The Ancient examines the newly born carefully and pronounces her fit to live. ADAM [_dropping the snake's head in his excitement_] What! I am very subtle;and I have thought and thought and thought. _They both retreat, and contemplate it from a few steps' distance withgrowing repulsion._. EVE. That is true. [_Rising and moving about in his agitation_]. Serpent (5:349). Amaryllis provides amusing interludes throughout the remainder of the play. [3] Neither Creative Evolution nor the Life Force were Shavian inventions. He wants me to die. The thought that we must not cease to be comes fromwithin. But I have more wonderful news than that. Well, as the serpent used to say, why not? THE SERPENT. I tell you you must not make up stories about this. She said it must never be again: that theburden of renewing life was past bearing: that it was too much for one.And when she cast the skin, lo! Zozim catches up, recuses himself as overly mature, and asks to be replaced by someone younger. According to Louis Crompton in Shaw the Dramatist (pp. EVE [_throwing her arms round the serpent_] My beautiful snake. Will they learn all the ways of all the stars in theirlittle time? He need not. CAIN. EVE. Look atthat thick roll of hard flesh on your strong arm! Oh! By that he is tied to you. EVE [_shuddering_] Why do you remind me of it? I must have somethingto worship. I am the old serpent, older than Adam, older than Eve. When you dug, you made the earth live and bring forth as Ilive and bring forth. stronger, happier, freer? Danger and fear follow my steps everywhere. We shall fall like thefawn and be broken. Man need not always live by bread alone. The egg keeps shouting "I want to be born! There would be only the things on allfours, and the birds, and the snakes. Then I gave up your old silly drudging ways, and lived as he hadlived, by the chase, by the killing, and by the fire. I make no vows. Only,there must be some end, some end: I am not strong enough to beareternity. 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. The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text CAIN. Child-eating! You imagine what you desire;you will what you imagine; and at last you create what you will. I adore her. EVE. Alone for ever. I call yours the Devil. THE SERPENT. To be thefirst murderer one must be a man of spirit. They drag us down to the level of the beasts. Mine I call the Voice ofGod. My new word for having to live for ever. Some day you shall see me come outof this beautiful skin, a new snake with a new and lovelier skin. There will be no pain for him. The Voice in the garden will tell them that theymust not kill, as it tells me. Try a taste of fighting. She will fish him out and dry him off and then let nature take its course. The Minister of Health is a beautiful Black African woman, and the Presidential conference turns out to be a dalliance via long-distance videophone. I can remember when you were yourself a thing that couldnot happen. EVE [_pointing to the fawn_] Like that. Both politicians seize upon the promise of enhanced longevity as a way of attracting votes. And I am very wilful, andmust have what I want; and I have willed and willed and willed. Cain . I can talk of many things. ADAM. I _have_ to think about you. ADAM. At the end the Serpent whispersfor Eve's ears alonethe secret of reproduction, which Eve hears with greatly mixed emotions. An oasis in Mesopotamia. The Voice of The Serpent (Original) . No one has ever uttered such a sound before. ADAM. But it does not grow longer for all its practice instreaming, because you have not willed it so. Yourhair streams in the wind as if it were trying to stretch itself furtherand further. Her wheel, which she turns byhand, is a large disc of heavy wood, practically a flywheel. Let the Rotterjacks look to it." No. They have come to consult the oracle about matters of utmost importance. EVE. The Festival of the Artists begins. Choose a day for your death; and resolve to die on thatday. Adamlooks worried, like a farmer. Are you eager to be rid of me? ADAM. I am the most subtle of all the creatures of the field. You have no real strength in your bones nor sap in your flesh. The rock and tree are on the border of a glade in which lies a dead fawnall awry, its neck being broken. Where? Go on with yourspinning; and do not sit there idle while I am straining my muscles foryou. Do not listen to her: the noise is good: it lightens my heart.You are a jolly snake. Kill me; and you will find another snake in thegarden tomorrow. 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. He reveals that the drowned notables in the film clips at the Records Office are all the same person whose multiple demises had ended several significant careers. The body of the serpent becomes visible,glowing with wonderful new colors. EVE. Let itnow give me certainty or go in fear of me. EVE. I have imagined a glorious poem of many men, of more men thanthere are leaves on a thousand trees. ADAM. You her master! CAIN. 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. When, e.g., the stage director for the Birmingham production asked how the Serpent was to be presented, Shaw responded with a clumsy sketch and suggested an artist be employed to design costume, colouring and lighting. The Serpentspoken of in Genesis. He lapses into tears and she puts in a call for help, saying she has encountered an unattended short-liver who is disoriented. EVE. THE SERPENT. I dared everything. Find me a word for the story Lilith imagined and told you in yoursilent language: the story that was too wonderful to be true, and yetcame true. [_He turns quickly towards the serpent, and in doingso puts his foot on something sharp_]. That is true. No matter: some day I shallforget and stumble. CAIN [_to Adam_] Still digging? The Ancient leaves the children to their play. She is a better sort of woman to live with than you. CAIN. I revolt against these births that you and mother are so proudof. I shewed the little case to the sun, and left it in itswarmth. [_She strokes it and pets the serpent_].Pretty thing! If I am not slain, yet I shall die. I was troubled with the burdenof eternal being; but I was not confused in my mind. I will tell you a great secret. She belongs to a colony of long-lived people and has been assigned the task of protecting short-lived visitors. 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. EVE. He is mine. My old trouble was heavy; but it wassimple. ButAbel was a discoverer, a man of ideas, of spirit: a true Progressive. The Voicethought I was nothing but my brother's keeper. We shall need each other. ADAM [_angrily_] How can I help brooding when the future has becomeuncertain? ADAM. EVE [_trying to shake it and roll it over_] It is stiff and cold. Life has becomeuncertain. [_Shesits on the rock and pulls him down beside her, clasping him to her withher right arm_]. 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. EVE. 2008. What is the good of being careful? Back to Methuselah: A Metabiological Pentateuch by Bernard Shaw - Free Ebook Project Gutenberg 70,452 free eBooks 62 by Bernard Shaw Back to Methuselah: A Metabiological Pentateuch by Bernard Shaw Download This eBook Similar Books Readers also downloaded Bibliographic Record EVE. [_She sits on the rock and throws herarms round the serpent, who begins whispering to her_]. Now the secret. THE SERPENT. She buries herface in her hands_. The secret. How can I destroy unless she creates? EVE. 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. EVE. I made the word dead to describe my old skin that I castwhen I am renewed. What did the Voice say to you when you thought all that? What have you to do with one another now? 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. It did; but I am not a child to be afraid of a Voice. No progress! 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. Butif you invented death, why do you blame me, who am a minister of death? They would not have the same memories. I, who have so muchin me that I hate and long to cast off! A woman approaches to ask if he needs help. Because I would not have such wretches in my house. I have told Cain already that he is not aman and that Lua is not a woman: they are monsters. That is the word that means boththe beginning in imagination and the end in creation. That is what hasbrought me to my mother today. EVE [_musing_] Yes, to dig. It is that care thatwill prompt your imagination; inflame your desires; make your willirresistible; and create out of nothing. Life is still long enough to learn to dig, short as they aremaking it. They borrow and never pay; but one gives them what they want,because they tell beautiful lies in beautiful words. It is terrible; but there is no joy like it. And if Adam keeps his vow I will love no other man until he dies. EVE. . 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. Do you love your godmother Eve? Shetakes it to lie on, and flings you the carrion flesh you cannot eat. Barnabas goes to meet the American inventor, who wants to use Records Office film footage to create a I am to be a mere convenience to make men for you to kill! 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