Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
Malone meurt / Malone Dies

MS-HRC-SB-4-3

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Segment 1

[1846] for a time an old yellow hand. But these were probably no more than
the agents of a consortium.
[1847] And indeed the silence at times is cuh
such that the earth seems uninhabited.
[1848] That is what comes of the
taste for generalisation.
[1849] You have only to hear nothing for a few
days, in your hole, nothing but the sounds of things, and you begin
to fancy yourself the last of human kind.
[1850] What if I started to
scream?
[1851] Not that I wish to dra w draw attention to myself, simply
to try and find out if there is someone about.

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Segment 2

[1852] But I don't like
screalming.
[1853] I have spoken softly, gone my ways softly, all my days,
as behoves one who has nothing to say, nowhere to go,
[1854] and so noth-
ing to gain by being seen or heard.
[1855] Not to mention the possibility
of theirre being not a living soul within a radius of one hundred
yards, and then such a[] multitudes of people that they are walking
on top of one another.
[1856] They do not dare come near me. [1857] In that case
iI could scream my head off to no purpose.
[1858] I shall try all the same.

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Segment 3

[1859] I have tried. [1860] I heard nothing out of the ordinary. [1861] No, I exaggerate
I heard a kind of burning croak deep down in the windpipe, as
when one has heartburn.
[1862] With practice I might produce a groan,
before I die.
[1864] I am not sleepy any more. [1865] In any case I must not
sleep any more.
[1866] What tedium. [1867] I have missed the ebb. [1868] Did I say I
only say a small proportion of the things that come into my head?

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Segment 4

[1869] I must have. [1870] I choose those that seem somehow akin. [1871] It is not al-
ways easy.
[1872] I hope they are the most important. [1873] I wonder if I shall
ever be able to stop.
[1874] Perhaps I should throw away my lead. [1875] I could
never retrieve it now.
[1876] I might be sorry. [1877] My little lead. [1878] It is a
risk I do not feel inclined to take, just now.
[1879] What then? [1880] I wonder
if I could not contrive, wielding my stick like a punt-pole, to

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Addition 4
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Transcription
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  • Marginal Additions