Endgame & Act Without Words, Page 3

  Corpsed.

  [Pause.]

  Well? Content?

  HAMM Look at the sea.

  CLOV It’s the same.

  HAMM Look at the ocean!

  [Clov gets down, takes a few steps towards window left, goes back for ladder, carries it over and sets it down under window left, gets up on it, turns the telescope on the without, looks at length. He starts, lowers the telescope, examines it, turns it again on the without.]

  CLOV Never seen anything like that!

  HAMM [anxious] What? A sail? A fin? Smoke?

  CLOV [looking] The light is sunk.

  HAMM [relieved] Pah! We all knew that.

  CLOV [looking] There was a bit left.

  HAMM The base.

  CLOV [looking] Yes.

  HAMM And now?

  CLOV [looking] All gone.

  HAMM No gulls?

  CLOV [looking] Gulls!

  HAMM And the horizon? Nothing on the horizon?

  CLOV [lowering the telescope, turning towards Hamm, exasperated] What in God’s name could there be on the horizon?

  [Pause.]

  HAMM The waves, how are the waves?

  CLOV The waves?

  [He turns the telescope on the waves.]

  Lead.

  HAMM And the sun?

  CLOV [looking] Zero.

  HAMM But it should be sinking. Look again.

  CLOV [looking] Damn the sun.

  HAMM Is it night already then?

  CLOV [looking] No.

  HAMM Then what is it?

  CLOV [looking] Grey.

  [Lowering the telescope, turning towards Hamm, louder.]

  Grey!

  [Pause. Still louder.]

  GRREY!

  [Pause. He gets down, approaches Hamm from behind, whispers in his ear.]

  HAMM [starting] Grey! Did I hear you say grey?

  CLOV Light black. From pole to pole.

  HAMM You exaggerate.

  [Pause.]

  Don’t stay there, you give me the shivers.

  [Clov returns to his place beside the chair.]

  CLOV Why this farce, day after day?

  HAMM Routine. One never knows.

  [Pause.]

  Last night I saw inside my breast. There was a big sore.

  CLOV Pah! You saw your heart.

  HAMM No, it was living.

  [Pause. Anguished.]

  Clov!

  CLOV Yes.

  HAMM What’s happening?

  CLOV Something is taking its course.

  [Pause.]

  HAMM Clov!

  CLOV [impatiently] What is it?

  HAMM We’re not beginning to . . . to . . . mean something?

  CLOV Mean something! You and I, mean something!

  [Brief laugh.]

  Ah that’s a good one!

  HAMM I wonder.

  [Pause.]

  Imagine if a rational being came back to earth, wouldn’t he be liable to get ideas into his head if he observed us long enough.

  [Voice of rational being.]

  Ah, good, now I see what it is, yes, now I understand what they’re at!

  [Clov starts, drops the telescope and begins to scratch his belly with both hands. Normal voice.]

  And without going so far as that, we ourselves . . .

  [with emotion]

  . . . we ourselves . . . at certain moments . . .

  [Vehemently.]

  To think perhaps it won’t all have been for nothing!

  CLOV [anguished, scratching himself] I have a flea!

  HAMM A flea! Are there still fleas?

  CLOV On me there’s one.

  [Scratching.]

  Unless it’s a crablouse.

  HAMM [very perturbed] But humanity might start from there all over again! Catch him, for the love of God!

  CLOV I’ll go and get the powder.

  [Exit Clov.]

  HAMM A flea! This is awful! What a day!

  [Enter Clov with a sprinkling-tin.]

  CLOV I’m back again, with the insecticide.

  HAMM Let him have it!

  [Clov loosens the top of his trousers, pulls it forward and shakes powder into the aperture. He stoops, looks, waits, starts, frenziedly shakes more powder, stoops, looks, waits.]

  CLOV The bastard!

  HAMM Did you get him?

  CLOV Looks like it.

  [He drops the tin and adjusts his trousers.]

  Unless he’s laying doggo.

  HAMM Laying! Lying you mean. Unless he’s lying doggo.

  CLOV Ah? One says lying? One doesn’t say laying?

  HAMM Use your head, can’t you. If he was laying we’d be bitched.

  CLOV Ah.

  [Pause.]

  What about that pee?

  HAMM I’m having it.

  CLOV Ah that’s the spirit, that’s the spirit!

  [Pause.]

  HAMM [with ardour] Let’s go from here, the two of us! South! You can make a raft and the currents will carry us away, far away, to other . . . mammals!

  CLOV God forbid!

  HAMM Alone, I’ll embark alone! Get working on that raft immediately.

  Tomorrow I’ll be gone for ever.

  CLOV [hastening towards door] I’ll start straight away.

  HAMM Wait!

  [Clov halts.]

  Will there be sharks, do you think?

  CLOV Sharks? I don’t know. If there are there will be.

  [He goes towards door.]

  HAMM Wait!

  [Clov halts.]

  Is it not yet time for my pain-killer?

  CLOV [violently] No!

  [He goes towards door.]

  HAMM Wait!

  [Clov halts.]

  How are your eyes?

  CLOV Bad.

  HAMM But you can see.

  CLOV All I want.

  HAMM How are your legs?

  CLOV Bad.

  HAMM But you can walk.

  CLOV I come . . . and go.

  HAMM In my house.

  [Pause. With prophetic relish.]

  One day you’ll be blind, like me. You’ll be sitting there, a speck in the void, in the dark, for ever, like me.

  [Pause.]

  One day you’ll say to yourself, I’m tired, I’ll sit down, and you’ll go and sit down. Then you’ll say, I’m hungry, I’ll get up and get something to eat. But you won’t get up. You’ll say, I shouldn’t have sat down, but since I have I’ll sit on a little longer, then I’ll get up and get something to eat. But you won’t get up and you won’t get anything to eat.

  [Pause.]

  You’ll look at the wall a while, then you’ll say, I’ll close my eyes, perhaps have a little sleep, after that I’ll feel better, and you’ll close them. And when you open them again there’ll be no wall any more.

  [Pause.]

  Infinite emptiness will be all around you, all the resurrected dead of all the ages wouldn’t fill it, and there you’ll be like a little bit of grit in the middle of the steppe.

  [Pause.]

  Yes, one day you’ll know what it is, you’ll be like me, except that you won’t have anyone with you, because you won’t have had pity on anyone and because there won’t be anyone left to have pity on.

  [Pause.]

  CLOV It’s not certain.

  [Pause.]

  And there’s one thing you forget.

  HAMM Ah?

  CLOV I can’t sit down.

  HAMM [impatiently] Well you’ll lie down then, what the hell! Or you’ll come to a standstill, simply stop and stand still, the way you are now. One day you’ll say, I’m tired, I’ll stop. What does the attitude matter?

  [Pause.]

  CLOV So you all want me to leave you.

  HAMM Naturally.

  CLOV Then I’ll leave you.

  HAMM You can’t leave us.

  CLOV Then I won’t leave you.

  [Pause.]

  HAMM Why don’t you finish us?

  [Pause.]

/>   I’ll tell you the combination of the cupboard if you promise to finish me.

  CLOV I couldn’t finish you.

  HAMM Then you won’t finish me.

  [Pause.]

  CLOV I’ll leave you, I have things to do.

  HAMM Do you remember when you came here?

  CLOV No. Too small, you told me.

  HAMM Do you remember your father.

  CLOV [wearily] Same answer.

  [Pause.]

  You’ve asked me these questions millions of times.

  HAMM I love the old questions.

  [With fervour.]

  Ah the old questions, the old answers, there’s nothing like them!

  [Pause.]

  It was I was a father to you.

  CLOV Yes.

  [He looks at Hamm fixedly.]

  You were that to me.

  HAMM My house a home for you.

  CLOV Yes.

  [He looks about him.]

  This was that for me.

  HAMM [proudly] But for me [gesture towards himself], no father. But for Hamm [gesture towards surroundings], no home.

  [Pause.]

  CLOV I’ll leave you.

  HAMM Did you ever think of one thing?

  CLOV Never.

  HAMM That here we’re down in a hole.

  [Pause.]

  But beyond the hills? Eh? Perhaps it’s still green. Eh?

  [Pause.]

  Flora! Pomona!

  [Ecstatically.]

  Ceres!

  [Pause.]

  Perhaps you won’t need to go very far.

  CLOV I can’t go very far.

  [Pause.]

  I’ll leave you.

  HAMM Is my dog ready?

  CLOV He lacks a leg.

  HAMM Is he silky?

  CLOV He’s a kind of Pomeranian.

  HAMM Go and get him.

  CLOV He lacks a leg.

  HAMM Go and get him!

  [Exit Clov.]

  We’re getting on.

  [Enter Clov holding by one of its three legs a black toy dog.]

  CLOV Your dogs are here.

  [He hands the dog to Hamm who feels it, fondles it.]

  HAMM He’s white, isn’t he?

  CLOV Nearly.

  HAMM What do you mean, nearly? Is he white or isn’t he?

  CLOV He isn’t.

  [Pause.]

  HAMM You’ve forgotten the sex.

  CLOV [vexed] But he isn’t finished. The sex goes on at the end.

  [Pause.]

  HAMM You haven’t put on his ribbon.

  CLOV [angrily] But he isn’t finished, I tell you! First you finish your dog and then you put on his ribbon!

  [Pause.]

  HAMM Can he stand?

  CLOV I don’t know.

  HAMM Try.

  [He hands the dog to Clov who places it on the ground.]

  Well?

  CLOV Wait!

  [He squats down and tries to get the dog to stand on its three legs, fails, lets it go. The dog falls on its side.]

  HAMM [impatiently] Well?

  CLOV He’s standing.

  HAMM [groping for the dog] Where? Where is he?

  [Clov holds up the dog in a standing position.]

  CLOV There.

  [He takes Hamm’s hand and guides it towards the dog’s head.]

  HAMM [his hand on the dog’s head] Is he gazing at me?

  CLOV Yes.

  HAMM [proudly] As if he were asking me to take him for a walk?

  CLOV If you like.

  HAMM [as before] Or as if he were begging me for a bone.

  [He withdraws his hand.]

  Leave him like that, standing there imploring me.

  [Clov straightens up. The dog falls on its side.]

  CLOV I’ll leave you.

  HAMM Have you had your visions?

  CLOV Less.

  HAMM Is Mother Pegg’s light on?

  CLOV Light! How could anyone’s light be on?

  HAMM Extinguished!

  CLOV Naturally it’s extinguished. If it’s not on it’s extinguished.

  HAMM No, I mean Mother Pegg.

  CLOV But naturally she’s extinguished!

  [Pause.]

  What’s the matter with you today?

  HAMM I’m taking my course.

  [Pause.]

  Is she buried?

  CLOV Buried! Who would have buried her?

  HAMM You.

  CLOV Me! Haven’t I enough to do without burying people?

  HAMM But you’ll bury me.

  CLOV No I won’t bury you.

  [Pause.]

  HAMM She was bonny once, like a flower of the field.

  [With reminiscent leer.]

  And a great one for the men!

  CLOV We too were bonny—once. It’s a rare thing not to have been bonny—once.

  [Pause.]

  HAMM Go and get the gaff.

  [Clov goes to door, halts.]

  CLOV Do this, do that, and I do it. I never refuse. Why?

  HAMM You’re not able to.

  CLOV Soon I won’t do it any more.

  HAMM You won’t be able to any more.

  [Exit Clov.]

  Ah the creatures, the creatures, everything has to be explained to them.

  [Enter Clov with gaff.]

  CLOV Here’s your gaff. Stick it up.

  [He gives the gaff to Hamm who, wielding it like a puntpole, tries to move his chair.]

  HAMM Did I move?

  CLOV No.

  [Hamm throws down the gaff.]

  HAMM Go and get the oilcan.

  CLOV What for?

  HAMM To oil the castors.

  CLOV I oiled them yesterday.

  HAMM Yesterday! What does that mean? Yesterday!

  CLOV [violently] That means that bloody awful day, long ago, before this bloody awful day. I use the words you taught me. If they don’t mean anything any more, teach me others. Or let me be silent.

  [Pause.]

  HAMM I once knew a madman who thought the end of the world had come. He was a painter—and engraver. I had a great fondness for him. I used to go and see him, in the asylum. I’d take him by the hand and drag him to the window. Look! There! All that rising corn! And there! Look! The sails of the herring fleet! All that loveliness!

  [Pause.]

  He’d snatch away his hand and go back into his corner.

  Appalled. All he had seen was ashes.

  [Pause.]

  He alone had been spared.

  [Pause.]

  Forgotten.

  [Pause.]

  It appears the case is . . . was not so . . . so unusual.

  CLOV A madman? When was that?

  HAMM Oh way back, way back, you weren’t in the land of the living.

  CLOV God be with the days!

  [Pause. Hamm raises his toque.]

  HAMM I had a great fondness for him.

  [Pause. He puts on his toque again.]

  He was a painter—and engraver.

  CLOV There are so many terrible things.

  HAMM No, no, there are not so many now.

  [Pause.]

  Clov!

  CLOV Yes.

  HAMM Do you not think this has gone on long enough?

  CLOV Yes!

  [Pause.]

  What?

  HAMM This . . . this . . . thing.

  CLOV I’ve always thought so.

  [Pause.]

  You not?

  HAMM [gloomily] Then it’s a day like any other day.

  CLOV As long as it lasts.

  [Pause.]

  All life long the same inanities.

  HAMM I can’t leave you.

  CLOV I know. And you can’t follow me.

  [Pause.]

  HAMM If you leave me how shall I know?

  CLOV [briskly] Well you simply whistle me and if I don’t come running it means I’ve left you.

  [Pause.]

  HAMM You won’t come and kiss me g
oodbye?

  CLOV Oh I shouldn’t think so.

  [Pause.]

  HAMM But you might be merely dead in your kitchen.

  CLOV The result would be the same.

  HAMM Yes, but how would I know, if you were merely dead in your kitchen?

  CLOV Well . . . sooner or later I’d start to stink.

  HAMM You stink already. The whole place stinks of corpses.

  CLOV The whole universe.

  HAMM [angrily] To hell with the universe.

  [Pause.]

  Think of something.

  CLOV What?

  HAMM An idea, have an idea.

  [Angrily.]

  A bright idea!

  CLOV Ah good.

  [He starts pacing to and fro, his eyes fixed on the ground, his hands behind his back. He halts.]

  The pains in my legs! It’s unbelievable! Soon I won’t be able to think any more.

  HAMM You won’t be able to leave me.

  [Clov resumes his pacing.]

  What are you doing?

  CLOV Having an idea.

  [He paces.]

  Ah!

  [He halts.]

  HAMM What a brain!

  [Pause.]

  Well?

  CLOV Wait!

  [He meditates. Not very convinced.]

  Yes . . .

  [Pause. More convinced.]

  Yes!

  [He raises his head.]

  I have it! I set the alarm.

  [Pause.]

  HAMM This is perhaps not one of my bright days, but frankly—

  CLOV You whistle me. I don’t come. The alarm rings. I’m gone. It doesn’t ring. I’m dead.

  [Pause.]

  HAMM Is it working?

  [Pause. Impatiently.]

  The alarm, is it working?

  CLOV Why wouldn’t it be working?

  HAMM Because it’s worked too much.

  CLOV But it’s hardly worked at all.

  HAMM [angrily] Then because it’s worked too little!

  CLOV I’ll go and see.

  [Exit Clov. Brief ring of alarm off. Enter Clov with alarm-clock. He holds it against Hamm’s ear and releases alarm. They listen to it ringing to the end. Pause.]

  Fit to wake the dead! Did you hear it?

  HAMM Vaguely.

  CLOV The end is terrific!

  HAMM I prefer the middle.

  [Pause.]

  Is it not time for my pain-killer?

  CLOV No!

  [He goes to door, turns.]

  I’ll leave you.

  HAMM It’s time for my story. Do you want to listen to my story.

  CLOV No.

  HAMM Ask my father if he wants to listen to my story.

  [Clov goes to bins, raises the lid of Nagg’s, stoops, looks into it. Pause. He straightens up.]

  CLOV He’s asleep.