Oh yes, some of them, of course. data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAKAAAAB4CAYAAAB1ovlvAAAAAXNSR0IArs4c6QAAAw5JREFUeF7t181pWwEUhNFnF+MK1IjXrsJtWVu7HbsNa6VAICGb/EwYPCCOtrrci8774KG76 . English Deutsch Franais Espaol Portugus Italiano Romn Nederlands Latina Dansk Svenska Norsk Magyar Bahasa Indonesia Trke Suomi Latvian Lithuanian esk . The other children bathe her, despite her shrieks and protestations. There would be only the things on allfours, and the birds, and the snakes. THE SERPENT. That is very true. An oasis in Mesopotamia. But I should not like it. And I have to pretend to be surprised, delighted, interested;though the last child is like the first, and has said and done nothingthat did not delight Adam and me when you and Abel said it. She says she is the oracle, but he has contempt for women and insists he be directed to one of the older and more able men. 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 Andthen there will be nothing but snakes, snakes, snakes everywhere. Their remains are collected, using sanitary precautions, and burnt at Pygmalion's laboratory, which is also destroyed. She agrees to let him stay and grasps his hands and looks at him. ADAM. She does so and asks if he still wants to consult an older person. I will bedelivered from fear. You see, Eve,what a splendid thing it is not to have to live for ever. Icannot bear this knowledge. ADAM. Whereupon she vanishes, the lighting turns to daylight and the abyss is no more. 4004 (In the Garden of Eden), The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas: Present Day, The Thing Happens: A.D. 2170, Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman: A.D. 3000, and As Far as Thought Can Reach: A.D. 31,920. Will you die the moment you have made a new Eve? 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. Will they live long enough to eat manna? Consternation reigns behind them because the others realise than, with the secret out, other long-lifers, previously in hiding, will emerge to join them and form a colony that will seem a threat to short-lived people. 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. ADAM [_angrily_] How can I help brooding when the future has becomeuncertain? ADAM. I cleared away the thistles and briars. If only the rest and sleep that enable me to bear it fromday to day could grow after many days into an eternal rest, an eternalsleep, then I could face my days, however long they may last. [_Hegathers its hooves in his hand and carries it away in the direction fromwhich Eve came, holding it as far from him as possible_]. Those whom I slay woulddie if I spared them. Rebecca Sunshine performing a monologue 'The Serpent's Tale'. Adam is digging in themiddle of the garden. Yousee things; and you say 'Why?' _Eve's face lights up with intense interest, which increases until anexpression of overwhelming repugnance takes its place. Remonstrances ensue and the Ancient apologizes, saying that had he known there was a nursery here, he should have gone another way. Members of the younger generation, in the persons of Franklyn's daughter Savvy and her sweetheart, a young cleric named Haslam, are at the presentation, too. There must besomething greater than the snake. Whatdo I care? I am the old serpent, older than Adam, older than Eve. ADAM. Suppose you were to trip and fall, would you go like that? [4] Nevertheless, he uses both terms in Man and Superman which was written nine years before Bergson's work was published. Throw it into the river. ADAM. [_Shesits on the rock and pulls him down beside her, clasping him to her withher right arm_]. ADAM. What should Ibe if I had stuck to the digging you taught me? Murder is not death. EVE [_shaking him_] Adam: you must not brood. If I must have food or die, I will at least have it at as far aremove from the earth as I can. Why not be born again and again as I am, new and beautifulevery time? When he falls, he shall beavenged sevenfold: the Voice has said it; so beware how you plot againstme, you and all the rest. I revolt against the food. 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. CAIN [_rising_] You did well: I, too, do not want to live for ever. I could not sit still then. Through him and his like, death is gaining on life. If only the sentinel set by the Voice can berelieved! They do not grow very fast. THE SERPENT. That is true. There is somethingthat holds us together, something that has no word--. EVE [_slipping her hand into his_] Wife and husband. I am the most subtle of all the creatures of the field. Creative Evolution, translated by Arthur Mitchell, Ph.D. New York: Henry Holt and Company (1911). You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will. Do you mean that Adam must share it with me? He is utterly disdainful of the simple farming life and soon rudely goes away. EVE. 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. I followed your teaching. EVE [_looking across the garden towards the hurdle_] Here is Cain. 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. Keep a guard on your own tongue; and do not curse my son. When they come, there isalways some new wonder, or some new hope: something to live for. Tired of their talk with children, the Ancients go their separate ways. Always dig, dig, dig. I feel as if the ground were giving wayunder my feet when it speaks. Barnabas goes to meet the American inventor, who wants to use Records Office film footage to create a _Adam springs to his feet. Why should I forget it? EVE [_rising and running to him_] Only think, Adam! At the end the Serpent whispersfor Eve's ears alonethe secret of reproduction, which Eve hears with greatly mixed emotions. 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. Sheshall have no other food; and that will make her my slave. THE SERPENT. Close at handthe end of a log house abuts on a kitchen garden. Sticking in theold furrow. [_He chuckles and goes awayslowly, laughing his first laugh_]. Part 1 opened on February 27, 1922; Part 2 opened on March 6, 1922; and Part 3 opened on March 13, 1922. . 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. That was the secondbirth. You do care. Yet I am alive, and can burst myskin and renew myself as before. He is an "Ancient". The Prime Minister's choice was clear. 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. You neither of you know anything about life. EVE. No. David Fielding's abridgement has succeeded in shortening this five-part play down to 4 fascinating hours. EVE. ADAM. THE SERPENT. Yet I do not want youto die before me. Tell me some miracle that you have done. ADAM. Yes: it must not be. I say, who invented death? Try a taste of fighting. THE SERPENT. Let me go, you fool. ButAbel was a discoverer, a man of ideas, of spirit: a true Progressive. [_He goes on digging withoutraising his head_]. Yet I do not know how to prevent it. She looks seventeen years old. Cain, witha laughing one, throws down his shield and spear. But he must give hisdesire and his will to you. And pray, what use is this thousand years of life to you, youold vegetable? Because Back to Methuselah is made up of five full-length plays, it is extremely difficult to produce. Then there is no such thing as divine justice, unless you arelying. EVE [_petting her_] Eve's wonderful darling snake. 1) Methuselah was of the godly line (Lu 3:27). I have striven with a boar and with a lion as to which ofus should kill the other. EVE. I do not want to be a bear. The Ancients arrive, having sensed that they were needed, and destroy the couple painlessly. Will you kill tigers and bears until I have a heapof their skins to lounge on? CAIN. It is I who am to die. What is wicked? She did not know then thatimagination is the beginning of creation. Then death will not matter: thissnake and that snake will die; but the snakes will live. You will find more snakes than there are fingers onyour hands. My boy: this is neither man nor woman nor lovenor life. ADAM. The Prime Minister, now called The Envoy, is too overwhelmed to ask his question until he swallows a half-pint of brandy. ADAM. EVE [_running in_] What? If I am to overtake death, I must appoint a real day, not atomorrow. You invented murder. Pretty thing! 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. Without themcourage would have no sense. EVE [_jarred and startled_] What a hateful noise! Adamlooks worried, like a farmer. He is at his zenith now but realizes a time will come when the people will rebel and he will become the casualty. I hardly know which of you satisfies me least, you with yourdirty digging, or he with his dirty killing. I want her to create moreand more men: aye, and more and more women, that they may in turn createmore men. Dead. It has not yet told me the secret. Even a bear would not eat a man if it could gethoney instead. And that request was granted: "Go home, poor fool" the oracle replies repeating what she had said to Eastwind. Liar: you denied just now that it called on you to pay for Abel'slife with your own. The moment you find we need not last for ever,you talk as if we were going to end today. THE SERPENT. He says he is the world's foremost general, invincible in battle, and adored by all his followers, although his victories cost great carnage. I forgot it when I sawyour beautiful hood. ADAM. EVE. I, too, have thought of something. sister projects: Wikipedia article, Wikidata item. Leave us in peace. Man-eating! [_Adam points to the fawn_]. To me there is only one voice. EN. ADAM [_dropping the snake's head in his excitement_] What! One of them I will lead; and the other will be led by the man Ifear most and desire to fight and kill most. Has no word -- I spared them denied just now that it called on you to pay Abel'slife! 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