Cyrano’s declaration of independence.

Edmond Rostand (1868–1918)

What would you have me do?
Search out some powerful patronage, and be
Like crawling ivy clinging to a tree?
No thank you.

Dedicate, like all the others,
Verses to plutocrats, while caution smothers
Whatever might offend my lord and master?
No thank you. Kneel until my knee-caps fester,
Bend my back until I crack my spine,
And scratch another’s back if he’ll scratch mine?
No thank you.

Dining out to curry favour,
Meeting the influential till I slaver,
Suiting my style to what the critics want
With slavish copy of the latest cant?
No thanks!

Ready to jump through any hoop
To be the great man of a little group?
Be blown off course, with madrigals for sails,
By the old women sighing through their veils?
Labouring to write a line of such good breeding
Its only fault is—that it’s not worth reading?
To ingratiate myself, abject with fear,
And fawn and flatter to avoid a sneer?
No thanks, no thanks, no thanks!

But … just to sing,
Dream, laugh, and take my tilt of wing,
To cock a snook whenever I shall choose,
To fight for “yes” and “no”, come win or lose,
To travel without thought of fame or fortune
Wherever I care to go to under the moon!
Never to write a line that hasn’t come
Directly from my heart: and so, with some
Modesty, to tell myself: “My boy,
Be satisfied with a flower, a fruit, the joy
Of a single leaf, so long as it was grown
In your own garden. Then, if success is won
By any chance, you have nothing to render to
A hollow Caesar: the merit belongs to you.”
In short, I won’t be a parasite; I’ll be
My own intention, stand alone and free,
And suit my voice to what my own eyes see!

EDMOND ROSTAND, Cyrano de Bergerac,

act II, trans. Christopher Fry, pp. 56–57 (1975). Originally published in 1897.

Freedom;

 Honor