Our snake has learntto speak by listening to us. You must clear away some ofthose horrid things, or we shall be scratched and stung whenever weforget to look where we are stepping. Do not listen to her: the noise is good: it lightens my heart.You are a jolly snake. Furthermore, one of Shaw's last plays, Farfetched Fables (1950) also classifies as science fiction,[9] and The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles (1934). EVE [_shaking him_] Adam: you must not brood. Living. It found that I wasmyself, and that it was for Abel to be himself also, and look tohimself. . You her master! THE SERPENT. Mother: the making of men is your right, your risk, your agony,your glory, your triumph. ADAM [_struck_] That must be true. Life is theloveliest of all the new words. [_She rises, and passing behind him, strolls offcarelessly to the tree and leans against it, stroking a ring of thesnake_]. 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. Can you bear to look at himafter that? EVE. She looks seventeen years old. No one has ever uttered such a sound before. Well, as the serpent used to say, why not? EVE. ADAM. ADAM. The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text Instead of sculptures, he has brought a scientist, Pygmalion, who is a greater artist than the world has seen before. How have I changed my mind? The woman knows that there is no such thing as nothing: the manknows that there is no such day as tomorrow. [_He sitsdown again, sulkily_]. The brothers are disappointed but remain completely confident that the CAIN. CAIN. THE SERPENT. Soon there will be as many snakes inEden as there are scales on my body. A Glimpse of the Domesticity of Franklyn Barnabas, The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God, The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Back_to_Methuselah&oldid=1090077535, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Evolving stages in the future progress of humanity, This page was last edited on 27 May 2022, at 06:56. Asked why, he says life alone is true and meaningful and that marble remains marble, no matter how skilfully it is shaped. Whatcertainty have you of your thousand years? ADAM. Everything is possible: everything. Man-eating! And Ihave eaten strange things: stones and apples that you are afraid to eat. Back to Methuselah (A Metabiological Pentateuch) by George Bernard Shaw consists of a preface (The Infidel Half Century) and a series of five plays: In the Beginning: B.C. But I have more wonderful news than that. If I did not knowthat I loved Eve, at least I did not know that she might cease to loveme, and come to love some other Adam and desire my death. But I know very well that what you mean isthe horror of having to be here with me for ever. THE SERPENT. THE SERPENT. ADAM. 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. Eve invents the word . ADAM. It is I who must conceive. ADAM. Confuciusnominally a consultant from China is, de facto, the head of government. 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. Something that never could happen, and yet does happen. Iremember Lilith, who came before Adam and Eve. _They both retreat, and contemplate it from a few steps' distance withgrowing repulsion._. I have crept through the grass, and hidden,and listened to you. Shaw's solution is enhanced longevity: we must learn to live much longer; a centenarian should be less than middle aged. One does not speak to a child as to a man.And a man does not listen and tremble in silence. BACK TO METHUSELAH The first performances of Back to Methuselah were undertaken By the Theatre Guild of New York, and began on the 27th February 1922 in the Garrick Theatre in that city. Life is still long enough to learn to dig, short as they aremaking it. Of newly createdthings. She had a mighty will: shestrove and strove and willed and willed for more moons than there areleaves on all the trees of the garden. Danger and fear follow my steps everywhere. CAIN [_to Adam_] Still digging? I do not blame you. I can remember when you were yourself a thing that couldnot happen. Yes, until you create another Adam. 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'. No. You will find more snakes than there are fingers onyour hands. 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. he is coming. No woman shall make me live my father'slife. At the end the Serpent whispersfor Eve's ears alonethe secret of reproduction, which Eve hears with greatly mixed emotions. The serpent gave me fear. It issilly to say you do not care. Love may be too long a word for so short a thing soon. The state of them that love death more than life. It was playing about; and it tripped and went head over heels.It never stirred again. 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. The Ancient leaves the children to their play. THE SERPENT. Theynever want to die, because they are always learning and always creatingeither things or wisdom, or at least dreaming of them. Pretty thing! It is I. I have come to shew you my beautiful new hood. And pray, what use is this thousand years of life to you, youold vegetable? I was the first conqueror. ADAM. Let the newAdams clear a place for themselves. EVE [_snatching herself loose from Adam_] Do not make that odious noise,I tell you. She is the creator, youthe destroyer. ADAM. You must. ADAM. My new word for having to live for ever. Back to Methuselah Quotes Showing 1-7 of 7 "You see things; you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?" George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah tags: inspirational 3948 likes Like "You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul." George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah Child-eating! David Fielding's abridgement has succeeded in shortening this five-part play down to 4 fascinating hours. Useless:nothing happened. Back to Methuselah (A Metabiological Pentateuch) by George Bernard Shaw consists of a preface (The Infidel Half Century) and a series of five plays: In the Beginning: B.C. Something quite different to myself, like you. EVE. You make my father here your mere convenience,as you call it, for that. Think. The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas is intended to teach an audience what readers of the Preface are assumed to have learned. 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. 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? 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. The sculptors, Arjillax and Martellus, arrive. Its first full production was at the Garrick Theatre in New York, with acts 1 and 2 being . 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 his face to his right and callsexcitedly. stronger, happier, freer? It took Enoch two hundred years to learn to interpret thewill of the Voice. BACK TO METHUSELAH A Metabiological Pentateuch by BERNARD SHAW 1921 Contents The Infidel Half Century The Dawn of Darwinism The Advent of the Neo-Darwinians Political Inadequacy of the Human Animal Cowardice of the Irreligious Is there any Hope Home - Books - Back to Methuselah by George Bernard Shaw This page contains affiliate links. ADAM [_returning_] Is there another voice in the garden besides ourvoices and the Voice? Whatdo I care? Do not tell him yet. 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. ADAM. Her fury turns to delight with the beauty of her tunic when they dress her. The Festival of the Artists begins. Keep a guard on your own tongue; and do not curse my son. You invented murder. [5] These concepts had some currency among Shaw's contemporaries, and the Methuselah plays are based on Shaw's extrapolations from the two principles. 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 [_joining him_] Oh! When he was a mere child of eighty, his babyishattempts to understand the Voice were more dangerous than the wrath ofCain. The earth is fruitful. She buries herface in her hands_. [_He shudders and sits down on the rock_]. ADAM. 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 THE SERPENT. Languages: English, Espanol | Site Copyright Jalic Inc. 2000 - 2023. Creative Evolution, translated by Arthur Mitchell, Ph.D. New York: Henry Holt and Company (1911). Sit down and be quiet; and listen tome. the howls of rage! The Prime Minister's choice was clear. This work, written during 1918-1921, is comprised of a Preface and five Parts; each Part is a a complete play. [She strokes it and pets the serpent]. And there is yet nearly sevenhundred years of it to endure. CAIN. Yes: that is splendid: that will bind the future. THE SERPENT. He changed the beasts hekilled into meat by the fire on the altar. Suppose you were to trip and fall, would you go like that? [_He turns quickly towards the serpent, and in doingso puts his foot on something sharp_]. It was true: Isaw the fire consume the food on his altar. 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. She is a mere girl of fifty-six and looks more like nineteen to the Elderly Gentleman, who is approaching seventy. Youthful nurses are provided to tourists to keep that from happening but he has evaded Zozim, the one assigned to him. It is silly to say you do not care. EVE. Let the Rotterjacks look to it." But I have known what it is to sit and brood under the terror ofeternity, of immortality. claim that all sensible people agree with him, put forward in Back to Methuselah by both Savvy and Professor Conrad. No: they will not kill us: they will feel as I do. 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. The four rivers running withblood! [6][7]offers a solution: Lilith, who came before them, and was, in fact, their mother, made them male and female, so they have the ability to reproduce. [4] Nevertheless, he uses both terms in Man and Superman which was written nine years before Bergson's work was published. Die. That may come too. In an effort to shed light on what he regards as a pervasive failure of modern governance, Shaw projects his imagination backwards and forwards in time, dissecting what went wrong and . THE SERPENT. And there is Enoch, who walks on the hills, and hears theVoice continually, and has given up his will to do the will of theVoice, and has some of the Voice's greatness. Next come the ghosts of Eve and Cain, then those of the Serpent and Lilith, mother of mankind. ADAM. 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. Then I gave up your old silly drudging ways, and lived as he hadlived, by the chase, by the killing, and by the fire. The Voice does not speak to me as it does to you. He leaves and the children pledge to stay forever young, but Chloe, somewhat older, says she feels drawn toward the ancient's way of life. Alone for ever. 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. That is a great thought. It wasLilith who did wrong when she shared the labor of creation so unequallybetween man and wife. Why not tame men and women to work for us? I must have somethingto worship. Why did it not tell Cain that? EVE [_displeased, turning away from the serpent_] But it will destroyhope. That is true. The Serpent Fusima Chloe M'el Dowd. THE SERPENT. 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. A He-Ancient, who is called to decide the creatures' fate. [_He goes past her to the stone, andfondles the serpent_]. 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. He said that the Voice was the voice of the fire that cooked hisfood, and that the fire that could cook could also eat. Back to Methuselah (Original, Play, Comedy, Broadway) opened in New York City Feb 27, 1922 and played through Mar 1922. . Yes, because she looked at another man. ADAM. Oh! You and Adam. EVE. Death. EVE. and internal kicking rocks it so hard that it must be held steady to keep it from rolling off the altar. It did; but I am not a child to be afraid of a Voice. Eve must not die before me. I will bedelivered from fear. She loved me more than ever. But you have not made a vow yet. They drag us down to the level of the beasts. Back to Methuselah is an epic-length play by George Bernard Shaw - not a writer given to brevity normally - so long and unwieldy, in fact, that Washington Stage Guild estimates that this three-year production is only the third or fourth full production of the play since it was written, in 1920. who have thedrudgery of preparing the food? It is I who must conceive. data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAKAAAAB4CAYAAAB1ovlvAAAAAXNSR0IArs4c6QAAAw5JREFUeF7t181pWwEUhNFnF+MK1IjXrsJtWVu7HbsNa6VAICGb/EwYPCCOtrrci8774KG76 . Back to Methuselah; a metabiological Pentateuch. Oh! Ha! Happiness is wicked.Certainty is blessed. ADAM [_in sullen rage_] I have half a mind to shew you that my spade cansplit your undutiful head open, in spite of your spear. I want to see my work sometimes. But am I idle? Does this seem a better thing to you thanlove between us? Michael Holroyd describes the plays as "a masterpiece of wishful thinking" and calls them science fiction. Does not theVoice tell you that as no man dare slay you for murdering your brother,you ought to slay yourself? THE SERPENT. To his parents he has the self-assertive,not-quite-at-ease manner of a revolted son who knows that he is notforgiven nor approved of._. But is it long enough for theother things, the great things? In one word, to conceive. In the preface, Shaw speaks of the pervasive discouragement and poverty in Europe after World War I, and relates these issues to inept government. killing or digging in the garden and says her future sons will find things more wonderful to do. Dare it. Adam, crouching with one hand on therock, is staring in consternation at the dead body. 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. ADAM. Thechameleon eats the air. I musthave certainty. THE SERPENT. The Voice does not tell me not to kill you. . Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. EVE [_pointing to the fawn_] Like that. 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