Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
Molloy

MS-WU-MSS008-3-50-2

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Segment 1

[3564] in Ballyba? [3565] But I also told myself, being only human, that the longer I
took to find Molloy the greater my chances of remembering what I was to do
with him.
[3566] And [place = supralinear] we would have peacably pursued our way on foot, but for the
following incident.

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Segment 2

[3567] One night, having finally succeeded in falling asleep beside my son
as usual, I woke with a start, feeling as if I had just been dealt a
violent blow.
[3568] It's xxx [place = overwritten] all right, I am not going to tell you a dream properly
so called.
[3569] It was pitch dark in the shelter. [3570] I listened attentively
without moving.
[3571] I heard nothing save the snoring and gasping of my son.

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Segment 3

[3572] I was about to conclude as usual that it was just another bad dream when
a fulgurating pain went through my knee.
[3573] This then was the explanation of
my sudden awakening.
[3574] The sensation could indeed well be compared to that
of a blow, such as I fancy a horse's hoof might give.
[3575] I waited anxiously
for it to recur, motionless and hardly breathing, and of course sweating.

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Segment 4

[3576] I acted in a word precisely as one does, if my information was correct,
at such a juncture.
[3577] And sure enough thep [place = margin left] []pain did recur a few minutes later,
but not so bad as the first time, as the second rather.
[3578] Or did it only
seem less bad to me because I was expecting it?
[3579] Or because I was getting
used to it already?
[3580] I think not.

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Segment 5

[3581] For it recurred again, several times,
and each time less bad than the time before, and finally subsided altogether, [place = margin left] []
so that I was able to go [place = supralinear] []get to sleep again more or less read [place = overwritten] ssured.
[3582] But before
going [place = supralinear] getting to sleep again I had time to remember that the pain in question was
not altogether new to me.

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Segment 6

[3583] For I had felt it before, in my bathroom, when
giving my son his enema.
[3584] But then it had only attacked me once and never
5 [place = overwritten] recurred, till now.
[3585] And I went to sleep again wondering, by way of
lullaby, whether it had been the same knee then as the one which had just
excruciated me, or the other.
[3586] And that is a thing I have never been able
to determine.
[3587] And my son too, when asked, was incapable of telling me

Transcription
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