Edmond Rostand et la préciosité

To portray preciosity in Cyrano, Rostand turned to the aesthetic category of preciosity provided by the nascent discipline of literary history: it is both a moment in mores and literature and an eternal tendency of the national spirit. However, the proximity between Roxane and other Rostand heroines suggests a very “fin de siècle” treatment of this preciosity, which Rostand uses as a bulwark against the brutality, decadence, and cynicism of his time. Deliberately anachronistic, his “precious” poetry oscillates between the hope for revitalization and the perils of parody.