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

MS-HRC-SB-4-2-4

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Segment 1

[0293] Just been listening to that stupid bastard I took myself
for thirty years ago, hard to believe I was ever as bad as
that.
[0294] Thank God Christ that's all over and down the drain done with anyway.[0295] (Pause.)
[0296] The eyes she had![0297] (Broods, realizes he is recording silence,
switches off, broods.
[0298] Finally.)[0299] Everything there, everything, al
all the -
[0300] (Realizes this is not being recorded, switches on.)

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Segment 2

[0301] Everything there, everything on this lousy earth, all the
light and dark and famine and feasting of...(hesitates½)...
the ages!
[0302] (In a shout.)[0303] Yes![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.

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Segment 3

[0315] Realizes. [0316] Switches off. [0317] Consults envelope.)[0318] Pah![0319] (Crumples
it and throws it away.
[0320] Broods. [0321] Switches on.)[0322] Nothing to say,
not a squeak.
[0323] What's a year now?[0324] Chewed Sour [] cuds and hard long [] adamantine hard stools. [][0324] The sour cud and the hard stool. []
[0325] (Pause.)[0326] Revelled in the word spool.[0327] (With relish.)[0328] Spooool!

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Segment 4

[0329] Happiest moment of the year [] past half million [].[0330] (Pause.)[0331] Seventeen copies sold, of
which eleven at half price a discount trade price to free lending circulating libraries in the beyond the seas.
dominions.
[0332] Getting known.[0333] (Pause.)[0334] One pound six and some-
thing, eight I have little doubt.
[0335] (Pause.)[0336] Crawled out once
or twice, before the summer was cold.
[0337] Sat shivering in the park, drowned
in dreams and wishing I was panting burning to be gone.
[0338] Not a soul.[0339] (Pause.)[0340] Last
fancies.
[0341] (Violently Vehemently.)[0342] Go mad altogether if I don't keep them under. Go mad altogether if I don't. Keep 'em under![0342|001] (Pause.)

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Segment 5

[0342|002] Resolutions.[0342|003] (Pause.)[0342|004] Aspirations.[0343] 5(Pause.)[0344] Scaleded the eyes
out of me reading Effie again, a page a day, with tears again.
[0345] Effie...[0346](Pause.)[0347] Might have be Could have been happy with her,
up there on the Baltic, and the pines, and the dunes.
[0348] (Pause.)

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Segment 6

[0355] Fanny came in a couple of times.[0356] Bony old ghost of a whore.[0357] Couldn't do
much, but I suppose better than nothing.
[0358] The last time wasn't
so bad.
[0359] How do you manage it, she said, at your age.?[0360] Told her
I'd been saving up for her all my life.
[0361] (Pause.)[0362] Went to
Vespers once, like when I was in short trousers.
[0363] (Pause. [0364] Sings.)

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Segment 7

[0365] Now the day is over,
Night is drawing nigh - igh
Shadows - (fFite of coughing. Faintly.) - of the evening
Steal across the sky.
[0366] (Gasps.) [][0367] Went to sleep and fell off the pew.[0368] (Pause.)[0369] Sometimes wondered
in the night if a last effort mightn't -
[0370] (Pause.)[0371] Ah empty
your bottle now and get to your bed?.
[0372] Finish this puke drivel in the
morning.
[0373] Or leave it at that.[0374] (Pause.)[0375] Leave it at that.[0376] (Pause.)

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Segment 8

[0377] Lie propped up in the dark - and wander.[0377|001] (Pause.)[0378] Be again in
the dingle on a Christmas Eve, gathering holly, the red-berried.
[0379] (Pause.)[0380] Be again on Croghan on a Sunday morning, in the haze,
with the collie bitch, stop and listent to the bells.
[0381] (Pause.)[0382] And so
on.
[0383] (Pause.)[0384] Be again, be again.[0385] (Pause.)[0386] All that old misery.

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Segment 9

[0387] (Pause.)[0388] Once wasn't enough for you me you.[0389] (Pause.)[0390] Lie down across
her.
[0391] (Long pause. [0392] He suddenly bends over machine, switches off,
wrenches off tape, throws it away, puts on the other, winds it
forward to the passage he wants, switches on, listens staring
fro
front.
[0393] Gosseberries, she said - gooesseberries she said.[0394] I said agaihn
I thought it was hopeless and no good going on, and she agreed,
without opening her eyes.
[0395] (Pause.)
I asked her to look at lme

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Segment 10

[0396] I asked her to look at lme

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Addition 1
Sour []
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Addition 2
long []
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Addition 3
The sour cud and the hard stool. []
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Addition 4
past half million []
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Addition 5
trade price
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Addition 6
burning
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Addition 7
(Violently Vehemently.)
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Addition 8
Go mad altogether if I don't. Keep 'em under!
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Addition 9
[0349] Could I? [0350] (Pause.) [0351] And she? [0352] (Pause.)
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Addition 10
(Gasps.)
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Addition 11
you
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Doodle 4
Categories:
Shape, Square
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Doodle 6
Categories:
Shape, Triangle, Hatching
Transcription
  • Segments
  • Marginal Additions
  • Doodles