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

MS-UoR-1227-7-7-1

MS. Pages:

cover - 13r

13v - 18r

18v - 23r

23v - 25r

[p. cover]

ETE 56

[p. inscover]

¹⁹⁵

- For Reading University Library
Sam. Beckett -

[p. titlepage]

Fin de Partie scraps

All That Fall "

Krapp First draft

Pim Notes

^{Willie-Winnie} ^Notes

[p. 10v]
DOODLE 1
DOODLE 2
addition 1→

[0003] Front centre, [0004] sitting on a small plain wooden chair before a small plain wooden table, X. [0004|001] .

[0005]

[0008] [0004] ^{Little wearish old man.}

DOODLE 3

[0005] ^{Rusty black narrow} trousers, [⁁]^{too short for him.} [0006] ^{Rusty black} sleeveless waistcoat^{, 4 pockets}. [0007] ^{Heavy silver watch & chain.} [0008] Grimy white shirt open at neck. No collar. [0009] Surprising pair of ^{white boots}, size ten, very narrow & pointed.

[0010] Pallid face. [0011] Purple nose.

[0014] Very near-sighted and [0015] hard of hearing. [0014] No glasses.

^{[0016] Croaking voice,
[0017] characteristic accent.}

[0019] On the table a tape-recorder and a number of cardboard boxes containing recorded tapes.

[0020] Table and immediately adjacent area in strong light. [0021] Rest of stage in darkness.

[0036] (reading from ledger, his nose down on it). [0037] Box ... thr^rree ... spool ... five. ([0038] He turns and stares front. [0039] With relish.) [0040] Spool! [0041] (Pause.) [0042] Spooool! [0045] (He turns back to table, starts peering & poking at the boxes.) [0046] Box ... thrree ... thrree ... four... two ... (with surprise) ... nine! ... good God! ... seven ... ah! .... the little rascal! [0047] (He separates box three from the others.) [0048] Box thrree. [0049] (He opens it, peers at the spools it contains.) [0050] Spool ... (He peers at ledger, finds the entry.) Five. (He peers at spools) Five ... five ... [0051] (He takes out a spool, straightens up, holds up the spool between finger & thumb.) [0052] ^Spoool five.

[p. 11r]

Magee Monologue

20.2.58

[0004] wearish small old man, [0014] almost blind [0014|001] ( objects, writing up against eye), [0015] almost deaf (cupped ear down almost touching tape), [0004] sitting centre on small plain wooden chair at small plain wooden table. ^{[0016] wheezy ruined old voice
[0017] with some characteristic accent [←]} [0019] On table: a thick worn ledger, a tape-recorder and a number of cardboard boxes ^containing recorded tapes. [0020] Table and immediately adjacent zone in a circle of strong light, [0021] rest of stage in shadow.

[0036] (reading from ledger, his nose down on it) [0037] Box ... three ... spool ... five ([0038] He turns his head ^front, without raising it. [0039] Appreciatively.) [0040] Spoool! [0041] (again, relishing the word.) [0042] Spooool! [0045] (He turns back to table, starts peering and fumbling at the boxes.) [0046] Box ... three. (He turns his head front without raising it. As before^, rolling the r). Three! (Pause) Thrreee! (He turns back to boxes) Box ..... box ...... (peering at numbers) ......... four ......... two ..... (with surprise) ... nine! .... seven ... ah! the little rascal! [0047] (He separates the box from the others) [0048] Box thrreee. [0049] (He opens it, peers at the spools it contains) [0050] Spool ... (He turns back to ^{peer at} ledger, finds the entry.) Five. (He turns back to ^{peer at} spools.) Five ... five ... [0051] (He takes out a spool.) [0052] Spool five. [0053] (He places spool on table before him, closes box and puts it back with the others. He turns back to spool.) [0054] Box thrreee spoool five. ([0059] He puts it on the machine.) [0061] He peers again at ledger. Finally.) [0061|001] Passim. ([0065] He turns head front without raising, stares

[p. 11v]

[0053] (He lays it on table, closes box three and puts it back with the others. He bends over spool. [0054] Box thrree, spool five. ([0059] He puts spool on machine, [0061] peers at ledger. Reading entry at foot of page.) [0062] Mother at rest ... [0064] The black ball ... ([0065] He raises his head. [0066] Puzzled.) [0067] The black ball? ([0068] He peers again at ledger) [0069] ... The dark nurse [0069|001] ... [0070] (He raises his head, broods, peers again at ledger) [0071] Improvement of bowel condition ... [0073] Memorable ... what? [0074] (He peers closer) [0075] Equinox. Memorable equinox. ([0076] He raises his head, stares front. [0077] Puzzled.) [0078] Memorable equinox? ([0079] Pause. [0080] He shrugs his shoulders, peers again at ledger.) [0081] Farewell ... to - (he turns the page) - love.

addition 2→

[0082] He closes ledger, bends over machine, switches it on, takes up listening posture, i.e. ear cupped towards machine, face front.

Tape.

[0083] (strong young voice, but unmistakably his at a much earlier time.) [0084] Thirty-seven today, sound -

[0085]
Settling himself more comfortably he knocks a box off the table on the floor. He curses, stops machine, sweeps boxes and ledger violently off table, switches on the machine, resumes his pose.

Tape

[0086] Thirty-seven today etc.

[p. 12r]

[0065] blankly before him. [0065|001] Finally, softer.) [0065|002] ^Passim! [0082] (He turns back to table, starts up machine, crouches down over tape, cupping his ear , his face turned front.

Tape

[0083] (strong young voice, unmistakably A's at a much earlier time). [0084] This day, being in the third -

[0085] Settling himself more comfortably A knocks a box off the table on to the floor. He curses, stops the machine, sweeps boxes and ledger violently off the table, [⁁] ^{turns back tape to beginning} starts up the machine again, resumes his pose.

Tape

[0085|001] This day, being in the third -

[0085|002] The weight of boxes and ledger off the table he feels it unsteady on its legs, curses, stops the machine, tries to steady it, fails, gets up and carries it laboriously towards front. This brings him out of zone of light. [0085|003] He sets down table in shadow, goes back for chair, carries it to table and sits down in shadow. The light moves and comes to rest on him in his new position. [0085|004] He is now say a yard or so from edge of stage. He makes sure the table is firmly on its legs, turns back tape to beginning, resumes his position.

[p. 12v]

DOODLE 4
DOODLE 5
addition 3→
addition 4→

Tape.

[p. 13r]

[0086] This day, being in the third decade of the Ram, I enter upon my 31^st year, sound ^apparently in wind and limb, apart from my old trouble, and intellectually, I have little doubt, at the ^peak of my powers. [0086|001] (Pause. With fervour.) May the all-merciful Providence - (Pause. With fervour. ^Continues) [0086|002] May the star which stood above my ^bassinet in North Great Georges Street continue to burn, as heretofore, in my breast and in my labours. [0086|003] (Pause. In a lower voice.) In particular may I be given the strength, in the coming years, to ... (Hesitation. Finally, still lower.) to drink less. (Pause.^Solemnly.) [0086|004] In the past ^{12 months} I spent, on licensed premises alone, anything ^from seventeen ^to nineteen hundred hours. (Pause.) Nineteen hundred hours. (Pause.) [0086|005] Oh I know, I know, I have had these crises before, but ^{at no time} quite so acutely as this afternoon, ^{lying on the grass,} in the park, in the sun. (Pause.) What would help me more than anything, I think, is ^{a ... a fuller ... a more ... more natural ... more ... ^engrossing} (lowering his voice) ... sexual life. (Pause.) [←] ^{Enthusiastic. Intercourse!} [0086|006] (Pause.) These nineteen hundred hours, for example, if ^{in the future} instead ^of spending them bibulating, I were to spend them -

[0171] A stops the machine, remains motionless a moment, then gets up

MS. Pages:

Krapp's Last Tape / La Dernière Bande © 2015 Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project.
Editors: Dirk Van Hulle and Vincent Neyt