Rostand's romantic plays contrasted with the naturalistic theatre popular during the late nineteenth century.

His father was an economist, a poet who translated and edited the works of Catullus,[4] and a member of the Marseille Academy and the Institut de France.

When Rostand was twenty years old, his first play, a one-act comedy, Le Gant rouge, was performed at the Cluny Theatre, 24 August 1888, but it was almost unnoticed.

The part of Melisandre (based on Hodierna's daughter Melisende of Tripoli) was created by Sarah Bernhardt[8] but the play was not particularly successful.

[4] Rambaldo di Vaqueiras: I Monferrato, 1922 1922 verse drama by Nino Berrini(it) is based on La Princesse Lointaine.

A patriotic subject was required, and Rostand chose a subject from Napoleonic history, suggested probably by Henri Welschinger's Roi de Rome, 1811–32 (1897), which contained much new information about the unhappy life of the Duke of Reichstadt, son of Napoleon I, and Marie Louise, surveilled by agents of Metternich at the Schönbrunn Palace.

L'Aiglon, a verse drama in six acts, was produced (15 March 1900) by Sarah Bernhardt at her own theatre, she herself performing the trouser role of the Duke of Reichstadt.

Here he built himself a villa, Arnaga (now a Rostand museum) and worked on his next play, one for Constant Coquelin this time, Chantecler.

[7] Produced in February 1910, it was awaited with an interest, enhanced by considerable delay in the production, which affected the enthusiasm of its reception.

[12] Rostand was married to the poet and playwright Rosemonde-Étiennette Gérard who, in 1890, published Les Pipeaux: a volume of verse commended by the Academy.

During the 1900s, Rostand came to live in the Villa Arnaga in Cambo-les-Bains in the French Basque Country, seeking a cure for his pleurisy.