MS-HRC-SB-3-5

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

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

[1183] You.

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

[1186] But you'll bury me?

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

[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.}

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

[1194] Go and get me the gaffe ^gaff.

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

[1199] You're not able to.

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

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

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

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

[1208] Am I moving?

[1209] No.

[1211] Go and get the oil-can.

[1212] What for?

[1213] To oil the castors.

[1214] I oiled them yesterday.

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

[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.

[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

[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.

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

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

[1250] Those were the days!

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

[1258] There are so many terrible things.

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

[1262] Yes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

[1277] I can't leave you.

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

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

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

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

[1286] Oh I don't think so.

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

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

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

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

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

[1294] The whole universe.

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

[1299] What?

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

[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.

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

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

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

[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.

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