Digital Manuscript ProjectKrapp's Last Tape / La Dernière Bande

[0085]
and ledger violently from table, winds tape back to be-
ginning, switches on machine, resumes pose.)[0086] Thirty-
seven today, sound [↑] as a whistle, apart
from the old trouble, and intellectually I have little doubt
at the peak of my powers, or thereabouts.[0087] Celebrated the
awful occasion, as in recent years, quietly at the Winehouse.
[0088] No face there I knew.[0089] Sprawled in front of the fire with closed
eyes, separating the grain from the chaff.[0090] Jotted down a
few notes, on the back of an envelope.[0091] 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)...
me.
[0110] Extraordinary silence this evening. I strain my ears and
do not hear a sound.[0111] Old Miss Hare always sings at this
hour.[0113] Songs of her girlhood, she says.[0112]
But not tonight.[0115] Wonderful woman.[⁁][0116] Connaught.[0118] Shall I sing when I am her
age, if I ever am?[0119] No. [⁁][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 ten
or twelve years ago.[0129] At that time I was still living on and off
with Bianca [⁁] in Trafalgar Street.[0130] Well out of that.[0131] Hopeless
business.[0133] Not much reference to her. A queer passage about
her eyes.[0135] I suddenly saw them again.[0137] Matchless.[0138] (Pause.)
[0139] Ah well.[0140] (Pause.)
[0141] These old P.M.s are gruesome, but I -
(A switches off, broods, switches on again) - always find them
a help before embarking on a new...
(hesitates)... conspectus.[0142] Hard to believe I was ever that
young pup.[0143] That voice![0145] And the aspirations![0146] (Brief
laugh in which A joins.)[0147] And the resolutions![0148] (Brief laugh in which
A joins.)[0149] To drink less, in particular.[0150] (Brief laugh of A alone.)
[0157] Flagging pur-
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- Marginal Additions
Krapp's Last Tape / La Dernière Bande © 2015 Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project.
Editors: Dirk Van Hulle and Vincent Neyt