The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Bergerac, Savinien Cyrano de

BERGERAC, Savinien Cyrano de, French author: b. 1619; d. 1655. He was distinguished for his courage in the field, and for the number of his duels, more than a thousand, most of them fought on account of his monstrously large nose. His writings, which are often crude, but full of invention, vigor and wit, include a tragedy, &lsquo;Agrippine,&rsquo; which was regarded at the time as the vehicle of atheistic teaching; and a comedy, &lsquo;The Pedant Tricked,&rsquo; from which Corneille and Molière have freely borrowed ideas; and his &lsquo;Comical History of the States and Empires of the Sun and the Moon&rsquo; probably suggested &lsquo;Micromégas&rsquo; to Voltaire, and &lsquo;Gulliver&rsquo; to Swift. His works have been frequently republished. He was made the hero of a drama bearing his name, written by Edmond Rostand, the French playwright, which had a phenomenal success in the United States in 1899-1900, and was the occasion of a suit for plagiarism. See.