Itmay be tomorrow; it may be after as many days as there are leaves inthe garden and grains of sand by the river. ADAM [_returning_] Is there another voice in the garden besides ourvoices and the Voice? I struck; and he died, just as theydid. ADAM. It is I who am to die. 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. Shaw says they are his names for what the churches have called Providence and scientists call Functional Adaptation and Natural Selection (among other names) and gives due credit to Henri Bergson's lan vital. Love may be too long a word for so short a thing soon. I _will_ bind the future. Butwhen it is short it will be very sweet. EVE. Jealousy. EVE [_to Adam_] You think, perhaps, that his way of life may be betterthan yours after all. Senior School Recitation finals Nov . CAIN. ADAM [_delighted_] Is it so? Who invented killing? The Archbishop is recognizably the Reverend Haslam, Savvy Barnabas' sweetheart, no longer callow, but dignified and confident and looking no more than fifty. Let Eve vow to loveyou until your death. You think youcould, because you know that you will never have to make your thoughtgood. THE SERPENT. Do you love your godmother Eve? You and Adam. Both shew the greatestconsternation._. His meal cost him a day's glorious health-giving sport andan hour's amusing play with the fire. So that is what comes of turning your face to the clean clearheavens! You say thatI make a mere convenience of Adam: I who spin and keep the house, andbear and rear children, and am a woman and not a pet animal to pleasemen and prey on them! I want to see my work sometimes. 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. 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. Am I not betterthan you? ADAM. It was playing about; and it tripped and went head over heels.It never stirred again. The Voice in the garden will tell them that theymust not kill, as it tells me. Life is still long enough to learn to dig, short as they aremaking it. THE SERPENT. I do not want to kill my mother. He turns his face to his right and callsexcitedly. She did not know then thatimagination is the beginning of creation. Food drawn down from heaven, made out of the air, not dug dirtilyfrom the earth. Back To Methuselah. EVE [_snatching herself loose from Adam_] Do not make that odious noise,I tell you. Sit down and be quiet; and listen tome. Through him and his like, death is gaining on life. ADAM [_grumbling_] He might have put the hurdle back, lazy hound! EVE. There is somethingthat holds us together, something that has no word--. (The foreigners live no longer than the English, but they mature early.). ADAM. They are plainly modelled from the primitives of the twentieth century. Two brothers, one a retired, but influential cleric (Franklyn) and the other a biologist of note (Conrad), independently conclude that humans must increase their lifespans to three centuries in order to acquire the wisdom and experience needed to make complex civilizations functional. Near her head alow rock shows above the Johnswort. . If only I can be relieved of the horror of having to enduremyself for ever! Turned upward to the sun, to the clear cleanheavens. Adam has invented something new. You do care. he is coming. I worship you, Eve. [_She licks Eve's neck with her doubletongue_]. Death. Oh! EVE. The Prime Minister, now called The Envoy, is too overwhelmed to ask his question until he swallows a half-pint of brandy. EVE. EVE. THE SERPENT. Adam invents the word to-morrow. I am the most subtle of all the creatures of the field. ADAM. He rushes from the courtyard, blowing a whistle to summon the police, but is immobilized, within a force-field, near a monument of Falstaff, where he will stand and gibber until it is convenient to collect him. Sooner or later I shall trip and fall. CAIN. CAIN. 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? EVE [_rising and running to him_] Only think, Adam! And if Adam keeps his vow I will love no other man until he dies. Except for the brothers, only the housemaid is greatly influenced by the prospect of longevity, for she turns out to be the only one who has really read Conrad's book. CAIN. One of them is cynical, not believing longevity will happen, but the other deems the theory valid, yet rejects the prospect out of hand because longer lives will be available to everyone instead of only the elite. Conrad has published their The discussion is interrupted by the arrival of the Domestic Minister, Mrs Lutestring to give her mandatory quarterly report. killing or digging in the garden and says her future sons will find things more wonderful to do. It is not only its eyes. He defiantly dares her to remove her veil and robe. producer (5 episodes, 1952) Series Art Department Stephen Bundy . 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. In one word, to conceive. ADAM. I revolt against the clay. EVE. There no doubt are others that are not mentioned. This work, written during 1918-1921, is comprised of a Preface and five Parts; each Part is a a complete play. Mine is the Voice of Life: yours the Voice of Death. But it might be. Sticking in theold furrow. THE SERPENT. Well, as the serpent used to say, why not? Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Adam and Eve, as avatars for aboriginal humanity, discover a fawn dead from a broken neck and realize they, too, will die eventually from some mishap, even though they are immune to aging. It is I who must conceive. Each has a say, in accordance with their characters, and Lilith prophesies an end of life's slavery to matter, whereupon the spectres vanish. It is a cycle of five plays which Shaw calls a 'metabiological pentateuch'. You should not. He is now a warrior who also kills beasts for food. (Photo by Sasha/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) And of Lua they will say nothing; but when they thinkof her they will spit. 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. I will tell Eve the secret; and she will tell it to you. she inquires and he says "Yes," adding that he is touring these islands for sentimental reasons because, in ancient times, they were the centre of the British Commonwealth. I have another thought: I must tell it to Adam. He who bearsthe brand of Cain shall rule the earth. ADAM. But I have some thoughts that come from within me andnot from the voices. I have not told you the great secret. The Minister of Health is a beautiful Black African woman, and the Presidential conference turns out to be a dalliance via long-distance videophone. ADAM. No: I am afraid of it. All you men, except only Adam, are my sons, or mysons' sons, or my sons' sons' sons: you all come to see me: you all shewoff before me: all your little wisdoms and accomplishments are trottedout before mother Eve. [Shaw wrote an extra scene for this part, which he later deleted and then published separately as A Glimpse of the Domesticity of Franklyn Barnabas], The Thing Happens begins in 2170, 150 years after the Barnabas brothers disclosed their inferences, Englishmen continue immature throughout their lives. EVE [_petting her_] Eve's wonderful darling snake. It wasLilith who did wrong when she shared the labor of creation so unequallybetween man and wife. Zozim catches up, recuses himself as overly mature, and asks to be replaced by someone younger. 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. One tires of everything.There is nothing new under the sun. ADAM [_to Eve, grumpily_] Why do you live on, if you can find nothingbetter to do than complain? Choose a day for your death; and resolve to die on thatday. It does not console me. How am I a greater fool than you? THE SERPENT. THE SERPENT. But youhave made the serpent our enemy: she has left the garden, or is dead: Inever see her now. You are not stronger: you are shorter in the wind: you cannotendure. Yet I do not know how to prevent it. I tell you it must not be. He encounters a veiled woman and demands direction to the oracle. All present could attest to the truth of that, with no need for lying! Amaryllis provides amusing interludes throughout the remainder of the play. You say we must not cease to exist. He says he is the world's foremost general, invincible in battle, and adored by all his followers, although his victories cost great carnage. I revolt against these births that you and mother are so proudof. ADAM. I am a man: youare only a grown-up child. Everything is possible: everything. EVE. Find me another word for what Lilith was to me. That is the word that means boththe beginning in imagination and the end in creation. EVE. After their conversation, Burge-Lubin suggests a game of marine golf, but Confucius refuses on the ground that he is too mature to enjoy playing games. THE SERPENT. CAIN. It was I whowhispered the word to you that you did not know. 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. You were a man-child when I bore you. [_He goes past her to the stone, andfondles the serpent_]. If I am to overtake death, I must appoint a real day, not atomorrow. Eve drops her distaff. Yes. CAIN. CAIN. Shaw's solution is enhanced longevity: we must learn to live much longer; a centenarian should be less than middle aged. This will please him, and cure his fits of melancholy. You need not live to see another summer; and yet thereshall be no end. No progress! Then death is no longer uncertain but certain. Of newly createdthings. Quick. EVE [_jarred and startled_] What a hateful noise! Languages: English, Espanol | Site Copyright Jalic Inc. 2000 - 2023. Martellus apparently brought nothing and Arjillax is jeered because he brought busts of ancients, which the children think are ugly; they want youthful beauties, like themselves. The Festival of the Artists begins. Do not listen to her: the noise is good: it lightens my heart.You are a jolly snake. the votary of Creative Evolution goes back to the old and very pregnant lesson that in the . I heard a new voice. CAIN [_rising_] You did well: I, too, do not want to live for ever. Cain, witha laughing one, throws down his shield and spear. [_He rises threateningly_]. You are very subtle. I tell you you must not make up stories about this. How can I destroy unless she creates? She is outraged when It took Enoch two hundred years to learn to interpret thewill of the Voice. CAIN. There is divine justice. That is the great secret. 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. CAIN. Because I would not have such wretches in my house. THE SERPENT. Eve will never belonely now that her snake can talk to her. He foundout that the fire of the sun could be brought down by a dewdrop. Youfight because you think that your fighting makes her admire and desireyou. You learnt nothing from him: youdrudged and drudged and drudged, and dug and dug and dug, and made me dothe same. And yet I must endure myself, not for a dayor for many days, but for ever. What vow do youmake? Who put thisupon me? Sheshall have no other food; and that will make her my slave. His question: "How am I to satisfy my genius for fighting until I die?" . I, too, have thought of something. I am to be a mere convenience to make men for you to kill! But how? 4 myself, I was finding that the surest way to produce an effect of daring innovation and originality was to revive the ancient attraction of long rhetorical speeches; to stick closely to the methods of Molire; CAIN [_letting his spear fall into the crook of his shield arm, andtwirling his moustache_] There is something higher than man. EVE. Funny. I will live a thousand years; and then I will endure no more: Iwill die and take my rest. I do not know: the word came to me. No voice is needed to make me feel 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. An oasis in Mesopotamia. 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. Hewas the discoverer of blood. ADAM [_dropping the snake's head in his excitement_] What! She belongs to a colony of long-lived people and has been assigned the task of protecting short-lived visitors. THE SERPENT. THE SERPENT. ADAM. That is the true nature of woman. 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. Well, you are wrong. THE SERPENT. THE SERPENT. But he must give hisdesire and his will to you. If I am to die like the fawn, why should not the rest die too? You must tell us your secret. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1928. no adventures! Whilst the east wind prevails Britain shall prosper. EVE [_admiring it_] Oh! EVE. [_he seizes his spear and swings it muscularly_]. [_He shudders and sits down on the rock_]. No: they will not kill us: they will feel as I do. No. Because if he could do that he could do without Eve. There is a voice in the garden that tells me things. Some Reflections on Back to Methuselah in Performance Critics have had divided reactions to Back to Methuselah. It would be nice to be new again; but myold skin would lie on the ground looking just like me; and Adam wouldsee it shrivel up and--. THE SERPENT. ADAM. You see, Eve,what a splendid thing it is not to have to live for ever. Always 'Why?' ADAM. [_To Cain_] Your father is a fool skin deep;but you are a fool to your very marrow; and your baggage of a wife isworse. I was a fool. Her fury turns to delight with the beauty of her tunic when they dress her. [_To Adam_]You dig roots and coax grains out of the earth: why do you not draw downa divine sustenance from the skies? You may die when I have made another Adam. I will give life myself. RM 2M3T4KJ - Back to Methuselah by George Bernard Shaw at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, with Colin Keith-Johnston as Adam, Gwen Ffangcon-Davies as Eve, and Edith Evans as the serpent in part I 'In the beginning'. ADAM [_rising and approaching it slowly_] There is something uncannyabout it. I cannot think it was foreither of these cheap ways of life that Lilith set you free. That is very true. If I can do that, what can I not do? You have made the beasts afraid of us; and the snake hasinvented poison to protect herself against you. They will not overrun the wholegarden for a long time: not until you have laid down your burden andgone to sleep for ever. Hush! and internal kicking rocks it so hard that it must be held steady to keep it from rolling off the altar. He laughed at me; and then came my great idea: why notkill him as he killed the beasts? He has invented tomorrow.You will invent things every day now that the burden of immortality islifted from you. The first performances in England began at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre under the management of Barry Jackson on the 9th October 1923. Living. An illustration of a magnifying glass. Iremember Lilith, who came before Adam and Eve. I spare you;but others may kill you. 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? 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. An immense serpent is sleeping with her head buried in a thick bed of Johnswort, and her body coiled in apparently endless rings through the branches of a tree, which is already well grown; for the days of creation have been longer than our reckoning. Of the coming true of your dreams and mine. I despised myself fornot doing as he did instead of what you did. ADAM. ADAM [_ruminating_] You puzzle me. 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. That must not be. EVE [_slipping her hand into his_] Wife and husband. CAIN. Eve thoughtfully remarks that there is more to living than He can imagine: he canwill: he can desire: he can gather his life together for a great springtowards creation: he can create all things except one; and that one ishis own kind. THE SERPENT. And Ihave eaten strange things: stones and apples that you are afraid to eat. EVE. 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. Close at handthe end of a log house abuts on a kitchen garden. I am tired of pulling these things up to keep the gardenpleasant for us for ever. THE SERPENT. [_He sitsdown again, sulkily_]. Can you bear to look at himafter that? Fool: she makes you fight because you bring her the ornaments andthe treasures of those you have slain, and because she is courted andpropitiated with power and gold by the people who fear you. 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. A She-Ancient arrives to supervise the birthing. EVE. I tell you the labor is too much for one. Make a vow. I could not sit still then. EVE. CAIN. 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. EVE. The sculptors, Arjillax and Martellus, arrive. You have invented a word. EVE. Shaw uses science fictioneering in Methuselah to add plausibility to scenarios and to keep readers entertained while he propounds his vision of the human destiny. Asked why, he says life alone is true and meaningful and that marble remains marble, no matter how skilfully it is shaped. EVE. No. The earth is fruitful. We shall fall like thefawn and be broken. 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. Cease your boasting and bullying, and tell the truth. They can conversewith difficultyand have a long discussion that reveals the advantages of long living. When Adam delved and Eve span, where was then the gentleman? You shall notlisten to that snake any more. 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. CAIN. Then I will do it. Without themcourage would have no sense. She agrees to let him stay and grasps his hands and looks at him. I like it. If they shorten their lives, they will dig and fight and kill anddie; and their baby Enochs will tell them that it is the will of theVoice that they should dig and fight and kill and die for ever. CAIN. THE SERPENT. It cannothappen. EVE. For if you do not there will be an end. Something quite different to myself, like you. I can talk of many things. A path with stairs of rough-cut stone leads upward from the temple to the hill. I am not, perhaps, very clever; but--. I have watched thosefaces and willed; and then I have made a woman-child that has grown upquite like them. Part 1 opened on February 27, 1922; Part 2 opened on March 6, 1922; and Part 3 opened on March 13, 1922. . Forthe Voice tells me that I must offer myself to every man to be killed ifhe can kill me. He readily admits repeatedly feigning death and explains that the laws enforcing mandatory retirement at a certain age and those controlling eligibility for pensions left him with no alternative: When his record showed him old enough to be retired, he could no longer keep his job but he was always denied a pension because he looked too young. But you have not made a vow yet. EVE. Things wear out by practice: they do not grow by it. A fine dream, truly! EVE. And it is courage, courage, courage, thatraises the blood of life to crimson splendor. I musthave certainty. And I! I must have somethingto worship. It means that I fear certainty as you fear uncertainty. CAIN. But for her, I could notresist the sport of trying to kill you, in spite of my fear that youwould kill me. The state of them that love death more than life. [_He strides to the thornbrake_]. Our snake has learntto speak by listening to us. She asks if the child is ready to be born and Acis says the child is more than ready, that she has been shouting and kicking inside her egg and refuses to wait quietly. What is a fool? What more is there to tell? Sheer fabrication, but so pleasing to the voters that he stayed in power for another fifteen years. 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 Throw it into the river. Besides, if it happened to you, _I_should be alone. 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. The Ancients arrive, having sensed that they were needed, and destroy the couple painlessly. _Adam throws down his spade, and stands looking darkly at Eve._. time, Back to Methuselah and Saint Joan. [_To Eve_] We have made our vows; and if you mustcreate, you shall create within the bounds of those vows. ADAM. When she merely lifts her veil he shrieks that he is dying, covers his eyes, and begs her to veil herself again. EVE. I call it dead. ADAM [_brightening_] That noise takes away fear. EVE [_angrily throwing down her distaff_] What! 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. THE SERPENT. Do you dig any better because you have been digging forhundreds of years? I cleared away the thistles and briars. The Oracle tells him that he will die of discouragement if he stays behind. The gardenis full, not empty. Why should I forget it? EVE. [_He turns quickly towards the serpent, and in doingso puts his foot on something sharp_]. THE SERPENT. There would be only the things on allfours, and the birds, and the snakes. EVE. You are the nurses and valets of the oxen and dogs andasses you have tamed to work for you. There is something else.We do not yet know what it is; but some day we shall find out; and thenwe will live on that alone; and there shall be no more digging norspinning, nor fighting nor killing. Sixteen Self Sketches: What is My Religious Faith, pp. Even a bear would not eat a man if it could gethoney instead. [3] Neither Creative Evolution nor the Life Force were Shavian inventions. EVE [_turning impatiently to the snake_] That heart-biting sound again!Do not do it. His solution was to fake his death and, as a different person, begin a new career. EVE [_trying to shake it and roll it over_] It is stiff and cold. He is at his zenith now but realizes a time will come when the people will rebel and he will become the casualty. You are always spying on me. It has not yet told me the secret. [_He chuckles and goes awayslowly, laughing his first laugh_]. Always dig, dig, dig. Death is not an unhappy thing when you have learnt how toconquer it. EVE. Anything is better than uncertainty. I followed your teaching. ADAM [_scolding her_] Why do you say that? She rears her head slowly from thebed of Johnswort, and speaks into Eve's ear in a strange seductivelymusical whisper. That is hope. ADAM. A few centuries later. You invented murder. It is; and it is not. ADAM. EVE. 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 . No: he, too, must desire and will. Instead of sculptures, he has brought a scientist, Pygmalion, who is a greater artist than the world has seen before. [She strokes it and pets the serpent]. The Emperor of Turania, calling himself Napoleon, impatient of ceremony, bursts into the courtyard of the Temple of the Oracle. ADAM. The moment you find we need not last for ever,you talk as if we were going to end today. EVE. Man need not always live by bread alone. Ha! However, counter-measures are not taken because it is realised that any one of them may be long-lived too, but not yet aware of it. Now the secret. I do not want to kill women. Have you a word for this new misery? Burge-Lubin summons Confucius, the Chief Secretary, to brief him on governmental matters. There is no mistaking itfor any voice of the birds or beasts, or for your voice. Zozim and Zoo, dressed impressively in costumes that they disparage as foolish, but are demanded by their short-lived clients, lead the visiting party into the temple. 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