CYRANO Should I insult you, so you can...

CYRANO

Should I insult you, so you can leave, too?

DONNA

Is that what you want?

CYRANO

It’s never about what I want.

(CYRANO goes to exit.)

DONNA

You make too many enemies.

CYRANO

You make too many friends!

DONNA

Not everything has to be a fight.

CYRANO

I wasn’t out-of-line.

DONNA You wouldn’t have to say it if you weren’t.

CYRANO What am I supposed to do? Just let it happen?

DONNA

That’s what some expect.

CYRANO

I am not what people expect.

DONNA

I know.

CYRANO

What’s that supposed to mean?

(Catches herself.)

Sorry. I didn’t mean to—

DONNA

Don’t apologize, or people might think you’re capable of sympathy.

CYRANO

As long as it’s not empathy.

CYRANO & DONNA

Anything but that!

(They laugh together.)

CYRANO

Montfleury... He’s the captain? Him?

DONNA

I know.

CYRANO

And then Christian has the audacity—

DONNA

He’s new.

CYRANO

He’s stupid! New and stupid! I never knew such green could make me see such red.

DONNA

Is that his fault?

CYRANO

Yes! No.

(Beat.)

Why did she follow him out?

DONNA

You pushed them both out.

CYRANO

I didn’t mean to push her out.

DONNA

Well, they’re friends.

CYRANO

What?

DONNA

Friends. You remember those?

CYRANO

Vaguely.

DONNA

They don’t cost much; just a little love.

CYRANO

I barely have a little.

DONNA

It’ll go a long way.

CYRANO

I need it for myself.

DONNA

Just yourself?

CYRANO

(Smiling) Well... maybe I have a little extra.

DONNA

Does that mean you love?

CYRANO

Me? Love? That I should love...

(Laughs, and then pauses.)

I must.

DONNA

You what?

CYRANO

Don’t make me say it again.

DONNA

Why haven’t you said anything before?

CYRANO

It’s easier to say nothing.

DONNA

I understand that completely.

CYRANO

What do you mean?

DONNA

Nothing. I knew it!

CYRANO

How?

DONNA

You’re too angry to not be in love.

CYRANO

That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.

DONNA

Am I wrong?

(CYRANO says nothing.)

Do I know her?

CYRANO

Better than anyone.

DONNA

Well?

(CYRANO says nothing.)

Tell me about her!

CYRANO

I don’t know. She’s... it doesn’t matter

DONNA

You’re an awful liar.

CYRANO

I don’t like lying to you!

DONNA

Then don’t. You sound stupid.

(CYRANO takes a moment, and then the words suddenly come forward.)

CYRANO

I’m resolved that Fate has cursed me to love the fairest of the world. She is the most brilliant, most refined... yet danger mortalized. She’s unsuspicious, full of charms unconscious. Like a sweet perfumed rose, a snare of nature, within whose petals Cupid lurks in ambush! Diane herself cannot be more graceful, nor walk more lightly, than she. This “she,” this Love incarnate, to know warmth not from her embrace, but from the possibility of it.

(DONNA is flushing.)

Warmth felt through mere proximity. It is ambitious, but trying; tasteful to the world, treasonous to the self; burning, yet the purpose of yearning.

DONNA

(Invested in the language) Keep going.

CYRANO

I long for this Venus to mount her conch blown sea-ward—

DONNA

OK, please stop.

CYRANO

Sorry.

DONNA

Why haven’t you told her? Assuming, of course, you haven’t.

CYRANO

We’re too close.

DONNA

The mighty Cyrano shows fear!

CYRANO

I’m not scared!

DONNA

Then tell her!

CYRANO

I will! I mean... I wrote this letter.

(She withdraws the letter from her person.)

DONNA

Can’t tell her yourself? Face-to-face?

CYRANO

I want to. But... I can’t explain. Here.

DONNA

For me?

CYRANO

Read it.

(DONNA takes the letter, hesitantly. She seems to be holding her breath. She opens it, and reads it briefly.)

DONNA

This is to Roxane.

CYRANO

Well, yes. Who else?

DONNA

She’s your cousin.

CYRANO

Through marriage. Something like my mother’s uncle’s sixth cousin’s something or other, who married blah blah blah. There’s no blood between us.

DONNA

And no love lost between us.

CYRANO

So you approve?

DONNA

What would that matter?

CYRANO

You’re my best friend.

DONNA

I’m also hers.

CYRANO

And?

(Beat.)

DONNA

I don’t know two better people than you.

CYRANO

Do you think she might—that I might have a chance? I mean, I don’t even know if she likes women. Does she?

DONNA

She...I don’t know.

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