No More Learning

(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:
I don't know.
HAMM:
Try.
(He hands the dog to Clov who places it on the ground. )
Well?
CLOV:
Wait!
(He squats down and tries to get the dog to stand on its three legs, fails, lets it go. The dog falls on its side. )
HAMM (impatiently):
Well?
CLOV:
He's standing.
HAMM (groping for the dog):
Where? Where is he?
(Clov holds up the dog in a standing position. )
CLOV:
There.
(He takes Hamm's hand and guides it towards the dog's head. ) HAMM (his hand on the dog's head):
Is he gazing at me?
CLOV:
Yes.
HAMM (proudly):
As if he were asking me to take him for a walk?
CLOV:
If you like.
HAMM (as before):
Or as if he were begging me for a bone.
(He withdraws his hand. )
Leave him like that, standing there imploring me.
(Clov straightens up. The dog falls on its side. )
CLOV:
I'll leave you.
HAMM:
Have you had your visions?
CLOV:
Less.
HAMM:
Is Mother Pegg's light on?
CLOV:
Light! How could anyone's light be on?
HAMM:
Extinguished!
CLOV:
Naturally it's extinguished. If it's not on it's extinguished. HAMM:
No, I mean Mother Pegg.
CLOV:
But naturally she's extinguished!
(Pause. )
What's the matter with you today?
HAMM:
I'm taking my course.
(Pause. )
Is she buried?
CLOV:
Buried! Who would have buried her?
HAMM:
You.
CLOV:
Me! Haven't I enough to do without burying people? HAMM:
But you'll bury me. CLOV:
No I won't bury you. (Pause. )
HAMM:
She was bonny once, like a flower of the field.
(With reminiscent leer. )
And a great one for the men!
CLOV:
We too were bonny---once. It's a rare thing not to have been bonny---once.
(Pause. )
HAMM:
Go and get the gaff.
(Clov goes to the door, halts. )
CLOV:
Do this, do that, and I do it. I never refuse. Why?
HAMM:
You're not able to.
CLOV:
Soon I won't do it any more.
HAMM:
You won't be able to any more.
(Exit Clov. )
Ah the creatures, the creatures, everything has to be explained to them.
(Enter Clov with gaff. )
CLOV:
Here's your gaff. Stick it up.
(He gives the gaff to Hamm who, wielding it like a puntpole, tries to move his chair. ) HAMM:
Did I move?
CLOV:
No.
(Hamm throws down the gaff. )
HAMM:
Go and get the oilcan.
CLOV:
What for?
HAMM:
To oil the castors.
CLOV:
I oiled them yesterday.
HAMM:
Yesterday! What does that mean? Yesterday!
CLOV (violently):
That means that bloody awful day, long ago, before this bloody awful day. I use the words you taught me. If they don't mean anything any more, teach me others. Or let me be silent. (Pause. )
HAMM:
I once knew a madman who thought the end of the world had come. He was a painter---and engraver. I had a great fondness for him. I used to go and see him, in the asylum. I'd take him by the hand and drag him to the window. Look! There! All that rising corn! And there! Look! The sails of the herring fleet! All that loveliness!
(Pause. )
He'd snatch away his hand and go back into his corner. Appalled. All he had seen was ashes. (Pause. )
He alone had been spared.
(Pause. )
Forgotten.
(Pause. )
It appears the case is. . . was not so. . . so unusual.
CLOV:
A madman? When was that?
HAMM:
Oh way back, way back, you weren't in the land of the living.
CLOV:
God be with those days.
(Pause. Hamm raises his toque. )
HAMM:
I had a great fondness for him.
(Pause. He puts on his toque again. )
He was a painter---and engraver.
CLOV:
There are so many terrible things.
HAMM:
No, no, there are not so many now.
(Pause. )
Clov!
CLOV:
Yes.
HAMM:
Do you not think this has gone on long enough?
CLOV:
Yes!
(Pause. )
What?
HAMM:
This. . . this. . . thing.
CLOV:
I've always thought so.
(Pause. )
You not?