EVE [_shaking him_] Adam: you must not brood. Mine is the Voice of Life: yours the Voice of Death. I have never in my soul listenedwillingly when you have told me of the Voice that whispers to you. He laughed at me; and then came my great idea: why notkill him as he killed the beasts? Close at handthe end of a log house abuts on a kitchen garden. Creation must not be strangled. He has invented tomorrow.You will invent things every day now that the burden of immortality islifted from you. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will. What a frightfulthought! EVE. You are more her slave than Adam's ox oryour own sheepdog. The Prime Minister, now called The Envoy, is too overwhelmed to ask his question until he swallows a half-pint of brandy. 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. The serpent gave me fear. You are very subtle. THE SERPENT. You are not stronger: you are shorter in the wind: you cannotendure. Of better things. Whatcertainty have you of your thousand years? But I dream things that never were; and Isay 'Why not?' She will fish him out and dry him off and then let nature take its course. Do you mean that Adam must share it with me? Its first full production was at the Garrick Theatre in New York, with acts 1 and 2 being . Oh! 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. Do you love your godmother Eve? I have watched thosefaces and willed; and then I have made a woman-child that has grown upquite like them. Find me one word for it all: you, who are so clever at words. CAIN. When he was a mere child of eighty, his babyishattempts to understand the Voice were more dangerous than the wrath ofCain. I will bedelivered from fear. Why do you want to drive him away? Suppose you were to trip and fall, would you go like that? 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. That is a dreadful thought. EVE [_throwing her arms round the serpent_] My beautiful snake. Promise me you will be careful. 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. 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 if Adam keeps his vow I will love no other man until he dies. Be silent, both of you. What are you now, with your shield and spear, and your brother'sblood crying from the ground against you? ADAM. You see, life is too long. who have thedrudgery of preparing the food? Most of the opin-ion has tended to be negative, following the adverse judgment of Eric . Methuselah acceptable only as his worst play.D A reading of Back to Methuselah in terms of Blake's magnum opus, Jerusalem, will, I hope, contribute towards a better understanding of the play that Shaw in 1944 chose as his "world classic." II. It found that I wasmyself, and that it was for Abel to be himself also, and look tohimself. EVE. Will they learn all the ways of all the stars in theirlittle time? Back to Methuselah (1952- ) Full Cast & Crew See agents for this cast & crew on IMDbPro Series Directed by Alan Bromly . THE SERPENT. But it does not grow longer for all its practice instreaming, because you have not willed it so. 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. (play) (5 episodes, 1952) Series Cast Series Produced by Harold Clayton . EVE. The Ancient leaves the children to their play. _Adam throws down his spade, and stands looking darkly at Eve._. If Lua naggedat me as you are nagging, and as you nag at Adam, I would beat her blackand blue from head to foot. But then,as soon as you like. Lick the white stone: bite theapple you dread. If I am to overtake death, I must appoint a real day, not atomorrow. How did Lilith work this miracle? ADAM. Shaw had an exalted opinion of Back to Methuselah as both literature and philosophy; in the press release he wrote for its publishers (Constable & Co., London) he said it would "interest biologists, religious leaders, and lovers of the marvellous in fiction as well as lovers of the theatre" and described it as his supreme work in dramatic literature. Mine I call the Voice ofGod. You have both invented marriage. EVE. CAIN. Keep a guard on your own tongue; and do not curse my son. The state of them that love death more than life. You think too much. He defiantly dares her to remove her veil and robe. Oh no.How can you even think such a horror? EVE. I dug and dugand dug. [_To Adam_]You dig roots and coax grains out of the earth: why do you not draw downa divine sustenance from the skies? Alone for ever. ADAM [_springing up in sudden terror_] Oh! Boy: you have asked us a terrible question. They cannot renew themselves without Eves. I am what I am:nothing can alter that. The Voice does not speak to me as it does to you. All present could attest to the truth of that, with no need for lying! ADAM. Rows of curved marble benches, spaced well apart, fan out from the altar. sister projects: Wikipedia article, Wikidata item. ADAM. You are simplecountry folk. Tired of their talk with children, the Ancients go their separate ways. THE SERPENT. They would not have the same memories. You are hard enough to bear with as you are. Go on with your work, I tell you; or you shall go without bread. And others makelittle mammoths out of clay, or make faces appear on flat stones, andask me to create women for them with such faces. They have not will enoughto create instead of dreaming; but the serpent said that every dreamcould be willed into creation by those strong enough to believe in it.There are others who cut reeds of different lengths and blow throughthem, making lovely patterns of sound in the air; and some of them canweave the patterns together, sounding three reeds at the same time, andraising my soul to things for which I have no words. That is a great thought. Life must not cease. Instead of sculptures, he has brought a scientist, Pygmalion, who is a greater artist than the world has seen before. 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. He is to take an aeroplane to the location and be dropped near the yacht by parachute. 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--. I will go back to my bravewarrior friends and their splendid women. ADAM [_struck_] That must be true. THE SERPENT. Both sit on theground_]. What is a fool? Look. THE SERPENT. Yet you are. I have not told you the great secret. 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. I was the first conqueror. Are you eager to be rid of me? I am tired of pulling these things up to keep the gardenpleasant for us for ever. I make no vows. Oh! He who has never fought has never lived. The Ancient examines the newly born carefully and pronounces her fit to live. THE SERPENT. That will be life indeed: life lived to the verymarrow: burning, overwhelming life. Through him and his like, death is gaining on life. CAIN. I cleared away the thistles and briars. The secret! He who bearsthe brand of Cain shall rule the earth. As a result, governmental dignities are mere figureheads, useful only for formalities and ceremonial occasions. Ultimately he is asking if it would be expedient to hold elections now or better to put them off till spring. What have you to do with one another now? You must. EVE. The opening scene is a sunlit glade at the foot of thickly wooded hill, on a warm summer afternoon in 31,920 AD. I have striven with a boar and with a lion as to which ofus should kill the other. The rock and tree are on the border of a glade in which lies a dead fawnall awry, its neck being broken. 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. He will be in your power through hisdesire. And there is yet nearly sevenhundred years of it to endure. She is a mere girl of fifty-six and looks more like nineteen to the Elderly Gentleman, who is approaching seventy. I call it dead. Near her head alow rock shows above the Johnswort. Not before. All Rights Reserved. [_She strokes it and pets the serpent_].Pretty thing! Back to Methuselah: With Fanny Rowe, Ursula Howells, Ellen Pollock, Ernest Clark. EVE. She rears her head slowly from thebed of Johnswort, and speaks into Eve's ear in a strange seductivelymusical whisper. ADAM [_picking up his spade and preparing to dig again_] Take yourselfoff then. Things wear out by practice: they do not grow by it. 25253):[14]. producer (5 episodes, 1952) Series Art Department Stephen Bundy . EVE [_interrupting him_] Perhaps not; but do not begin to boast of that.It is no credit to you. Even a bear would not eat a man if it could gethoney instead. I will give life myself. 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. ADAM. They put all sorts ofthoughts into my head. [_Adam points to the fawn_]. I say, who invented death? Yes, until you create another Adam. I spare you;but others may kill you. Itmeans that nothing is certain but uncertainty. This will please him, and cure his fits of melancholy. What have you made of yourselves? 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. [_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. Why did it not tell Cain that? There is a second birth. 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. ADAM [_scolding her_] Why do you say that? Now the secret. Child-eating! Danger and fear follow my steps everywhere. Back to Methuselah was presented in three parts. [_She sits on the rock and throws herarms round the serpent, who begins whispering to her_]. Then there is no such thing as divine justice, unless you arelying. It will be a busy day at the nursery: a birth is scheduled followed by the Festival of the Artists. You are very subtle:tell me what to do. Pretty thing! And the manthat slays me shall have her for his booty. THE SERPENT. He became so happy that heshared his meal with the Voice that had whispered all his inventions tohim. Both shew the greatestconsternation._. Yes: it must not be. ADAM [_returning_] Is there another voice in the garden besides ourvoices and the Voice? But only some. Senior School Recitation finals Nov 25, 2008 . You neither of you know anything about life. Look atthat thick roll of hard flesh on your strong arm! You are no superman: you are Anti-Man: you are to othermen what the stoat is to the rabbit; and she is to you what the leech isto the stoat. Youmust never put yourself in danger of stumbling. Cain . ADAM. Pleasant at first, their behaviour soon turns murderous and Pygmalion is killed during his efforts to control them. I, who have so muchin me that I hate and long to cast off! I should be alone. Simple primitive societies, he says, were easily governable while the civilized societies of the twentieth century are so complex that learning to govern them properly can't be accomplished within the human lifespan: People with experience enough to serve the purpose fall into senility and die. THE SERPENT. Adam: we need not livefor ever. THE SERPENT. I will not create anyEves, only Adams. I will hunt: I will fight and strive to the very bursting of mysinews. What is the matterwith its eyes? EVE [_shuddering_] Why do you remind me of it? EVE. Jealousy. The east wind shall wither Britain's enemies in the day of contest. Ugh! He is mine. And each host shall tryto kill the other host. When you dug, you made the earth live and bring forth as Ilive and bring forth. Their remains are collected, using sanitary precautions, and burnt at Pygmalion's laboratory, which is also destroyed. You will find more snakes than there are fingers onyour hands. THE SERPENT. 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