CLOV:
There are so many terrible things.
There are so many terrible things.
Samuel Beckett
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?
HAMM (gloomily):
Then it's a day like any other day.
CLOV:
As long as it lasts.
(Pause. )
All life long the same inanities.
HAMM:
I can't leave you.
CLOV:
I know. And you can't follow me.
(Pause. )
HAMM:
If you leave me how shall I know?
CLOV (briskly):
Well you simply whistle me and if I don't come running it means I've left you.
(Pause. )
HAMM:
You won't come and kiss me goodbye?
CLOV:
Oh I shouldn't think so.
(Pause. )
HAMM:
But you might be merely dead in your kitchen.
CLOV:
The result would be the same.
HAMM:
Yes, but how would I know, if you were merely dead in your kitchen?
CLOV:
Well. . . sooner or later I'd start to stink.
HAMM:
You stink already. The whole place stinks of corpses.
CLOV:
The whole universe.
HAMM (angrily):
To hell with the universe.
(Pause. )
Think of something.
CLOV:
What?
HAMM:
An idea, have an idea.
(Angrily. )
A bright idea!
CLOV:
Ah good.
(He starts pacing to and fro, his eyes fixed on the ground, his hands behind his back. He halts. )
The pains in my legs! It's unbelievable! Soon I won't be able to think any more.
HAMM:
You won't be able to leave me.
(Clov resumes his pacing. )
What are you doing?
CLOV:
Having an idea.
(He paces. )
Ah!
(He halts. )
HAMM:
What a brain!
(Pause. )
Well?
CLOV:
Wait!
(He meditates. Not very convinced. )
Yes. . .
(He raises his head. )
I have it! I set the alarm.
(Pause. )
HAMM:
This is perhaps not one of my bright days, but frankly---
CLOV:
You whistle me. I don't come. The alarm rings. I'm gone. It doesn't ring. I'm dead. (Pause. )
HAMM:
Is it working?
(Pause. Impatiently. )
The alarm, is it working?
CLOV:
Why wouldn't it be working?
HAMM:
Because it's worked too much.
CLOV:
But it's hardly worked at all.
HAMM (angrily):
Then because it's worked too little!
CLOV:
I'll go and see.
(Exit Clov. Brief ring of alarm offstage. Enter Clov with alarm-clock. He holds it against Hamm's ear and releases alarm. They listen to it ringing to the end. Pause. )
Fit to wake the dead! Did you hear it?
HAMM:
Vaguely.
CLOV:
The end is terrific!
HAMM:
I prefer the middle.
(Pause. )
Is is not time for my pain-killer? CLOV:
No!
(He goes to door, turns. )
I'll leave you.
HAMM:
It's time for my story. Do you want to listen to my story?
CLOV:
No.
HAMM:
Ask my father if he wants to listen to my story.
(Clov goes to bins, raises the lid of Nagg's, stoops, looks into it. Pause. He straightens up. ) CLOV:
He's asleep.
HAMM:
Wake him.
(Clov stoops, wakes Nagg with the alarm. Unintelligible words. Clov straightens up. ) CLOV:
He doesn't want to listen to your story.
HAMM:
I'll give him a bon-bon.
(Clov stoops. As before. )
CLOV:
He wants a sugar-plum.
HAMM:
He'll get a sugar-plum.
(Clov stoops. As before. )
CLOV:
It's a deal.
(He goes towards door. Nagg's hands appear, gripping the rim. Then the head emerges. Clov reaches door, turns. )
Do you believe in the life to come?
HAMM:
Mine was always that.
(Exit Clov. )
Got him that time!
NAGG:
I'm listening.
HAMM:
Scoundrel! Why did you engender me?
NAGG:
I didn't know.
HAMM:
What? What didn't you know?
NAGG:
That it'd be you.
(Pause. )
You'll give me a sugar-plum? HAMM:
After the audition.
NAGG:
You swear? HAMM: Yes. NAGG:
On what?
HAMM:
My honor.
(Pause. They laugh heartily. ) NAGG:
Two.
HAMM:
One.
NAGG:
One for me and one for--- HAMM:
One! Silence!
(Pause. )
Where was I?
(Pause. Gloomily. )
It's finished, we're finished.
(Pause. )
Nearly finished.
(Pause. )
There'll be no more speech.
(Pause. )
Something dripping in my head, ever since the fontanelles.
(Stifled hilarity of Nagg. )
Splash, splash, always on the same spot.
(Pause. )
Perhaps it's a little vein.
(Pause. )
A little artery.
(Pause. More animated. )
Enough of that, it's story time, where was I?
(Pause. Narrative tone. )
The man came crawling towards me, on his belly. Pale, wonderfully pale and thin, he seemed on the point of---
(Pause. Normal tone. )
No, I've done that bit.
(Pause. Narrative tone. )
I calmly filled my pipe---the meerschaum, lit it with. . . let us say a vesta, drew a few puffs. Aah!
(Pause. )
Well, what is it you want?
(Pause. )
It was an extra-ordinarily bitter day, I remember, zero by the thermometer. But considering it was Christmas Eve there was nothing. . . extra-ordinary about that. Seasonable weather, for once in a way.
(Pause. )
Well, what ill wind blows you my way?
