Kill me; and you will find another snake in thegarden tomorrow. I was troubled with the burdenof eternal being; but I was not confused in my mind. Only just now youwanted me to sit still and never move lest I should stumble and die likethe fawn. Does not theVoice tell you that as no man dare slay you for murdering your brother,you ought to slay yourself? Yousee things; and you say 'Why?' The Ancient refuses, saying he is too mature for gambolling; ancients must stick to their own ways of enjoyment. And at last I found a way of gatheringtogether a part of the life in my body--. In the preface, Shaw speaks of the pervasive discouragement and poverty in Europe after World War I, and relates these issues to inept government. Something has happened. Strangers. 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. 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! 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. I cleared away the thistles and briars. Because if he could do that he could do without Eve. But it does not grow longer for all its practice instreaming, because you have not willed it so. What is the good of being careful? I have watched thosefaces and willed; and then I have made a woman-child that has grown upquite like them. 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. 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. Tired of their talk with children, the Ancients go their separate ways. I do not want to kill women. That is a funny noise to make. The Oracle thinks the answer simple: "Die now, before the tide of glory turns", she says, and fires at him with a pistol he has conveniently provided. The Minister of Health is a beautiful Black African woman, and the Presidential conference turns out to be a dalliance via long-distance videophone. EVE [_shaking him_] Adam: you must not brood. It was true: Isaw the fire consume the food on his altar. 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. He was not my keeper any more than I was his: why did he notkill me? Everything is possible. EVE. 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. You know what I mean. THE SERPENT. ADAM. I _have_ to think about you. THE SERPENT. THE SERPENT. A miracle is an impossible thing that is neverthelesspossible. When you die, men will say, 'He was agreat warrior; but it would have been better for the world if he hadnever been born.' We shall need each other. CAIN [_rising_] You did well: I, too, do not want to live for ever. You must tell us your secret. Iremember Lilith, who came before Adam and Eve. If I put off death until tomorrow, I shall never die. They do not grow very fast. He says he is the world's foremost general, invincible in battle, and adored by all his followers, although his victories cost great carnage. Find me another word for what Lilith was to me. It is I who am to die. Both are speaking English, but their cultural backgrounds are so different that communication is not easy. The egg keeps shouting "I want to be born! One of them I will lead; and the other will be led by the man Ifear most and desire to fight and kill most. He steals and kills for his food;and makes up idle poems of life after death; and dresses up histerror-ridden life with fine words and his disease-ridden body with fineclothes, so that men may glorify and honor him instead of cursing him asmurderer and thief. Darkness ensues and the ghost of Adam appears as a vague radiance. Cassio from 'Othello'3rd Gentleman from 'The Winter's Tale'Cain from 'Back to Methuselah' by George Bernard Shaw If I am to overtake death, I must appoint a real day, not atomorrow. And pray, what use is this thousand years of life to you, youold vegetable? Then there is no such thing as divine justice, unless you arelying. EVE. Bind the future by your will. THE SERPENT. You must not move about.You must sit still. It is I who must conceive. What does he know of love? I fear you myself. I am a man: youare only a grown-up child. THE SERPENT. ADAM [_horrified_] Oh no, no. Life is still long enough to learn to dig, short as they aremaking it. I envied his happiness, his freedom. Heinvented the altar to keep the fire alive. 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. 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. [_Hegathers its hooves in his hand and carries it away in the direction fromwhich Eve came, holding it as far from him as possible_]. I gathered a part of the life in my body, and shut it intoa tiny white case made of the stones I had eaten. He turns his face to his right and callsexcitedly. Hearken to me, old fool. He was in the line of ten godly descendants that preserved the godly promise. Why not live bravely, and die early and makeroom for others? Can you find aname for that knowledge? Itmeans that nothing is certain but uncertainty. I should belonely. ADAM. Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. Sooner thanface a thousand years of it I should kill myself, as the Voice sometimestempts me to do already. ADAM [_angrily_] How can I help brooding when the future has becomeuncertain? Back to Methuselah: With Fanny Rowe, Ursula Howells, Ellen Pollock, Ernest Clark. THE SERPENT. Find me one word for it all: you, who are so clever at words. Oh no.How can you even think such a horror? EVE. No matter: some day I shallforget and stumble. Burge-Lubin excuses himself, saying he must confer privately with the Minister of Health. THE SERPENT. I thought for a moment that perhaps thisstrong brave son of mine, who could imagine something better, and coulddesire what he imagined, might also be able to will what he desireduntil he created it. Eve thoughtfully remarks that there is more to living than There will be no pain for him. Creation must not be strangled. (play) (5 episodes, 1952) Series Cast Series Produced by Harold Clayton . It is admittedly possible to find some excuses for the negative side of his arguments, especially the refusal to be convinced by Darwin. 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. ADAM [_brightening_] That noise takes away fear. His solution was to fake his death and, as a different person, begin a new career. EVE. He became so happy that heshared his meal with the Voice that had whispered all his inventions tohim. It is something greater than me: I am only apart of it. A few centuries slip by; Eve and Adam have aged a bit, but otherwise have changed but little: She spends her time by spinning flax for weaving, he digs in the garden. For you werethe first children in the world, and filled us with such wonder anddelight as no couple can ever again feel while the world lasts. According to Louis Crompton in Shaw the Dramatist (pp. Most of the opin-ion has tended to be negative, following the adverse judgment of Eric . I will hunt: I will fight and strive to the very bursting of mysinews. On the west side stands a little classic temple and in the middle of the glade there is a marble altar, shaped like a table, and long enough for a man to lie on. THE SERPENT. For it whispers to me that death is not really death:that it is the gate of another life: a life infinitely splendid andintense: a life of the soul alone: a life without clods or spades,hunger or fatigue--. No. Hewas the discoverer of blood. [_She licks Eve's neck with her doubletongue_]. You have both invented marriage. Did you find it like that? Then I will do it. ADAM [_despairingly_] But we shall cease to be. THE SERPENT. I was a fool. THE SERPENT. Where? 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! The creations are a man and woman, noble in appearance, beautiful to look at and splendidly attired. You should not. Back to Methuselah By the closing years of World War I, Shaw had long supported the idea that Ireland ought to achieve a kind of Home Rule, an arrangement that would grant Ireland, England, Scotland, and Wales their own parliaments, but would also maintain a joint council to coordinate matters of mutual You are idle: you are selfish. As night is falling, the children seek shelter in the temple. Part 1 opened on February 27, 1922; Part 2 opened on March 6, 1922; and Part 3 opened on March 13, 1922. . You must clear away some ofthose horrid things, or we shall be scratched and stung whenever weforget to look where we are stepping. Ihave a plan. But then,as soon as you like. Yes: it was by meditating on Life that I gained the powerto do miracles. And yet I must endure myself, not for a dayor for many days, but for ever. ADAM [_throwing his arm round her shoulder with an expression ofanguish_] Oh no: that is plain without any voice. Boy: you have asked us a terrible question. EVE. In the glade, a group of youths and maidens, all appearing to be eighteen or older are dancing gracefully to music played on flutes. It nearly tore me asunder. As they dance, a stranger, physically in the prime of life but with a wrinkled, timeworn face, comes down the stony stairs, rapt in contemplation, and bumps heedlessly into a pair of dancers. Near her head alow rock shows above the Johnswort. So that is what comes of turning your face to the clean clearheavens! He is now a warrior who also kills beasts for food. ADAM. Youshould try to have an existence of your own, instead of occupyingyourself with my existence. You have made the beasts afraid of us; and the snake hasinvented poison to protect herself against you. Hope is wicked. The Emperor of Turania, calling himself Napoleon, impatient of ceremony, bursts into the courtyard of the Temple of the Oracle. I have striven with a boar and with a lion as to which ofus should kill the other. Let Eve vow to loveyou until your death. ADAM. There is a voice in the garden that tells me things. Sooner or later I shall trip and fall. EVE [_rising and running to him_] Only think, Adam! Their son Cain arrives, boastful and aggressive, proud to have invented murder by killing his brother Abel. EVE. THE SERPENT. Try a taste of fighting. ADAM. ADAM. Eve drops her distaff. She takes a few uncertain steps, but quickly learns to walk, then the Ancient names her Amaryllis, as requested by the other children. ADAM [_releasing her_] That is true. One's own body is the last of many dolls and it will be shed, as well. THE SERPENT. 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 [_admiring it_] Oh! David Fielding's abridgement has succeeded in shortening this five-part play down to 4 fascinating hours. But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'[15]. ADAM. I followed your teaching. 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. Then we should be no more. There would be only the things on allfours, and the birds, and the snakes. Shaw's "homeopathic" educational method consisted of lying to students, until the students were able to see through the lies and argue with the teachers. If you are content, like the bear, I am not. ADAM. No: I am afraid of it. Be silent, both of you. Pretty thing! And I will love Eve all that time and noother woman. That is the great secret. Come [_he seizes her by the hair to dragher away_]. 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. You are still tempted. Whilst the east wind prevails Britain shall prosper. If I am not slain, yet I shall die. I don't normally like long plays, but this . Eve, better humored (having given upworrying), sits and spins and thinks. EVE [_looking across the garden towards the hurdle_] Here is Cain. I am not lying: I dare all truths. And now you want tomake still more unnatural monsters, so that you may be utterly lazy andworthless, and that your tamed human animals may find work a blastingcurse. CAIN. 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. It is what you are when youforget and brood and are filled with fear. Senior School Recitation finals Nov 25, 2008 . 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'. Pah! THE SERPENT. Let the Rotterjacks look to it." CAIN. Then death will not matter: thissnake and that snake will die; but the snakes will live. And I! ha! He defiantly dares her to remove her veil and robe. When shall I die? [3] Neither Creative Evolution nor the Life Force were Shavian inventions. Back to Methuselah. It is I who have thought of it. (The Jewish Publication Society translation,1917). EVE [_running in_] What? [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. The serpent never dies. . It is unbearable. I ate the fruits of theearth. But if I createanother Eve he may turn to her and do without me. EVE. THE SERPENT. EVE. The earth is fruitful. But only some. An oasis in Mesopotamia. [_Adam points to the fawn_]. Something quite different to myself, like you. When he falls, he shall beavenged sevenfold: the Voice has said it; so beware how you plot againstme, you and all the rest. Leave us in peace. Of better things. EVE. Adam: we need not livefor ever. Oh, I haveheard it all a thousand times. Adam has invented something new. THE SERPENT. The Voice of The Serpent The Parlor Maid Mrs. Lutestring, the Domestic Minister The Oracle The She-Ancient . Let the newAdams clear a place for themselves. THE SERPENT. 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. See[_she spreads a magnificent amethystine hood_]! 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