The Penguin Arthur Miller

by Arthur Miller

  ADAM: Pity you missed it. What a dream! Everything was just the way it used to be. I woke up, and there He was—

  EVE: God.

  ADAM: Yes. And He brought a tray—and about six beautifully scrambled eggs.

  EVE, with guilt and hunger: Ohhh!

  ADAM: And no sand whatsoever. I guess it was Sunday because there was also a little tray of warm croissants.

  EVE, sadly charmed: And then?

  ADAM: Same as always—I named a few things. And then we took a nice nap. And angels were playing some soft music. He hums, trying to recall the tune. How perfect it all was!

  EVE: Until I showed up.

  ADAM: Yes. He looks about with a heightened longing, and, seeing this, she weeps.

  EVE: I don’t know why He made me!

  ADAM: Well, don’t cry, maybe we’ll find out some day. I’ll round up the sheep. He starts out.

  EVE—trying not to call him, she does: Adam!

  ADAM, halting: You’ll just have to walk. That thing might go away if you get some exercise. He moves to go.

  EVE: An angel came.

  ADAM: When?

  EVE: Last night.

  ADAM—happily astounded, he rushes to her: Which one?

  EVE, fearfully: It was, ah . . .

  ADAM: Chemuel?

  EVE: No, not Chemuel.

  ADAM: Raphael? Michael?

  EVE, holding her forehead: No.

  ADAM: Well, what’d he look like? Short or tall?

  EVE: Quite tall.

  ADAM: It wasn’t God, was it?

  EVE: Oh, not God.

  ADAM: What’d he want?

  EVE: I—I can’t remember it clearly.

  ADAM: Was it about getting back into Paradise?

  EVE: Well, no. . . .

  ADAM: About what we’re supposed to do next?

  EVE: Not exactly. . . .

  ADAM: Why didn’t you wake me up?

  EVE: I couldn’t move!

  ADAM: You mean God sends an angel down, and you can’t even remember what he said?

  EVE: It was about this—she touches her belly—thing.

  ADAM, disbelieving; in fact, with disappointment: About that?

  EVE—she looks up at him: Would you sit down, Adam? I think I know what we’re supposed to do now. He senses something strange, sits on his heels. He came through the mist. Like the mist on the sea. Smoke rose from his hair, and his hands smoked.

  Lucifer materializes; motionless, he stands in his terrible beauty at the periphery.

  ADAM, with wonder: Ahhh!

  EVE: And he said— She breaks off in fear as she feels the attraction of the Evil One.

  ADAM: What?

  A blast of wind. They huddle. It dies. She has remained staring ahead. Now she turns to him.

  EVE: That angel opened my eyes, Adam. I see it all very clearly now—with you the Lord was only somewhat disappointed, but with me He was furious. Lucifer gravely nods. And His curse is entirely on me. It is the reason why you’ve hardly changed out here in the world; but I bleed, and now I am ugly and swollen up like a frog. And I never dream of Paradise, but you do almost every night, and you seem to expect to find it over every hill. And that is right—I think now that you belong in Eden. But not me. And as long as I am with you, you will never find it again. Slight pause. Adam, I haven’t the power to move from this place, and this is the proof that I must stay here, and you—go back to Paradise.

  ADAM, in conflict with his wishes: Alone?

  EVE: He would lead you there if you walked away alone. You are thirsting for Eden, and the Lord knows that.

  ADAM: But so are you.

  EVE: Eden is not in me any more.

  Lucifer seems to expand with joy.

  ADAM: Eve!

  EVE: I disgust Him! I am abominable to Him!

  ADAM: But the Lord said we are to cleave to one another. I don’t think I’m supposed to go.

  EVE, bursting into tears, as much with pity for him as with her own indignation: But you don’t like me any more either!

  ADAM, pointing at her belly: That thing—that thing is what I cannot bear! It turns my stomach! I can’t seem to get near you any more! Every time I turn around I’m bumping into it! She cries louder, turns to find herself face to face with Lucifer. I don’t understand you. Do you like that thing?

  EVE, turning back to him from the tempting angel: I—I don’t know!

  ADAM: Because if it moves it’s alive, and if it’s alive we could just hit it! She gasps, holding her belly. There, you see? You like it! And this is why I don’t know where I am any more! I told you when it started, if you jumped up and down—

  EVE: I did jump!

  ADAM: You did not jump. You went like that. He makes a few measly hops.

  EVE: I jumped as hard as I could!

  ADAM: I think you’re taking care of that thing! Jealously. You know what’s in there, don’t you?

  EVE, crying out: I love thee, husband, and I know this thing will be thy curse!

  ADAM: Woman, you will tell me what is in thy belly!

  EVE, clapping her hands over her eyes: It is a death!

  Pause.

  ADAM: Whose death?

  Pause. Eve lowers her hands, staring ahead.

  EVE: Its own.

  Pause.

  ADAM: Who told thee?

  EVE: Lucifer.

  ADAM: You’re seeing Lucifer again?

  EVE: I screamed, but you didn’t hear me!

  ADAM: Well, I was sleeping!

  EVE: You’re always sleeping! Every time that son of a bitch comes around, you’re someplace else! I would never have touched that apple in the first place if you hadn’t left me alone with him!

  ADAM: Well, I was swimming!

  EVE: If you’re not swimming, you’re sleeping!

  ADAM: You mean I can’t turn my back for a minute on my own wife?

  EVE: I couldn’t help it, it was like a dream!

  ADAM: I don’t know how a decent woman can dream about the Devil!

  EVE: Adam—he’s not all bad.

  ADAM: He’s not all . . . ! Light dawns in his head. Ohhhh! No wonder you looked so juicy when you woke up! I want to know what’s so good about him!

  EVE, clapping her hands to her ears: I can’t stand any more!

  ADAM, furiously: God said I am thy master, woman, and you are going to tell me what went on here! No wonder I haven’t been able to get near you. There’s been something strange about you for months!

  EVE: There is a man in my belly, Adam.

  ADAM, chilled with astonishment, wonder, fear: A man.

  EVE: He told me.

  Long pause.

  ADAM: How could a man fit in there?

  EVE: Well . . . small. To start off with. Like the baby monkeys and the little zebras—

  ADAM: Zebras! He’s got you turning us into animals now? No human being has ever been born except grown-up! I may be confused about a lot of things, but I know facts!

  EVE: But it’s what God said—we were to go forth and multiply.

  ADAM, striking his chest indignantly: If we’re going to multiply, it’ll be through me! Same as it always was! What am I going to do with you? After everything he did to us with his goddamned lies, you still—

  EVE: Husband, he told me to do with it exactly what you have told me to do with it.

  ADAM, struck: What I . . . ?

  EVE: He told me it is a man and he told me to kill it. What the Devil hath spoken, thou hast likewise spoken.

  Silence. Neither moves. One sheep baas, like a sinister snarl. A sudden surge of wind, which quickly dies.

  ADAM, tortured: But I had no idea it was a man when I said that.

  EVE, holding her belly, with a long gaze beyo
nd them both: Adam . . . I believe I am meant to bring out this man—alone.

  ADAM, furiously, yet unable to face her directly: Are you putting me with that monster?

  EVE: But why do you all want him dead!

  ADAM: I forbid you to say that again! I am not Lucifer! A heartbroken cry escapes him. Eve! He sinks to his knees. He curls up in ignominy, then prostrates himself before her, flat out on the ground, pressing his lips to her foot. Forgive me! He weeps. Wind blasts. It dies.

  EVE—a new thought interrupts her far-off gaze, and she looks at his prostrate body: Will you dig us a hole?

  ADAM—he joyously scrambles up and kisses her hand: A hole!

  EVE: It needn’t be too big—

  ADAM: What do you mean? I’ll dig you the biggest hole you ever saw in your life! Woman . . . With a cry of gratitude he sweeps her into his arms. Woman, thou art my salvation!

  EVE: Oh, my darling, that’s so good to hear!

  ADAM: How I thirst for thee! My doe, my rabbit . . .

  EVE: My five-pointed buck, my thundering bull!

  ADAM, covering his crotch: Oh, Eve, thy forgiveness hath swelled me like a ripened ear of corn.

  EVE: Oh, how sweet. Then I will forgive thee endlessly.

  Lucifer shows alarm and rising anger.

  ADAM: Say, now, the Lord will probably expect me to think of a name for him. Or do you want to? He indicates her belly.

  EVE: No, you. You’re so good at names.

  ADAM—he thinks, paces: Well, let’s see . . .

  EVE: I’ll be quiet. She watches him with pleasure. It ought to be something clear, and clean and—something for a handsome man.

  ADAM: Y’know, when I saw the first giraffe—it may not fit, but it went through my mind at the time.

  EVE: What?

  ADAM: Frank?

  EVE: Don’t you think that’s a little too, ah . . . ?

  ADAM: I guess so, yes. Maybe it ought to begin with A.

  EVE, simultaneously: . . . to begin with an A.

  They point at each other and laugh.

  ADAM: I mean because he’s the first.

  EVE, simultaneously: He’s the first.

  They laugh again.

  EVE: Isn’t it marvelous that we both have the same thoughts . . .

  ADAM, simultaneously: Both have the same thoughts.

  EVE, in the clear: . . . again!

  ADAM, lifting his arms thankfully: What a God we have!

  EVE: How perfectly excellent is the Lord!

  Lucifer throws up his hands and goes into darkness, holding his head.

  ADAM, suddenly looking down at the ground, astonished: Eve?

  EVE: What, my darling?

  ADAM: Is this grass growing?

  EVE, looking about quickly at the ground: I believe it is!

  ADAM: looking front: Look at the pasture! It’s up to their bellies!

  EVE: Adam, the wind . . . !

  They look up and around. There is silence.

  ADAM: Woman, we must have done something right! He looks upward. I think He loves us again.

  EVE—her hands shoot up, open-palmed, her eyes wide with terror: Sssh!

  ADAM: Could it possibly be . . .

  EVE, a hand moving toward her belly: Ssh, sh!

  ADAM: . . . that the curse is over? She grips her belly. She suddenly rushes right and is stopped by a wild, curling cry of a high-screaming French horn. He is oblivious to the sound. What are you doing? She turns and rushes upstage; he is starting after her, and she is stopped short by a whining blow on a timpani and a simultaneous snarling trumpet blast. He nearly catches her, but she gets away and is rushing left and is stopped by a pair of cacophonic flutes. He catches her now. Eve! She wrenches free of him—and she shows terror of him, and for an instant they are two yards apart, he uncomprehending, she in deadly fear of him. Protesting: It’s Adam. I am thy husband!

  She rushes to a point and halts, crying upward.

  EVE: Chemuuuuu-ellll! Merciful sweet angel, take me out of myself! She is seized by her agony and rolls over and over along the ground, as a massive cacophonic music flares up. Adam is put off, unmanned, afraid to touch her. She slams her hands on the ground as she writhes on her back. God! Oh, God!

  ADAM: Maybe it’ll get better.

  EVE: It will get worse. And when it gets worse it—she sits up, recalling—will get perfectly worse. . . . A contraction. Oh, God! Stretching on her side, hands outstretched: I call on any angel whatsoever!

  ADAM, calling upward: Chemuel, come! Bring mercy!

  EVE: Help me, demon! Come to me, Lucifer!

  ADAM, clapping his ears shut: Aiiii!

  EVE, as though whipped, submissively begging: Take out this agony! Demon, I am awake! Still me, angel! Take him out of my flesh!

  ADAM, falling to his knees: God in Heaven, she is out of her mind!

  EVE: I am in my mind—He never gave me a chance!

  ADAM: Lord, give her a chance!

  EVE: No, He loves this! God, if this is Thy pleasure, then I owe Thee nothing any more, and I call, I call, I call for—A seizure, with each call she pounds the earth. God. Oh, God. Oh, God. God—damn—you—God!

  ADAM, curled up in terror: Aiiii!

  Lucifer appears at the periphery.

  EVE: Still me, demon . . . take this out! Don’t waste another minute! Not a minute more! He is bursting me! Kill him! Kill him!

  Lucifer takes a step toward her and is halted by trumpets; a single melodious chord. She faints. Adam tries to rise and, seeing her, he faints too. God enters. A step behind Him are Azrael, Angel of Death, and Chemuel, Angel of Mercy.

  GOD, standing over her, looking down: Now bend, Azrael, and blow thy cold death across her lip. Azrael bends and exhales over her face. Eve shudders as with icy cold and gasps in air, still asleep. That’s enough. Chemuel, in thy compassion, drive anguish to the corner of her mind, and seal it up. Chemuel kneels, kisses her once. Eve exhales with relief. God walks a few yards away and sits. Go away, Death. Azrael stands fast. Go, Azrael. And wait her need. Azrael exits unwillingly. Chemuel, in thy mercy, deliver Eve. Chemuel reaches, lays his hand on her swollen belly, and with a short pull removes the swelling; clutching it to his breast, he starts to lean to kiss her again. That’s enough. Chemuel hesitates, glancing up at God. Go, Chemuel, and wait her need. Chemuel stands and goes out. Now in thy slumber let us reason together. Adam and Eve sit up, their eyes shut in sleep. Behold the stranger thine agony hath made. A youth of sixteen appears, his eyes shut, his arms drawn in close to his body, his hands clasping his forward-tilted head. He moves waywardly, like a windblown leaf, and as he at last approaches Eve, he halts some feet away as God speaks again. Here is the first life of thy life, woman. And it is fitting that the first letter stand before his name. But seeing that in thy extremity thou hast already offered his life to Lucifer; and seeing, Adam, that in your ignorance you have likewise threatened him with murder—He loses his calm—all of which amazes Me and sets My teeth on edge—He breaks off, gritting His teeth—I am nevertheless mindful that this child—He turns to the youth—is innocent. So we shall try again. And rather than call him Abel, who was in jeopardy, he shall be Cain, for his life’s sake. He stands. Now Cain is born!

  Cain lies down, coiled beside Eve. She sits up, opens her eyes, and looks down at Cain.

  EVE, joyfully surprised: Ahhh!

  ADAM, waking up quickly, seeing Cain: What’s that?

  EVE: It is . . .

  GOD: Cain. Thy son.

  Both gasp, surprised by His presence.

  EVE—she suddenly feels her flat belly and with a cry prostrates before God: I see I have been favored of Thee, O Lord!

  GOD, indicating the inert Cain: Here is thine innocence returned to thee, which thou so lightly cast away in Eden. Now
protect him from the worm of thine own evil, which this day hath uncovered in thee. Look in My face, woman.

  EVE, covering her eyes: I dare not, for I doubted Thy goodness!

  GOD: And will you doubt Me any more?

  EVE: Never, never, never!

  GOD: Then lift up thine eyes.

  She slowly dares to face Him on her knees.

  EVE: I have gotten a man from the Lord.

  GOD: Thou art the mother of mankind.

  EVE: And generations unknown to me shall spring from my loins. He extends His hand. She rests hers on it and rises.

  I am the river abounding in fish,

  I am the summer sun arousing the bee,

  As the rising moon is held in her place

  By Thine everlasting mind, so am I held

  In Thine esteem.

  GOD: Eve, you are my favorite girl!

  An angelic waltz strikes up. God sweeps Eve in a glorious dance all over the stage. Adam, happiness on his face, makes light and abortive attempts to cut in. God and Eve exit, dancing, Adam trailing behind and calling.

  ADAM: Eve! Look at Him dance! Laughing, bursting with joy, he waltzes out after them.

  Lucifer, alone with Cain coiled up nearby, looks off toward the party and shakes his head.

  LUCIFER: You’ve got to hand it to Him. He turns front, staring. What a system! Now he looks down at Cain. So this is Cain. He crouches over Cain. With the kiss of Lucifer begin thy life; let my nature coil around thine own. And on thy shoulders, may I climb the throne. He bends and kisses him.

  CURTAIN

  ACT THREE

  The family discovered asleep. A primitive shelter is suggested, hanging skins, and a cooking area in one corner. God is seated on a rock. He is thoughtfully watching them. He shakes his head, baffled, then raises a hand.

  GOD: Azrael! Azrael lights up behind the left screen. Angel of Death, I have work for you today. The time has come when the human race will spread across the earth. But these people have all but forgotten God. They eat to live, and live to eat. By what law shall the multitudes be governed when even now my name is hardly mentioned any more? Stands, looking down at the people. Therefore, when this dawn comes, you will blow visions of death into their dreams. But be careful not to kill anybody; you are only to remind them that they cannot live forever. And having seen death, I hope they’ll think of God again, and begin to face their terrible responsibilities. Azrael starts to raise his arms. Not yet!—wait till dawn. I want them to remember what they’ve dreamed when they awake. To the people: Dear people, I shall be watching every move you make today. He exits. Lucifer comes up out of the trap. Looks about, notices a golden bowl, and picks it up.