Digital Manuscript ProjectKrapp's Last Tape / La Dernière Bande

[0086] Thirty-seven today, sound apparently in wind [place = supralinear] (he he rimes this word with mind) and limb,
apart from my old trouble, and intellectually I have
little doubt at the peak of my powers, or thereabouts.
[0087] Celebrated the solemn [place = supralinear] dreadful occasion, as in recent years, quietly
at the Winehouse.[0088] No one [place = supralinear] face there I knew.[0089] Sat before the fire
with closed eyes separating the grain from the chaff.
[0090] Jotted
down a few notes, on the back of an envelope.[0091] It is good to
be home again, in my old things [place = supralinear] rags.[0097] The new light over [place = supralinear] above my desk [place = supralinear] table
is a great improvement.[0098] With all this darkness round me I [place = inline] feel am less alone.[0099] (Pause.)[0100] In a way.[0101] (Pae [place = overwritten] use.)[0102] I like to get up
and move about in it, then back here to...(hesitates)...
myself.
[0105] Pause.
[0110] Extraordinary silence this evening. I strain my ears and
do not hear a sound.[0111] Old Miss Williams [place = supralinear] Beamish always sings at this
hour.[0113] [⁁] [place = margin left] The songs of her girlhood, she says.[⁁][←] [0112] But not tonight.[0115] [place = margin left] I admire her.[←][0112|001]
I hope nothing [place = supralinear] Please Heavens nothing has happened to her.
[0118] [place = infralinear] Shall I sing when I am her age?[0119] [place = supralinear] Goodness [place = supralinear] [↑] if I ever am. [place = infralinear] Unlikely.[0121] [place = infralinear] Did I sing
as a boy?[0122] [place = infralinear] No.[0124] [place = infralinear] Did I ever sing?[0125] [place = infralinear] No.
[0126] Pause.
[0127] I have just listened to an old year. [place = overwritten] , [⁁] [place = supralinear] passages at random.[0128] I did not check up
in the register [place = supralinear] book, but it must be at least ten or twelve [place = supralinear] or fifteen years
ago.[0129] At that time I was living on and off with Celia [place = supralinear] Furry in
Street.[0131] [place = margin left] Hopeless business.[Insert][⁁] [0141]
I must say I - (A switches off machine, broods[0142]
at length, switches on again.) - find this a great help before
embarking on a new...er....review [place = supralinear] conspectus.I find it hard [place = supralinear] It is hard to believe [0143]
that young man was I.Even t [place = overwritten] The voice is unfamiliar [place = supralinear] not mine..[0145] Aspirat-
ions, [place = overwritten] .
[0147] r [place = overwritten] Resolutions.[0149] To drink less, in particular.[0151] He speaks of [place = supralinear] Statistics.
[0152] s [place = overwritten] Seventeen hundred hours, out of the preceding 8 [place = overwritten] eight thousand
odd, consumed on licensed premises alone.[0155] Plans for a fuller [place = supralinear] less aspiring [place = margin left] less exhausting
sexual life.[0156] Last illness of his father.[0157] [⁁] [place = margin left] Pursuit of happiness.[0157] [place = supralinear] Flagging spasmodic pursuit of happiness.[0163] References to his [↓]
life's work [place = supralinear] magnum opus .[0163] [place = margin bottom] Shadow of the magnum opus.[0164] Closing with a - (brief laugh) -
an appeal to [place = supralinear] a plea squeal
Providence.[0165] (Prolonged laugh.)[0166] What remains of all that lumber [place = supralinear] misery?[0167] A girl in a shabby green dress coat, on a railway-
station platform?
[0169] Pause.
[0170] When I look -[0171] (A si [place = overwritten] ww [place = overwritten] itches off machine, broods, [place = supralinear] consults looks at watch, gets up and
goes backstage into shadows. [0172] Pause of ten seconds. [0173] Sound of
cork popping. [0174] Te [place = overwritten] n seconds. [0175] Second cork. [0176] Ten seconds. [0177] Third cork? Te cork. [0178] Ten seconds. [0179] [place = margin left] Sudden brief burst of song
(Brief burst of raucous song.) [0183] He comes back into light from an
unexpected angle, say front right , sits down, resumes his
pose, switches on machine.) - back on the year that is gone [place = inline] ,
[0184] - back on the year that is gone [place = inline] ,
(Brief burst of raucous song.)
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Krapp's Last Tape / La Dernière Bande © 2015 Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project.
Editors: Dirk Van Hulle and Vincent Neyt