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

MS-HRC-SB-4-2-3

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Segment 1

[0110] Extraordinary silence this evening. I strain my ears and
do not hear a sound.
[0111] Old Miss Hare [place = margin left] Scovell [place = margin top] McGlone [place = margin top] McGlone always sings at this hour.[0112] [place = margin top] [] But no tonight
[0113] Songs of her girlhood, she says.[0114] [place = infralinear] Hard to think of her as a girl.[0115] Wonderful woman. Connaught.
But not tonight. Wonderful woman [] [place = supralinear] though.
[0116] Connaught [place = margin top] I fancy. [][0116|001] [place = margin left] Born, bred and bewildered. [][0117] (Pause.)[0118] Shall
I sing when I am her age, if I ever am?
[0119] No.[0121] [place = inline] Did I sing as a
boy?
[0122] No.[0124] Did I ever sing?[0125] No.

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Segment 2

[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 think U [place = overwritten] I was still living on
and off with Bianca in Street.
[0130] Well out of that.
[0131] Hopeless business.[0132] (Pause.)[0133] Not much reference to [place = supralinear] about her. A queer
passage about her
[place = supralinear] description of her [place = margin left] [place = margin left] Just [] A tribute to her eyes.
[0135] I suddenly saw them again.[0136] (Pause.)

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Segment 3

[0137] Incomparable.[0138] (Pause.)[0139] Ah well...[0140](Pause.)[0141] These old P.M.s are
grueseome, but I always - (Krapp switches off, broods, switches
on again
) - find them a help befor [place = overwritten] re embarking on a new...
(hesitates)...conspectus [place = supralinear] retrospect.
[0142] Hard to believe I was ever that young
pup [place = margin left] whelp.
[0143] That [place = margin left] The voice![0144] Jesus![0145] And the aspirations.[0146] (Brief laugh in
which A joi Krapp joins
.)
[0147] And the resolutions!

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Segment 4

[0148] (Brief laugh
in which Krapp joins
.)
[0149] To drink less, in particular [place = supralinear] of all things..[0150] (Brief
laugh of Krapp alone
.)
[0151] Statistics.[0152] Seventeen hundred hours,
out of the preceding eight thousand odd, consumed on licensed
premises alone.
[0153] Over 20%.[0155] Plans for a less wearing [place = supralinear] engrossing sexual
life.
[0156] Last illness of his father.[0157] Flagging pursuit of happiness.

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Segment 5

[0158] Unattainable laxation.[0163] [] [place = margin left] xx Shadow of the magnum opus.[0164] Closing with [place = inline] a -
- (brief laugh) - a y [place = overwritten] yelp to Providence.
[0165] (Prolonged laugh in
which Krapp joins
.)
[0166] What remains of all that misery?[0167] A girl
in a shabby green coat, on a railway-station platform?
[0168] No? [place = inline] t even?
[0169] Pause.

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Segment 6

[0170] When I look -[0171] (Krapp switches off machine, n [place = overwritten] broods, ; [place = overwritten] looks at
his 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] Brief burst of quavering song. []

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Segment 7

[0183] He
comes back into light, sits down, switches on machine, resumes
his posture.
)

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Segment 8

[0184] - back on the year that is gone, with what I
hope are 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 [place = margin left] ...(hesitates)...viduity (Krapp gives a start, [place = overwritten] ) and the -
[0185] (Krapp switches off machine, winds back tape a little, bends
his ear closer to machine
)
[0186] - a-dying, in the early autumn,
after her long viduity [place = margin left] ...(hesitates)...viduity, and the -

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Segment 9

[0187] (Krapp switches off machine,
raises his head, stares blankly before him.
[0188] His lips move in
the syllables of "viduity".
[0189] No sound. [0190] He gets up, goes backstage
into darkness, comes back with an enormous dictionary, lays it
on table, looks up the word, reads, (quotes definition if
possibm [place = overwritten] le), nods, closes dictionary, switches on machine, re-
sumes his posture
.)

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Segment 10

[0207] - bench by the weir from where I could see
her window.
[0208] There I sat, wishing she were gone.[0209] (Pause.)[0210] Quite
a ni [place = overwritten] umber of people I got to know then, oh I mean by appearance,
nursemaids, children, old men, dogs.
[place = overwritten] []
One dark young beauty I

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Segment 11

[0211] One dark young beauty I

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Addition 1
Scovell
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Addition 2
McGlone [place = margin top] McGlone
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Addition 3
[] But no tonight
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Addition 4
I fancy
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Addition 5
Born, bred and bewildered. []
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Addition 6
[place = margin left] Just [] A tribute to her
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Addition 7
whelp
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Addition 8
The
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Addition 9
xx
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Addition 10
[0181] "Now the day is over,
Night is drawing xx" nigh-igh"
Shad Shad- [place = supralinear] ows
[0182] (fit of coughing).
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Addition 11
...(hesitates)...viduity
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Addition 12
...(hesitates)...viduity
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Addition 13
[0210] Very few people about but I got to know one or two - oh by appearance I mean! [0210] Deserted spot it was, just a few regulars, [place = margin bottom] nursemaids, infants, old men, dogs. I got to know them quite well - oh by appearance I mean!
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Doodle 3
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Doodle 4
Categories:
Shape, Rectangle, Hatching
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Doodle 5
Categories:
Shape, Loop, Symbol, Letter
Transcription
  • Segments
  • Marginal Additions
  • Doodles