Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
En attendant Godot / Waiting for Godot

MS-HRC-SB-6-4-2

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 - ins.backcover
[p. 53v] [p. 54r]

VLADIMIR

[3318] We're waiting for Godot.

ESTRAGON

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

POZZO

[3322] Help!

VLADIMIR

[3323] What about helping him?

ESTRAGON

[3324] What does he want?

VLADIMIR

[3325] He wants to get up.

ESTRAGON

[3326] Then why doesn't he?

VLADIMIR

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

ESTRAGON

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

[3330] They help Pozzo to his feet, let him go. [3331] He falls.

VLADIMIR

[3332] We must hold him. [3333] (They get him up again. [3334] Pozzo sags between them, his arms round their necks.[3337] Feeling better?

POZZO

[3338] Who are you?

VLADIMIR

[3339] Do you not recognize us?

POZZO

[3340] I am blind.

[3341] Silence.

ESTRAGON

[3342] Perhaps he can see into the future.

VLADIMIR

[3344] Since when?

POZZO

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

[p. 54v] [p. 55r]

ESTRAGON

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

VLADIMIR

[3348] No, he means friends of his.

ESTRAGON

[3349] Well?

VLADIMIR

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

ESTRAGON

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

VLADIMIR

[3353] Possibly.

ESTRAGON

[3354] True.

VLADIMIR

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

POZZO

[3356] You are not highwaymen?

ESTRAGON

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

VLADIMIR

[3359] Damn it, can't you see [3360] the man is blind!

ESTRAGON

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

POZZO

[3365] Don't leave me!

VLADIMIR

[3366] No question of it.

ESTRAGON

[3367] For the moment.

POZZO

[3368] What time is it?

VLADIMIR

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

ESTRAGON

[3373] That depends what time of year it is.

[p. 55v] [p. 56r]

POZZO

[3374] Is it evening?

[3375] Silence. [3376] Vladimir and Estragon scrutinize the sunset.

ESTRAGON

[3377] It's rising.

VLADIMIR

[3378] Impossible.

ESTRAGON

[3379] Perhaps it's the dawn.

VLADIMIR

[3380] Don't be a fool. [3381] It's the west over there.

ESTRAGON

[3382] How do you know?

POZZO

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

VLADIMIR

[3385] Anyway it hasn't moved.

ESTRAGON

[3386] I tell you it's rising.

POZZO

[3387] Why don't you answer me?

ESTRAGON

[3388] Give us a chance!

VLADIMIR

[3389] (reassuring) [3390] It's evening, Sir, it's evening, night is drawing night. [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?

ESTRAGON

[3395] How much longer are we to cart him round? xx [3396] (They half release him,

[p. 56v] [p. 57r]

ESTRAGON

[3396] catch him again as he falls.) [3397] We are not carryatids.

VLADIMIR

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

POZZO

[3399] Wonderful [3399|001] Wonderful, wonderful sight!

[3400] Silence

ESTRAGON

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

VLADIMIR

[3404] Let him alone. [3405] Can't you see he's thinking of the days when he was happy. [3406] (Pause.) [3407] "Memoria preteritorum bonorum" - that must be unpleasant.

ESTRAGON

[3407|001] We wouldn't know.

VLADIMIR

[3409] And it came on you all of a sudden?

POZZO

[3410] Quite wonderful!

VLADIMIR

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

POZZO

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

VLADIMIR

[3415] And when was that?

POZZO

[3416] I don't know.

VLADIMIR

[3417] But no later than yesterday -

[p. 57v] [p. 58r]

POZZO

[3417|001] (violently). [3418] Don't question me! [3419] The blind have no notion of time. [3421] The things of time are hidden from them too.

VLADIMIR

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

ESTRAGON

[3424] I'm going.

POZZO

[3425] Where are we?

VLADIMIR

[3426] I couldn't tell you.

POZZO

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

VLADIMIR

[3428] Never heard of it.

POZZO

[3429] What is it like?

VLADIMIR

[3430] (looking round). [3431] It's indescribable. [3432] It's like nothing. [3433] There's nothing. [3434] There's a tree.

POZZO

[3435] Then it's not the Board.

ESTRAGON

[3437] xxx Some diversion!

POZZO

[3438] Where is my menial?

VLADIMIR

[3439] He's about somewhere.

POZZO

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

VLADIMIR

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

POZZO

[3444] What happened exactly?

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 - ins.backcover