Based on the life of a little known writer, Rostand's hero has become a figure of theatrical legend: Cyrano, with the nose of a clown and the soul of a poet, is by turns comic and sad, as reckless in love as in war, and never at a loss for words. The text is accompanied by Notes and a full Introduction which sets the play in its literary and historical context. Christopher Fry's acclaimed translation into "chiming couplets" represents the homage of one verse dramatist to another.