Anybody couldbe the first man: it is as easy as to be the first cabbage. Back to Methuselah; a metabiological Pentateuch. [_Calling_] Adam!Adam! 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. THE SERPENT. Anything is better than uncertainty. Sixteen Self Sketches: What is My Religious Faith, pp. data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAKAAAAB4CAYAAAB1ovlvAAAAAXNSR0IArs4c6QAAAw5JREFUeF7t181pWwEUhNFnF+MK1IjXrsJtWVu7HbsNa6VAICGb/EwYPCCOtrrci8774KG76 . We shall need each other. THE SERPENT. 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. EVE. She spins resignedly; he digs impatiently. EVE [_thoughtfully_] There can be no such thing as nothing. But I dream things that never were; and Isay 'Why not?' EVE. In the Beginning: B.C. You callthat the nature of woman! And that request was granted: "Go home, poor fool" the oracle replies repeating what she had said to Eastwind. Ihave a plan. Are you eager to be rid of me? While awaiting help, she asks how he obtained admission to the island, since ordinary tourists are routinely turned away. I revolt against these births that you and mother are so proudof. Yourhair streams in the wind as if it were trying to stretch itself furtherand further. And at last I found a way of gatheringtogether a part of the life in my body--. And at last it would happento me too. Martellus laughs, but not in mockery; he says he, too, attempted such a project, but has smashed all his sculptures and thrown away his tools. Back To Methuselah. I hardly know which of you satisfies me least, you with yourdirty digging, or he with his dirty killing. But I have more wonderful news than that. You are simplecountry folk. Alone for ever. Mother: the making of men is your right, your risk, your agony,your glory, your triumph. ADAM. Fear is stronger in me than hope. Barnabas hotly contested the legality of this and favoured prosecuting. Yes. Ifyou take a step towards your mother with that spear of yours I willstrike you with my spade as you struck Abel. The ox shall make it something noblerthan grass before it comes to me. It is what you are when youforget and brood and are filled with fear. She belongs to a colony of long-lived people and has been assigned the task of protecting short-lived visitors. You should not. THE SERPENT. A line drawing of the Internet Archive headquarters building faade. Back to Methuselah was presented in three parts. 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. Iremember Lilith, who came before Adam and Eve. I can never be alone.You always want to know what I have been doing. She is not yet visible to anyone unaware of her presence, as Because I would not have such wretches in my house. no adventures! Will they learn all the ways of all the stars in theirlittle time? ADAM [_instinctively moving his hand towards her_] Husband and wife. Hearken to me, old fool. Quick. Lick the white stone: bite theapple you dread. I can talk of many things. My new word for having to live for ever. Why not live bravely, and die early and makeroom for others? That is a great thought. His solution was to fake his death and, as a different person, begin a new career. Because Back to Methuselah is made up of five full-length plays, it is extremely difficult to produce. Make a vow. Keep a guard on your own tongue; and do not curse my son. The new Adams and Eves might kill us. Whilst the east wind prevails Britain shall prosper. ADAM. You see, Eve,what a splendid thing it is not to have to live for ever. Eve must not die before me. I want to be different; tobe better, to begin again and again; to shed myself as a snake sheds itsskin. Listen to me, Eve; and you,snake, listen too, that your memory may hold my vow. In the preface, Shaw speaks of the pervasive discouragement and poverty in Europe after World War I, and relates these issues to inept government. Peace, peace, you two fools. No: they will not kill us: they will feel as I do. all those multitudes of menfighting, fighting, killing, killing! The earth is fruitful. She does so and asks if he still wants to consult an older person. The secret! THE SERPENT. THE SERPENT. I do not know: the word came to me. ADAM [_scolding her_] Why do you say that? He is now a warrior who also kills beasts for food. There must besomething greater than the snake. Poor mother! EVE. 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. In rejecting yourdrudgery, have I not embraced evils and agonies of which you knownothing? Adam is digging in themiddle of the garden. To be thefirst murderer one must be a man of spirit. They have come to consult the oracle about matters of utmost importance. 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. Give it to me; or I willkill you when next I catch you asleep. It is something greater than me: I am only apart of it. Life is still long enough to learn to dig, short as they aremaking it. David Fielding's abridgement has succeeded in shortening this five-part play down to 4 fascinating hours. Come here. How can I destroy unless she creates? Listen.I am old. But I have known what it is to sit and brood under the terror ofeternity, of immortality. CAIN. It is a cycle of five plays which Shaw calls a 'metabiological pentateuch'. Find me another word for what Lilith was to me. What did the Voice say to you when you thought all that? But it does not grow longer for all its practice instreaming, because you have not willed it so. "Poor short-lived thing!" For that is what it would come to,just as it came to lambs and kids when Abel began with sheep and goats.You are a poor silly creature after all. The Ancient examines the newly born carefully and pronounces her fit to live. Whose fault was it that I killed Abel? You are not stronger: you are shorter in the wind: you cannotendure. 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. That is how I pay forAbel's blood. 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. I call yours the Devil. The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas is intended to teach an audience what readers of the Preface are assumed to have learned. EVE. That is what you think, is it? Think. Well, this is the problem examined by Bernard Shaw in his Back to Methuselah. Some day you shall see me come outof this beautiful skin, a new snake with a new and lovelier skin. Eve: do notplay with me about this. He turns his face to his right and callsexcitedly. He is utterly disdainful of the simple farming life and soon rudely goes away. This splendid life of yours does not last for a thousandyears; and I must last for a thousand years. Because I hatecreatures with two heads, or with withered limbs, or that are distortedand perverted and unnatural. Oh yes, some of them, of course. [8] Methuselah is said to be Shaw's only real engagement with science fiction. [4] Nevertheless, he uses both terms in Man and Superman which was written nine years before Bergson's work was published. That is why thereis enmity between Woman the creator and Man the destroyer. I will live a thousand years; and then I will endure no more: Iwill die and take my rest. Sticking in theold furrow. You call that love! EVE [_joining him_] Oh! That is a dreadful thought. EVE. Acs, a three-year-old, tries unsuccessfully to comfort him, but Stephen insists on remaining disconsolate until he finds another partner. But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'[15]. You can feel nothing but atorment, and believe nothing but a lie. 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. THE SERPENT. It is I who must conceive. The first performances in England began at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre under the management of Barry Jackson on the 9th October 1923. Every man who has not seen it, heardit, felt it, risked it, will feel a humbled fool in the presence of theman who has. Their remains are collected, using sanitary precautions, and burnt at Pygmalion's laboratory, which is also destroyed. What is the matterwith its eyes? 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. Strangers. One of them I will lead; and the other will be led by the man Ifear most and desire to fight and kill most. CAIN. EVE [_turning impatiently to the snake_] That heart-biting sound again!Do not do it. You must. 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? Only,there must be some end, some end: I am not strong enough to beareternity. EVE. THE SERPENT. [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. I do not want to be a bear. Man need not always live by bread alone. ADAM [_rising and approaching it slowly_] There is something uncannyabout it. See[_she spreads a magnificent amethystine hood_]! But only some. There is divine justice. The Voice of The Serpent The Parlor Maid Mrs. Lutestring, the Domestic Minister The Oracle The She-Ancient . The Voicethought I was nothing but my brother's keeper. Tell me this: who invented death? Yet I do not know how to prevent it. Everything must have been created out of nothing. THE SERPENT. I forgot it when I sawyour beautiful hood. EVE [_angrily to the snake_] This death that you have brought into thegarden is an evil thing. It is admittedly possible to find some excuses for the negative side of his arguments, especially the refusal to be convinced by Darwin. ADAM [_angrily_] Be silent, woman. They borrow and never pay; but one gives them what they want,because they tell beautiful lies in beautiful words. THE SERPENT. You are more her slave than Adam's ox oryour own sheepdog. She saw death as yousaw it when the fawn fell; and she knew then that she must find out howto renew herself and cast the skin like me. She is nearly four years old and is wearying of the activities of children. I can raise you out of that. Not before. Back to Methuselah (Revival, Play, Comedy, Broadway) opened in New York City Mar 26, 1958 and played through Apr 19, 1958. THE SERPENT. ADAM. I want her to create moreand more men: aye, and more and more women, that they may in turn createmore men. Barnabas goes to meet the American inventor, who wants to use Records Office film footage to create a THE SERPENT. Dare it. Go in peace. But if I create another Eve he may turn to her and do without me. Let me go, you fool. Go on with yourspinning; and do not sit there idle while I am straining my muscles foryou. Superman! THE SERPENT. I, too, have thought of something. He need not. Instead of sculptures, he has brought a scientist, Pygmalion, who is a greater artist than the world has seen before. Its neck is wrong [_he stoops to lift the neckand shew her_]. Part 1 opened on February 27, 1922; Part 2 opened on March 6, 1922; and Part 3 opened on March 13, 1922. . Man-eating! For all that, mother, I have an instinct which tells me that deathplays its part in life. ButAbel was a discoverer, a man of ideas, of spirit: a true Progressive. He humanizes them to the point of wishing to die for each other, then allows them to die. Will you kill tigers and bears until I have a heapof their skins to lounge on? No voice is needed to make me feel that. ADAM [_returning_] Is there another voice in the garden besides ourvoices and the Voice? ADAM [_ruminating_] You puzzle me. Back to Methuselah. THE SERPENT. You think youcould, because you know that you will never have to make your thoughtgood. ADAM. CAIN. EVE. He laughed at me; and then came my great idea: why notkill him as he killed the beasts? Eat the dust. Child-eating! Andnettles, too! I must have somethingto worship. I worship you, Eve. Choose a day for your death; and resolve to die on thatday. You say thatI make a mere convenience of Adam: I who spin and keep the house, andbear and rear children, and am a woman and not a pet animal to pleasemen and prey on them! But you willedand tried and willed and tried; and your will created out of nothing theroll on your arm until you had your desire, and could draw yourself upwith one hand and seat yourself on the bough that was above your head. That is just what I feel; but it is very strange that you shouldsay so: there is no pleasing you. Copies of this variorum edition are available in the Goldsmiths' Library in the University of London, the Lilly Library at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, and in the Rare Books Collection of the University of Texas at Austin. 1) Methuselah was of the godly line (Lu 3:27). It is likely that he did not die as the world. Shetakes it to lie on, and flings you the carrion flesh you cannot eat. _Adam springs to his feet. A path with stairs of rough-cut stone leads upward from the temple to the hill. ADAM. That comes before everything. Back to Methuselah Part 1, Act 1 Life must not cease. If I am not slain, yet I shall die. 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