ow--when I think of
the insight this young man got into the world of Potiphar's wives that
surrounded him! There wasn't a single woman.... Really, I'm ashamed in
the name of mankind and the female sex--excuse me, please.... There were
moments when I didn't believe my eyes, but thought a devil had blinded
my sight. The holiest bands.... (He pinches his tongue.) No, quiet!
Mankind will feel itself calumniated! Enough, until my twenty-fifth
year I fought the good fight; and I fell because.... Well, I was called
Joseph, and I _was_ Joseph! I grew jealous of my virtue, and felt
injured by the glances of a lewd woman.... And at last, cunningly
seduced, I fell. Then I became a slave of my passions; often and often I
sat by Omphalos and span, until I sank into the deepest degradation and
suffered, suffered, suffered! But in reality it was only my body that
was degraded; my soul lived her own life--her own pure life, I can
say--on her own account. And I raved innocently for pure young virgins
who, it seems, felt the bond that drew us together. Because, without
boasting, I can say they were attracted to me. I didn't want to overstep
the mark, but they did! And when I fled the danger, their hearts were
broken, so they said. In a word, I've never seduced an innocent girl.
I swear it! Am I therefore to blame for the emotional sorrows of this
young woman, who went out of her mind? On the contrary, mayn't I count
it a virtue that I shrank in horror from the step that brought about
her fall? Who'll cast the first stone at me? No one! Then I mistake my
listeners. Indeed, I thought I might be an object of scorn, if I were to
plead here for my masculine innocence! Now, however, I feel young again;
and there's something for which I'd like to ask mankind's forgiveness.
If it weren't that I happened to see a cynical smile on the lips of the
woman who seduced me when I was young. Come forward, woman, and look
upon your work of destruction. Observe, how the seed has grown!

WOMAN (coming forward with dignity and modesty). It was I! Let me
be heard, and let me tell the simple story of my seduction. (Pause.)
Luckily my seducer is here, too....

MAGISTRATE. Friends! I must break off the proceedings; otherwise we'll
get back to Eve in Paradise.

TEMPTER. Who was Adam's seducer! That's just where we want to get back
to. Eve! Come forward, Eve. Eve! (He waves his cloak in the air. The
trunk of the tree becomes transparent and EVE appears, wrapped