Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
Krapp's Last Tape / La Dernière Bande

MS-HRC-SB-4-2-2

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Segment 1

[0246] place left in my memory, and no thankfulness, for the
miracle that - (pause) - for the fire that set it alight.
[0247] What I saw then was that the assumption I had been going on
all my life, namely -
[0248] (A switches off impatiently,
winds tapes forward, switches on again
)
[0249] - granite rocks the
foam flying up in the light of the beacon and the anemometer
spinning like a propellor, clear to me at last that the
dark I have been fighting off all this time is in reality my most -

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Segment 2

[0247] What I saw then was that the assumption I had been going on
all my life, namely -
[0248] (A switches off impatiently,
winds tapes forward, switches on again
)
[0249] - granite rocks the
foam flying up in the light of the beacon and the anemometer
spinning like a propellor, clear to me at last that the
dark I have been fighting off all this time is in reality my most -

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Segment 3

[0250] (A curses, switches off, winds tape forward, switches on
again
)
[0251] - unshatterable association till my dying day of
storm and night with the light of the understanding and -
[0252] (A curses louder, switches off, winds tape violently for-
ward, switches on again
)
[0253] - my face in her breasts and my
hand on her.
[0254] We lay there without moving.[0255] But underneath us
all moved, and moved us, gently, up and down, and from side
to side.

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Segment 4

[0256] Pause.
[0257] Past midnight.[0258] Never knew such a silence.
[0260] Pause.
[0261] Here I end this -
[0262] A switches off, winds tape back, switches on again.

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Segment 5

[0263] - upper lake, with the punt, bathed off the bank, then
pushed out into the stream and drifted.
[0264] She lay stretched
out on the floorboards with her hands under her head and
her eyes closed.
[0265] Sun blazing down, bit of a breeze,
and the water nice and lively.
[0266] I noticed a scratch on her
thigh and asked her how she got it.
[0267] Picking gooseberries,
she said.
[0268] I said again I thought it was hopeless and no
good going on, and she agreed, without opening her eyes.

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Segment 6

[0270] I asked her to look at me and after a few moments - (pause)
- after a few moments she did, but the eyes just slits,
because of the glare.
[0271] I bent over her to get them in the
shadow and they opened.
[0272] (Pause. [0273] Low.)[0274] Let me in.[0275] (Pause.)
[0276] We drifted in among the reeds and stuck.[0277] The way they bent,
sighing, before the stem.

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Segment 7

[0279] I lay down across her with my
face in her breasts and my hand on her.
[0280] We lay without mov-
ing.
[0281] But underneath us all moved, and moved us, [] gently, up and down,
and from side to side.
[0282] Pause.
[0283] Past midnight.[0284] Never knew -

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Segment 8

[0285] A switches off, broods, [0286] fumbles in his waistcoat
pockets, takes out an old envelope, fumbles, puts back the
envelope, looks at his watch, gets up and goes

backstage into darkness.
[0287] Ten seconds. [0288] Sound of bottle
against glass, then brief siphon.

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Segment 9

[0289] Ten seconds. [0290] Bottle
against glass alone.
[0291] Fifteen seconds.
He comes back front
left into light, with an unused tape in his hand, sits
down, takes tape off machine, lays it on table, puts the

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Segment 10

[0292] He comes back front
left into light, with an unused tape in his hand, sits
down, takes tape off machine, lays it on table, puts the

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Addition 1
gently
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Addition 2
gently
Transcription
  • Segments
  • Marginal Additions