Savien Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-1655) French soldier, satirist, and dramatist, whose life has been the basis of many romantic but unhistorical legends. The best-known of them is Edmond Rostand's verse drama Cyrano de Bergerac (1897). Bergerac's major works were two posthumously published accounts of fantastic voyages, VOYAGE DANS LA LUNE (1657) and L'HISTOIRE DES �TATS ET EMPIRES DU SOLEIL (1662).Born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, in 1932, Geoffrey Hill is the author of three books of criticism and eleven books of poetry, including The Triumph of Love, co-winner of the Heinemann Award. His Collected Poems, Canaan, The Triumph of Love, Speech! Speech!, The Orchards of Syon, Scenes from… Comus and Without Title are all published by Penguin. Hill currently lives and teaches in Massachusetts, where he is Professor of Literature and Religion at Boston University. He is also Honorary Fellow of Keble College, Oxford; Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge; Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature; and since 1996 Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.