Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
Fin de partie / Endgame

MS-HRC-SB-3-5

MS. Pages: cover - 03r 03v - 08r 08v - 13r 13v - 18r 18v - 23r 23v - 28r 28v - 33r 33v - 38r 38v - 43r 43v - 48r 48v - 53r 53v - 58r 58v - 63r 63v - 68r 68v - 73r 73v - 78r 78v - backcover
[p. 38v]

DOODLE 33
addition 3→
DOODLE 34
DOODLE 35

[p. 39r]

Hamm

[1178] I follow my course. [1179] (Pause) [1180] Has she been Is she buried?

Clov

[1181] Buried! [1182] Who would have buried her?

Hamm

[1183] You.

Clov

[1184] I! [1185] I haven't Haven't I enough to do without burying people?

Hamm

[1186] But you'll bury me?

Clov

[1187] No, I won't bury xxx you.

[1188] (Pause)

Hamm

[1189] She was bonny once, like a flower in spring. [1190] And a great one for the men. [1190|001] (With reminiscent leer.) [1190] And a great one for the men! and always on for a bit of fun.

Clov

[1191] We too were bonny - once. [1192] It's a rare thing not to have been bonny - once.

[1193] Pause.

Hamm

[1194] Go and get me the gaffe gaff.

[1195] Clov goes to the door, halts.

Clov.

[1196] Do this, do that, and I do it. [1197] I never refuse. [1198] Why?

Hamm

[1199] You're not able to.

Clov.

[1200] Soon I won't do it any more.

Hamm

[1201] You won't be able to any more. [1202] (Exit Clov.) [1203] Ah the creatures,

[p. 39v]

DOODLE 36

[p. 40r]

[1203] the creatures, everything has to be explained to them.

[1204] Enter Clov with the gaff

Clov

[1205] Here's your gaff. [1206] Stick it up.

[1207] He gives the gaff to Hamm who, using it like a punt-pole, tries to move his chair.

Hamm

[1208] Am I moving?

Clov

[1209] No.

[1210] Hamm throws down the gaff

Hamm

[1211] Go and get the oil-can.

Clov

[1212] What for?

Hamm

[1213] To oil the castors.

Clov

[1214] I oiled them yesterday.

Hamm

[1215] Yesterday! [1216] What does that mean? [1217] Yesterday!

Clov

[1218] (violently) [1219] That means that bloody awful day, long ago, before this bloody awful day. [1220] I use the words you taught me. [1221] If they don't mean anything any more, teach me new ones. [1222] Or don't ask me to speak.

[1223] Pause.

Hamm

[1224] I once knew a lunatic who thought the end of the world had come. [1225] He was painted a painter pictures. [1226] I was fond of him liked him well. [1227] I used to go and see him, in the asylum. [1228] I'd

[p. 40v] [p. 41r]

[1228] take him by the hand and drag him to the x window. [1229] Look! [1230] There! [1231] All that rising corn! [1232] And there! [1233] Look! [1234] The sails of the mackerel fishers. [1235] All that beauty! [1236] (Pause.) [1237] He'd snatch his snatch away his hand and go back into his corner. [1238] Appalled. [1239] All he had seen was ashes. [1240] (Pause.) [1241] He alone had been spared. [1242] (Pause.) [1243] Forgotten. [1244] (Pause.) [1245] It appears the case is... was not so... unusual.

Clov

[1246] A lunatic? [1247] When was that?

Hamm

[1248] Oh way back, way back, [1249] you weren't in the land of the living.

Clov

[1250] Those were the days!

[1251] Pause. [1252] Hamm lifts his toque

Hamm

[1253] I liked him well. [1254] (Pause. [1255] He puts on his toque again.) [1257] He was a painter. painted pictures.

Clov

[1258] There are so many terrible things.

Hamm

[1259] No no, there are not so many now. [1260] (Pause.) [1261] Clov.

Clov

[1262] Yes.

Hamm

[1263] Do you not think this has gone on long enough.

Clov

[1264] Yes! [1265] (Pause) [1266] What?

Hamm

[1267] This... this... thing.

Clov

[1268] I've always thought so. [1269] (Pause.) [1270] You not?

[p. 41v] [p. 42r]

Hamm

[1271] (gloomy) [1272] Then it's a day like any other day.

Clov

[1273] As long as it lasts. [1274] (Pause) [1275] All life long the same nonsense.

[1276] Pause.

Hamm

[1277] I can't leave you.

Clov

[1278] I know. [1279] And you can't come after me.

[1280] Pause

Hamm

[1281] If you leave me how will I know?

Clov

[1282] (briskly). [1282|001] That's easy. [1283] You whistle me and if I don't come running it means I've left you.

[1284] xxx Pause

Hamm

[1285] You won't come and say some bid me goodbye.

Clov

[1286] Oh I don't think so.

[1287] Pause

Hamm

[1288] But you might be merely dead in your kitchen.

Clov

[1289] That'd xxx The result would be the same.

Hamm

[1290] Yes, but how would I know if you were merely dead in your kitchen?

Clov

[1291] Well... sooner or later I'd start to stink.

[p. 42v] [p. 43r]

Hamm

[1292] You stink already. [1293] The whole house stinks of corpses.

Clov

[1294] The whole universe.

Hamm

[1295] (angrily) [1296] To hell with the universe! [1297] (Pause.) [1298] Think of something.

Clov

[1299] What?

Hamm

[1300] A combination, so that'l that I'll know. [1301] (Pause. [1302] Angrily.) [1303] A bright idea!

Clov.

[1304] Ah xxx xxx good. [1305] (He starts to walk up and down, his eyes fixed on the ground, his hands behind his back. [1306] He halts.) [1307] The pain in my legs! [1308] Soon I won't be able to think any more.

Hamm

[1309] You won't be able to leave me. [1310] (Clov starts walking again.) [1311] What are you doing?

Clov

[1312] Having a bright idea. [1313] (He walks) [1314] Ah!

[1315] He halts

Hamm

[1316] What a thinker! [1317] (Pause.) [1318] Well?

Clov

[1319] Wait. [1320] (He concentrates. [1321] Not very convinced.) [1322] Yes...[1323] (Pause. [1324] More convinced.) [1325] Yes! [1326] (He raises his head.) [1327] I have it. [1328] I set the alarm-clock.

[1329] Pause

Hamm

[1330] This is perhaps not one of my good days, but frankly -

MS. Pages: cover - 03r 03v - 08r 08v - 13r 13v - 18r 18v - 23r 23v - 28r 28v - 33r 33v - 38r 38v - 43r 43v - 48r 48v - 53r 53v - 58r 58v - 63r 63v - 68r 68v - 73r 73v - 78r 78v - backcover