“The bold Cadets of Gascony”

“The bold Cadets of Gascony” is the refrain through which Cyrano de Bergerac introduces Carbon de Castel-Jaloux’s company to Count de Guiche. The phrase gives the assembled soldiers a collective identity: not merely a company to be presented, but a band whose martial swagger, aristocratic self-image, and appetite for romantic mischief arrive together in a repeated boast.

Presentation and Refrain

Cyrano steps toward Count de Guiche and asks permission to present the cadets. The refrain names them as a group, then returns after further description, making their identity feel like the anchor of the passage. The repeated phrase is both introduction and proclamation: Cyrano speaks for the company, but his words make its members sound ready to announce themselves wherever they appear.

The verse ties the cadets to Carbon de Castel-Jaloux, identifying them as his company. That formal connection sits beside a deliberately unruly portrait. The introduction does not dwell on duties or military organization; instead, it makes the men recognizable through their swagger, their talk of arms and heraldry, and the reputation they cultivate. The refrain holds those details together as a shared style.

A Portrait Built from Contrasts

The cadets are described as “Brawling and swaggering boastfully,” and as “Spouting of Armory, Heraldry,” with veins “a-brimming with blood so blue.” The accumulating traits move from conduct, to subject matter, to inherited status. Their noisy confidence is paired with aristocratic pride: they boast like fighters, but also present themselves as men conscious of lineage and its symbols.

The physical sketch intensifies the effect. “Eagle-eye, and spindle-shanks” joins a keen, predatory image to a comically thin-legged one; “Fierce mustache, and wolfish tooth!” turns facial details into signs of threat. The portrait is not a measured catalogue of military fitness. Its sharp contrasts let the cadets appear at once formidable and theatrically self-fashioned, as if their legend were assembled from the very features and mannerisms they display.

Their nicknames make that reputation explicit. “'Pink-your-Doublet' and 'Slit-your-Trunk'” are called their gentlest sobriquets, so even their mildest names carry the promise of violence. The escalation is playful in its extravagant phrasing, but the underlying image is not harmless: these men are known through the damage they threaten to inflict. The following claim that their “soul is drunk” with Fame and Glory makes their appetite for reputation part of the same swagger.

Bravado, Love, and Public Performance

The refrain returns in the direct call “What, ho! Cadets of Gascony!” The address shifts the passage from description into performance: Cyrano does not merely tell Count de Guiche what the cadets are like; he calls them up as a chorus-like presence. Their collective name becomes a cue for the next boast, now aimed at lovers and husbands rather than at the battlefield.

The cadets are said to make “jealous lovers” their sport, while the verse calls woman a “dear divinity” before depicting scowling husbands who quake at the sight of them. The contrast gives their bravado a courtship register: martial aggression is recast as confidence in romantic competition. The command to blow “'taratara,'” and cry “'Cuckoo.'” adds a taunting, almost theatrical gesture, linking their amorous mischief to public mockery of husbands.

The closing repetition, “What, ho! Cadets of Gascony! / Husbands and lovers are game for you!” sharpens the passage’s mixture of menace and comedy. The cadets’ targets are now explicitly the men who might claim or desire women, and the wording makes both husbands and lovers into prey. Across the repeated refrain, Cyrano’s presentation transforms a company into a boastful persona: proud of arms and ancestry, eager for fame, and equally eager to turn its daring into a spectacle of romantic rivalry.