an accomplished writer, turning to writing once his days in the army were behind him and penning an assortment of plays and pamphlets.

Meanwhile, another aspect of the play which appears to be at least in part based on the historical record is the iconic sequence in which Cyrano takes on 100 men – as unlikely as such a feat might seem, this event has been extensively written about by his contemporaries.

However, while this character might bear more than a passing resemblance to the real Cyrano, the actual love story appears to have been the invention of Rostand.

Even though Christian and Roxanne are also based on real people, there is no evidence to suggest a love triangle, nor anything which shows that Cyrano used his ability as a wordsmith to aid his tongue-tied companion.

How similar is Cyrano to the original play?

While the new film version roughly follows the same fictional story as Rostand's play, screenwriter Erica Schmidt has also made a couple of alterations which she recently explained to RadioTimes.com.

"I love the Rostand play and I wanted to adapt it, but basically had two main questions going in," she said. "One was about the nose – in the original Cyrano, the character spends the majority of the play talking about his nose, and the actor wears a kind of large prosthetic nose.

"And I just thought, what would it be like if he just never said what it is that he finds physically unlovable about himself? What if that was just a mystery, and the character remained the same except for that.

"And then the other thing that I was curious about was the character of Roxanne, who I adore. I love that she loves words and loves poetry, but in the original Rostand, sometimes I find her kind of unknowable or stiff. You know, the man says he loves her, and she says, 'Can't you do better?'

"And I just wondered where her agency was, and what it was that she would feel and say when she learned that she'd been deceived by the men that she loves, these men that she loved for her whole life.

"Then I wanted to make it a play with music that was through-composed, not in any way a traditional musical theatre piece, but one where the music could become the heartbeat of the piece. And the lyrics could be poetry in a very modern sense. I looked at every existing translation and adaptation of the play, and just pared down what was there so that it would be just the necessary part and so that it would feel modern and conversational, and less formal."

Cyrano is released in UK cinemas on Friday 25th February 2022. Looking for something to watch? Visit our Film hub for more news, interviews and features, or check out our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.

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