Editing Cyrano de Bergerac (section)

=== Childhood and adolescence ===

==== Baptism and godparents ====

The historian Auguste Jal discovered the baptism of the (then) supposed Gascon in the 1860s:

<blockquote>Finally, after long exertion, I knew that Abel Cyrano had left the neighbourhood of Saint-Eustache for that of Saint-Sauveur, and that Espérance Bellanger had given birth in this new dwelling to a boy whose baptismal record is as follows: "The sixth of March one thousand six hundred and nineteen, Savinien, son of Abel de Cyrano, squire, Lord of Mauvières, and of the lady Espérance Bellenger (''sic''), the godfather, nobleman Antoine Fanny, King's Counsellor and Auditor in his [[Court of Finances]], of this parish, the godmother the lady Marie Fédeau (''sic''), wife of nobleman Master Louis Perrot, Counsellor and Secretary to the King, Household and Crown of France, of the parish of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois". This son of Abel de Cyrano who was not given the name of his godfather, Antoine, because he had a brother of that name, born in 1616, but was named Savinien in memory of his grandfather, who could doubt that this was the Savinien Cyrano who was born, according to the biographers, at the chateau of Bergerac in or around 1620?{{sfn|Jal|1872|p=[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k47543/f471.image.r=.langFR 463]}}
</blockquote>

Thus Espérance Bellanger was thirty-three years old, Abel de Cyrano around fifty-two.

The surname ''Fanny'' appears nowhere in the very complete study of ''La Chambre des comptes de Paris'' ("Court of Finances of Paris") published by Count H. Coustant d'Yanville in 1875 (or for that matter in any other French document of the 17th century). In 1898, Viscount Oscar de Poli suggested that it must have been a transcription error and proposed reading it as ''Lamy''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Poli|1898|p=79|ref=Poli1898}}</ref> An Antoine Lamy had actually been accepted as an auditor of finances on 2{{nbsp}}September 1602, a year before Pierre de Maupeou, Espérance Bellanger's cousin and son-in-law of Denis Feydeau who was a witness to the marriage of Savinien's parents in 1612.<ref>{{Harvnb|Coustant d'Yanville|1866–1875|p=[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k57243060/f908.image.r=.langFR 882]|ref=Yanville1866}}</ref> His wife, Catherine Vigor, associate of [[Vincent de Paul]], would become President of the ''Confrérie de la Charité de Gentilly'' ("Charitable Fellowship of Gentilly") where the couple set up a mission in 1634.<ref>{{Harvnb|Paul|1920|p=[https://archive.org/stream/correspondanceen01vinc#page/30/mode/2up 30]|ref=Paul1920}}</ref> She could well be the godmother of Catherine de Cyrano.

Marie Feydeau, cosponsor with Antoine Lamy, was the sister of Denis and Antoine Feydeau and the wife of Louis (or Loys) Perrot (15??-1625), who, apart from his titles of "King's Counsellor and Secretary", also had that of "King's Interpreter of Foreign Languages".<ref>{{Harvnb|Griselle|1912|p=[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k64848c/f44.image.r=.langFR 34]|ref=Griselle1912}}</ref>

==== Mauvières and Bergerac ====

[[File:La Vallée de Chevreuse en 1701.jpg|left|thumb|The ''Vallée de Chevreuse'' in 1701. You can make out Sous-Forêt and Mauvières just to the west of Chevreuse, on the banks of the Yvette River.]]In 1622, Abel de Cyrano left Paris with his family and went to settle on his lands at Mauvières and Bergerac in the ''[[Vallée de Chevreuse]]'', which had come to him in part after the death of his mother in 1616.

His possessions, situated on the banks of the [[Yvette River]] in the parish of [[Saint-Forget]], had been purchased by Savinien I de Cyrano forty years earlier from Thomas de Fortboys, who had bought them himself in 1576 from Lord Dauphin de Bergerac (or Bergerat), whose ancestors had possessed them for more than a century.{{refn|In a much disputed study (''L'ancestralité bergeracoise de Savinien II de Cyrano de Bergerac : prouvée par la Tour Cyrano, les jurades, les chroniques bergeracoises et par Cyrano lui-même'', Lembras, 1968) an erudite citizen of Bergerac, Martial Humbert Augeard, wrote that the origin of the de Bergerac family was a certain Ramond de la Rivière de la Martigne who, having been bestowed with the estate of Mauvières in recompense for his action against the English in the retaking of Bergerac by Duke Louis I d'Anjou, brother of Charles V, in 1377, gave the name Bergerac to the meadows adjacent to Mauvières to the west, up until that time known as the ''Pré joli'' ("Pretty Meadow") or ''Pré Sous-Foretz'' ("Woodland Meadow"). In the 18th century, the estate of Bergerac returned to its old name of ''Sous-Forets''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Coubertin|1898|p=430|ref=Coubertin1898}}</ref>|group=note}}

When Savinien I de Cyrano acquired it, the domain of Mauvières consisted of "a habitable mansion…with a lower room, a cellar beneath, kitchen, pantry, an upper chamber, granaries, stables, barn, portal, all roofed with tiles, with courtyard, walled dovecote; mill, enclosed plot, garden and fishpond, the right of middle and low justice…".<!-- <ref group="note">« en un hôtel manable [C'est à dire, une demeure habitable.] … où il y a salle basse, cave dessous, cuisine, dépense, chambre haute, greniers, étables, grange, portail, le tout couvert de tuiles, avec la cour, colombiers clos de murailles; moulin, clos, jardin et vivier, le droit de moyenne et basse justices… »</ref> -->

The estate of Bergerac, which adjoined Mauvières, "comprised a house with portal, courtyard, barn, hovel and garden, being an acre or thereabouts, plus forty-six and a half acres, of which thirty-six and a half were farmland and ten woodland, with the rights of middle and low justice".<!--{{refn|« comprenait une maison avec portail, cour, grange, masure et jardin, soit un arpent ou environ, plus quarante-six arpents et demi, dont trente-six et demi de terre et dix de bois, avec droit de justice moyenne et basse… » --><ref>{{Harvnb|Lachèvre|1921|loc=volume II, p. [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6206781d/f32.image XVIII]|ref=Lachevre1921II}}</ref><!-- |group=note}} -->

==== Country schooling ====

[[File:Abraham Bosse, Le maître d'école.jpg|thumb|Abraham Bosse (1602–1676), ''Le Maître d'école.'']]
It was in this rustic setting that the child grew up and in the neighbouring parish he learnt to read and write. His friend Le Bret recalls:

<blockquote>
The education that we had together with a good country priest who took in boarders, made us friends from our most tender youth, and I remember the aversion he had from that time for one who seemed to him a shadow of Sidias,{{refn|Name of a pedant character in ''Première journée'', fragment of a comic story by Théophile de Viau.<ref>{{Harvnb|Viau|1855|p=[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k27801m/f16.image.r=.langFR 14]|ref=Viau1855}}</ref>|group=note}} because, in the thoughts which that man could somewhat grasp, he believed him incapable of teaching him anything; so that he paid so little attention to his lessons and his corrections that his father, who was a fine old gentleman, fairly unconcerned for his children's education and overly credulous of this one's complaints, removed him [from the school] a little too suddenly and, without considering if his son would be better off elsewhere, he sent him to that city [Paris] where he left him, until the age of nineteen years, to his own devices.{{refn|L'éducation que nous avions eue ensemble chez un bon prêtre de la campagne qui tenait de petits pensionnaires nous avait faits amis dès notre plus tendre jeunesse, et je me souviens de l'aversion qu'il avait dès ce temps-là pour ce qui lui paraissait l'ombre d'un Sidias [Note : Nom d'un personnage de pédant dans ''Première journée'', fragment d'histoire comique de Théophile de Viau.], parce que, dans la pensée que cet homme en tenait un peu [Note : Comprendre : qu'il était tant soit peu pédant.], il le croyait incapable de lui enseigner quelque chose; de sorte qu'il faisait si peu d'état de ses leçons et de ses corrections, que son père, qui était un bon vieux gentilhomme assez indifférent pour l'éducation de ses enfants et trop crédule aux plaintes de celui-ci, l'en retira un peu trop brusquement, et, sans s'informer si son fils serait mieux autre part, il l'envoya en cette ville [Paris], où il le laissa jusqu'à dix-neuf ans sur sa bonne foi [Note : « On dit ''Laisser un homme sur sa foi'', pour dire ''l'abandonner à sa conduite''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Furetière|1690|p=[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k50614b/f903.image 903]|ref=Furetiere1690}}</ref> »].|group=note}}<ref name="LeBret1657">{{Harvnb|Le Bret|1657|ref=LeBret1657}}</ref>
</blockquote>

==== Parisian adolescence ====

It is unknown at what age Savinien arrived in Paris.{{refn|In his introduction to ''Cyrano de Bergerac, Cyrano de Sannois, Turnhout'', Hervé Bargy asserts, without offering any proof, that he was twelve years old.<ref name="Bargy">{{harvnb|Bargy|2008|ref=Bargy2008|p=12}}</ref>|group=note}} He may have been accommodated by his uncle Samuel de Cyrano in a large family residence in the Rue des Prouvaires, where his parents had lived up until 1618. In this theory, it was there that he was introduced to his cousin Pierre,<ref group="note">Pierre II de Cyrano, Lord of Cassan.</ref> with whom, according to Le Bret, he would build a lasting friendship.{{refn|"…Monsieur de Cyrano, his cousin, from whom he had received great signs of friendship, from whose knowledgeable conversation on present and past history, he took such immense pleasure…"<ref name="LeBret1657" /> »|group=note}}

[[File:Détail du plan de Gomboust, 1652.jpg|left|thumb|Jacques Gomboust, ''Plan de Paris'' 1652 (detail). Upper Rue Saint-Jacques and the ''collège de Lisieux''.]]
He continued his secondary studies at an academy which remains unknown. It has long been maintained that he attended the [[Collège de Beauvais]] where the action of the comedy ''Le pédant joué'' takes place{{refn|This was seen for the first time in the second edition of ''Menagiana'': "The poor works of Cyrano de Bergerac! He had studied at the ''collège de Beauvais'' in the time of Principal Granger. It is said that he was still studying rhetoric when he wrote his ''Pédant joué'' about the principal. There are a few passable parts in that piece, but all the rest falls flat." (« Les pauvres ouvrages que ceux de Cyrano de Bergerac ! Il avait étudié au collège de Beauvais du temps du principal Granger. On dit qu'il était encore en rhétorique quand il fit son ''Pédant joué'' sur ce principal. Il y a quelque peu d'endroits passables en cette pièce, mais tout le reste est bien plat. »)<ref>{{Harvnb|Ménage|1694|p=[https://archive.org/details/menagianaoulesb00delagoog/page/n136 101]|ref=Menage1694}}</ref>|group = note}} and whose principal, Jean Grangier would inspire the character of Granger, the pedant of ''Le pédant joué'', but his presence in June 1641 as a student of rhetoric at the ''Collège de Lisieux''<ref group="note">[[Charles Sorel, sieur de Souvigny|Charles Sorel]], who perhaps also studied there, made vitriolic portrait of it in his ''Francion''.</ref> (see below), has encouraged more recent historians to revise that opinion.{{refn|"I think that Cyrano could have been a student at Lisieux even before his entry into the Army, and that the comedy that his composed against the collège de Beauvais could be explained by the fact that Sorel had already made fun of the collège de Lisieux."<ref>{{harvnb|Alcover|2004|loc=Biographical introduction, p. xxxiii|ref=Cyrano2004}}</ref> &nbsp;(« Je pense que Cyrano aurait pu être étudiant à Lisieux avant même son départ à l'armée, et que la comédie qu'il a composée contre le collège de Beauvais pourrait s'expliquer par le fait que Sorel avait déjà ridiculisé le collège de Lisieux.»)|group=note}}

In 1636, his father sold Mauvières and Bergerac to Antoine Balestrier, Lord of Arbalestre, and returned to Paris to live with his family in "a modest dwelling at the top of the great Rue du Faubourg Saint-Jacques close to the Crossing"<ref>{{Harvnb|Lachèvre|1921|loc=volume I, p. [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6206781d/f44.image xxx]|ref=Lachevre1921I}}</ref> (parish of Saint-Jacques and Saint-Philippe), a short distance from the ''Collège de Lisieux''. But there is no certainty that Savinien went to live with them.

==== A slippery slope ====

Le Bret continues his story:

<blockquote>
That age when nature is most easily corrupted, and that great liberty he had to only do that which seemed good to him, brought him to a dangerous weakness (''penchant''), which I dare say I stopped…
</blockquote>

Historians and biographers do not agree on this ''penchant'' which threatened to corrupt Cyrano's nature. As an example of the romantic imagination of some biographers, [[Frédéric Lachèvre]] wrote:
<blockquote>
Against an embittered and discontented father, Cyrano promptly forgot the way to his father's house. Soon he was counted among the gluttons and hearty drinkers of the best inns, with them he gave himself up to jokes of questionable taste, usually following prolonged libations…He also picked up the deplorable habit of gambling. This kind of life could not continue indefinitely, especially since Abel de Cyrano had become completely deaf to his son's repeated requests for funds.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lachèvre|1921|loc=volume I, p. [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6206781d/f45.image XXXI]|ref=Lachevre1921I}}</ref>
</blockquote>

Forty years later, two editors added to the realism and local colour:

<blockquote>
Since nothing binds Cyrano to the humble lodgings of the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Jacques to which the uncertainties of fate condemned his family, he gives himself over entirely to Paris, to its streets and, according to the words of one of his close friends, "to its excrescences" (''à ses verrues'').<ref group="note">It seems that the author here means [[Charles Sorel]], whose biographer, Émile Roy, wrote in 1891 that he knew Paris particularly well and "described it all, even the 'excrescences'". But the expression is an invention of the 19th century and appears nowhere in the works of Sorel.</ref> He drinks, diligently frequents the Rue Glatigny, called Val d'amour, because of the women who sell pleasure there,{{refn|The Rue de Glatigny was found on the site of the current forecourt of Notre-Dame. In the Middle Ages, it had been one of the streets that an ordinance of [[Louis IX of France|Saint Louis]] designated as the only ones where "women of dissolute life" had the right to "keep their brothels". But it seems, reading [[Henri Sauval]], that in Cyrano's time it had not had, for the past two centuries, that designation or reputation.<ref>{{Harvnb|Sauval|1724|p=[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1040565b/f752.image 652]|ref=Sauval1724}}</ref>|group=note}} gambles, roams the sleeping city to frighten the bourgeois or forge signs, provokes the watch, gets into debt and links himself with that literary Bohemia which centered around [[François Tristan l'Hermite|Tristan L'Hermite]] and [[Antoine Girard de Saint-Amant|Saint-Amant]] and cultivated the memory of [[Théophile de Viau|Théophile]] and his impious lyricism.<ref>{{harvnb|Cyrano de Bergerac|1962|ref=Cyrano1962|p=xv}}</ref>
</blockquote>

[[File:Da Sousy.jpg|right|thumb|D'Assoucy around 1630]]