1
B.C. 4004 (In the Garden of Eden)
Act I
The Garden of Eden. Afternoon. 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. She is not yet visible to anyone unaware of her presence, as her colors of green and brown make a perfect camouflage. Near her head a low rock shows above the Johnswort.
The rock and tree are on the border of a glade in which lies a dead fawn all awry, its neck being broken. Adam, crouching with one hand on the rock, is staring in consternation at the dead body. He has not noticed the serpent on his left hand. He turns his face to his right and calls excitedly.
ADAM. Eve! Eve!
EVE’S VOICE. What is it, Adam?
ADAM. Come here. Quick. Something has happened.
EVE [running in] What? Where? [Adam points to the fawn]. Oh! [She goes to it; and he is emboldened to go with her]. What is the matter with its eyes?
ADAM. It is not only its eyes. Look. [He kicks it.]
EVE. Oh don’t! Why doesn’t it wake?
ADAM. I don’t know. It is not asleep.
EVE. Not asleep?
ADAM. Try.
EVE [trying to shake it and roll it over] It is stiff and cold.
ADAM. Nothing will wake it.
EVE. Pah! [She dusts her hands, and draws away from it]. Did you find it like that?
ADAM. No. It was playing about; and it tripped and went head over heels. It never stirred again. Its neck is wrong [he stoops to lift the neck and shew her].
EVE. Dont touch it. Come away from it.
They both retreat, and contemplate it from a few steps’ distance with growing repulsion.
EVE. Adam.
ADAM. Yes?
EVE.
ADAM. Ugh! [He shudders and sits down on the rock].
EVE [throwing herself on the ground beside him, and grasping his knee] You must be careful. Promise me you will be careful.
ADAM. What is the good of being careful? We have to live here for ever. Think of what for ever means! Sooner or later I shall trip and fall. It may be tomorrow; it may be after as many days as there are leaves in the garden and grains of sand by the river. No matter: some day I shall forget and stumble.
EVE. I too.
ADAM [horrified] Oh no, no. I should be alone. Alone for ever. You must never put yourself in danger of stumbling. You must not move about. You must sit still. I will take care of you and bring you what you want.
EVE [turning away from him with a shrug, and hugging her ankles] I should soon get tired of that. Besides, if it happened to you, I should be alone. I could not sit still then. And at last it would happen to me too.
ADAM. And then?
EVE. Then we should be no more. There would be only the things on all fours, and the birds, and the snakes.
ADAM. That must not be.
EVE. Yes: that must not be. But it might be.
ADAM. No. I tell you it must not be. I know that it must not be.
EVE. We both know it. How do we know it?
ADAM. There is a voice in the garden that tells me things.
EVE. The garden is full of voices somet