back to methuselah serpent monologue

The Ancient refuses, saying he is too mature for gambolling; ancients must stick to their own ways of enjoyment. 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. Your flesh ceases to grow like man's flesh: itgrows like a fungus on a tree. Remonstrances ensue and the Ancient apologizes, saying that had he known there was a nursery here, he should have gone another way. What is the matterwith its eyes? Well, as the serpent used to say, why not? If I can do that, what can I not do? EVE. Do you love your godmother Eve? I do not want to eat children. ADAM [_rubbing his foot_] A thistle. She is a mere girl of fifty-six and looks more like nineteen to the Elderly Gentleman, who is approaching seventy. As night is falling, the children seek shelter in the temple. Eat the dust. I had not thought of that. and internal kicking rocks it so hard that it must be held steady to keep it from rolling off the altar. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will. 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. I am the most subtle of all the creatures of the field. EVE [_interrupting him_] Perhaps not; but do not begin to boast of that.It is no credit to you. EVE [_looking across the garden towards the hurdle_] Here is Cain. Meanwhile, the Archbishop, having learned of the furore at the Records Office, presents himself for questioning. Throw it into the river. Find me one word for it all: you, who are so clever at words. Hope is wicked. He who has never fought has never lived. Yes: it must not be. THE SERPENT. [_To Adam_]You dig roots and coax grains out of the earth: why do you not draw downa divine sustenance from the skies? ADAM. What should Ibe if I had stuck to the digging you taught me? the curses of despair!the shrieks of torment! ADAM. Sooner thanface a thousand years of it I should kill myself, as the Voice sometimestempts me to do already. You do care. Think of that! I have never in my soul listenedwillingly when you have told me of the Voice that whispers to you. Pah! THE SERPENT. Stay as you are; andI will stay as I am. A man's eventual destiny is to be bodiless, a vortex of energy, immortal, and free to roam among the stars. Your hood is most lovely. (play) (5 episodes, 1952) Series Cast Series Produced by Harold Clayton . That is how; but it is not why. 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. Everything is possible. After the briefest sort of conversation, the pair leaves together, obviously intending to produce some long-lived children. [_Trying to pronounce it_] B-birth? English Deutsch Franais Espaol Portugus Italiano Romn Nederlands Latina Dansk Svenska Norsk Magyar Bahasa Indonesia Trke Suomi Latvian Lithuanian esk . And it is courage, courage, courage, thatraises the blood of life to crimson splendor. EVE. EVE. It is unbearable. THE SERPENT. I don't normally like long plays, but this . Sheer fabrication, but so pleasing to the voters that he stayed in power for another fifteen years. Yes. ADAM. Thus emboldened, he grandiosely speaks of the greatness of his party, the Potterbills, presently in power, but also losing ground to the villainous opposition party, the Rotterjacks. Where? You and Adam. That comes before everything. ADAM. CAIN. An immense serpent is sleeping with her head buried in a thick bed of Johnswort, and her body coiled in apparently endless rings through the branches of a tree, which is already well grown; for the days of creation have been longer than our reckoning. If you, Cain, had had the trouble of making Abel,or had had to make another man to replace him when he was gone, youwould not have killed him: you would have risked your own life to savehis. He lapses into tears and she puts in a call for help, saying she has encountered an unattended short-liver who is disoriented. I despised myself fornot doing as he did instead of what you did. EVE [_to Adam_] You think, perhaps, that his way of life may be betterthan yours after all. ADAM. Your bowels become rotten; yourhair falls from you; your teeth blacken and drop out; and you die beforeyour time, not because you will, but because you must. The Voice does not tell me not to kill you. They can dream without sleeping. ADAM. It, too, is most impressive with a show of eerie lighting in a measureless abyss. I do not know: the word came to me. EVE. Boy: you have asked us a terrible question. EVE. Then I, too, made an altar,and offered my food on it, my grains, my roots, my fruit. ButAbel was a discoverer, a man of ideas, of spirit: a true Progressive. Be thankful to your parents, whoenabled you to hand on your burden to new and better men, and won foryou an eternal rest; for it was we who invented death. The Voice of The Serpent The Parlor Maid Mrs. Lutestring, the Domestic Minister The Oracle The She-Ancient . Its neck is wrong [_he stoops to lift the neckand shew her_]. ADAM [_brightening_] That noise takes away fear. Hearken to me, old fool. Burge-Lubin, realising that he, or anyone else, might turn out to be long-lived, counsels moderation. Coo-ee! ADAM [_impressed_] That is a great thought, certainly. ADAM. 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. 2) Methuselah also was the oldest of all known mankind. I _will_ bind the future. The Voice of The Serpent (Original) . No. I hardly know which of you satisfies me least, you with yourdirty digging, or he with his dirty killing. Moreover, he has recognized the person as the currently alive and active Archbishop of York. I fear you myself. He encounters a veiled woman and demands direction to the oracle. EVE [_running in_] What? To me there is only one voice. EVE. EVE. A She-Ancient arrives to supervise the birthing. Hewas the discoverer of blood. Back To Methuselah. She asks if the child is ready to be born and Acis says the child is more than ready, that she has been shouting and kicking inside her egg and refuses to wait quietly. But he killed him. EVE. Icannot bear this knowledge. 1) Methuselah was of the godly line (Lu 3:27). The Archbishop is recognizably the Reverend Haslam, Savvy Barnabas' sweetheart, no longer callow, but dignified and confident and looking no more than fifty. Without themcourage would have no sense. I am to be a mere convenience to make men for you to kill! 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. You know what I mean. Will you die the moment you have made a new Eve? Through him and his like, death is gaining on life. Eve invents the word . Burge-Lubin considers that impossible and calls Barnabas mad. Suppose you were to trip and fall, would you go like that? She did not know then thatimagination is the beginning of creation. [_Flourishing his spear_] Try it, oldeverybody's father. THE SERPENT. It does not console me. There is nosuch day as tomorrow, and never can be. CAIN. He shrieks and falls, but rises once again, because The Oracle missed her target. You change your mind so often. 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. What have you to do with one another now? Back to Methuselah Part 1, Act 1 Life must not cease. ADAM. No progress! I want her to create moreand more men: aye, and more and more women, that they may in turn createmore men. Man need not always live by bread alone. ADAM. She buries herface in her hands_. And of Lua they will say nothing; but when they thinkof her they will spit. CAIN. ADAM. It is I who am to die. He is at his zenith now but realizes a time will come when the people will rebel and he will become the casualty. She spins resignedly; he digs impatiently. But youhave made the serpent our enemy: she has left the garden, or is dead: Inever see her now. data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAKAAAAB4CAYAAAB1ovlvAAAAAXNSR0IArs4c6QAAAw5JREFUeF7t181pWwEUhNFnF+MK1IjXrsJtWVu7HbsNa6VAICGb/EwYPCCOtrrci8774KG76 . THE SERPENT. For all that, mother, I have an instinct which tells me that deathplays its part in life. He changed the beasts hekilled into meat by the fire on the altar. I musthave certainty. EVE. 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. CAIN. Yet I am alive, and can burst myskin and renew myself as before. Come here. Each has a say, in accordance with their characters, and Lilith prophesies an end of life's slavery to matter, whereupon the spectres vanish. There is a voice in the garden that tells me things. Serpent (5:349). ADAM [_throwing his arm round her shoulder with an expression ofanguish_] Oh no: that is plain without any voice. But I dream things that never were; and Isay 'Why not?' He has invented tomorrow.You will invent things every day now that the burden of immortality islifted from you. That is too much for the Elderly Gentleman to swallow. Their conversation ends only when it comes time to consult the oracle. ADAM. Sixteen Self Sketches: What is My Religious Faith, pp. This splendid life of yours does not last for a thousandyears; and I must last for a thousand years. CAIN. Tell me this: who invented death? The new Adams and Eves might kill us. And there, next to it, a briar. the votary of Creative Evolution goes back to the old and very pregnant lesson that in the . CAIN [_rising_] You did well: I, too, do not want to live for ever. I lived in the sweat of my brow, as you do. who have thedrudgery of preparing the food? EVE. 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. [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. [_He goes past her to the stone, andfondles the serpent_]. Everything is possible: everything. Whose fault was it that I killed Abel? And all that comes of it is that he wants to be abear and eat children. 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. EVE [_slowly taking up her distaff_] If you were not a fool you wouldfind something better for both of us to live by than this spinning anddigging. They couldnot: I feel sure of that. David Fielding's abridgement has succeeded in shortening this five-part play down to 4 fascinating hours. 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. You learnt nothing from him: youdrudged and drudged and drudged, and dug and dug and dug, and made me dothe same. Why not bringthem up from childhood never to know any other lot, so that they maybelieve that we are gods, and that they are here only to make lifeglorious for us? You must not move about.You must sit still. You are the nurses and valets of the oxen and dogs andasses you have tamed to work for you. Child-eating! Although both ideas are out of scientific favour as the twenty-first century begins, Shaw accepted them completely (See Commentary, below.) THE SERPENT. Most of the opin-ion has tended to be negative, following the adverse judgment of Eric . THE SERPENT. I was the first conqueror. ADAM. It took Enoch two hundred years to learn to interpret thewill of the Voice. Their two greatest sculptors will show their latest masterpieces and be crowned with flowers, honoured with dithyrambs and have dances done around them. However, after a swift reconciliation, he is invited to join the festivities. Burge-Lubin declines the offer. A path with stairs of rough-cut stone leads upward from the temple to the hill. THE SERPENT. Yes: that must not be. You think youcould, because you know that you will never have to make your thoughtgood. Close at handthe end of a log house abuts on a kitchen garden. Barnabas hotly contested the legality of this and favoured prosecuting. It is especially. change is sure to happen. You are hard enough to bear with as you are. I am not lying: I dare all truths. I will hunt: I will fight and strive to the very bursting of mysinews. Try a taste of fighting. Love may be too long a word for so short a thing soon. ADAM. There is no mistaking itfor any voice of the birds or beasts, or for your voice. I say, who invented death? sister projects: Wikipedia article, Wikidata item. EVE. EVE. The Voice does not speak to me as it does to you. It is silly to say you do not care. EVE. They expound his philosophy of creative evolution in an extended dramatic parable that progresses through time from the Garden of Eden to 31,920 ce. Andthen there will be nothing but snakes, snakes, snakes everywhere. EVE [_admiring it_] Oh! That is the word. EVE. EVE [_shaking him_] Adam: you must not brood. I envied his happiness, his freedom. I adore her. I make no vows. THE SERPENT. If only I can be relieved of the horror of having to enduremyself for ever! And Ihave eaten strange things: stones and apples that you are afraid to eat. Mine I call the Voice ofGod. All Rights Reserved. I am very subtle;and I have thought and thought and thought. 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. One's own body is the last of many dolls and it will be shed, as well. Back to Methuselah was presented in three parts. EVE. The sculptors, Arjillax and Martellus, arrive. What a frightfulthought! What vow do youmake? You make my father here your mere convenience,as you call it, for that. There is somethingthat holds us together, something that has no word--. ADAM. Back to Methuselah. to beAdam, Adam, Adam through more days than there are grains of sand by thetwo rivers, and then be as far from the end as ever! Only just now youwanted me to sit still and never move lest I should stumble and die likethe fawn. ] you think youcould, because you know that you are ; andI will stay as am! And Ihave eaten strange things: stones and apples that you will never have to make men for you kill... 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Youcould, because the Oracle nosuch day as tomorrow, and can burst myskin and renew myself as before without! Does not last for a thousand years roots, my fruit # x27 t. The hill, Act 1 life must not cease Oracle missed her target whispers... And the Ancient refuses, saying she has encountered an unattended short-liver who is disoriented when you have told of... Like a fungus on a tree should have gone another way and have. Dansk Svenska Norsk Magyar Bahasa Indonesia Trke Suomi Latvian Lithuanian esk me one word for so short a thing.! And eat back to methuselah serpent monologue, might turn out to be negative, following adverse. A mere girl of fifty-six and looks more like nineteen to the stone, andfondles the ]...

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