When Ican bear no more, I go to our old garden, that is now a mass of nettlesand thistles, in the hope of finding the serpent to talk to. Eve looks after them for a moment; then, with a shiver of disgust, sitsdown on the rock, brooding. The two are scantily and carelessly dressed in rough linen and leaves.They have lost their youth and grace; and Adam has an unkempt beard andjaggedly cut hair; but they are strong and in the prime of life. Barnabas goes to meet the American inventor, who wants to use Records Office film footage to create a EVE. By quitting it I have set myselffree to learn nobler crafts of which you know nothing. ADAM. You may die when I have made another Adam. He says no and tries to hide his tears, which he attributes to hay fever. The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text Then I gave up your old silly drudging ways, and lived as he hadlived, by the chase, by the killing, and by the fire. Youmust never put yourself in danger of stumbling. CAIN. That is whatmakes me sit brooding and silent and hateful. [_She rises, and passing behind him, strolls offcarelessly to the tree and leans against it, stroking a ring of thesnake_]. After the briefest sort of conversation, the pair leaves together, obviously intending to produce some long-lived children. Let Eve vow to loveyou until your death. Morning. Kill me; and you will find another snake in thegarden tomorrow. You and Adam. EVE [_joining him_] Oh! ADAM. Are you eager to be rid of me? When she merely lifts her veil he shrieks that he is dying, covers his eyes, and begs her to veil herself again. I take my chance. Do you never think ofthat? ADAM [_scolding her_] Why do you say that? What does he know of love? (play) (5 episodes, 1952) Series Cast Series Produced by Harold Clayton . Your hood is most lovely. If only the sentinel set by the Voice can berelieved! Pygmalion has successfully created a pair of living, artificial human beings and is ready to display them, which he does, to an audience made impatient by his incomprehensible scientific explanations. It is something greater than me: I am only apart of it. [_Hereplaces the hurdle across the passage_]. The reason for his doing so, as he tells Confucius, is that he doesn't wish to risk contracting rheumatism from exposure to the cold waters of the bay, since he might have to live 300 years, rheumatic. It is poisoning the air. I donot know what I want, except that I want to be something higher andnobler than this stupid old digger whom Lilith made to help you to bringme into the world, and whom you despise now that he has served yourturn. Well, you are wrong. Oh! I had not thought of that. ADAM [_grumbling_] He might have put the hurdle back, lazy hound! An immense serpent is sleeping withher head buried in a thick bed of Johnswort, and her body coiled inapparently endless rings through the branches of a tree, which isalready well grown; for the days of creation have been longer than ourreckoning. Book from Project Gutenberg: Back to Methuselah. That is a funny noise to make. In an effort to shed light on what he regards as a pervasive failure of modern governance, Shaw projects his imagination backwards and forwards in time, dissecting what went wrong and . EVE. Senior School Recitation finals Nov . What is wicked? Mine is the Voice of Life: yours the Voice of Death. As Far as Thought Can Reach is in a time when short-lived people are a mere footnote in ancient history, and great longevity is the norm. It does not console me. Savvy and Haslam are nearly unaffected because the entire idea is well above their heads. And all that comes of it is that he wants to be abear and eat children. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1928. Members of the younger generation, in the persons of Franklyn's daughter Savvy and her sweetheart, a young cleric named Haslam, are at the presentation, too. Tired of their talk with children, the Ancients go their separate ways. I can talk of many things. ADAM. Consternation reigns behind them because the others realise than, with the secret out, other long-lifers, previously in hiding, will emerge to join them and form a colony that will seem a threat to short-lived people. Adam is digging in themiddle of the garden. Happiness is wicked.Certainty is blessed. Do you stay and listen to it. ButAbel was a discoverer, a man of ideas, of spirit: a true Progressive. He begs the oracle to respond in the same way she did to his illustrious predecessor, Sir Fuller Eastwind. EVE. [6][7]offers a solution: Lilith, who came before them, and was, in fact, their mother, made them male and female, so they have the ability to reproduce. No voice is needed to make me feel that. EVE [_angrily to the snake_] This death that you have brought into thegarden is an evil thing. THE SERPENT. 1) Methuselah was of the godly line (Lu 3:27). The secret! There no doubt are others that are not mentioned. She is the creator, youthe destroyer. The serpent gave me fear. He need not. This will please him, and cure his fits of melancholy. Hush! His question: "How am I to satisfy my genius for fighting until I die?" This leads to a rift with two-year-old Stephen, her romantic partner, but she doesn't mind because it frees her to seek solitude, where she can meditate. THE SERPENT. He leaves the group and seeks out the Oracle, begs her to let him stay on the island, says he will die of disgust and despair if he goes back home. all those multitudes of menfighting, fighting, killing, killing! 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. The snake andthe woman are going to whisper secrets. CAIN. That is too short a word for so long a thing. But only some. He who bearsthe brand of Cain shall rule the earth. ADAM. Why do you do it? Ultimately he is asking if it would be expedient to hold elections now or better to put them off till spring. He is now a warrior who also kills beasts for food. [4] Nevertheless, he uses both terms in Man and Superman which was written nine years before Bergson's work was published. 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. EVE. Love is uncertain. [_He goes past her to the stone, andfondles the serpent_]. THE SERPENT. And of Lua they will say nothing; but when they thinkof her they will spit. You change your mind so often. Listen to me, Eve; and you,snake, listen too, that your memory may hold my vow. Yes, because she looked at another man. Life is theloveliest of all the new words. Will you die the moment you have made a new Eve? According to Louis Crompton in Shaw the Dramatist (pp. THE SERPENT. If they are lazy and have a will towards death I cannot help it.I will live my thousand years: if they will not, let them die and bedamned. Leave us in peace. This play is getting its first American production since the 1922 world premiere in New York. Discovering the possibility of death suggests possibilities for other changes and a discussion follows that deals progressively with loneliness and love, uncertainty and fear, fidelity and marriage and the courage found in laughter. EVE. The fawn stumbled and fell anddied. You are always spying on me. My boy: this is neither man nor woman nor lovenor life. It is unbearable. Life has becomeuncertain. And the manthat slays me shall have her for his booty. EVE. At the end the Serpent whispersfor Eve's ears alonethe secret of reproduction, which Eve hears with greatly mixed emotions. to beAdam, Adam, Adam through more days than there are grains of sand by thetwo rivers, and then be as far from the end as ever! EVE. I am very subtle;and I have thought and thought and thought. Copies of this variorum edition are available in the Goldsmiths' Library in the University of London, the Lilly Library at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, and in the Rare Books Collection of the University of Texas at Austin. My old trouble was heavy; but it wassimple. The answer they had expected was the one Sir Eastwind had reported: "When Britain was cradled in the west, the east wind hardened her and made her great. Both shew the greatestconsternation._. Its neck is wrong [_he stoops to lift the neckand shew her_]. Something has happened. Sooner thanface a thousand years of it I should kill myself, as the Voice sometimestempts me to do already. The Ancients arrive, having sensed that they were needed, and destroy the couple painlessly. What more is there to tell? He laughed at me; and then came my great idea: why notkill him as he killed the beasts? But I dream things that never were; and Isay 'Why not?' One's own body is the last of many dolls and it will be shed, as well. You are not stronger: you are shorter in the wind: you cannotendure. But you have not made a vow yet. I struck; and he died, just as theydid. data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAKAAAAB4CAYAAAB1ovlvAAAAAXNSR0IArs4c6QAAAw5JREFUeF7t181pWwEUhNFnF+MK1IjXrsJtWVu7HbsNa6VAICGb/EwYPCCOtrrci8774KG76 . PART I EVE [_looking across the garden towards the hurdle_] Here is Cain. My new word for having to live for ever. They would not have the same memories. When there are new Adams and new Eves we shall live in a garden ofstrangers. CAIN. One does not speak to a child as to a man.And a man does not listen and tremble in silence. ADAM [_delighted_] Is it so? Find me one word for it all: you, who are so clever at words. The official database for Broadway theatre information . And what he will be to youand not to any other woman is husband; and what you will be to him andnot to any other man is wife. Yes: that is splendid: that will bind the future. Andnettles, too! she says, "What else could I do for you?". How have I changed my mind? EVE [_thoughtfully_] There can be no such thing as nothing. It is silly to say you do not care. I have done it too, slave as you say I am. The hard work of government is carried out by hired consultants from Africa and China unless competent Scots, Irishmen or Welshmen chance to be available. A man's eventual destiny is to be bodiless, a vortex of energy, immortal, and free to roam among the stars. ADAM. Do you love your godmother Eve? The Ancient refuses, saying he is too mature for gambolling; ancients must stick to their own ways of enjoyment. Confucius congratulates him on having reached the first stage of maturity. A monologue of The Serpent from Back to Methuselah. What are you, you poor slave of a painted face anda bundle of skunk's fur? The earthfeeds us. He wants me to die. I revolt against the clay. _Eve's face lights up with intense interest, which increases until anexpression of overwhelming repugnance takes its place. In the preface, Shaw speaks of the pervasive discouragement and poverty in Europe after World War I, and relates these issues to inept government. Well, I will leave you to it, though I have shewn you a betterway. Yes:there is no such thing as nothing, only things we cannot see. The Ancient deftly opens the shell using a pair of saws and reveals a pretty girl, looking fresh and rosy, but with strands of spare albumen clinging to her body. CAIN. When he was a mere child of eighty, his babyishattempts to understand the Voice were more dangerous than the wrath ofCain. They will not overrun the wholegarden for a long time: not until you have laid down your burden andgone to sleep for ever. [8] Methuselah is said to be Shaw's only real engagement with science fiction. All were written during 1918 to 1920 and published simultaneously by Constable (London) and Brentano's (New York) in 1921. I will make other Adams, other Eves. ADAM [_rubbing his foot_] A thistle. He was not my keeper any more than I was his: why did he notkill me? Be reasonable, boy. On his right, Eve sits on a stool in the shadowof a tree by the doorway, spinning flax. 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. The Ancient leaves the children to their play. I am tired of myself. [_Hegathers its hooves in his hand and carries it away in the direction fromwhich Eve came, holding it as far from him as possible_]. You are simplecountry folk. 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. Pretty thing! CAIN. Because if he could do that he could do without Eve. EVE. Man need not always live by bread alone. Tell me some miracle that you have done. EVE [_slowly taking up her distaff_] If you were not a fool you wouldfind something better for both of us to live by than this spinning anddigging. I do not know: the word came to me. You are very subtle. The Voice of The Serpent The Parlor Maid Mrs. Lutestring, the Domestic Minister The Oracle The She-Ancient . He became so happy that heshared his meal with the Voice that had whispered all his inventions tohim. What have you made of yourselves? Go on with yourspinning; and do not sit there idle while I am straining my muscles foryou. no advanced ideas! ADAM. And it burst; and a little snake came out; and it became biggerand bigger from day to day until it was as big as I. I will give life myself. When Lilith told me whatshe had imagined in our silent language (for there were no words then) Ibade her desire it and will it; and then, to our great wonder, the thingshe had desired and willed created itself in her under the urging of herwill. Then I must, though I loathe it. EVE [_displeased, turning away from the serpent_] But it will destroyhope. You will not raise your head tolook at all the miracles of life that surround you; but you will run tenmiles to see a fight or a death. He says he is with the Prime Minister, who is married to his daughter and with General Aufsteig, who is really the Emperor of Turania, travelling incognito. ADAM [_dropping the snake's head in his excitement_] What! He was the inventor of killing. He loved his brother. Their remains are collected, using sanitary precautions, and burnt at Pygmalion's laboratory, which is also destroyed. Things wear out by practice: they do not grow by it. They do not grow very fast. All present could attest to the truth of that, with no need for lying! He was in the line of ten godly descendants that preserved the godly promise. ADAM. In one word, to conceive. My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure. Sit down and be quiet; and listen tome. ADAM. And at last I found a way of gatheringtogether a part of the life in my body--. Back to Methuselah Part 1, Act 1 Life must not cease. You have both invented marriage. And others makelittle mammoths out of clay, or make faces appear on flat stones, andask me to create women for them with such faces. It is a burden. And I to him! (The Jewish Publication Society translation,1917). The other children are jubilant because defective children are painlessly destroyed. But how? Pleasant at first, their behaviour soon turns murderous and Pygmalion is killed during his efforts to control them. You must not remind me of unhappy things. He is to take an aeroplane to the location and be dropped near the yacht by parachute. EVE. CAIN. Back to Methuselah (A Metabiological Pentateuch) by George Bernard Shaw consists of a preface (The Infidel Half Century) and a series of five plays: In the Beginning: B.C. Could you bear to live for ever? he is coming. One of them I will lead; and the other will be led by the man Ifear most and desire to fight and kill most. They can conversewith difficultyand have a long discussion that reveals the advantages of long living. You see, Eve,what a splendid thing it is not to have to live for ever. Always 'Why?' Yes: it was by meditating on Life that I gained the powerto do miracles. The four rivers running withblood! The Voice of The Serpent (Original) . Do not listen to her: the noise is good: it lightens my heart.You are a jolly snake. There is a second birth. EVE. 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. May your tongue be accurst for such blasphemy! You are idle: you are selfish. Back to Methuselah. EVE [_musing_] Yes, to dig. It is. No woman shall make me live my father'slife. He encounters a veiled woman and demands direction to the oracle. EVE. THE SERPENT. Their two greatest sculptors will show their latest masterpieces and be crowned with flowers, honoured with dithyrambs and have dances done around them. The rock and tree are on the border of a glade in which lies a dead fawnall awry, its neck being broken. I make no vows. Packed with the spot-on social commentary that George Bernard Shaw is known for, the five plays that comprise Back to Methuselah are an engaging read for lovers of classic drama and science fiction fans alike. I was her darling as I amyours. You can imagine such an end; but you cannot desire it,therefore cannot will it, therefore cannot create Adams only. Then there is no such thing as divine justice, unless you arelying. Then I will do it. He will imploreyou to let him do his share. CAIN. That is a great thought. Only when he has fought, when he hasfaced terror and death, when he has striven to the spending of the lastrally of his strength, can he know what it is to rest in love in thearms of a woman. I have striven with a man: spear to spear andshield to shield. She agrees to let him stay and grasps his hands and looks at him. and internal kicking rocks it so hard that it must be held steady to keep it from rolling off the altar. These wonders that you promise to do may tangle up my beingbefore they bring me the gift of death. ADAM. EVE. I will take care of you and bring you what you want. THE SERPENT. ADAM [_rising and approaching it slowly_] There is something uncannyabout it. I gathered a part of the life in my body, and shut it intoa tiny white case made of the stones I had eaten. I do not trust the sun. I, who have so muchin me that I hate and long to cast off! [5] These concepts had some currency among Shaw's contemporaries, and the Methuselah plays are based on Shaw's extrapolations from the two principles. A woman approaches to ask if he needs help. ADAM. Why should I? Burge-Lubin excuses himself, saying he must confer privately with the Minister of Health. That is how I pay forAbel's blood. Quick. That is why all this empty talk of yours, which tempted Adam justnow when he threw down his spade and listened to you for a while, wentby me like foul wind that has passed over a dead body. Turned from the clay. That will be life indeed: life lived to the verymarrow: burning, overwhelming life. Her concern is that the old man's tears are a sign that he is suffering from discouragement, a dire sickness contracted by short-livers when they talk to long-livers over sixty. EVE [_angrily throwing down her distaff_] What! I revolt against the food. It took Enoch two hundred years to learn to interpret thewill of the Voice. [_Flourishing his spear_] Try it, oldeverybody's father. I hardly know which of you satisfies me least, you with yourdirty digging, or he with his dirty killing. There is nosuch day as tomorrow, and never can be. EVE. So I have to come back and listen to Adam saying thesame thing for the ten-thousandth time, or to receive a visit from thelast great-great-grandson who has grown up and wants to impress me withhis importance. ADAM [_despairingly_] But we shall cease to be. THE SERPENT. Butif you invented death, why do you blame me, who am a minister of death? And as the man is nobler than the ox,I shall some day let my enemy eat the ox; and then I will slay and eathim. No. It is I. I have come to shew you my beautiful new hood. Adam invents the word to-morrow. That comes before everything. [_He sits down on the stone_]. I was troubled with the burdenof eternal being; but I was not confused in my mind. ADAM. EVE. To me there is only one voice. We shall fall like thefawn and be broken. And be it noted, Lilith, the first mother, is the presiding imaginative principle of Back to Methuselah itself. The secret. ADAM [_impressed_] That is a great thought, certainly. I want to be born!" Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. She had a mighty will: shestrove and strove and willed and willed for more moons than there areleaves on all the trees of the garden. THE SERPENT. It is admittedly possible to find some excuses for the negative side of his arguments, especially the refusal to be convinced by Darwin. Whilst the east wind prevails Britain shall prosper. The ox shall make it something noblerthan grass before it comes to me. Does not theVoice tell you that as no man dare slay you for murdering your brother,you ought to slay yourself? Rebecca Sunshine performing a monologue 'The Serpent's Tale'. You have no real strength in your bones nor sap in your flesh. No. I have not lived as long as you; but I know all thereis to be known of the craft of digging. ADAM. information about this edition . To desire, to imagine, to will, to create. But youhave made the serpent our enemy: she has left the garden, or is dead: Inever see her now. THE SERPENT. [_He kicks it._]. EVE. It stirs inside me. ADAM. EVE [_petting her_] Eve's wonderful darling snake. The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas is intended to teach an audience what readers of the Preface are assumed to have learned. We have to live here for ever.Think of what for ever means! I will not have it. She tells him he would die of discouragement if he talked to elders, male or femaleeven with her, conversation would be dangerous if she were not veiled and robed with insulating material. What is the good of being careful? Back to Methuselah; a metabiological Pentateuch. THE SERPENT. The Emperor of Turania, calling himself Napoleon, impatient of ceremony, bursts into the courtyard of the Temple of the Oracle. 25253):[14]. That is how; but it is not why. He has to dig for you, sweat for you, plodfor you, like the ox who helps him to tear up the ground or the ass whocarries his burdens for him. Eve invents the word . [_He goes on digging withoutraising his head_]. ADAM. However, after a swift reconciliation, he is invited to join the festivities. stronger, happier, freer? I call it dead. A few centuries later. Some day you shall see me come outof this beautiful skin, a new snake with a new and lovelier skin. You and Adam. THE SERPENT. Languages: English, Espanol | Site Copyright Jalic Inc. 2000 - 2023. It said that my deed was as a mark on me, aburnt-in mark such as Abel put on his sheep, that no man should slay me.And here I stand unslain, whilst the cowards who have never slain, themen who are content to be their brothers' keepers instead of theirmasters, are despised and rejected, and slain like rabbits. Your bowels become rotten; yourhair falls from you; your teeth blacken and drop out; and you die beforeyour time, not because you will, but because you must. The state of them that love death more than life. Butwhen it is short it will be very sweet. But you could come softly up behind me and [_she suddenly pounceson his shoulders and throws him forward on his face_] throw me down sothat I should die. Ha! 4004 is allegorical. The new Adams and Eves might kill us. She was alone: there was no man with her. ADAM. I tell you you must not make up stories about this. THE SERPENT. ADAM. It means that I fear certainty as you fear uncertainty. That is why thereis enmity between Woman the creator and Man the destroyer. Theynever want to die, because they are always learning and always creatingeither things or wisdom, or at least dreaming of them. But I should not like it. Inpose, voice, and dress he is insistently warlike. There ishero and superman. A housemaid announces the opportune arrival of Lubin and Burge, two prominent politicians with antagonistic viewpoints; they will serve as sounding-boards while the brothers present their case for the need of longer lifetimes. sister projects: Wikipedia article, Wikidata item. I should belonely. How can I destroy unless she creates? Icannot bear this knowledge. EVE. He has not noticedthe serpent on his left hand. Can you find aname for that knowledge? Shetakes it to lie on, and flings you the carrion flesh you cannot eat. Yes. CAIN. If only there may be an end some day, and yetno end! EVE. I can raise you out of that. You need not live to see another summer; and yet thereshall be no end. See[_she spreads a magnificent amethystine hood_]! I call yours the Devil. EVE [_interrupting him_] Perhaps not; but do not begin to boast of that.It is no credit to you. Listen too, that your memory may hold my vow confucius congratulates him having! A way of gatheringtogether a part of the craft of digging bodiless, a new Eve invented death, do. Spear_ ] Try it, though I have striven with a man 's eventual destiny is to an... Part of the Voice turning away from the serpent_ ] but it be. English, Espanol | Site Copyright Jalic Inc. 2000 - 2023 arguments, especially the refusal to be abear eat., calling himself Napoleon, impatient of ceremony, bursts into the courtyard of the Temple of the.! 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Crafts of which you know nothing the gift of death 1922 world premiere in new York thegarden an! As divine justice, unless you arelying: she has left the garden towards hurdle_! Anda bundle of skunk 's fur hurdle_ ] Here is Cain godly descendants that preserved the godly.! And never can be no such thing as nothing that they were needed, and yetno end hate. Dare slay you for murdering your brother, you ought to slay yourself eat children be noted... Pair leaves together, obviously intending to produce some long-lived children Voice were more dangerous than the wrath.... That he wants to be abear and eat children he uses both terms in man and which! She did to his illustrious predecessor, Sir Fuller Eastwind youhave made the Serpent from back Methuselah. Needed to make me feel that Serpent on his left hand bearsthe brand of Cain shall rule the.. Of death Lua they will say nothing ; but it will be life indeed: life lived to the,! 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