ADAM. That is very true. You must tell us your secret. You see, Eve, what a splendid thing it is not to have to live for ever.
EVE [throwing herself down discontentedly and plucking at the grass] That is so like a man. The moment you find we need not last for ever, you talk as if we were going to end today. You must clear away some of those horrid things, or we shall be scratched and stung whenever we forget to look where we are stepping.
ADAM. Oh yes, some of them, of course. But only some. I will clear them away tomorrow.
THE SERPENT [laughs]!!!
ADAM. That is a funny noise to make. I like it.
EVE. I do not. Why do you make it again?
THE SERPENT. Adam has invented something new. He has invented tomorrow. You will invent things every day now that the burden of immortality is lifted from you.
EVE. Immortality? What is that?
THE SERPENT. My new word for having to live for ever.
EVE. The serpent has made a beautiful word for being. Living.
ADAM. Make me a beautiful word for doing things tomorrow; for that surely is a great and blessed invention.
THE SERPENT. Procrastination.
EVE. That is a sweet word. I wish I had a serpent's tongue.
THE SERPENT. That may come too. Everything is possible.
ADAM [springing up in sudden terror] Oh!
EVE. What is the matter now?
ADAM. My rest! My escape from life!
THE SERPENT. Death. That is the word.
ADAM. There is a terrible danger in this procrastination.
EVE. What danger?
ADAM. If I put off death until tomorrow, I shall never die. There is no such day as tomorrow, and never can be.
THE SERPENT. I am very subtle; but Man is deeper in his thought than I am. The woman knows that there is no such thing as nothing: the man knows that there is no such day as tomorrow. I do well to worship them.
ADAM. If I am to overtake death, I must appoint a real day, not a tomorrow. When shall I die?
EVE. You may die when I have made another Adam. Not before. But then, as soon as you like. [She rises, and passing behind him, strolls off carelessly to the tree and leans against it, stroking a ring of the snake].
ADAM. There need be no hurry even then.
EVE. I see you will put it off until tomorrow.
ADAM. And you? Will you die the moment you have made a new Eve?
EVE. Why should I? Are you eager to be rid of me? Only just now you wanted me to sit still and never move lest I should stumble and die like the fawn. Now you no longer care.
ADAM. It does not matter so much now.
EVE [angrily to the snake] This death that you have brought into the garden is an evil thing. He wants me to die.
THE SERPENT [to Adam] Do you want her to die?
ADAM. No. It is I who am to die. Eve must not die before me. I should be lonely.
EVE. You could get one of the new Eves.
ADAM. That is true. But they might not be quite the same. They could not: I feel sure of that. They would not have the same memories. They would be—I want a word for them.
THE SERPENT. Strangers.
ADAM. Yes: that is a good hard word. Strangers.
EVE. When there are new Adams and new Eves we shall live in a garden of strangers. We shall need each other. [She comes quickly behind him and turns up his face to her]. Do not forget that, Adam. Never forget it.
ADAM. Why should I forget it? It is I who have thought of it.
EVE. I, too, have thought of something. The fawn stumbled and fell and died. But you could come softly up behind me and [she suddenly pounces on his shoulders and throws him forward on his face] throw me down so that I should die. I should not dare to sleep if there were no reason why you should not make me die.
ADAM [scrambling up in horror] Make you die!!! What a frightful thought!
THE SERPENT. Kill, kill, kill, kill. That is the word.
EVE. The new Adams and Eves might kill us. I shall not make them. [She sits on the rock and pulls him down beside her, clasping him to her with her right arm].
THE SERPENT. You must. For if you do not there will be an end.
ADAM. No: they will not kill us: they will feel as I do. There is something against it. The Voice in the garden will tell them that they must not kill, as it tells me.
THE SERPENT. The voice in the garden is your own voice.
ADAM. It is; and it is not. It is something greater than me: I am only a part of it.
EVE. The Voice does not tell me not to kill you. Yet I do not want you to die before me. No voice is needed to make me feel that.
ADAM [throwing his arm round her shoulder with an expression of anguish] Oh no: that is plain without any voice. There is something that holds us together, something that has no word—
THE SERPENT. Love. Love. Love.
ADAM. That is too short a word for so long a thing.
THE SERPENT [laughs]!!!
EVE [turning impatiently to the snake] That heart-biting sound again! Do not do it. Why do you do it?
THE SERPENT. Love may be too long a word for so short a thing soon. But when it is short it will be very sweet.
ADAM [ruminating] You puzzle me. My old trouble was heavy; but it was simple. These wonders that you promise to do may tangle up my being before they bring me the gift of death. I was troubled with the burden of eternal being; but I was not confused in my mind. If I did not know that I loved Eve, at least I did not know that she might cease to love me, and come to love some other Adam and desire my death. Can you find a name for that knowledge?
THE SERPENT. Jealousy. Jealousy. Jealousy.
ADAM. A hideous word.
EVE [shaking him] Adam: you must not brood. You think too much.
ADAM [angrily] How can I help brooding when the future has become uncertain? Anything is better than uncertainty. Life has become uncertain. Love is uncertain. Have you a word for this new misery?
THE SERPENT. Fear. Fear. Fear.
ADAM. Have you a remedy for it?
THE SERPENT. Yes. Hope. Hope. Hope.
ADAM. What is hope?
THE SERPENT. As long as you do not know the future you do not know that it will not be happier than the past. That is hope.
ADAM. It does not console me. Fear is stronger in me than hope. I must have certainty. [He rises threateningly]. Give it to me; or I will kill you when next I catch you asleep.
EVE [throwing her arms round the serpent] My beautiful snake. Oh no. How can you even think such a horror?
ADAM. Fear will drive me to anything. The serpent gave me fear. Let it now give me certainty or go in fear of me.
THE SERPENT. Bind the future by your will. Make a vow.
ADAM. What is a vow?
THE SERPENT. Choose a day for your