Today we have a wonderful bit of Cyrano history from the original production: The costume that Constant Coquelin wore for the hundreds of times that he performed this role.
Because the text of the museum link is all in French, we’ll do a little explanation for you in English.
The costume was created for the production of “Cyrano de Bergerac” which was put on by Edmond Rostand and opened Dec 27, 1897.
It consists of leather doublet, and silk breeches, a ruff, a large hat with plumes and boots. The costume is complete except for the nose which was sadly lost.
The costume was donated by Jean Coquelin, the son of Constant to the museum at its opening in 1923. It is held in a little museum that was created in the hotel where Coquelin lived until his death in 1909.
It is fascinating to see this outfit which derives its shape more from the 16th century rather than the 17th century in comparison to the other characters in the same production. It is almost as if Rostand saw Cyrano as a figure from the era of Henri of Navarre whom Cyrano references at times in the plau
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