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

MS-HRC-SB-5-4

X
Segment 1

[0153] say 40 per cent of his waking life.[0154] (pause)[0155] Plans
for a less...(hesitates)...engrossing sexual
life.
[0156] Last illness of his father.[0157] Flagging pursuit
of happiness.
[0158] Unattainable laxation.[0159] Sneers at what
he calls his youth and thanks to God that it's over.

X
Segment 2

[0160] (pause)[0161] False ring there.[0162] (pause)[0163] Shadows of the
opus...magnum.
[0164] Closing with a - (brief laugh)
- 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?

X
Segment 3

[0169] (Pause)

[0170] When I look -

[0171] (KRAPP switches off, broods, looks at
his watch, gets up, 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)

X
Segment 4

[0180] (sings)[0181] Now the day is over,
Night is drawing nigh-igh,
Shadows -

[0182] (Fit of coughing.[0183] He comes back into
light, sits down, wipes his mouth,
switches on, resumes his listening
posture)

X
Segment 5

[0184] - back on the year that is gone,with what I hope is
perhaps a glint of the old eye to come, there is of
course the house on the canal where mother lay a-
dying, in the late autumn, after 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)

X
Segment 6

[0186] - a-dying, 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'.
[0189] No
sound.
[0190] He gets up, goes backstage into
darkness, comes back with an enormous

Transcription
  • Segments