Digital Manuscript ProjectKrapp's Last Tape / La Dernière Bande

[0086] Thirty-seven today, sound apparently in wind ( 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 dreadful occasion, as in recent years, quietly
at the Winehouse.[0088] No 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 rags.[0097] The new light above my table
is a great improvement.[0098] With all this darkness round me I feel
less alone.[0099] (Pause.)[0100] In a way.[0101] (Pause.)[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 Beamish always sings at this
hour.[0113] [⁁] songs of her girlhood, she says.[⁁][←] [0112] But not tonight.[0115] I admire her.[←][0112|001]
[0118] Shall I sing when I am her age[0119] [↑] if I ever am. Unlikely.[0121] Did I sing
as a boy?[0122] No.[0124] Did I ever sing?[0125] No.
[0126] Pause.
[0127] I have just listened to an old year, [⁁]passages at random.[0128] I did not check
in the book, but it must be at least twelve or fifteen years
ago.[0129] At that time I was living on and off with Furry in
Street.[0131] [Insert][⁁] [0141] [0142] [0143] The voice is not mine.[0145] Aspirat-
ions.
[0147] Resolutions.[0149] To drink less, in particular.[0151] Statistics.
[0152] Seventeen hundred hours, out of the preceding eight thousand
odd, consumed on licensed premises alone.[0155] Plans for a less exhausting
sexual life.[0156] Last illness of his father.[0157] [⁁][0157] Flagging pursuit of happiness.[0163] [↓] .[0163] Shadow of the magnum opus.[0164] Closing with a - (brief laugh) - squeal
Providence.[0165] (Prolonged laugh.)[0166] What remains of all that
misery?[0167] A girl in a shabby green coat, on a railway-
station platform?
[0169] Pause.
[0170] When I look -[0171] (A switches off machine, broods, looks at watch, gets up and
goes backstage into shadows. [0172] Pause of ten seconds. [0173] Sound of
cork popping. [0174] Ten seconds. [0175] Second cork. [0176] Ten seconds. [0177] Third
cork. [0178] Ten seconds. [0179]
(Brief burst of raucous song.) [0183] He comes back into light from an
unexpected angle, front right , sits down, resumes his
pose, switches on machine.) - back on the year that is gone,
[0184] - back on the year that is gone,
(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