Chantecler Play in Four Acts

By: Edmond Rostand

The play begins with a prologue in which the "director" asks the audience to imagine themselves in a barnyard, and calls down a giant magnifying-glass to better see the animals up close. Act I[edit] Chantecler is a gallic rooster (a traditional symbol of France) who secretly believes that his crowing causes the sun to rise. The play opens as several other animals are discussing the singing skills of the Blackbird, Rostand's symbol of sophisticated cynicism and artistic naturalism. The hens and the Blackbird then praise Chantecler's crowing skills until he enters and sings his "Hymn to The Sun" (a poetic set piece that remains a popular recitation in France). Although the hens try to persuade Chantecler to confess the secret of his crowing, he refuses. He converses with Patou, the farmyard dog, about the Blackbird's cynicism and biting wit; while Chantecler considers it of little importance, Patou warns that Blackbird's flippant attitude is a dangerous moral influence because it weakens sincere belief in the potential of heroism. Suddenly, a female golden pheasant (a female who nevertheless has the colorful plumage of a male) arrives in the barnyard, fleeing from a hunter. Chantecler helps hide her in Patou's doghouse. Act II[edit] At night, the nighttime birds of prey, along with the cat and the Blackbird, plot to kill Chantecler because his crowing interrupts their nefarious plans. They devise a plot to lure Chantecler to the weekly soir?e held by the fashionable Guinea Hen, where they will also invite a famous game cock to assassinate Chantecler. The pheasant overhears, but the Blackbird persuades her not to tell Chantecler of the plot. When Chantecler appears to crow for the dawn, the pheasant persuades him to attend the soir?e, and also to confess his secret belief that his crowing makes the sun rise. The Blackbird, hiding in a flower pot, eavesdrops through the hole in the pot's bottom, but because his position doesn't allow him to see the sunrise, he assumes Chantecler's confession is only a ruse to seduce the pheasant. After the pheasant leaves, Blackbird tells Chantecler that the game cock will attend Guinea Hen's soir?e, and Chantecler insists on attending and confronting him. Act III[edit] At the soir?e, a series of increasingly fancy-bred roosters are introduced before Chantecler arrives; disgusted by the artificiality of the other birds' plumage, he insists on being introduced simply as "the cock". When the fighting cock appears, he and Chantecler fight, with all the birds except the pheasant and Patou cheering for the fighting cock. Chantecler is badly beaten and nearly killed, but at the last moment, a hawk flies overhead and he and the other birds cower in fear. Chantecler bravely shields the others with his body, and scares the hawk away. When the hawk leaves, the game cock makes a last lunge at Chantecler, but wounds himself instead and is carried away. Chantecler bitterly denounces the Blackbird's soulless cynicism and the crowd's envious rooting for his enemy, and departs for the forest with the pheasant.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1717281621
• ISBN13: 9781717281623
• Release Date: April 2018
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 168 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.7" x 9.6"