The Complete Dramatic Works Read online

  SAMUEL BECKETT

  The Complete Dramatic Works

  Contents

  Title Page

  Acknowledgements

  Waiting for Godot

  Endgame

  Happy Days

  All That Fall

  Act Without Words I

  Act Without Words II

  Krapp’s Last Tape

  Rough for Theatre I

  Rough for Theatre II

  Embers

  Rough for Radio I

  Rough for Radio II

  Words and Music

  Cascando

  Play

  Film

  The Old Tune

  Come and Go

  Eh Joe

  Breath

  Not I

  That Time

  Footfalls

  Ghost Trio

  … but the clouds …

  A Piece of Monologue

  Rockaby

  Ohio Impromptu

  Quad

  Catastrophe

  Nacht und Träume

  What Where

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Acknowledgements

  The publishers acknowledge with gratitude the permission of John Calder (Publishers) Ltd to include in this volume The Old Tune, an adaptation by Samuel Beckett of La Manivelle by Robert Pinget, first published by Editions de Minuit, Paris, and published by John Calder (Publishers) Ltd in 1963.

  Waiting for Godot

  A tragi-comedy in two acts

  Written in French in 1952. First performed in Paris in 1953. English version first performed in London in 1955, and published in 1956 by Faber and Faber.

  CAST

  ESTRAGON

  VLADIMIR

  LUCKY

  POZZO

  A BOY

  ACT ONE

  A country road. A tree. Evening.

  ESTRAGON, sitting on a low mound, is trying to take off his boot. He pulls at it with both hands, panting. He gives up, exhausted, rests, tries again. As before.

  Enter VLADIMIR.

  ESTRAGON: [Giving up again.] Nothing to be done.

  VLADIMIR: [Advancing with short, stiff strides, legs wide apart.] I’m beginning to come round to that opinion. All my life I’ve tried to put it from me, saying, Vladimir, be reasonable, you haven’t yet tried everything. And I resumed the struggle. [He broods, musing on the struggle. Turning to ESTRAGON.] So there you are again.

  ESTRAGON: Am I?

  VLADIMIR: I’m glad to see you back. I thought you were gone for ever.

  ESTRAGON: Me too.

  VLADIMIR: Together again at last! We’ll have to celebrate this. But how? [He reflects.] Get up till I embrace you.

  ESTRAGON: [Irritably.] Not now, not now.

  VLADIMIR: [Hurt, coldly.] May one inquire where His Highness spent the night?

  ESTRAGON: In a ditch.

  VLADIMIR: [Admiringly.] A ditch! Where?

  ESTRAGON: [Without gesture.] Over there.

  VLADIMIR: And they didn’t beat you?

  ESTRAGON: Beat me? Certainly they beat me.

  VLADIMIR: The same lot as usual?

  ESTRAGON: The same? I don’t know.

  VLADIMIR: When I think of it … all these years … but for me … where would you be …? [Decisively.] You’d be nothing more than a little heap of bones at the present minute, no doubt about it.

  ESTRAGON: And what of it?

  VLADIMIR: [Gloomily.] It’s too much for one man. [Pause. Cheerfully.] On the other hand what’s the good of losing heart now, that’s what I say. We should have thought of it a million years ago, in the nineties.

  ESTRAGON: Ah stop blathering and help me off with this bloody thing.

  VLADIMIR: Hand in hand from the top of the Eiffel Tower, among the first. We were presentable in those days. Now it’s too late. They wouldn’t even let us up. [ESTRAGON tears at his boot.] What are you doing?

  ESTRAGON: Taking off my boot. Did that never happen to you?

  VLADIMIR: Boots must be taken off every day, I’m tired telling you that. Why don’t you listen to me?

  ESTRAGON: [Feebly.] Help me!

  VLADIMIR: It hurts?

  ESTRAGON: Hurts! He wants to know if it hurts!

  VLADIMIR: [Angrily.] No one ever suffers but you. I don’t count. I’d like to hear what you’d say if you had what I have.

  ESTRAGON: It hurts?

  VLADIMIR: Hurts! He wants to know if it hurts!

  ESTRAGON: [Pointing.] You might button it all the same.

  VLADIMIR: [Stooping.] True. [He buttons his fly.] Never neglect the little things of life.

  ESTRAGON: What do you expect, you always wait till the last moment.

  VLADIMIR: [Musingly.] The last moment … [He meditates.] Hope deferred maketh the something sick, who said that?

  ESTRAGON: Why don’t you help me?

  VLADIMIR: Sometimes I feel it coming all the same. Then I go all queer. [He takes off his hat, peers inside it, feels about inside it, shakes it, puts in on again.] How shall I say? Relieved and at the same time … [He searches for the word.] … appalled. [With emphasis.] AP-PALLED. [He takes off his hat again, peers inside it.] Funny. [He knocks on the crown as though to dislodge a foreign body, peers into it again, puts it on again.] Nothing to be done. [ESTRAGON with a supreme effort succeeds in pulling off his boot. He looks inside it, feels about inside it, turns it upside down, shakes it, looks on the ground to see if anything has fallen out, finds nothing, feels inside it again, staring sightlessly before him.] Well?

  ESTRAGON: Nothing.

  VLADIMIR: Show.

  ESTRAGON: There’s nothing to show.

  VLADIMIR: Try and put it on again.

  ESTRAGON: [Examining his foot.] I’ll air it for a bit.

  VLADIMIR: There’s man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet. [He takes off his hat again, peers inside it, feels about inside it, knocks on the crown, blows into it, puts it on again.] This is getting alarming. [Silence. VLADIMIR deep in thought, ESTRAGON pulling at his toes.] One of the thieves was saved. [Pause.] It’s a reasonable percentage. [Pause.] Gogo.

  ESTRAGON: What?

  VLADIMIR: Suppose we repented.

  ESTRAGON: Repented what?

  VLADIMIR: Oh … [He reflects.] We wouldn’t have to go into the details.

  ESTRAGON: Our being born?

  [VLADIMIR breaks into a hearty laugh which he immediately stifles, his hand pressed to his pubis, his face contorted.]

  VLADIMIR: One daren’t even laugh any more.

  ESTRAGON: Dreadful privation.

  VLADIMIR: Merely smile. [He smiles suddenly from ear to ear, keeps smiling, ceases as suddenly.] It’s not the same thing. Nothing to be done. [Pause.] Gogo.

  ESTRAGON: [Irritably.] What is it?

  VLADIMIR: Did you ever read the Bible?

  ESTRAGON: The Bible … [He reflects.] I must have taken a look at it.

  VLADIMIR: Do you remember the Gospels?

  ESTRAGON: I remember the maps of the Holy Land. Coloured they were. Very pretty. The Dead Sea was pale blue. The very look of it made me thirsty. That’s where we’ll go, I used to say, that’s where we’ll go for our honeymoon. We’ll swim. We’ll be happy.

  VLADIMIR: You should have been a poet.

  ESTRAGON: I was. [Gesture towards his rags.] Isn’t that obvious.

  [Silence.]

  VLADIMIR: Where was I … How’s your foot?

  ESTRAGON: Swelling visibly.

  VLADIMIR: Ah yes, the two thieves. Do you remember the story?

  ESTRAGON: No.

  VLADIMIR: Shall I tell it to you?

  ESTRAGON: No.

  VLADIMIR: It’ll pass the time. [Pause.]
Two thieves, crucified at the same time as our Saviour. One –

  ESTRAGON: Our what?

  VLADIMIR: Our Saviour. Two thieves. One is supposed to have been saved and the other … [He searches for the contrary of saved] … damned.

  ESTRAGON: Saved from what?

  VLADIMIR: Hell.

  ESTRAGON: I’m going.

  [He does not move.]

  VLADIMIR: And yet … [Pause.] … how is it – this is not boring you I hope – how is it that of the four Evangelists only one speaks of a thief being saved. The four of them were there – or thereabouts – and only one speaks of a thief being saved. [Pause.] Come on, Gogo, return the ball, can’t you, once in a way?

  ESTRAGON: [With exaggerated enthusiasm.] I find this really most extraordinarily interesting.

  VLADIMIR: One out of four. Of the other three two don’t mention any thieves at all and the third says that both of them abused him.

  ESTRAGON: Who?

  VLADIMIR: What?

  ESTRAGON: What’s all this about? Abused who?

  VLADIMIR: The Saviour.

  ESTRAGON: Why?

  VLADIMIR: Because he wouldn’t save them.

  ESTRAGON: From hell?

  VLADIMIR: Imbecile! From death.

  ESTRAGON: I thought you said hell.

  VLADIMIR: From death, from death.

  ESTRAGON: Well what of it?

  VLADIMIR: Then the two of them must have been damned.

  ESTRAGON: And why not?

  VLADIMIR: But one of the four says that one of the two was saved.

  ESTRAGON: Well? They don’t agree, and that’s all there is to it.

  VLADIMIR: But all four were there. And only one speaks of a thief being saved. Why believe him rather than the others?

  ESTRAGON: Who believes him?

  VLADIMIR: Everybody. It’s the only version they know.

  ESTRAGON: People are bloody ignorant apes.

  [He rises painfully, goes limping to extreme left, halts, gazes into distance off with his hand screening his eyes, turns, goes to extreme right, gazes into distance. VLADIMIR watches him, then goes and picks up the boot, peers into it, drops it hastily.]

  VLADIMIR: Pah!

  [He spits, ESTRAGON moves to centre, halts with his back to auditorium.]

  ESTRAGON: Charming spot. [He turns, advances to front, halts facing auditorium.] Inspiring prospects. [He turns to VLADIMIR.] Let’s go.

  VLADIMIR: We can’t.

  ESTRAGON: Why not?

  VLADIMIR: We’re waiting for Godot.

  ESTRAGON: [Despairingly.] Ah! [Pause.] You’re sure it was here?

  VLADIMIR: What?

  ESTRAGON: That we were to wait.

  VLADIMIR: He said by the tree. [They look at the tree.] Do you see any others?

  ESTRAGON: What is it?

  VLADIMIR: I don’t know. A willow.

  ESTRAGON: Where are the leaves?

  VLADIMIR: It must be dead.

  ESTRAGON: No more weeping.

  VLADIMIR: Or perhaps it’s not the season.

  ESTRAGON: Looks to me more like a bush.

  VLADIMIR: A shrub.

  ESTRAGON: A bush.

  VLADIMIR: A –. What are you insinuating? That we’ve come to the wrong place?

  ESTRAGON: He should be here.

  VLADIMIR: He didn’t say for sure he’d come.

  ESTRAGON: And if he doesn’t come?

  VLADIMIR: We’ll come back tomorrow.

  ESTRAGON: And then the day after tomorrow.

  VLADIMIR: Possibly.

  ESTRAGON: And so on.

  VLADIMIR: The point is –

  ESTRAGON: Until he comes.

  VLADIMIR: You’re merciless.

  ESTRAGON: We came here yesterday.

  VLADIMIR: Ah no, there you’re mistaken.

  ESTRAGON: What did we do yesterday?

  VLADIMIR: What did we do yesterday?

  ESTRAGON: Yes.

  VLADIMIR: Why … [Angrily.] Nothing is certain when you’re about.

  ESTRAGON: In my opinion we were here.

  VLADIMIR: [Looking round.] You recognize the place?

  ESTRAGON: I didn’t say that.

  VLADIMIR: Well?

  ESTRAGON: That makes no difference.

  VLADIMIR: All the same … that tree … [Turning towards the auditorium] … that bog.

  ESTRAGON: You’re sure it was this evening?

  VLADIMIR: What?

  ESTRAGON: That we were to wait.

  VLADIMIR: He said Saturday. [Pause.] I think.

  ESTRAGON: You think.

  VLADIMIR: I must have made a note of it.

  [He fumbles in his pockets, bursting with miscellaneous rubbish.]

  ESTRAGON: [Very insidious.] But what Saturday? And is it Saturday? Is it not rather Sunday? [Pause.] Or Monday? [Pause.] Or Friday?

  VLADIMIR: [Looking wildly about him, as though the date was inscribed in the landscape.] It’s not possible!

  ESTRAGON: Or Thursday?

  VLADIMIR: What’ll we do?

  ESTRAGON: If he came yesterday and we weren’t here you may be sure he won’t come again today.

  VLADIMIR: But you say we were here yesterday.

  ESTRAGON: I may be mistaken. [Pause.] Let’s stop talking for a minute, do you mind?

  VLADIMIR: [Feebly.] All right, [ESTRAGON sits down on the mound. VLADIMIR paces agitatedly to and fro, halting from time to time to gaze into the distance off. ESTRAGON falls asleep. VLADIMIR halts before ESTRAGON.] Gogo! … Gogo! … GOGO! [ESTRAGON wakes with a start.]

  ESTRAGON: [Restored to the horror of his situation.] I was asleep! [Despairingly.] Why will you never let me sleep?

  VLADIMIR: I felt lonely.

  ESTRAGON: I had a dream.

  VLADIMIR: Don’t tell me!

  ESTRAGON: I dreamt that –

  VLADIMIR: DON’T TELL ME!

  ESTRAGON: [Gesture towards the universe.] This one is enough for you? [Silence.] It’s not nice of you, Didi. Who am I to tell my private nightmares to if I can’t tell them to you?

  VLADIMIR: Let them remain private. You know I can’t bear that.

  ESTRAGON: [Coldly.] There are times when I wonder if it wouldn’t be better for us to part.

  VLADIMIR: You wouldn’t go far.

  ESTRAGON: That would be too bad, really too bad. [Pause.] Wouldn’t it, Didi, be really too bad? [Pause.] When you think of the beauty of the way. [Pause.] And the goodness of the wayfarers. [Pause. Wheedling.] Wouldn’t it, Didi?

  VLADIMIR: Calm yourself.

  ESTRAGON: [Voluptuously.] Calm … calm … The English say cawm. [Pause.] You know the story of the Englishman in the brothel?

  VLADIMIR: Yes.

  ESTRAGON: Tell it to me.

  VLADIMIR: Ah stop it!

  ESTRAGON: An Englishman having drunk a little more than usual goes to a brothel. The bawd asks him if he wants a fair one, a dark one, or a red-haired one. Go on.

  VLADIMIR: STOP IT!

  [Exit VLADIMIR hurriedly, ESTRAGON gets up and follows him as far as the limit of the stage. Gestures of ESTRAGON like those of a spectator encouraging a pugilist. Enter VLADIMIR. He brushes past ESTRAGON, crosses the stage with bowed head, ESTRAGON takes a step towards him, halts.]

  ESTRAGON: [Gently.] You wanted to speak to me? [Silence. ESTRAGON takes a step forward.] You had something to say to me? [Silence. Another step forward.] Didi …

  VLADIMIR: [Without turning.] I’ve nothing to say to you.

  ESTRAGON: [Step forward.] You’re angry? [Silence. Step forward.] Forgive me. [Silence. Step forward, ESTRAGON lays his hand on VLADIMIR’S shoulder.] Come, Didi. [Silence.] Give me your hand. [VLADIMIR half turns.] Embrace me! [VLADIMIR stiffens.] Don’t be stubborn! [VLADIMIR softens. They embrace, ESTRAGON recoils.] You stink of garlic!

  VLADIMIR: It’s for the kidneys. [Silence, ESTRAGON looks attentively at the tree.] What do we do now?

  ESTRAGON: Wait.

  VLADIMIR: Yes, but while waiting.

  ESTRAGON:
What about hanging ourselves?

  VLADIMIR: Hmm. It’d give us an erection!

  ESTRAGON: [Highly excited.] An erection!

  VLADIMIR: With all that follows. Where it falls mandrakes grow. That’s why they shriek when you pull them up. Did you not know that?

  ESTRAGON: Let’s hang ourselves immediately!

  VLADIMIR: From a bough? [They go towards the tree.] I wouldn’t trust it.

  ESTRAGON: We can always try.

  VLADIMIR: Go ahead.

  ESTRAGON: After you.

  VLADIMIR: No no, you first.

  ESTRAGON: Why me?

  VLADIMIR: You’re lighter than I am.

  ESTRAGON: Just So!

  VLADIMIR: I don’t understand.

  ESTRAGON: Use your intelligence, can’t you?

  [VLADIMIR uses his intelligence.]

  VLADIMIR: [Finally.] I remain in the dark.

  ESTRAGON: This is how it is. [He reflects.] The bough … the bough … [Angrily.] Use your head, can’t you?

  VLADIMIR: You’re my only hope.

  ESTRAGON: [With effort.] Gogo light – bough not break – Gogo dead. Didi heavy – bough break – Didi alone. Whereas –

  VLADIMIR: I hadn’t thought of that.

  ESTRAGON: If it hangs you it’ll hang anything.

  VLADIMIR: But am I heavier than you?

  ESTRAGON: So you tell me. I don’t know. There’s an even chance. Or nearly.

  VLADIMIR: Well? what do we do?

  ESTRAGON: Don’t let’s do anything. It’s safer.

  VLADIMIR: Let’s wait and see what he says.

  ESTRAGON: Who?

  VLADIMIR: Godot.

  ESTRAGON: Good idea.

  VLADIMIR: Let’s wait till we know exactly how we stand.

  ESTRAGON: On the other hand it might be better to strike the iron before it freezes.

  VLADIMIR: I’m curious to hear what he has to offer. Then we’ll take it or leave it.

  ESTRAGON: What exactly did we ask him for?

  VLADIMIR: Were you not there?

  ESTRAGON: I can’t have been listening.

  VLADIMIR: Oh … nothing very definite.

  ESTRAGON: A kind of prayer.

  VLADIMIR: Precisely.

  ESTRAGON: A vague supplication.

  VLADIMIR: Exactly.

  ESTRAGON: And what did he reply?

  VLADIMIR: That he’d see.

  ESTRAGON: That he couldn’t promise anything.