MS-HRC-DA-145-1

[3263] Pozzo! [3264] Pozzo!

[3265] He moved.

[3266] Are you sure his name is Pozzo?

[3267] (Alarmed) [3268] Mr. Pozzo! [3269] Come back! [3270] We won't touch you!

[3272] We might try him with other names.

[3273] I'm afraid he's dying.

[3274] It'd be amusing.

[3275] What'd be amusing?

[3276] To try him with other names, one after the other. [3277] That'd pass the time. [3278] And we'd be bound to hit on the right one sooner or later.

[3279] I tell you his name is Pozzo.

[3280] We'll soon see. [3282] (he reflects) [3283] Abel! [3284] Abel!

[3285] Help!

[3286] Got it in one!

[3287] I begin to weary of this motif.

[3288] Perhaps the other is called Cain. [3289] (he calls) [3290] Cain! [3291] Cain!

[3292] Help!

[3293] He's all mankind.

[3294] (Silence)

[3295] Look at the little cloud.

[3296] (Raising his eyes) [3297] Where?

[3298] There. In the zenith.

[3299] Well? [3300] (pause) [3301] What is there so extraordinary ^wonderful about it?

[3303] Let's pass on now to something else, do you mind?

[3304] I was just going to suggest it.

[3305] But to what?

[3306] Don't ask me ^Ah.

[3308] Suppose we got up to begin with?

[3309] No harm trying.

[3311] Child's play.

[3312] Simple question of will-power.

[3313] And now?

[3314] Help!

[3315] Let's go.

[3316] We can't.

[3317] Why not?

[3318] We're waiting for Godot.

[3319] Ah! [3320] (Pause. Despairing) [3321] What'll we do, what'll we do!

[3322] Help!

[3323] If we helped ^{What about helping him?} him?

[3324] What does he want?

[3325] He wants to get up.

[3326] Then why doesn't he?

[3327] He wants us to help him to get up.

[3328] Then why don't we? [3329] What are we waiting for?

[3332] We must hold him.

[3335] He must get used to being erect again). [3336] (to Pozzo) [3337] Feeling better?

[3338] Who are you?

[3339] Do you not recognize us?

[3340] I am blind.

[3342] Perhaps he can see into the future.

[3343] (To Pozzo) [3344] Since when?

[3345] I used to have wonderful sight - but are you friends?

[3346] (Laughing noisily) [3347] He wants to know if we are friends!

[3348] No, he means friends of his.

[3349] Well?

[3350] We've proved we are, by helping him.

[3351] Exactly. [3352] Would we have helped him if we weren't his friends?

[3353] Possibly.

[3354] True.

[3355] Don't let's quibble about that now.

[3356] You are not highwaymen?

[3357] Highwaymen! [3358] Do we look like highwaymen?

[3359] Damn it ^{cann't you see the} [3360] the man is blind.

[3361] Damn it, [3362] so he is. [3363] (pause) [3364] Or so he says.

[3365] Don't leave me!

[3366] No question of it.

[3367] For the moment.

[3368] What time is it?

[3369] (Inspecting the sky) [3371] Seven o'clock...[3372]eight o'clock...

[3373] That depends on the time of year. ^{it is.}

[3374] Is it evening?

[3377] It looks as if it was rising backwards.

[3378] Impossible.

[3379] Perhaps it's the dawn.

[3380] Don't talk nonsense ^{be a fool}. [3381] It's the west over there.

[3382] How do you know?

[3383] (Anguished) [3384] Is it evening?

[3385] Anyway it hasn't moved.

[3386] I tell you it's rising.

[3387] Why don't you answer?

[3388] Give us a chance! [3388|001] ^yu

[3389] (Reassuring) [3390] It's evening, Sir, it's evening, night is drawing nigh. [3391] My friend here would have me doubt it and I must confess he shook me for a moment. [3392] But it is not for nothing I have lived through this long day and I can assure you it is very near the end of its repertory. [3393] (pause) [3394] How do you feel now?

[3395] How much longer must we cart him round.

[3396] (They half release him, catch him again as he falls)

[3397] We are not caryatides!

[3398] You were saying that your sight used to be good, if I heard you right.

[3399|001] Yes, wonderfully good ^{Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful sight}.

[3401] (Irritably) [3402] Expand! [3403] Expand!

[3404] Let him alone. [3405] Can't you see he's thinking of the days when he was happy? [3406] (pause) [3407] Memoria

[3407] praeteritorum bonorum - that must be unpleasant.

[3407|001] We wouldn't know.

[3407|002] (To Pozzo) [3409] And it came on you all of a sudden?

[3410] ^Quite Wonderfully^! good.

[3411] I'm asking you if it came on you all of a sudden.

[3412] I woke up one fine day as blind as Fortune. [3413] (pause) [3414] Sometimes I wonder if I'm not still asleep.

[3415] When was that?

[3416] I don't know.

[3417] But no later than yesterday -

[3418] Don't question me. [3419] The blind have no notion of time. [3421] The things of time are hidden from them too.

[3422] Well just fancy that! [3423] I could have sworn it was the opposite.

[3424] I'm going.

[3425] Where are we?

[3426] I couldn't tell you.

[3427] It isn't by any chance the place known as the Board.

[3428] Never heard of it.

[3429] What is it like?

[3430] (Looking round) [3431] You couldn't describe it. [3432] It's like nothing. [3433] There's nothing. [3434] There's a tree.

[3435] Then it's not the Board.

[3436] (Sagging) [3437] Some diversion!

[3438] Where is my menial?

[3439] He's about somewhere.

[3440] Why doesn't he answer when I call?

[3441] I don't know. [3442] He seems to be sleeping. [3443] Perhaps he's dead.

[3444] What happened exactly?