A satirical dream with an appended “truth”
A Composite Satire in Two Parts
The agreement is an English-language satirical work attributed to Cyrano de Bergerac. Its full title identifies the principal piece as “a satyrical and facetious dream” and announces a second text annexed to it: The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, &c. The volume is not a single continuous essay. The dream portion and the annexed “truth” are distinct parts of the book, with the latter having its own title page, pagination, and register. The work is therefore best understood as a short composite satire, in which a dream narrative is paired with a separately presented companion text.
From Cyrano’s D’un songe to an English Dream
The dream section is signed “C.B.,” initials that identify Cyrano de Bergerac. It is described as a translation and adaptation of Cyrano’s French letter D’un songe, a text first collected in his Lettres diverses. The wording “translated and adapted” is significant: the English dream is not presented as a verbatim rendering of the French letter but as a reworked version of it. The annexed text, by contrast, is signed with the pseudonym Jonathan Friendly. That difference in signatures reinforces the book’s layered character: Cyrano’s initials stand behind the dream, while the appended “truth” is presented under a separate, English-sounding persona.
The Dream as Satirical Frame and the Oath-Like Truth
The title page labels the dream as both “satyrical” and “facetious,” placing the principal text in a comic, satirical register. A dream is the work’s central device: the main piece is presented as a vision rather than as a straightforward argument or narrative. The annexed text then introduces a phrase associated with sworn testimony—the promise to tell “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” By binding these two elements together, the volume juxtaposes a playful dream with a companion piece that adopts the language of absolute truthfulness. The result is a satire built on the contrast between the openly dreamlike first part and the truth-claiming appendix that follows it.
The volume was first published in 1756. Its imprint gives the place as “London?” and names no publisher, with the year stated as “Printed in the Year, 1756.” The format is 8⁰, and the pagination is “iv,14;12 pages.” Catalog records identify it by the English Short Title Catalog number T72001 and describe the copy as a reproduction of the original from the British Library. The item is also listed in Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Part 1.
The Author Behind the Attribution
Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac (6 March 1619 – 28 July 1655) was a French novelist, playwright, epistolarian, and duelist. The source describes him as a bold and innovative author whose work was part of the libertine literature of the first half of the 17th century. It further notes that he is best known today as the inspiration for Edmond Rostand’s most noted drama, Cyrano de Bergerac (1897), which, although it includes elements of his life, also contains invention and myth. Since the 1970s, according to the source, there has been a resurgence in the study of Cyrano, demonstrated by the abundance of theses, essays, articles, and biographies published in France and elsewhere.
