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

MS-HRC-SB-4-2-4

X
Segment 1

[0396] 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 to get them in the shadow and they opened.
[0398]
(Pause.
[0399] Low.)[0400] Let me in.[0401] (Pause.)[0402] We drifted in among the
reeds and stuck.
[0403] The way they bent, sighing, before the stem!

X
Segment 2

[0397] I bent
over her to get them in the shadow and they opened.
[0398]
(Pause.
[0399] Low.)[0400] Let me in.[0401] (Pause.)[0402] We drifted in among the
reeds and stuck.
[0403] The way they bent, sighing, before the stem!

X
Segment 3

[0404] (Pause.)[0405] I lay down across her with my face in her breasts and
my hand on her.
[0406] We lay without moving.[0407] But under us all moved,
and moved us, gently, up and down, and from side to side.
[0408] Pause. [0409] Krapp's lips move. [0410] No sound.
[0411] Past midnight.[0412] Never knew such silence.[0413] The earth might be
uninhabited.

X
Segment 4

[0414] Pause.
[0415] Here I end this reel.[0416] Box - (pause) - three, spool - (pause) -
five.
[0417] (Pause.)[0418] Perhaps my best years are gone.[0419] When there was
a chance of happiness.
[0420] But I wouldn't want them back.[0421] Not with
the fire burning in me now.
[0422] No, I wouldn't want them back.
[0423] Krapp motionless staring before him. [0424] The tape runs on in
silence
.

X
Segment 5

[0425] Curtain

X
Addition 1
Note on technique of tape-recorder
X
Addition 2
for Jake Schwartz
sam. Beckett
March 1958
X
Date 1
March 1958
Transcription
  • Segments
  • Marginal Additions
  • Dates