ENGLISH LANGUAGE
"Cyrano", written about 1897, is (at least) two differing dramas: first, a 20th-Century play in which the proponent, a soldier, does not object to killing people he does not like; and second, the proponent is an 18th-Century poet lost in his love of a woman (and a relative, to boot) he believes cannot love him. Act I is the 20th-Century play; the rest is the 18th-Century. Reading the play increases exponentially one's appreciation of the efforts of Jose Ferrer in the 1950s movie, for which Ferrer was awarded an Oscar and which movie is still available on DVD and late-night TV.