[place = margin top] Typescript II of CRAPP'S LAST TAPE 
[p. 1r] [place = margin top] 3.58
[place = verso]
[0003] Front centre,
[0004] sitting on a small plain wooden chair before a small plain wooden table, X.
[place = verso]
[0004] Little wearish old man
[0004] Front centre, sitting [⁁] [place = margin top] left profile to public, [place = margin top] facing front on a small wooden chair before [place = supralinear] at
a [place = inline] xx small [place = supralinear] narrow wp [place = overwritten] ooden table, [⁁] [place = margin left] the two drawers of which xx the two drawers of which open towards audience [place = margin top] facing front X.
[0004] Little wearish old man.
[0005] Rusty nar black narrow trousers, too short for him. [0006] Rusty black sleev [place = inline] eless waistocaot, four [place = supralinear] capacious pockets. [0007] Heavy silver watch and chain. [0008] Grimy white shirt, open at neck. No collar. [0009] Surprising pai [place = inline] r of [place = supralinear] dirty white boots, size ten, very narrow and pointed.
[0010] Pallid face. [0011] Purple nose. [0012] [place = inline] Plenty of [place = supralinear] Disordered grey hair. [0013] [place = supralinear] Unshaven.
[0014] Very near-sighted [place = supralinear] (but unspectacled) and [0015] hard of hearing. [0014] [place = inline] No glasses.
[0016] Croaking [place = supralinear] Cracked voice, [0017] characteristic [place = supralinear] peculiar accent.
[0019] On the [place = supralinear] centre of table a tape-recorder [place = inline] . and [place = supralinear] On its right a number of cardboard boxes containing recorded tapes. [0019|001] [⁁] [place = margin left] On its left A [place = supralinear] thick worn ledger.
[0020] Table and immeditaely adjacent area in strong [place = supralinear] white light. [0021] Rest of stage in darkness. [place = margin left] [cf. Verso ←]
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[0036] (reading from ledger, his nose down on it). |
[p. 1v] [place = verso]
[0022] Crapp sits a moment motionless, looks at his watch, feels in his waistcoat pockets, takes out a small bunch takes out an envelope, puts it back, feels, takes out a small bunch of keys, h raises it close to his eyes, chooses a key, gets up and moves to front of table.
[0023] He stoops, unlocks a drawer, peers into it, feels about inside it, closes it, locks it, opens the other, peers into it, feels about inside, takes out a large banana . [place = overwritten] , He locks draw closes and locks drawer, puts keys back in his pocket.
[0024] He turns, advances to edge of stage, [place = supralinear] halts, shows the audience the [place = margin right] holds out banana for audience to see, [place = supralinear] peels it [place = overwritten] banana banana, droops the skin, bites off the end sucks the end puts the end of the banana in his mouth, staring vacuously before him.
[0025] He turns aside and starts walking to and fro at edge of stage, eating banana and meditating x in light, i.e. not more than 4 paces 4 or five paces in either direction, eating banana and meditation. [0026] He treads on skin, slips, nearly falls, recovers himself, pushes skin with his foot over edge of stage into pit,
[0027] resumes his pacing, finishes banana, retu returns to table, opens wrong [place = margin right] takes keys from his pocket, raises them to his eyes, [place = margin left] chooses key, un unlocks and opens wrong drawer, peers and feels inside, locks it, unlocks and opens other drawer, takes out a second banana, locks drawer, x puts keys back in his pocket, turns, advances to x edge of stage, peels banana, puts skin in his pocket, puts the end of banana in his mouth, staring vacuously before him.
[0028] He has a sudden idea, drops banana at his feet, turns and goes backstage into dark.
[0029] Ten seconds.
[0030] Loud pop of cork.
[0031] Ten seconds. [0032] He comes back into light, sits down at table. wiping his mouth, sits down at table.
[0033] He wipes his mouth, wipes his hands on his waistcoat, brings them smartly together, rubs them them together.
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[place = verso]
[0034] (briskly)
[0035] Ah! [0036] (He bends over ledger, turns the pages, finds the entry he wants, reads.)
[0036|001] Etc
[p. 1r] [0037] Box...thrree... spool...five. ([0038] He turns his head and stares front.
[0039] With relish.) [0040] Spool! [0041] (Pause.) [0042] Spoool! ([0044] Pause.
[0045] He turns back to table, starts peering and poking at the boxes.) [0046] Box...thrr thrree...thrree...four...two...(with surprise) nine!..good God! [place = margin left] Jesus!...seven...ah!..the little rascal! [0047] (He separates box three from the others.) [0048] Box thrree. [0049] (He opens it, peers at the spools inside.) [0050] Spool...(he peers at ledger, finds the entry)f [place = overwritten] ...five. (He peers at spools.) Five...five... [0051](He takes out a spool, straightens up, holds up spool between finger and thumb.) [0052] Spool five.
[0053] (He lays it on table, closes box three and puts it back with the others. He takes up spool.) [0054] Box thrree, spool five.
[0061] (He puts spool on machine, peers at ledger. Reading entry at foot of page.) [0062] Mother at rest... [0064] The black ball... ([0065] He raises his head.
[0066] Puzzled.) [0067] Black ball? ([0067|001] Pause.) [0068] He peers again at ledger, reads.) [0069] The dark nurse. [0070] (He raises his head, broods, peers again at ledger.) [0071] Improvement of bowel condition... [0073]memorale Memorable...what? [0074] (He peers closer.) [0075] Equinox, memorable equinox. ([0076] He raises his head, stares front.
[0077] Puzzled.) [0078] Memorable equinox? ([0079] Pause.
[0080] He shrugs his shoulders, peers again at ledger.) [0081] Farewell to - (he turns the pages) - love. |
[0082] He broods, closes ledger, bends over machine, switches it on and assumes listening posture, ; [place = overwritten] i.e. ear cupped towards machine, face front. [place = margin left] ear pulled with leaning forward, elbows on table, ear pulled with forefinger toward hand cupping ear, face front.
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[0083] (strong young voice, rather pompous, but obviously his [place = margin right] A's at a much earlier time.) [0084] Thirty-seven today [place = inline] , and sound - [0085] (Settling himself more comfortably he [place = overwritten] A knocks a box off the table. He ca [place = overwritten] urses, switches off machine, sweeps boxes
 [p. 2r]
[place = verso]
and ledger violently from table, switches on machine, resumes his pose.) and ledger violently from table, windx [place = overwritten] s tape back to beginning, swithc switches on machine, resumes pose.) [0086] Thirty-seven today,and sound apparently in wind and limb,[↑] [place = margin top] 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 before [place = supralinear] 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 [place = supralinear] old 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 liked to get up and move about in it, then back here to...(hesitates)...me.
[0105] Pause.
[0106] The grain, what do I mean by that, I mean...(Pause.) I suppose I mean those things worth having when all the dust has - when all this [place = supralinear] my dust has settled. [0107] I close my eyes and try and [place = supralinear] to imagine them.
[0108] Pause.
[0110] Extraordinary silence this evening. I strain my ears and do not hear [place = overwritten] r a sound. [0111] Old Miss Beamish [place = supralinear] Hare always sings at this hour. [0113] Songs of her child [place = supralinear] girlhood, she says. [0112] I admire her But not tonight. [0115] I admire her. [place = margin left] Wonderful woman.[⁁] [0116] [place = margin left] Connaught. [0118] Shall I sing when I am her age, if I ever am? [0119] Unlikely. [place = margin left] No. Hardly.[⁁] [0121] Did I sing as a boy? [0122] No. [0124] Did I ever sing. [place = overwritten] ? [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 O [place = overwritten] I was [place = supralinear] still living on and off with Furry [place = margin left] 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 ag [place = overwritten] gain. [0137] Matchless. [0138] (Pause.) [0139] Ah well. [0140] (Pause.) [0141] These old P.M.s a [place = inline] re gruesome, but I - (A switches off, broods, switches on again) - [place = supralinear] always find them a help before embarking on a new -er - conspectus new...(hesitates)... conspectus. [0142] Hard to believe I was ever that young pup young pup. [0143] The voice is not mine. [place = supralinear] That voice! [0145] Aspirations. [place = margin left] The [place = margin left] And the aspirations! [0146] (Brief laugh in which A joins.) [0147] Resolutions. [place = margin left] The [place = margin left] And the resolutions! [0148] (Bried [place = overwritten] f laugh in which A joins.) [0149] To drink less, in particular. [0150] [place = margin left] (Brief laugh of A alone.) [0151] Statistice [place = overwritten] s. [0152] Seventeen hundred hours, out of the preceding eight thousand odd, consumed on licensed premises alone. [0153] [place = margin left] Over 20%.[⁁] [0155] Plans for a less wearing sexual life. [0156] Last illness of his father. [0157] Flagging pursuit of happiness suit of happiness [p. 3r]suit of happiness. [0158] Unattainable laxation. [0163] Shadow of the magnum opus. [0164] Closing with - (brief laugh) - a yelp to Providence. [0165] (Prolonged laugh in which A joins.) [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 darkness.
[0172] Ten seconds.
[0173] Pop of cork.
[0174] Ten seconds.
[0175] Second cork.
[0176] Ten seconds.
[0177] Third cork.
[0178] Ten seconds. [⁁]
[0179] [place = margin left] Brief rau burst of raucous song.[⁁]
[0183] He comes back into light front right, sits down, switches on machine, resumes his pose.) [0184] - back on [place = supralinear] over the year that is gone, with what I hope are [/] [place = margin top] perhaps the old eyes to come, there is of course the house on the canal where mother lay a-dying, in the early autumn, after her long viduity (A gives a start), and the - (A switches off machine, gets up, goes backstage into darkness and comes same way with a dictionary (A givesa start), and the - [0185] (A switches off machine, wind backs tape a little winds back tape a little, bends his ear closer to machine) [0186] - a-dying, in the early autumn, after her long viduity, and the -[←] |
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[place = margin left] A. -
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([0187] A switches off machine, turns face front.
[0187|001] Puzzled.)
[0188] Viduity? ([0189] Pause.
[0190] He gets up, goes backstage into darkness, comes back with a large dictionary volume of the Concise Oxford [place = margin left] or Johnson's dictionary and quotes example, lays it on the table, sits down, looks up viduity,
[0191] [place = infralinear] xeadsreads, nods,
[0206] closes dictionary, switches on machine, resumes his pose.) |
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[place = margin left] Tape. -
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[0207] - ba [place = overwritten] ench by the weir from where I d [place = overwritten] could see her window. [0208] There I sat, da wishing she were gone. [0210] Quite a number of people I got to know then, oh I mean by appea [place = inline] rance, nursemaids, children, i [place = overwritten] old men, dogs. [0211] One dark young beauty I recall [place = supralinear] recollect particularly, [place = margin left] all white and starch, [place = inline] splendid bosom,[⁁] with a big black hooded pram. [0212] Whenever I looked in her direction she had her eyes on me. [0213] But when I was foolish enough to speak to her she threatened to call a policeman. [0217] The face she had! [0218] Eyes [0219] like...moonstones. [0223] 8 [place = overwritten] I was there when - (A switches off, broods, switches on again) - the blind went down, one of those dirty brown roller affairs, throwing a ball for a dog as it happened. [place = supralinear] chance wd. have it. [0224] I happened to [place = supralinear] happened look [place = inline] ed up and there it was. [0225] Over at last. [0226] I sat [place = supralinear] on for a moment or two [place = margin left] few moments with the ball in my hand hand and the dog ba [place = inline] rking and pawing at me. [0227] (Pause.) [0228] Moments Moments. [0228|001] (Pause.) [0229] Her moments. My moments. [0230] (Pause.) [⁁] [0231] [place = margin left] The dog's moments. [0232] [place = margin left] (Pause.)[⁁] [0233] In the end I held it out to him and he took it in his mouth, gently gently. [0234] An old tennis ball, black and sodden, but unpunctured. [0235] (Pause.) [0236] I wonder will that mean something some day.
[0241] [←] [place = margin left] Pause.
[0242] [place = margin left] Bowels better on the whole.
[0243] Pause.
[0244] Intellectually a year of profound gloom and indigence until that memorable night in March, at the end of the pier, in the howling wind, never to be forgotten, when suddenly I saw the whole thing. [0245] The turning-point, at last. [0246] This I imagine is what I hac [place = overwritten] ve chiefly to set down this evening, against the day when my work will be done and perhaps no
 [p. 4r]
place left in my memory, and no thankfulness, for the miracle that - - [place = overwritten] (pause) - for [place = overwritten] r 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 g [place = overwritten] the dae [place = overwritten] rk I have struggled to keep at bay [place = supralinear] been fighting off all this time is in reality my most - [0250] (A curses, switches off, wind [place = inline] s tapes 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 switches off, winds tape [place = supralinear] violently forward, switches on again) [0253] - my face in her breat [place = overwritten] sts and my hand on her. [0254] We lay there without moving. [0255] But underneath us all moved, and move [place = inline] d us, gently [place = supralinear] sofly [place = margin left] gently, up and down, and from side to side.
[0256] Pause.
[0257] Past midnight. [0258] Never knew such a silence.
[0260] Pause.
[0261] Here I end this -
[0262] He [place = overwritten] A switches off, winds tape back, switches on again.
[0263] - upper lake, with the punt, bathed off the bank, then pushed out into the stream and drifted. [0264] She lay stretcg [place = overwritten] hed out on the floorboards with her hands under her head and her eyes closed. [0265] Blazing 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. [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 shadowed 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. [0279] I lay down across her with my face in her brea [place = inline] sts and my hand on her. [0280] We lay without moving. [0281] But underneath us all moved, and move [place = inline] d us, [⁁] [place = supralinear] gently [place = supralinear] sofly [place = margin left] gently, up and down, and from side to side.
[0282] Pause.
[0283] Past midnight. [0284] Never knew - |
[0285] As A switches off, sits brooding [place = supralinear] broods, [0286] fumbles in his waistcoat pockets, tal [place = overwritten] kes out an om [place = overwritten] ld envelope, fumbles, puts back the envelope, looks at his watch, gets up and goes front right backstage into darkness. [0287] Ten seconds. [0288] Sound of bottle againt against glass, then brief siphon. [0289] Ten seconds. [0290] Bottle agai against glass alone. [0291] Fifteen seconds. [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
[p. 5r]
[place = verso] other tape on machine, takes envelope from his pocket, m [place = overwritten] lays it
other tape on machine, takes envelope from his pocket, lays it on the table, switches on and begins to record.
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[0293] Just been listening to that stupid bastard I was thirty years ago, find it hard to believe I was ever as bad as that. [0295] [place = margin left] (Pause) [0296] The eyes she had! ([0297] Broods, realizes he is recording q [place = overwritten] silence, switches off, broods.) [0299] Everything [place = overwritten] g there, everything,on earth all the - [0300] (Realizes this is not being recorded, switches on.) [0301] Everything there, everything on eart on earth, all the light and dark and vice and crystal and sor [place = overwritten] rrow and rejoicing of - [place = margin left] hunger & feasting crapulence of...(hesitates)...the ages! [0302] (Fiercely.) [0303] Yes! [0303|001] The unpardonable ages! [0304] (Pause.) [0305] Let that go! [0306] Jesus! [0307] Take his mind off his homework! [0308] Jesus! ([0309] Pause.
[0310] Weary.) [0311] Ah well, maybe he was right. [0312] (Pause.) [0313] Maybe he was right. ([0314] Broods.
[0315] Realizes.
[0316] Switches off.
[0317] Consults envelope.
[0319] Crumples it r [place = overwritten] and throws it away.
[0320] Broods.
[0321] Switches on.) [0322] Nothing to say, nothing. [0323] What's a year now? [0324] Reverie and galloping constipation irreversible constipation. [0326] Revelled in the word spool. [0327] (Pause.p (With relish.) [0328] Spoool! [0329] High light [place = supralinear] Happiest moment of the year. [0330] (Pause.) DOODLE 1 [0331] Seventeen copies sold, of which eleven in Tanganyika eleven in Tanganyika [place = supralinear] overseas. [0332] Getting known. [0334] One pound six and something, eight no doubt. [0336] Crawled out once or t twice, before the summer was over. [0337] Sat in the park in the middle of the brats and skivvies, dreaming and wishing I were gone. [0340] Last fancies. [0342] Swore to fight them off. [0342|001] Aspirations. [0342|002] Resolutions. [0344] Burnt [place = supralinear] Scalded the eyes out of me reading Effie again, a page a day, with tears again. [0345] Effie... [0346] (Pause.) [0347] Could have been happy wo [place = overwritten] ith her, up there on the cold sea, and the pines, and the dunes. [0348] (Pause.) [0355] Fanny came in a couple of times. [0356] B [place = overwritten] Bony old whore. [0357] Couldn't do much, but better than nothing. [0358] The last time wasn't so bad. [0359] W [place = overwritten] How do you manage it, she said, at your age? [0360] I told her I'd been saving up for her all my life. [0361] (Pause.) [0362] Went to Vespers p [place = overwritten] once, like when I was a child. [0367] [place = margin left] And fell off the pew. [⁁] Slept. [⁁]
([0364] [place = margin left] Sings.)
[0365] [place = margin left] Now the day is over
Night is drawing nigh-igh,
Shadows of the evening,
Steal across the sky.
[0367] [place = margin left] Went to sleep and fell off the pew. [0368] (Pause.) [0369] Sometimesa wondered in the night if a last effort mightn't - [0370] (Pause.) [0371] Empty the bottle now and get to your bed. [0372] Finish this pukx [place = overwritten] e½ tomorrow. [0373] Or leave it at that. [0374] (Pause.) [0375] Leave it at that. [0376] (Pause.) [0377] Lie propped up on my back in the dark - and wander. [0377|001] (Pause.) [0378] Be again in the dingle on a Christmas Eve, picking [place = above] gathering ho [place = inline] lly. [0379] (Pause.) [0380] Be again on Croghan on a Sunday morning, in the snow [place = supralinear] haze, with the bitch, stop and listent to the bells. [0381] (Pause.) [0382] And so on. [0383] (Pause.) [0384] Be again. [0387] (Pause.) [0386] All that old misery. [0385] 5 [place = overwritten] (Pause.) [0388] Once wasn't enough. [0389] (Pause.) [0390] Lie down across he. [place = overwritten] r. ([0391] Long pause.
[0392] He suddenly bends to the machine, switches off, wrenches off tape, throws it away, puts on the other, winds it to the passage he wants, switches on, listens staring front.) |
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[0393] - gooseberries, she said. [0394] I said again I thought it was hopeless and no good going on, and she agreed, without opening her eyes. [0396] I asked her to ll [place = overwritten] ook at me and after a few moments - (pause) - after a few moments she did, but the eyes just slits, because of the glare. [0397] I bent over her ½
 [p. 6r]
to get them in the shadow and they opened. ([0398] Pause.
[0399] Low.) [0400] And l [place = overwritten] Let me in. [0401] (Pause.) [0402] We drifted in among the reeds and stuck. [0403] They way they bent, sighing, before the stem. [0405] I lay down across her with my face in her breasts and my hand on her. [0406] We lay without moving. [0407] But underneath us all moved, and moved us, gently [place = supralinear] sofly [place = margin left] gently, up and down, and from side to side.
[0408] Pause. [0409] A's lips move. [0410] No sound.
[0411] Past midnihgt. [0412] Never knew such silence.
[0414] Pause.
[0415] Here I end this...(hesitates)...stage [place = supralinear] spool, [0416] B [place = overwritten] box - (pause) - thrree, spool [place = supralinear] number - (pause) - five.
[0417] (Pause.) [0418] Perhaps my best years are past [place = supralinear] gone. [0419] When there was a chance of happiness. [0419|001] [place = margin left] (Pause.) Happi - ness [place = margin left] Happiness. (Pause.) [0420] But I wouldn't want them back [place = supralinear] over again. [0421] Not with the fire in me now. [0422] No, I wouldn't want them back. [place = inline] over again. |
[0423] A motionless staring before him. [0424] The tape runs on in silence
[0425] Curtain
[place = margin bottom] for
Jake Schwartz
Sam Beckett
March 1958
[p. 6v]
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