(Voice of
rational
being.
Samuel Beckett
More or less!
CLOV (moving chair slightly):
There!
HAMM:
I'm more or less in the center?
CLOV:
I'd say so.
HAMM:
You'd say so! Put me right in the center! CLOV:
I'll go and get the tape.
HAMM:
Roughly! Roughly!
(Clov moves chair slightly. )
Bang in the center!
CLOV:
There!
(Pause. )
HAMM:
I feel a little too far to the left.
(Clov moves chair slightly. )
Now I feel a little too far to the right.
(Clov moves chair slightly. )
I feel a little too far forward.
(Clov moves chair slightly. )
Now I feel a little too far back.
(Clov moves chair slightly. )
Don't stay there.
(i. e. behind the chair)
you give me the shivers.
(Clov returns to his place beside the chair. ) CLOV:
If I could kill him I'd die happy.
(Pause. )
HAMM:
What's the weather like?
CLOV:
As usual.
HAMM:
Look at the earth.
CLOV:
I've looked.
HAMM:
With the glass?
CLOV:
No need of the glass.
HAMM:
Look at it with the glass.
CLOV:
I'll go and get the glass.
(Exit Clov. )
HAMM:
No need of the glass!
(Enter Clov with telescope. )
CLOV:
I'm back again, with the glass.
(He goes to window right, looks up at it. )
I need the steps.
HAMM:
Why? Have you shrunk?
(Exit Clov with telescope. )
I don't like that, I don't like that.
(Enter Clov with ladder, but without telescope. )
CLOV:
I'm back again, with the steps.
(He sets down ladder under window right, gets up on it, realizes he has not the telescope, gets down. )
I need the glass.
(He goes towards door. )
HAMM (violently):
But you have the glass!
CLOV (halting, violently):
No, I haven't the glass!
(Exit Clov. )
HAMM:
This is deadly.
(Enter Clov with the telescope. He goes towards ladder. )
CLOV:
Things are livening up.
(He gets up on ladder, raises the telescope, lets it fall. )
I did it on purpose.
(He gets down, picks up the telescope, turns it on auditorium. )
I see. . . a multitude. . . in transports. . . of joy.
(Pause. He lowers telescope, looks at it. )
That's what I call a magnifier.
(He turns toward Hamm. )
Well? Don't we laugh?
HAMM (after reflection):
I don't.
CLOV (after reflection):
Nor I.
(He gets up on ladder, turns the telescope on the without. )
Let's see.
(He looks, moving the telescope. )
Zero. . .
(he looks)
. . . zero. . .
(he looks)
. . . and zero.
HAMM:
Nothing stirs. All is---
CLOV:
Zer---
HAMM (violently):
Wait till you're spoken to!
(Normal voice. )
All is. . . all is. . . all is what?
(Violently. )
All is what?
CLOV:
What all is? In a word? Is that what you want to know? Just a moment.
(He turns the telescope on the without, looks, lowers the telescope, turns towards Hamm. ) Corpsed.
(Pause. )
Well? Content?
HAMM:
Look at the sea.
CLOV:
It's the same.
HAMM:
Look at the ocean!
(Clov gets down, takes a few steps towards window left, goes back for ladder, carries it over and sets it down under window left, gets up on it, turns the telescope on the without, looks at length. He starts, lowers the telescope, examines it, turns it again on the without. )
CLOV:
Never seen anything like that!
HAMM (anxious):
What? A sail? A fin? Smoke?
CLOV (looking):
The light is sunk.
HAMM (relieved):
Pah! We all knew that.
CLOV (looking):
There was a bit left.
HAMM:
The base.
CLOV (looking):
Yes.
HAMM:
And now?
CLOV (looking):
All gone.
HAMM:
No gulls?
CLOV (looking):
Gulls!
HAMM:
And the horizon? Nothing on the horizon?
CLOV (lowering the telescope, turning towards Hamm, exasperated): What in God's name could there be on the horizon?
(Pause. )
HAMM:
The waves, how are the waves?
CLOV:
The waves?
(He turns the telescope on the waves. )
Lead.
HAMM:
And the sun?
CLOV (looking):
Zero.
HAMM:
But it should be sinking. Look again.
CLOV (looking):
Damn the sun.
HAMM:
Is is night already then?
CLOV (looking):
No.
HAMM:
Then what is it?
CLOV (looking):
Gray.
(Lowering the telescope, turning towards Hamm, louder. )
Gray!
(Pause. Still louder. )
GRRAY!
(Pause. He gets down, approaches Hamm from behind, whispers in his ear. ) HAMM (starting):
Gray! Did I hear you say gray?
CLOV:
Light black. From pole to pole.
HAMM:
You exaggerate.
(Pause. )
Don't stay there, you give me the shivers.
(Clov returns to his place beside the chair. )
CLOV:
Why this farce, day after day?
HAMM:
Routine. One never knows.
(Pause. )
Last night I saw inside my breast. There was a big sore. CLOV:
Pah! You saw your heart.
HAMM:
No, it was living.
(Pause. Anguished. )
Clov!
CLOV:
Yes.
HAMM:
What's happening?
CLOV:
Something is taking its course. (Pause. )
HAMM:
Clov!
CLOV (impatiently):
What is it?
HAMM:
We're not beginning to. . . to. . . mean something?
CLOV:
Mean something! You and I, mean something!
(Brief laugh. )
Ah that's a good one!
HAMM:
I wonder.
(Pause. )
Imagine if a rational being came back to earth, wouldn't he be liable to get ideas into his head if he observed us long enough.
(Voice of rational being. )
Ah, good, now I see what it is, yes, now I understand what they're at!
(Clov starts, drops the telescope and begins to scratch his belly with both hands. Normal voice. )
And without going so far as that, we ourselves. . .
(with emotion)
. . . we ourselves. . . at certain moments. . .
(Vehemently. )
To think perhaps it won't all have been for nothing!
CLOV (anguished, scratching himself):
I have a flea!
HAMM:
A flea! Are there still fleas?
CLOV:
On me there's one.
(Scratching. )
Unless it's a crab louse.
HAMM (very perturbed):
But humanity might start from there all over again! Catch him, for the love of God!
CLOV:
I'll go and get the powder.
(Exit Clov. )
HAMM:
A flea! This is awful! What a day!
(Enter Clov with a sprinkling-tin. )
CLOV:
I'm back again, with the insecticide.
HAMM:
Let him have it!
(Clov loosens the top of his trousers, pulls it forward and shakes powder into the aperture. He stoops, looks, waits, starts, frenziedly shakes more powder, stoops, looks, waits. ) CLOV:
The bastard!
HAMM:
Did you get him?
CLOV:
Looks like it.
(He drops the tin and adjusts his trousers. )
Unless he's laying doggo.
HAMM:
Laying! Lying, you mean. Unless he's lying doggo.
CLOV:
Ah? One says lying? One doesn't say laying?
HAMM:
Use your head, can't you. If he was laying we'd be bitched.
CLOV:
Ah.
(Pause. )
What about that pee?
HAMM:
I'm having it.
CLOV:
Ah that's the spirit, that's the spirit!
(Pause. )
HAMM (with ardour):
Let's go from here, the two of us! South! You can make a raft and the currents will carry us away, far away, to other. . . mammals!
CLOV:
God forbid!
HAMM:
Alone, I'll embark alone! Get working on that raft immediately. Tomorrow I'll be gone forever.
CLOV (hastening towards door):
I'll start straight away.
HAMM:
Wait!
(Clov halts. )
Will there be sharks, do you think?
CLOV:
Sharks? I don't know. If there are there will be.
(He goes towards door. )
HAMM:
Wait!
(Clov halts. )
Is it not yet time for my pain-killer?
CLOV (violently):
No!
(He goes towards door. )
HAMM:
Wait!
(Clov halts. )
How are your eyes?
CLOV:
Bad.
HAMM:
But you can see.
CLOV:
All I want.
HAMM:
How are your legs?
CLOV:
Bad.
HAMM:
But you can walk.
CLOV:
I come. . . and go.
HAMM:
In my house.
(Pause. With prophetic relish. )
One day you'll be blind like me. You'll be sitting here, a speck in the void, in the dark, forever, like me.
(Pause. )
One day you'll say to yourself, I'm tired, I'll sit down, and you'll go and sit down. Then you'll say, I'm hungry, I'll get up and get something to eat. But you won't get up. You'll say, I shouldn't have sat down, but since I have I'll sit on a little longer, then I'll get up and get something to eat. But you won't get up and you won't get anything to eat.
(Pause. )
You'll look at the wall a while, then you'll say, I'll close my eyes, perhaps have a little sleep, after that I'll feel better, and you'll close them. And when you open them again there'll be no wall any more.
(Pause. )
Infinite emptiness will be all around you, all the resurrected dead of all the ages wouldn't fill it, and there you'll be like a little bit of grit in the middle of the steppe.
(Pause. )
Yes, one day you'll know what it is, you'll be like me, except that you won't have anyone with you, because you won't have had pity on anyone and because there won't be anyone left to have pity on you.
(Pause. )
CLOV:
It's not certain.
(Pause. )
And there's one thing you forgot.
HAMM:
Ah?
CLOV:
I can't sit down.
HAMM (impatiently):
Well you'll lie down then, what the hell! Or you'll come to a standstill, simply stop and stand still, the way you are now. One day you'll say, I'm tired, I'll stop. What does the attitude matter?
(Pause. )
CLOV:
So you all want me to leave you.
HAMM:
Naturally.
CLOV:
Then I'll leave you.
HAMM:
You can't leave us.
CLOV:
Then I won't leave you.
(Pause. )
HAMM:
Why don't you finish us?
(Pause. )
I'll tell you the combination of the cupboard if you promise to finish me.
CLOV:
I couldn't finish you.
HAMM:
Then you won't finish me.
(Pause. )
CLOV:
I'll leave you, I have things to do.
HAMM:
Do you remember when you came here?
CLOV:
No. Too small, you told me.
HAMM:
Do you remember your father?
CLOV (wearily):
Same answer.
(Pause. )
You've asked me these questions millions of times. HAMM:
I love the old questions.
(With fervour. )
Ah the old questions, the old answers, there's nothing like them!
(Pause. )
It was I was a father to you. CLOV:
Yes.
(He looks at Hamm fixedly. ) You were that to me. HAMM:
My house a home for you. CLOV:
Yes.
(He looks about him. ) This was that for me. HAMM (proudly):
But for me,
(gesture towards himself)
no father. But for Hamm,
(gesture towards surroundings)
no home.
(Pause. )
CLOV:
I'll leave you.
HAMM:
Did you ever think of one thing?
CLOV:
Never.
HAMM:
That here we're down in a hole.
(Pause. )
But beyond the hills? Eh? Perhaps it's still green. Eh? (Pause. )
Flora! Pomona!
(Ecstatically. )
Ceres!
(Pause. )
Perhaps you won't need to go very far.
CLOV:
I can't go very far.
(Pause. )
I'll leave you.
HAMM:
Is my dog ready?
CLOV:
He lacks a leg.
HAMM:
Is he silky?
CLOV:
He's kind of a Pomeranian.
HAMM:
Go and get him.
CLOV:
He lacks a leg.
HAMM:
Go and get him!
(Exit Clov. )
We're getting on.
(Enter Clov holding by one of its three legs a black toy dog. )
CLOV:
Your dogs are here.
(He hands the dog to Hamm who feels it, fondles it. )
HAMM:
He's white, isn't he?
CLOV:
Nearly.
HAMM:
What do you mean, nearly? Is he white or isn't he?
CLOV:
He isn't.
(Pause. )
HAMM:
You've forgotten the sex.
CLOV (vexed):
But he isn't finished. The sex goes on at the end.
(Pause. )
HAMM:
You haven't put on his ribbon.
CLOV (angrily):
But he isn't finished, I tell you! First you finish your dog and then you put on his ribbon! (Pause. )
HAMM:
Can he stand?
CLOV (moving chair slightly):
There!
HAMM:
I'm more or less in the center?
CLOV:
I'd say so.
HAMM:
You'd say so! Put me right in the center! CLOV:
I'll go and get the tape.
HAMM:
Roughly! Roughly!
(Clov moves chair slightly. )
Bang in the center!
CLOV:
There!
(Pause. )
HAMM:
I feel a little too far to the left.
(Clov moves chair slightly. )
Now I feel a little too far to the right.
(Clov moves chair slightly. )
I feel a little too far forward.
(Clov moves chair slightly. )
Now I feel a little too far back.
(Clov moves chair slightly. )
Don't stay there.
(i. e. behind the chair)
you give me the shivers.
(Clov returns to his place beside the chair. ) CLOV:
If I could kill him I'd die happy.
(Pause. )
HAMM:
What's the weather like?
CLOV:
As usual.
HAMM:
Look at the earth.
CLOV:
I've looked.
HAMM:
With the glass?
CLOV:
No need of the glass.
HAMM:
Look at it with the glass.
CLOV:
I'll go and get the glass.
(Exit Clov. )
HAMM:
No need of the glass!
(Enter Clov with telescope. )
CLOV:
I'm back again, with the glass.
(He goes to window right, looks up at it. )
I need the steps.
HAMM:
Why? Have you shrunk?
(Exit Clov with telescope. )
I don't like that, I don't like that.
(Enter Clov with ladder, but without telescope. )
CLOV:
I'm back again, with the steps.
(He sets down ladder under window right, gets up on it, realizes he has not the telescope, gets down. )
I need the glass.
(He goes towards door. )
HAMM (violently):
But you have the glass!
CLOV (halting, violently):
No, I haven't the glass!
(Exit Clov. )
HAMM:
This is deadly.
(Enter Clov with the telescope. He goes towards ladder. )
CLOV:
Things are livening up.
(He gets up on ladder, raises the telescope, lets it fall. )
I did it on purpose.
(He gets down, picks up the telescope, turns it on auditorium. )
I see. . . a multitude. . . in transports. . . of joy.
(Pause. He lowers telescope, looks at it. )
That's what I call a magnifier.
(He turns toward Hamm. )
Well? Don't we laugh?
HAMM (after reflection):
I don't.
CLOV (after reflection):
Nor I.
(He gets up on ladder, turns the telescope on the without. )
Let's see.
(He looks, moving the telescope. )
Zero. . .
(he looks)
. . . zero. . .
(he looks)
. . . and zero.
HAMM:
Nothing stirs. All is---
CLOV:
Zer---
HAMM (violently):
Wait till you're spoken to!
(Normal voice. )
All is. . . all is. . . all is what?
(Violently. )
All is what?
CLOV:
What all is? In a word? Is that what you want to know? Just a moment.
(He turns the telescope on the without, looks, lowers the telescope, turns towards Hamm. ) Corpsed.
(Pause. )
Well? Content?
HAMM:
Look at the sea.
CLOV:
It's the same.
HAMM:
Look at the ocean!
(Clov gets down, takes a few steps towards window left, goes back for ladder, carries it over and sets it down under window left, gets up on it, turns the telescope on the without, looks at length. He starts, lowers the telescope, examines it, turns it again on the without. )
CLOV:
Never seen anything like that!
HAMM (anxious):
What? A sail? A fin? Smoke?
CLOV (looking):
The light is sunk.
HAMM (relieved):
Pah! We all knew that.
CLOV (looking):
There was a bit left.
HAMM:
The base.
CLOV (looking):
Yes.
HAMM:
And now?
CLOV (looking):
All gone.
HAMM:
No gulls?
CLOV (looking):
Gulls!
HAMM:
And the horizon? Nothing on the horizon?
CLOV (lowering the telescope, turning towards Hamm, exasperated): What in God's name could there be on the horizon?
(Pause. )
HAMM:
The waves, how are the waves?
CLOV:
The waves?
(He turns the telescope on the waves. )
Lead.
HAMM:
And the sun?
CLOV (looking):
Zero.
HAMM:
But it should be sinking. Look again.
CLOV (looking):
Damn the sun.
HAMM:
Is is night already then?
CLOV (looking):
No.
HAMM:
Then what is it?
CLOV (looking):
Gray.
(Lowering the telescope, turning towards Hamm, louder. )
Gray!
(Pause. Still louder. )
GRRAY!
(Pause. He gets down, approaches Hamm from behind, whispers in his ear. ) HAMM (starting):
Gray! Did I hear you say gray?
CLOV:
Light black. From pole to pole.
HAMM:
You exaggerate.
(Pause. )
Don't stay there, you give me the shivers.
(Clov returns to his place beside the chair. )
CLOV:
Why this farce, day after day?
HAMM:
Routine. One never knows.
(Pause. )
Last night I saw inside my breast. There was a big sore. CLOV:
Pah! You saw your heart.
HAMM:
No, it was living.
(Pause. Anguished. )
Clov!
CLOV:
Yes.
HAMM:
What's happening?
CLOV:
Something is taking its course. (Pause. )
HAMM:
Clov!
CLOV (impatiently):
What is it?
HAMM:
We're not beginning to. . . to. . . mean something?
CLOV:
Mean something! You and I, mean something!
(Brief laugh. )
Ah that's a good one!
HAMM:
I wonder.
(Pause. )
Imagine if a rational being came back to earth, wouldn't he be liable to get ideas into his head if he observed us long enough.
(Voice of rational being. )
Ah, good, now I see what it is, yes, now I understand what they're at!
(Clov starts, drops the telescope and begins to scratch his belly with both hands. Normal voice. )
And without going so far as that, we ourselves. . .
(with emotion)
. . . we ourselves. . . at certain moments. . .
(Vehemently. )
To think perhaps it won't all have been for nothing!
CLOV (anguished, scratching himself):
I have a flea!
HAMM:
A flea! Are there still fleas?
CLOV:
On me there's one.
(Scratching. )
Unless it's a crab louse.
HAMM (very perturbed):
But humanity might start from there all over again! Catch him, for the love of God!
CLOV:
I'll go and get the powder.
(Exit Clov. )
HAMM:
A flea! This is awful! What a day!
(Enter Clov with a sprinkling-tin. )
CLOV:
I'm back again, with the insecticide.
HAMM:
Let him have it!
(Clov loosens the top of his trousers, pulls it forward and shakes powder into the aperture. He stoops, looks, waits, starts, frenziedly shakes more powder, stoops, looks, waits. ) CLOV:
The bastard!
HAMM:
Did you get him?
CLOV:
Looks like it.
(He drops the tin and adjusts his trousers. )
Unless he's laying doggo.
HAMM:
Laying! Lying, you mean. Unless he's lying doggo.
CLOV:
Ah? One says lying? One doesn't say laying?
HAMM:
Use your head, can't you. If he was laying we'd be bitched.
CLOV:
Ah.
(Pause. )
What about that pee?
HAMM:
I'm having it.
CLOV:
Ah that's the spirit, that's the spirit!
(Pause. )
HAMM (with ardour):
Let's go from here, the two of us! South! You can make a raft and the currents will carry us away, far away, to other. . . mammals!
CLOV:
God forbid!
HAMM:
Alone, I'll embark alone! Get working on that raft immediately. Tomorrow I'll be gone forever.
CLOV (hastening towards door):
I'll start straight away.
HAMM:
Wait!
(Clov halts. )
Will there be sharks, do you think?
CLOV:
Sharks? I don't know. If there are there will be.
(He goes towards door. )
HAMM:
Wait!
(Clov halts. )
Is it not yet time for my pain-killer?
CLOV (violently):
No!
(He goes towards door. )
HAMM:
Wait!
(Clov halts. )
How are your eyes?
CLOV:
Bad.
HAMM:
But you can see.
CLOV:
All I want.
HAMM:
How are your legs?
CLOV:
Bad.
HAMM:
But you can walk.
CLOV:
I come. . . and go.
HAMM:
In my house.
(Pause. With prophetic relish. )
One day you'll be blind like me. You'll be sitting here, a speck in the void, in the dark, forever, like me.
(Pause. )
One day you'll say to yourself, I'm tired, I'll sit down, and you'll go and sit down. Then you'll say, I'm hungry, I'll get up and get something to eat. But you won't get up. You'll say, I shouldn't have sat down, but since I have I'll sit on a little longer, then I'll get up and get something to eat. But you won't get up and you won't get anything to eat.
(Pause. )
You'll look at the wall a while, then you'll say, I'll close my eyes, perhaps have a little sleep, after that I'll feel better, and you'll close them. And when you open them again there'll be no wall any more.
(Pause. )
Infinite emptiness will be all around you, all the resurrected dead of all the ages wouldn't fill it, and there you'll be like a little bit of grit in the middle of the steppe.
(Pause. )
Yes, one day you'll know what it is, you'll be like me, except that you won't have anyone with you, because you won't have had pity on anyone and because there won't be anyone left to have pity on you.
(Pause. )
CLOV:
It's not certain.
(Pause. )
And there's one thing you forgot.
HAMM:
Ah?
CLOV:
I can't sit down.
HAMM (impatiently):
Well you'll lie down then, what the hell! Or you'll come to a standstill, simply stop and stand still, the way you are now. One day you'll say, I'm tired, I'll stop. What does the attitude matter?
(Pause. )
CLOV:
So you all want me to leave you.
HAMM:
Naturally.
CLOV:
Then I'll leave you.
HAMM:
You can't leave us.
CLOV:
Then I won't leave you.
(Pause. )
HAMM:
Why don't you finish us?
(Pause. )
I'll tell you the combination of the cupboard if you promise to finish me.
CLOV:
I couldn't finish you.
HAMM:
Then you won't finish me.
(Pause. )
CLOV:
I'll leave you, I have things to do.
HAMM:
Do you remember when you came here?
CLOV:
No. Too small, you told me.
HAMM:
Do you remember your father?
CLOV (wearily):
Same answer.
(Pause. )
You've asked me these questions millions of times. HAMM:
I love the old questions.
(With fervour. )
Ah the old questions, the old answers, there's nothing like them!
(Pause. )
It was I was a father to you. CLOV:
Yes.
(He looks at Hamm fixedly. ) You were that to me. HAMM:
My house a home for you. CLOV:
Yes.
(He looks about him. ) This was that for me. HAMM (proudly):
But for me,
(gesture towards himself)
no father. But for Hamm,
(gesture towards surroundings)
no home.
(Pause. )
CLOV:
I'll leave you.
HAMM:
Did you ever think of one thing?
CLOV:
Never.
HAMM:
That here we're down in a hole.
(Pause. )
But beyond the hills? Eh? Perhaps it's still green. Eh? (Pause. )
Flora! Pomona!
(Ecstatically. )
Ceres!
(Pause. )
Perhaps you won't need to go very far.
CLOV:
I can't go very far.
(Pause. )
I'll leave you.
HAMM:
Is my dog ready?
CLOV:
He lacks a leg.
HAMM:
Is he silky?
CLOV:
He's kind of a Pomeranian.
HAMM:
Go and get him.
CLOV:
He lacks a leg.
HAMM:
Go and get him!
(Exit Clov. )
We're getting on.
(Enter Clov holding by one of its three legs a black toy dog. )
CLOV:
Your dogs are here.
(He hands the dog to Hamm who feels it, fondles it. )
HAMM:
He's white, isn't he?
CLOV:
Nearly.
HAMM:
What do you mean, nearly? Is he white or isn't he?
CLOV:
He isn't.
(Pause. )
HAMM:
You've forgotten the sex.
CLOV (vexed):
But he isn't finished. The sex goes on at the end.
(Pause. )
HAMM:
You haven't put on his ribbon.
CLOV (angrily):
But he isn't finished, I tell you! First you finish your dog and then you put on his ribbon! (Pause. )
HAMM:
Can he stand?
