Rosemonde Gérard

Louise-Rose-Étiennette Gérard, known as Rosemonde Gérard (April 5, 1871, Paris – July 8, 1953, Paris) was a French poet and playwright. She was the wife of Edmond Rostand (1868–1918, author of Cyrano de Bergerac), and was a granddaughter of Étienne Maurice Gérard, who was a Marshal and a Prime Minister of France.[1][2]

Rosemonde Gérard

Gérard is perhaps best known today as the author of the lines:

Car, vois-tu, chaque jour je t’aime davantage,

Aujourd’hui plus qu’hier et bien moins que demain.

(For, you see, each day I love you more,

Today more than yesterday and less than tomorrow.)[3]

A "+ qu'hier − que demain" pendant from about 1930. "A.Augis" is visible on the left edge of the central area.

This couplet is taken from a poem, variously known as "L'éternelle chanson" ("The Eternal Song") or "Les Vieux" ("The Old Ones"), that she wrote to Rostand in 1889.[4] The poem was published in 1890, but did not enjoy immediate success. The phrase became celebrated as an expression of ever-growing love when, in 1907 (17 years after its publication), a Lyonnais jeweler, Alphonse Augis, had the idea of making a medallion with the core portion of the verse engraved on it.[5] The medallions became quite popular, and led to the production of other, similarly decorated jewelry items, such as earrings and matchboxes; many older examples include Augis' name. A very common variation on the design presents the line with the words "plus" and "moins" replaced by the mathematical + and − signs, respectively. The mathematical signs are frequently rendered in tiny gemstones, often in contrasting colors.[6]

Among Gérard's other works is the play “A Good Little Devil” (1913), co-written with Maurice Rostand.[7] It was made into a movie of the same name in 1914. Mary Pickford starred in both the play and the movie; she later opined that the movie was one of the worst—if not the worst—she had ever made.[8] Gérard also subtitled a number of films including Alexis Granowsky's Das Lied vom Leben (1931) and Nikolai Ekk's film The Road to Life (1931).[9]

Gérard and Rostand were married on April 8, 1890;[2] they had two sons, Maurice (1891–1968) and Jean Rostand (1894–1977). In later years, Gérard and Maurice Rostand frequented an intellectual circle that included Jean-Paul Sartre and Gilbert Martineau.

It has been said that Gérard "doubtless would have been famous had not her husband's star so far eclipsed her own."[10] After 35 years of widowhood, she died in 1953 and is buried at Cimetiere de Passy, in Paris, as is her son Maurice.[11]