Word: gascon
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Becket lived high, but only, Biographer Duggan maintains, to uphold his position. He sipped water flavored with lime blossoms while his guests downed Gascon wine. When Henry picked Becket to be Archbishop of Canterbury-largely to get control of the church and church funds-Thomas accepted reluctantly. "The love you now feel for me," he said prophetically, "will turn to bitter hate...
...Gascon, though some say of Norman descent, When starved till faint gazed up at a trellis to which grapes were tied- Matured till they glowed with a purplish tint As though there were gems inside. Now grapes were what our adventurer on strained haunches chanced to crave, But because he could not reach the vine He said, "These grapes are sour, I'll leave them for some knave." Better, I think, than an embittered whine...
Cryano comments early in Rostand's play that "there are certain things a man does well to carry to extremes." In the Universal Artists production of "Cyrano de Bergerac," Jose Ferrer seems to base his whole interpretation on this remark, for he plays the noble Gascon as a composite of exaggerated traits. The results often comes dangerously close to being a caricature rather than an elucidation of Cyrano's character...