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?