Louise-Rose-Étiennette Gérard, known as Rosemonde Gérard (5 April 1871, Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 – 5 April 1953, Paris) was a French poet and playwright. She was the wife of Edmond Rostand

Edmond Rostand

Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism, and is best known for his play Cyrano de Bergerac. Rostand's romantic plays provided an alternative to the naturalistic theatre popular during the late nineteenth century...

 (1868–1918, author of Cyrano de Bergerac

Cyrano de Bergerac (play)

Cyrano de Bergerac is a play written in 1897 by Edmond Rostand. Although there was a real Cyrano de Bergerac, the play bears very scant resemblance to his life....

), and was a granddaughter of Étienne Maurice Gérard

Étienne Maurice Gérard

Étienne Maurice Gérard, comte Gérard was a French general and statesman. He served under a succession of French governments including the ancien regime monarchy, the Revolutionary governments, the Restorations, the July Monarchy, the First and Second Republics, and the First Empire , becoming...

, who was a Marshal

Marshal of France

The Marshal of France is a military distinction in contemporary France, not a military rank. It is granted to generals for exceptional achievements...

 and a Prime Minister of France.

Gérard is perhaps best known today as the author of the lines:
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. 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 Lyons jeweler, Alphonse Augis, had the idea of making a medallion with the core portion of the verse engraved on it. 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.

Among Gérard's other works is the play “A Good Little Devil” (1913), co-written with Rostand. It was made into a movie of the same name in 1914. Mary Pickford

Mary Pickford

Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

 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.

Gérard and Rostand were married on April 8, 1890; they had two sons, Maurice

Maurice Rostand

Maurice Rostand was a French author, the son of the noted poet and dramatist Edmond Rostand and the poet Rosemonde Gérard, and brother of the biologist Jean Rostand.Rostand was a writer of poems, novels, and plays...

 (1891–1968) and Jean Rostand

Jean Rostand

Jean Rostand was a French biologist and philosopher.Active as an experimental biologist, Rostand became famous for his work as a science writer, as well as a philosopher and an activist...

 (1894–1977). In later years, Gérard and Maurice Rostand frequented an intellectual circle that included Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...

 and Gilbert Martineau

Gilbert Martineau

Gilbert Martineau was a French naval officer, author of books on Napoleon and his family, honorary consul, and curator of the French properties on St Helena, 1956-1987....

.

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

Works

• Les Pipeaux (The (Reed-)Pipes), poems, 1889/90
• Les Vieux, interpreted by Sarah Bernhard in 1903
• Un bon petit Diable (A Good Little Devil), with Maurice Rostand, 1912
• La Marchande d'allumettes (The Candle Seller), with Maurice Rostand (lyrics) and Tiarko Richepin (music), comic opera, 1914
• La Robe d'un soir, 1925
• La Vie amoureuse de Madame de Genlis, 1926
• L'Arc-en-ciel (The Rainbow), poems, 1926
• Mes souvenirs: Cyrano de Bergerac, with a design from Edmond Rostand, 1927
• Le Féminisme (Feminism), with her son Maurice Rostand, conference, 1930
• La Forêt enchantée (The Enchanted Forest), with Maurice Rostand, theater piece, 1931
• Les Papillotes (wrapped candies), one-act in verse, 1931
• Féeries (Fairies), 1933
• Les Masques de l'amour, theater in verse, 1928
• La Tour Saint-Jacques (St. James Tower), theater in verse, 1928
• Les Papillotes, theater in verse, 1928
• À quoi rêvent les vieilles filles (What Do Old Girls Dream Of), theater in verse, 1928
• La Tour Saint-Jacques, one-act in verse, 1934
• Edmond Rostand, 1935
• Rien que des chansons (Nothing But Songs), 1939
• Les Muses françaises (The French Muses), poems, 1943
• Méditations poétiques et harmonies poétiques de Victor Hugo, sonnet, preface by Rosemonde Gérard, 1930
• Histoire d'amour et Lettre de rupture, two songs by Rosemonde Gérard and Tiarko Richepin, registered by Jeanne Aubert in 1942