Edmond Rostand

Edmond Rostand , 1868-1918, French poet and dramatist. In 1890 appeared his first volume of verse, Les Musardises. His first plays were light, fanciful, and charmingly poetic, though of slight substance— Les Romanesques (1894, tr., The Romancers, 1899); La Princesse lointaine (1895, tr. The Princess Faraway, 1899), written for Sarah Bernhardt; and La Samaritaine (1897, tr. The Woman of Samaria, from his Plays, 1921). They were followed by Cyrano de Bergerac (1897, tr. 1923), a tour de force of dramatic poetry. The role of Cyrano was made memorable by the acting of Coquelin aîné, Richard Mansfield, and, on the screen (1950), Jose Ferrer. In 1900 Rostand wrote L'Aiglon, whose central figure is the pathetic duke of Reichstadt (Napoleon II), a role long played by Sarah Bernhardt. His barnyard fable Chantecler (1910) was played in the United States by Maude Adams.

Rostand, Edmond (1868–1918) French poet and dramatist. His major verse plays include Cyrano de Bergerac (1897), L'Aiglon (1900), and Chantecler (1910).

Rostand, Edmond (1868–1918), playwright. The romantic French dramatist is known in this country primarily for one work, his masterpiece, Cyrano de Bergerac (1898). His L'Aiglon is recalled largely as a vehicle for Sarah Bernhardt, who included it in her American tours. Much was expected of his Chanticleer, which Charles Frohman offered in 1911 with Maude Adams as star, but the production was a costly failure. Also, it was Rostand's Les Romantics that provided the basic plot for the long‐running musical The Fantasticks (1960).