The cape and sword ... renewed

For this new hero that looks like any other and exceeds.
For his bravery without illusion, to his magnificent plume to be more desperate, for its salutary irony that never changes cynicism, for his essential solitude and without bitterness.
Because Pardaillan like Cyrano and beyond 'in humanity.
Not that he is greater; but it comes later.
Composed at the dawn of the twentieth century, this time uncompromising fury, acid plumes, new dreams and disillusions.
It has in it the panache and energy of the nineteenth century, shadows and disillusions of the twentieth.
He can be flamboyant, ruthless' tender.