ADAM. He says he'll take that chance, since it is more honourable. It is the horror of having to be with myself forever. Oh! Yousee things; and you say 'Why?' EVE [_turning away from him with a shrug, and hugging her ankles_] Ishould soon get tired of that. ADAM [_impressed_] That is a great thought, certainly. That is too long astory. Forsooth, when you have slain the boar at the riskof your life, you will throw her a morsel of it for her pains! Two must shareit. I wish I had a serpent's tongue. She is a better sort of woman to live with than you. ADAM. Of better things. The four rivers running withblood! He begs the oracle to respond in the same way she did to his illustrious predecessor, Sir Fuller Eastwind. You call that love! He said that the Voice was the voice of the fire that cooked hisfood, and that the fire that could cook could also eat. There will be no pain for him. Come here. And then you,Cain, come to me with your stupid fighting and destroying, and yourfoolish boasting; and you want me to tell you that it is all splendid,and that you are heroic, and that nothing but death or the dread ofdeath makes life worth living. I am a man: youare only a grown-up child. He is equipped withhuge spear and broad brass-bound leather shield; his casque is a tiger'shead with bull's horns; he wears a scarlet cloak with gold brooch over alion's skin with the claws dangling; his feet are in sandals with brassornaments; his shins are in brass greaves; and his bristling militarymoustache glistens with oil. who have thedrudgery of preparing the food? And then you grovelled ather feet, and cried, and begged her to forgive you, and were ten timesmore her slave than ever; and she, when she had finished screaming andthe pain went off a little, she forgave you, did she not? BACK TO METHUSELAH A Metabiological Pentateuch by BERNARD SHAW 1921 Contents The Infidel Half Century The Dawn of Darwinism The Advent of the Neo-Darwinians Political Inadequacy of the Human Animal Cowardice of the Irreligious Is there any Hope Home - Books - Back to Methuselah by George Bernard Shaw This page contains affiliate links. EVE. I tell you I will create, though Itear myself to pieces in the act. I will live athousand sets of the four seasons--. THE SERPENT. ADAM [_angrily_] Be silent, woman. Back to Methuselah (1952- ) Full Cast & Crew See agents for this cast & crew on IMDbPro Series Directed by Alan Bromly . Something quite different to myself, like you. Its first full production was at the Garrick Theatre in New York, with acts 1 and 2 being . Eve: do notplay with me about this. Dare it. EVE. I do not trust the sun. But why did she divide into two, and make us different? Your hood is most lovely. The secret! That is a great thought. Poor mother! What is a fool? ADAM. His meal cost him a day's glorious health-giving sport andan hour's amusing play with the fire. THE SERPENT. But he must give hisdesire and his will to you. One does not speak to a child as to a man.And a man does not listen and tremble in silence. They are plainly modelled from the primitives of the twentieth century. You are lazy: you are dirty: youneglect yourself: you are always dreaming: you would eat bad food andbecome disgusting if I did not watch you and occupy myself with you. [5] These concepts had some currency among Shaw's contemporaries, and the Methuselah plays are based on Shaw's extrapolations from the two principles. They can dream without sleeping. And I have to pretend to be surprised, delighted, interested;though the last child is like the first, and has said and done nothingthat did not delight Adam and me when you and Abel said it. But if I createanother Eve he may turn to her and do without me. EVE. That is hope. THE SERPENT. The first scene opens with England's president, Burge-Lubin (descendant and composite of the politicians seen in The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas) squabbling with a Barnabas descendantvia telephones equipped with televisionabout which of them should welcome a visiting American who has invented a method for breathing underwater. What have you to do with one another now? Coo-ee! ADAM. Yes. It is changing into little white worms. That is the true nature of woman. EVE [_snatching herself loose from Adam_] Do not make that odious noise,I tell you. ADAM. He defiantly dares her to remove her veil and robe. Some day you shall see me come outof this beautiful skin, a new snake with a new and lovelier skin. ADAM. Never forget it. Why not? [_He goes on digging withoutraising his head_]. Act I of In the Beginning, wherein the Serpent as Lilith's emissary talks to Eve, is one of Shaw's happiest efforts, though the Adam and Eve of . EVE. You are idle: you are selfish. Ha! The growth of Shaw's own imaginative response to the catastrophe of war became a deliberate project in which he encapsulated his general conclusions about imagination based on his experience of confronting Let the newAdams clear a place for themselves. It was for that that Lilith set you free from thetravail of women, not for theft and murder. How am I a greater fool than you? That is how I pay forAbel's blood. In the Beginning: B.C. Fear will drive me to anything. The Serpent invents the words love, stranger, life, birth, death, jealousy, years, chance, fear, marriage, hope and the act of laughing. ADAM. Lick the white stone: bite theapple you dread. Fear is stronger in me than hope. Ihave a plan. Now you no longer care. ADAM. And the manthat slays me shall have her for his booty. Hewas the discoverer of blood. CAIN. Think of that! Martellus laughs, but not in mockery; he says he, too, attempted such a project, but has smashed all his sculptures and thrown away his tools. If I am toeat like a bear, if Lua is to bring forth cubs like a bear, then I hadrather be a bear than a man; for the bear is not ashamed: he knows nobetter. Instead of breathing you sneeze, or coughup your insides, and wither and perish. I worship you, Eve. My new word for having to live for ever. ADAM. They expound his philosophy of creative evolution in an extended dramatic parable that progresses through time from the Garden of Eden to 31,920 ce. He rises, stiffens, and falls dead. Andfor her sake I will not kill you, though I could send this spear throughyou without coming within reach of your spade. But they might not be quite the same. It issilly to say you do not care. But youhave made the serpent our enemy: she has left the garden, or is dead: Inever see her now. ADAM. Eve, better humored (having given upworrying), sits and spins and thinks. He considered it a book for reading rather than playing on the stage, and was agreeably surprised when Lawrence Langner in New York and Barry Vincent Jackson in Birmingham insisted on producing it despite expectations of monetary loss, which were promptly justified. I have another thought: I must tell it to Adam. She told it to me as a marvellous story of something thatnever happened to a Lilith that never was. Peace, peace, you two fools. Why, it gave me right. I cleared away the thistles and briars. EVE. Every man who has not seen it, heardit, felt it, risked it, will feel a humbled fool in the presence of theman who has. THE SERPENT. I am the first murderer: you are only the first man. Some Reflections on Back to Methuselah in Performance Critics have had divided reactions to Back to Methuselah. Oh! CAIN. [_He spits on his hands, and takes up the spadeagain_]. If only there may be an end some day, and yetno end! She loved me more than ever. EVE. A man's eventual destiny is to be bodiless, a vortex of energy, immortal, and free to roam among the stars. And if Adam keeps his vow I will love no other man until he dies. It is I who must conceive. THE SERPENT. I am to be a mere convenience to make men for you to kill! His prime interest was not scientific, but political, as stated in the Preface where he discusses changes he considers essential before mankind can govern itself successfully. Their dread of death is overwhelmed by the yet more dreadful prospect of life unending, with its tedium and burdens, but they feel bound to live forever because Eden must be taken care of and they are the only ones available to do it. And I! [_He sits down on the stone_]. [_She sits on the rock and throws herarms round the serpent, who begins whispering to her_]. CAIN. [_She strokes it and pets the serpent_].Pretty thing! ADAM. That may come too. THE SERPENT. The Oracle tells him that he will die of discouragement if he stays behind. Creation must not be strangled. EVE [_throwing herself on the ground beside him, and grasping his knee_]You must be careful. When Adam delved and Eve span, where was then the gentleman? THE SERPENT. CAIN. I cannot think it was foreither of these cheap ways of life that Lilith set you free. Kill me; and you will find another snake in thegarden tomorrow. Why do you want to drive him away? And of Lua they will say nothing; but when they thinkof her they will spit. Back to Methuselah: With Fanny Rowe, Ursula Howells, Ellen Pollock, Ernest Clark. It is I who have to do the miracle. EVE. Jealousy. EVE. It is. That is how; but it is not why. EVE [_rising and running to him_] Only think, Adam! Cain . CAIN. Senior School Recitation finals Nov 25, 2008 . EVE. That is a dreadful thought. Why not live bravely, and die early and makeroom for others? I am not lying: I dare all truths. I want to be different; tobe better, to begin again and again; to shed myself as a snake sheds itsskin. By another thing, called birth. If I am to die like the fawn, why should not the rest die too? The voice in the garden is your own voice. Do you love your godmother Eve? [_To Eve_] We have made our vows; and if you mustcreate, you shall create within the bounds of those vows. I will give life myself. I _will_ bind the future. You must not remind me of unhappy things. If you, Cain, had had the trouble of making Abel,or had had to make another man to replace him when he was gone, youwould not have killed him: you would have risked your own life to savehis. You can feel nothing but atorment, and believe nothing but a lie. EVE [_now pitying him maternally_] Love! Selfish, yes: a life in which no man is his brother's keeper,because his brother can keep himself. Ask that woman whom you made, who is also my wife,whether she would have me as I was in the days when I followed the waysof Adam, and was a digger and a drudge? EVE. I will tell you a great secret. Make a vow. Jealousy. Always dig, dig, dig. When you and Adam talk, I hear you say 'Why?' ADAM. Zozim catches up, recuses himself as overly mature, and asks to be replaced by someone younger. It is I who have thought of it. They couldnot: I feel sure of that. She saw death as yousaw it when the fawn fell; and she knew then that she must find out howto renew herself and cast the skin like me. ADAM. Hope is wicked. Do not forget that, Adam. Although both ideas are out of scientific favour as the twenty-first century begins, Shaw accepted them completely (See Commentary, below.) EVE. ADAM. EVE. [_He rises threateningly_]. No: he, too, must desire and will. Listen. To his parents he has the self-assertive,not-quite-at-ease manner of a revolted son who knows that he is notforgiven nor approved of._. All were written during 1918 to 1920 and published simultaneously by Constable (London) and Brentano's (New York) in 1921. You slay the tiger at the risk of yourlife; but who gets the striped skin you have run that risk for? We shall need each other. I will bedelivered from fear. Back to Methuselah (Revival, Play, Comedy, Broadway) opened in New York City Mar 26, 1958 and played through Apr 19, 1958. Yes: you have to twirl a stick to feel your strength: you cannottaste life without making it bitter and boiling hot: you cannot loveLua until her face is painted, nor feel the natural warmth of her fleshuntil you have stuck a squirrel's fur on it. Why not bringthem up from childhood never to know any other lot, so that they maybelieve that we are gods, and that they are here only to make lifeglorious for us? One's own body is the last of many dolls and it will be shed, as well. She looks seventeen years old. But I have some thoughts that come from within me andnot from the voices. It took Enoch two hundred years to learn to interpret thewill of the Voice. ADAM. Oh! 4004 is allegorical. That is true. The world is wide enough to keep usapart. Lilith did not imagine him so. Superman! the curses of despair!the shrieks of torment! The Minister of Health is a beautiful Black African woman, and the Presidential conference turns out to be a dalliance via long-distance videophone. Do you stay and listen to it. The Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman begins in 3000 AD, on the south shore of Galway Bay where an old man is found sitting on an ancient stone bollard, once used as a mooring for ships. To be thefirst murderer one must be a man of spirit. Back to Methuselah; a metabiological Pentateuch. EVE. I will take care of you and bring you what you want. Something has happened. He who has never fought has never lived. You are very subtle. Mine I call the Voice ofGod. The Prime Minister's choice was clear. EVE. CAIN [_to Adam_] Still digging? THE SERPENT. And Ihave eaten strange things: stones and apples that you are afraid to eat. I know that it must not be. No. ADAM. 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