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

MS-UoR-1659

X
Segment 1

[0158] Unattainable laxation.[0159] Sneers at what he calls his youth
and thanks to God that it is it's over.
[0161] - false ring. False ring there.[0162] (Pause.)[0163] Shadows of
the opus...magnum.
[0164] Closing with a - (brief laugh) - kelp
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 2

[0169] Pause.
[0170] When I look -[0171] (Krapp switches off, broods, looks at his watch,
gets up and goes backstage into darkness.
[0172] Ten seconds. [0173] Pop
of cork.
[0174] Ten seconds. [0175] Pop of second cork. [0176] Ten seconds. [0177] Pop
of third cork.
[0178] Ten seconds. [0179] Brief burst of quavering song.

X
Segment 3

[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 4

[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 early 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
)
[0186] - a-dying, in the early late
autumn, after her long viduity, and the -

X
Segment 5

[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 dictionary, sits down, lays it on table and looks
up the word
.

X
Segment 6

[0191] (reading from dictionary).[0192] State - or condition - of being - or remaining - a
[diwo - or widower] widow - or widower.
[0193] (Looks up. [0194] Puzzled.)
[0195] Being - or remaining?...[0196]-(Pause. [0197] He peers again at dictionary.
[0198] Reading.)[0199] "Deep weeds of viduity"...[0200]Also of an animal, especially
a bird...The vidua or weaver-bird...
[0201]Black plumage of males...
[0202] (He looks up. [0203] With relish.)[0204] The vidua-buird!

X
Segment 7

[0205] Pause. [0206] He closes dictionary, switches on, resumes listening
posture
.
[0207] - bench by the weir from where I could see her window.[0208] There
I sat, day after day in the biting wind, wishing she were gone.
[0209] (Pause.)[0210] Deserted
spot it was,
Hardly a soul just a few regulars, nursemaids, infants, old
men, dogs. I got to know them quite well - oh by appearance of
course I mean!

X
Segment 8

[0211] One dark young beauty I recollect particularly,
all white and starch, incomparable bosom, with a big black
hooded perambulator, most funereal thing.
[0212] Whenever I looked
in her direction she had her eyes on me.
[0213] And yet when I was
bold enough to speak to her - not having been introduced -
she threatened to call a policeman.
[0214] As if I had designs on her! virtue![0215] (Laugh.)[0216] (Pause.)[0217] The face she
had!
[0218] The eys! eyes![0219] Like...(hesitates)...chrysolite![0220] (Pause.)

X
Addition 1
it's
X
Addition 2
False ring there. (Pause.)
X
Addition 3
[0160] (Pause.) [0161] False ring there. [0162] (Pause.)
X
Addition 4
s
X
Addition 5
- or condition -
X
Addition 6
in the biting wind
X
Addition 7
Hardly a soul
X
Addition 8
As if I had designs on her! virtue!
X
Addition 9
(Laugh.)
X
Doodle 1
Categories:
Organism, Animal, Insect
Transcription
  • Segments
  • Marginal Additions
  • Doodles