Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
Molloy

MS-WU-MSS008-3-49

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Segment 1

[0569] fastidious tread. [0570] The boatman rested his elbow on his knee, his
head on his hand.
[0571] Every three or four puffs, without taking his
pipe from his mouth, he spat into the water.
[0572] The horizon was
burning with sulphur and phosphorous, it was there I was bound.

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Segment 2

[0573] At last I got down, hobbled down to the ditch and lay down, beside
my bicycle.
[0574] I lay at full stretch, with outspread arms. [0575] The white
hawthorn stooped towards me, unfortunately I don't like the smell
of hawthorn.

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Segment 3

[0576] In the ditch the grass was thick and high, I took
off my hat and pressed about my face the long leafy stalks.
[0577] Then
I smelt the earth, the smell of the earth was in the grass, that
my hands wove round my face till I was blinded.
[0578] I ate a little too.
[0579] It came back to my mind, from nowhere, as a moment before my name,
that I had set out to see my mother, at the beginning of this
ending day.
[0580] My reasons? [0581] I had forgotten them.

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Segment 4

[0582] But I knew what
they were, I must have known what they were, I had only to find
them again and I would sweep, with the clipped wings of necessity,
to my mother.
[0583] Yes, it's all easy when you know why, a mere matter
of magic.
[0584] Yes, the whole thing is to know what saint to implore,
any fool can implore him.

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Segment 5

[0585] For the particulars, if you are interest-
-ed in particulars, there is no need to despair, you may knock upon
the right door, in the right way, in the end.
[0586] It's for the whole
there seems to be no spell..
[0587] Perhaps there is no whole, before
you're dead.
[0588] An opiate for the life of the dead, that should be
easy.

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Segment 6

[0589] What am I waiting for then, to exorcise mine? [0590] It's coming,
it's coming. I hear from here the howl resolving all, even if it
is not mine.
[0591] Meanwhile, there's no use knowing you are gone, you
are not, you are writhing yet, the hair is growing, the nails are

Transcription
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