Zoo is the replacement. ADAM [_returning_] Is there another voice in the garden besides ourvoices and the Voice? If that is to be thelast thing as it has been the first, let mankind perish. CAIN. Danger and fear follow my steps everywhere. [_He shudders and sits down on the rock_]. There is somethingthat holds us together, something that has no word--. Youfight because you think that your fighting makes her admire and desireyou. Adam invents the word to-morrow. Without danger I cannot be great. If only the care of this terrible garden may pass onto some other gardener! ADAM. 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 [_displeased, turning away from the serpent_] But it will destroyhope. The Archbishop is recognizably the Reverend Haslam, Savvy Barnabas' sweetheart, no longer callow, but dignified and confident and looking no more than fifty. 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. While awaiting help, she asks how he obtained admission to the island, since ordinary tourists are routinely turned away. Eve drops her distaff. No: he invented it himself. He need not. Life has becomeuncertain. I have watched thosefaces and willed; and then I have made a woman-child that has grown upquite like them. It is long and hard andpainful to create life: it is short and easy to steal the life othershave made. CAIN. At theopposite side of the garden is a thorn brake with a passage through itbarred by a hurdle. Its neck is wrong [_he stoops to lift the neckand shew her_]. I despised myself fornot doing as he did instead of what you did. I am a man: youare only a grown-up child. You despise your father; but when he dies the world willbe the richer because he lived. ADAM. 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. 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. Because I would not have such wretches in my house. CAIN. 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. EVE. This will please him, and cure his fits of melancholy. Yes: that is a good hard word. EVE [_angrily throwing down her distaff_] What! I can make better use of my time thanto play the husband to the clay beneath my feet. ha! [_he seizes his spear and swings it muscularly_]. No voice is needed to make me feel that. He is utterly disdainful of the simple farming life and soon rudely goes away. All were written during 1918 to 1920 and published simultaneously by Constable (London) and Brentano's (New York) in 1921. The garden is full of voices sometimes. THE SERPENT. In the glade, a group of youths and maidens, all appearing to be eighteen or older are dancing gracefully to music played on flutes. EVE. Something quite different to myself, like you. I have told Cain already that he is not aman and that Lua is not a woman: they are monsters. He begs the oracle to respond in the same way she did to his illustrious predecessor, Sir Fuller Eastwind. A man's eventual destiny is to be bodiless, a vortex of energy, immortal, and free to roam among the stars. Arjillax explains that he intends to place images in the temple that range in age from the newly-born to the full glory of maturity. 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. 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. Oh, it is dreary, dreary! The thought that we must not cease to be comes fromwithin. EN. She buries herface in her hands_. Ifyou take a step towards your mother with that spear of yours I willstrike you with my spade as you struck Abel. She enjoys the flirting, but rejects a rendezvous and breaks the connection. You slay the tiger at the risk of yourlife; but who gets the striped skin you have run that risk for? Turned upward to the sun, to the clear cleanheavens. Youthful nurses are provided to tourists to keep that from happening but he has evaded Zozim, the one assigned to him. When you and Adam talk, I hear you say 'Why?' She looks seventeen years old. CAIN. A scene from the Barry Jackson production of George Bernard Shaw's 'Back to Methuselah' at the Court Theatre, starring Colin Keith Johnson as Adam, Gwen Ffrangcon Davies as Eve and Edith Evans as the serpent, 1924. promotional cinema showing sundry important Britons who have lost their lives by drowning, but who, with the invention's help, might not have perished. One tires of everything.There is nothing new under the sun. You are very subtle:tell me what to do. 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 discussion is interrupted by the arrival of the Domestic Minister, Mrs Lutestring to give her mandatory quarterly report. Andnettles, too! Her wheel, which she turns byhand, is a large disc of heavy wood, practically a flywheel. Eve invents the word . And be it noted, Lilith, the first mother, is the presiding imaginative principle of Back to Methuselah itself. You make my father here your mere convenience,as you call it, for that. ADAM. THE SERPENT. A monologue of The Serpent from Back to Methuselah. Creation must not be strangled. I gathered a part of the life in my body, and shut it intoa tiny white case made of the stones I had eaten. Am I not betterthan you? . Well, you are wrong. If only I can be relieved of the horror of having to enduremyself for ever! ADAM [_brightening_] That noise takes away fear. THE SERPENT. [_She sits on the rock and throws herarms round the serpent, who begins whispering to her_]. I have never in my soul listenedwillingly when you have told me of the Voice that whispers to you. EVE. He need not. EVE. No. That comes before everything. (Shaw was in his mid-60s when the plays were written). When Adam delved and Eve span, where was then the gentleman? Thatis birth. I know you: Iam your mother. But is it long enough for theother things, the great things? It wasLilith who did wrong when she shared the labor of creation so unequallybetween man and wife. Eat the dust. I _will_ bind the future. Fear is stronger in me than hope. ADAM. It is I who have to do the miracle. Kill, kill, kill, kill. Shall I paint my face and let my arms wasteinto pretty softness, and eat partridges and doves, and the flesh ofkids whose milk you will steal for me? EVE. ADAM. that know many more crafts than either ofyou, am tired of myself when I am not fighting or hunting. You learnt nothing from him: youdrudged and drudged and drudged, and dug and dug and dug, and made me dothe same. [_Adam, with a weary shrug, throws down his spade. Andthen there will be nothing but snakes, snakes, snakes everywhere. Eve thoughtfully remarks that there is more to living than Her fury turns to delight with the beauty of her tunic when they dress her. She learns of the Archbishop's longevity with great interest but no evident surprise and it soon emerges that she, also, is long lived and remembers Archbishop Haslam from the time she was parlour maid for Franklyn Barnabas. Of newly createdthings. who have thedrudgery of preparing the food? No longer arrogant, he asks her for advice. Tell me some miracle that you have done. there was not one new Lilith but two:one like herself, the other like Adam. Some Reflections on Back to Methuselah in Performance Critics have had divided reactions to Back to Methuselah. Poor mother! 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. THE SERPENT. Can you find aname for that knowledge? But then,as soon as you like. You must. She is outraged when 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. THE SERPENT. DidI? One's own body is the last of many dolls and it will be shed, as well. Shaw's scientific rationale for evolving long-lived humans depended on the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Stay with the womanwho gives you children: I will go to the woman who gives me dreams.Grope in the ground for your food: I will bring it from the skies withmy arrows, or strike it down as it roams the earth in the pride of itslife. If they learn to propagate they can make other humans to tend the garden and thus be free to escape from living when they wish. [_Shegoes to it; and he is emboldened to go with her_]. Acs, a three-year-old, tries unsuccessfully to comfort him, but Stephen insists on remaining disconsolate until he finds another partner. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1928. [12] The BBC, in contrast, was able to provide lavish scenery by sheer power of description for its 1958 radio production of the entire play,[13]. I do not blame you. But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'[15]. 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 will tell you a great secret. The Voice does not speak to me as it does to you. 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; Burge-Lubin considers that impossible and calls Barnabas mad. That was wonderfully clever of you. . CAIN. EVE. [_Calling_] Adam!Adam! CAIN. Youshould try to have an existence of your own, instead of occupyingyourself with my existence. Even a bear would not eat a man if it could gethoney instead. Adam has invented something new. Oh! It is I who must conceive. The sculptors, Arjillax and Martellus, arrive. THE SERPENT. What is the matterwith its eyes? ADAM. ADAM. You are the nurses and valets of the oxen and dogs andasses you have tamed to work for you. the curses of despair!the shrieks of torment! Let us listen to the snake. There no doubt are others that are not mentioned. And of Lua they will say nothing; but when they thinkof her they will spit. You are idle: you are selfish. Instead of breathing you sneeze, or coughup your insides, and wither and perish. 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. ADAM [_horrified_] Oh no, no. But it might be. ADAM. Do you stay and listen to it. And others think of numbers without having to count ontheir fingers, and watch the sky at night, and give names to the stars,and can foretell when the sun will be covered with a black saucepan lid.And there is Tubal, who made this wheel for me which has saved me somuch labor. Something that never could happen, and yet does happen. Eve: do notplay with me about this. Of the coming true of your dreams and mine. I tell you the labor is too much for one. Why not live bravely, and die early and makeroom for others? EVE [_now pitying him maternally_] Love! That is the true nature of woman. She spins resignedly; he digs impatiently. EVE [_throwing herself down discontentedly and plucking at the grass_]That is so like a man. 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. And there, next to it, a briar. I adore her. There issomething against it. I want to be born!" You can feel nothing but atorment, and believe nothing but a lie. Yes, until you create another Adam. Your hood is most lovely. You and Adam. You should not. Eve looks after them for a moment; then, with a shiver of disgust, sitsdown on the rock, brooding. The brothers are disappointed but remain completely confident that the ADAM [_scolding her_] Why do you say that? [_She rises, and passing behind him, strolls offcarelessly to the tree and leans against it, stroking a ring of thesnake_]. He kept himself alive byeating meat. In one word, to conceive. He who has never fought has never lived. He will be in your power through hisdesire. But you used to complainof having to exist always and for ever. When she merely lifts her veil he shrieks that he is dying, covers his eyes, and begs her to veil herself again. Sheshall have no other food; and that will make her my slave. EVE. CAIN. EVE [_angrily to the snake_] This death that you have brought into thegarden is an evil thing. The earth is fruitful. EVE. Yes. ADAM [_springing up in sudden terror_] Oh! ADAM. One of them I will lead; and the other will be led by the man Ifear most and desire to fight and kill most. 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. THE SERPENT. EVE. ADAM. THE SERPENT. That is a great thought. The serpent has made a beautiful word for being. ButAbel was a discoverer, a man of ideas, of spirit: a true Progressive. You are still tempted. It gives us the strength by which we made you and all mankind.Cut off from the clay which you despise, you would perish miserably. I am to be a mere convenience to make men for you to kill! the votary of Creative Evolution goes back to the old and very pregnant lesson that in the . 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. But I have more wonderful news than that. 25253):[14]. He turns his face to his right and callsexcitedly. [She strokes it and pets the serpent]. You are very subtle. What a beautiful word! Shaw's solution is enhanced longevity: we must learn to live much longer; a centenarian should be less than middle aged. She takes a few uncertain steps, but quickly learns to walk, then the Ancient names her Amaryllis, as requested by the other children. No. She does so and asks if he still wants to consult an older person. THE SERPENT. 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