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

MS-HRC-SB-4-2-4

X
Segment 1

[0184] her long viduity (Krapp gives a start,), and the -[0185] (Krapp
switches off, winds back tape a little, bends his ear closer
to machine, switches on
)
[0186] - a-daying, in the early autumn, after
her long viduity, and the -
[0187] (Krapp switches off, raises his
head, stares blankly before him.
[0188] His lips move in the syllables
of viduity "viduity".
[0189] No sound.

X
Segment 2

[0190] He gets up, goes backstage
into darkness, comes back with an enormous dictionary, sits
down, lays it on the table, looks up the word.,) reads (quotes
definition if possible), nods, closes dictionary, switches on,
resumes pose
.)

X
Segment 3

[0207] - bench by the weir from where I could see her
window.
[0208] There I sat, wishing she were gone.[0209] (Pause.)[0210] Deserted
spot it was, just a few refgulars, nursemaids, infants, iold men,
dogs, I got to know them quite well - oh by appearance of course
I mean!
[0211] One dark young beauty I recollect particularly, all
white and starch, incomparable bosom, with a big black hooded
pram perambulator, most funereal thing.

X
Segment 4

[0212] Whenever I looked in her direction
she had her eyes on me.
[0213] And yet when I was rash enough to
speak to her, - not having been introduced, - she threatened to
call a policeman.
[0216] (Pause.)[0217] The eye The face she had![0218] The eys!
eyes!
[0219] Like...(hesitates)...moonstone chrysolite![0220] (Pause.)[0221] [] Ah well...[0222] (Pause.)

X
Segment 5

[0223] I was there
when - (Krapp switches off, broods, switches on again) - thea
the blind went down, one of those dirty brown roller affairs,
throwing a ball for a wire-haired fox-terrier bitch, as chance
would have it.
[0224] I happened to look up and there it was.[0225] All over
and done with, at last.
[0226] I sat on for a few moments with the
ball in my hand and the bitch dog yelping and pawing at me.
[0227] (Pause.)

X
Segment 6

[0228] Moments.[0228|001] (Pause.)[0229] Her moments. My moments.[0230] (Pause.)[0231] The bithc
bitch's dog's moments.
[0232] (Pause.)[0233] In the end I held it out to her him and
she he took it in her his mouth, gently.
[0234] A small, old, black, solid
rubber ball.
[0235] (Pause.)[0236] I shall feel it, in my hand, until my
dying day.
[0237] (Pause.)[0238] I wish I had [] might have kept it.[0239] (Pause.)[0240] But I gave
it to the bitch dog.

X
Segment 7

[0241] Pause.
[0242] Ah well...
[0243] Pause.
[0244] Spiritually a year of profound gloom and indigence, until that
memorable night in March, at the end of the jetty, in the howl-
ing wind, never to be forgotten, when suddenly I saw the whole
thing.
[0245] The vision, at last.

X
Segment 8

[0246] This I imagine is what I have
chiefly to record this evening, against the day when my work
will be done and perhaps no place left in my memory, nor no
warm or cold place, for the miracle that...(hesitates)...for the fire
that set it alight.
[0247] What I suddenly saw then was this, that the
belief I had been going on all my life, namely -
[0248] (Krapp switches
off impatiently, winds tape forward, switches on
)

X
Segment 9

[0249] - granite
great granite rocks the foam flying up in the light of the
beacon and the windgauge spinning like a propellor, clear to
me at last that the dark I have always struggled to keep under
is in reality my most -
[0250] (Krapp curses, switches off, winds tape
forward,switches on again
)
[0251] - unshatterable association until my
...(hesitates)...dissolution of storm and night with the light
of the understanding and the -
(Krapp curses louder, switches

X
Segment 10

[0252] (Krapp curses louder, switches

X
Addition 1

Krapp

[0191] :(reading from dictionary). [0192] State of being - or remaining - a widow - or widower. ([0193] Looks up. [0194] Puzzled. [0195] Being - or remain?... remaining?... ([0197] Peers (Returns to Peers again at dictionary. [0198] Reading.) [0199] "Deep weeds of viduity."... [0200] Also of an ann animal, especially a bird... the vidua or weaving-bird... [0201] black plumage of males. ([0202] looks up. [0203] With relish.) [0204] The vidua bird!
[0206] (cl He closes dictionary, switches on, resumes posture.

Tape

[0207] - bench

Transcription
  • Segments
  • Marginal Additions