Digital Manuscript ProjectKrapp's Last Tape / La Dernière Bande

[0110] Extraordinary silence this evening. I strain my ears and
do not hear a sound.[0111] Old Miss Hare Scovell McGlone McGlone always sings at this hour.[0112] [↑] But no tonight
[0113] Songs of her girlhood, she says.[0114] Hard to think of her as a girl.[0115] Wonderful woman. Connaught. But not tonight. Wonderful woman [⁁]though.[0116] Connaught I fancy. [⁁][0116|001] Born, bred and bewildered. [⁁][0117] (Pause.)[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 think UI 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 about her. A queer
passage about herdescription of her Just [⁁] A tribute to her eyes.[0135] I suddenly saw them again.[0136] (Pause.)
[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 beforre embarking on a new...
(hesitates)...conspectus retrospect.[0142] Hard to believe I was ever that young pup whelp.[0143] That The voice![0144] Jesus![0145] And the aspirations.[0146] (Brief laugh in
which A joi Krapp joins.)[0147] And the resolutions!
[0148] (Brief laugh
in which Krapp joins.)[0149] To drink less, in particular 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 engrossing sexual
life.[0156] Last illness of his father.[0157] Flagging pursuit of happiness.
[0158] Unattainable laxation.[0163] [⁁] xx Shadow of the magnum opus.[0164] Closing with a -
- (brief laugh) - a yyelp 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?t even?
[0169] Pause.
[0170] When I look -[0171] (Krapp switches off machine, nbroods, ;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. [⁁]
[0183] He
comes back into light, sits down, switches on machine, resumes
his posture.)
[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 ...(hesitates)...viduity (Krapp gives a start,) 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 ...(hesitates)...viduity, and the -
[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
possibmle), nods, closes dictionary, switches on machine, re-
sumes his posture.)
[0211] One dark young beauty I
- Segments
- Marginal Additions
- Doodles
Krapp's Last Tape / La Dernière Bande © 2015 Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project.
Editors: Dirk Van Hulle and Vincent Neyt