Endgame & Act Without Words Read online

HAMM You’re a bit of all right, aren’t you?

  CLOV A smithereen.

  [Pause.]

  HAMM This is slow work.

  [Pause.]

  Is it not time for my pain-killer?

  CLOV No.

  [Pause.]

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

  HAMM In your kitchen?

  CLOV Yes.

  HAMM What, I’d like to know.

  CLOV I look at the wall.

  HAMM The wall! And what do you see on your wall? Mene, mene?

  Naked bodies?

  CLOV I see my light dying.

  HAMM Your light dying! Listen to that! Well, it can die just as well here, your light. Take a look at me and then come back and tell me what you think of your light.

  [Pause.]

  CLOV You shouldn’t speak to me like that.

  [Pause.]

  HAMM [coldly] Forgive me.

  [Pause. Louder.]

  I said, Forgive me.

  CLOV I heard you.

  [The lid of Nagg’s bin lifts. His hands appear, gripping the rim. Then his head emerges. In his mouth the biscuit. He listens.]

  HAMM Did your seeds come up?

  CLOV No.

  HAMM Did you scratch round them to see if they had sprouted?

  CLOV They haven’t sprouted.

  HAMM Perhaps it’s still too early.

  CLOV If they were going to sprout they would have sprouted.

  [Violently.]

  They’ll never sprout!

  [Pause. Nagg takes biscuit in his hand.]

  HAMM This is not much fun.

  [Pause.]

  But that’s always the way at the end of the day, isn’t it, Clov?

  CLOV Always.

  HAMM It’s the end of the day like any other day, isn’t it, Clov?

  CLOV Looks like it.

  [Pause.]

  HAMM [anguished] What’s happening, what’s happening?

  CLOV Something is taking its course.

  [Pause.]

  HAMM All right, be off.

  [He leans back in his chair, remains motionless. Clov does not move, heaves a great groaning sigh. Hamm sits up.]

  I thought I told you to be off.

  CLOV I’m trying.

  [He goes to door, halts.]

  Ever since I was whelped.

  [Exit Clov.]

  HAMM We’re getting on.

  [He leans back in his chair, remains motionless. Nagg knocks on the lid of the other bin. Pause. He knocks harder. The lid lifts and the hands of Nell appear, gripping the rim. Then her head emerges. Lace cap. Very white face.]

  NELL What is it, my pet?

  [Pause.]

  Time for love?

  NAGG Were you asleep?

  NELL Oh no!

  NAGG Kiss me.

  NELL We can’t.

  NAGG Try.

  [Their heads strain towards each other, fail to meet, fall apart again.]

  NELL Why this farce, day after day?

  [Pause.]

  NAGG I’ve lost me tooth.

  NELL When?

  NAGG I had it yesterday.

  NELL [elegiac] Ah yesterday!

  [They turn painfully towards each other.]

  NAGG Can you see me?

  NELL Hardly. And you?

  NAGG What?

  NELL Can you see me?

  NAGG Hardly.

  NELL So much the better, so much the better.

  NAGG Don’t say that.

  [Pause.]

  Our sight has failed.

  NELL Yes.

  [Pause. They turn away from each other.]

  NAGG Can you hear me?

  NELL Yes. And you?

  NAGG Yes.

  [Pause.]

  Our hearing hasn’t failed.

  NELL Our what?

  NAGG Our hearing.

  NELL No.

  [Pause.]

  Have you anything else to say to me?

  NAGG Do you remember—

  NELL No.

  NAGG When we crashed on our tandem and lost our shanks.

  [They laugh heartily.]

  NELL It was in the Ardennes.

  [They laugh less heartily.]

  NAGG On the road to Sedan.

  [They laugh still less heartily.]

  Are you cold?

  NELL Yes, perished. And you?

  NAGG [Pause.]

  I’m freezing.

  [Pause.]

  Do you want to go in?

  NELL Yes.

  NAGG Then go in.

  [Nell does not move]

  Why don’t you go in?

  NELL I don’t know.

  [Pause.]

  NAGG Has he changed your sawdust?

  NELL It isn’t sawdust.

  [Pause. Wearily.]

  Can you not be a little accurate, Nagg?

  NAGG Your sand then. It’s not important.

  NELL It is important.

  [Pause.]

  NAGG It was sawdust once.

  NELL Once!

  NAGG And now it’s sand.

  [Pause.]

  From the shore.

  [Pause. Impatiently.]

  Now it’s sand he fetches from the shore.

  NELL Now it’s sand.

  NAGG Has he changed yours?

  NELL No.

  NAGG Nor mine.

  [Pause.]

  I won’t have it!

  [Pause. Holding up the biscuit.]

  Do you want a bit?

  NELL No.

  [Pause.]

  Of what?

  NAGG Biscuit. I’ve kept you half.

  [He looks at the biscuit. Proudly.]

  Three quarters. For you. Here.

  [He proffers the biscuit.]

  No?

  [Pause.]

  Do you not feel well?

  HAMM [wearily] Quiet, quiet, you’re keeping me awake.

  [Pause.]

  Talk softer.

  [Pause.]

  If I could sleep I might make love. I’d go into the woods. My eyes would see . . . the sky, the earth. I’d run, run, they wouldn’t catch me.

  [Pause.]

  Nature!

  [Pause.]

  There’s something dripping in my head.

  [Pause.]

  A heart, a heart in my head.

  [Pause.]

  NAGG [soft] Do you hear him? A heart in his head!

  [He chuckles cautiously.]

  NELL One mustn’t laugh at those things, Nagg. Why must you always laugh at them?

  NAGG Not so loud!

  NELL [without lowering her voice] Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant you that. But—

  NAGG [shocked] Oh!

  NELL Yes, yes, it’s the most comical thing in the world. And we laugh, we laugh, with a will, in the beginning. But it’s always the same thing. Yes, it’s like the funny story we have heard too often, we still find it funny, but we don’t laugh any more.

  [Pause.]

  Have you anything else to say to me?

  NAGG No.

  NELL Are you quite sure?

  [Pause.]

  Then I’ll leave you.

  NAGG Do you not want your biscuit?

  [Pause.]

  I’ll keep it for you.

  [Pause.]

  I thought you were going to leave me.

  NELL I am going to leave you.

  NAGG Could you give me a scratch before you go?

  NELL No.

  [Pause.]

  Where?

  NAGG In the back.

  NELL No.

  [Pause.]

  Rub yourself against the rim.

  NAGG It’s lower down. In the hollow.

  NELL What hollow?

  NAGG The hollow!

  [Pause.]

  Could you not?

  [Pause.]

  Yesterday you scratched me there.

  NELL [elegiac] Ah yesterday!

  NAGG Could you not?

  [Pause.]

 
Would you like me to scratch you?

  [Pause.]

  Are you crying again?

  NELL I was trying.

  [Pause.]

  HAMM Perhaps it’s a little vein.

  [Pause.]

  NAGG What was that he said?

  NELL Perhaps it’s a little vein.

  NAGG What does that mean?

  [Pause.]

  That means nothing.

  [Pause.]

  Will I tell you the story of the tailor?

  NELL No.

  [Pause.]

  What for?

  NAGG To cheer you up.

  NELL It’s not funny.

  NAGG It always made you laugh.

  [Pause.]

  The first time I thought you’d die.

  NELL It was on Lake Como.

  [Pause.]

  One April afternoon.

  [Pause.]

  Can you believe it?

  NAGG What?

  NELL That we once went out rowing on Lake Como.

  [Pause.]

  One April afternoon.

  NAGG We had got engaged the day before.

  NELL Engaged!

  NAGG You were in such fits that we capsized. By rights we should have been drowned.

  NELL It was because I felt happy.

  NAGG [indignant] It was not, it was not, it was my story and nothing else.

  Happy! Don’t you laugh at it still? Every time I tell it. Happy!

  NELL It was deep, deep. And you could see down to the bottom. So white. So clean.

  NAGG Let me tell it again.

  [Raconteur’s voice.]

  An Englishman, needing a pair of striped trousers in a hurry for the New Year festivities, goes to his tailor who takes his measurements.

  [Tailor’s voice.]

  “That’s the lot, come back in four days, I’ll have it ready.” Good.

  Four days later.

  [Tailor’s voice.]

  “So sorry, come back in a week, I’ve made a mess of the seat.” Good, that’s all right, a neat seat can be very ticklish. A week later.

  [Tailor’s voice.]

  “Frightfully sorry, come back in ten days, I’ve made a hash of the crotch.” Good, can’t be helped, a snug crotch is always a teaser. Ten days later.

  [Tailor’s voice.]

  “Dreadfully sorry, come back in a fortnight, I’ve made a balls of the fly.” Good, at a pinch, a smart fly is a stiff proposition.

  [Pause. Normal voice.]

  I never told it worse.

  [Pause. Gloomy.]

  I tell this story worse and worse.

  [Pause. Raconteur’s voice.]

  Well, to make it short, the bluebells are blowing and he ballockses the buttonholes.

  [Customer’s voice.]

  “God damn you to hell, Sir, no, it’s indecent, there are limits! In six days, do you hear me, six days, God made the world. Yes Sir, no less Sir, the WORLD! And you are not bloody well capable of making me a pair of trousers in three months!”

  [Tailor’s voice, scandalized.]

  “But my dear Sir, my dear Sir, look—

  [disdainful gesture, disgustedly]

  —at the world—

  [pause]

  and look—

  [loving gesture, proudly]

  —at my TROUSERS!”

  [Pause. He looks at Nell who has remained impassive, her eyes unseeing, breaks into a high forced laugh, cuts it short, pokes his head towards Nell, launches his laugh again.]

  HAMM Silence!

  [Nagg starts, cuts short his laugh.]

  NELL You could see down to the bottom.

  HAMM [exasperated] Have you not finished? Will you never finish?

  [With sudden fury.]

  Will this never finish?

  [Nagg disappears into his bin, closes the lid behind him. Nell does not move. Frenziedly.]

  My kingdom for a nightman!

  [He whistles. Enter Clov.]

  Clear away this muck! Chuck it in the sea!

  [Clov goes to bins, halts.]

  NELL So white.

  HAMM What? What’s she blathering about?

  [Clov stoops, takes Nell’s hand, feels her pulse.]

  NELL [to Clov] Desert!

  [Clov lets go her hand, pushes her back in the bin, closes the lid.]

  CLOV [returning to his place beside the chair] She has no pulse.

  HAMM What was she drivelling about?

  CLOV She told me to go away, into the desert.

  HAMM Damn busybody! Is that all?

  CLOV No.

  HAMM What else?

  CLOV I didn’t understand.

  HAMM Have you bottled her?

  CLOV Yes.

  HAMM Are they both bottled?

  CLOV Yes.

  HAMM Screw down the lids.

  [Clov goes towards door.]

  Time enough.

  [Clov halts.]

  My anger subsides, I’d like to pee.

  CLOV [with alacrity] I’ll go and get the catheter.

  [He goes towards door.]

  HAMM Time enough.

  [Clov halts.]

  Give me my pain-killer.

  CLOV It’s too soon.

  [Pause.]

  It’s too soon on top of your tonic, it wouldn’t act.

  HAMM In the morning they brace you up and in the evening they calm you down. Unless it’s the other way round.

  [Pause.]

  That old doctor, he’s dead naturally?

  CLOV He wasn’t old.

  HAMM But he’s dead?

  CLOV Naturally.

  [Pause.]

  You ask me that?

  [Pause.]

  HAMM Take me for a little turn.

  [Clov goes behind the chair and pushes it forward.]

  Not too fast!

  [Clov pushes chair.]

  Right round the world!

  [Clov pushes chair.]

  Hug the walls, then back to the center again.

  [Clov pushes chair.]

  I was right in the center, wasn’t I?

  CLOV [pushing] Yes.

  HAMM We’d need a proper wheel-chair. With big wheels. Bicycle-wheels!

  [Pause.]

  Are you hugging?

  CLOV [pushing] Yes.

  HAMM [groping for wall] It’s a lie! Why do you lie to me?

  CLOV [bearing closer to wall] There! There!

  HAMM Stop!

  [Clov stops chair close to back wall. Hamm lays his hand against wall.]

  Old wall!

  [Pause.]

  Beyond is the . . . other hell.

  [Pause. Violently.]

  Closer! Closer! Up against!

  CLOV Take away your hand.

  [Hamm withdraws his hand. Clov rams chair against wall.]

  There!

  [Hamm leans towards wall, applies his ear to it.]

  HAMM Do you hear?

  [He strikes the wall with his knuckles.]

  Do you hear? Hollow bricks!

  [He strikes again.]

  All that’s hollow!

  [Pause. He straightens up. Violently.]

  That’s enough. Back!

  CLOV We haven’t done the round.

  HAMM Back to my place!

  [Clov pushes chair back to center.]

  Is that my place?

  CLOV Yes, that’s your place.

  HAMM Am I right in the center?

  CLOV I’ll measure it.

  HAMM More or less! More or less!

  CLOV [moving chair slightly] There!

  HAMM I’m more or less in the center?

  CLOV I’d say so.

  HAMM You’d say so! Put me right in the center!

  CLOV I’ll go and get the tape.

  HAMM Roughly! Roughly!

  [Clov moves chair slightly.]

  Bang in the center!

  CLOV There!

  [Pause.]

  HAMM I feel a little too far to the left.

  [Clov moves chair slightly.]


  Now I feel a little too far to the right.

  [Clov moves chair slightly.]

  I feel a little too far forward.

  [Clov moves chair slightly.]

  Now I feel a little too far back.

  [Clov moves chair slightly.]

  Don’t stay there,

  [i.e. behind the chair]

  you give me the shivers.

  [Clov returns to his place beside the chair.]

  CLOV If I could kill him I’d die happy.

  [Pause.]

  HAMM What’s the weather like?

  CLOV As usual.

  HAMM Look at the earth.

  CLOV I’ve looked.

  HAMM With the glass?

  CLOV No need of the glass.

  HAMM Look at it with the glass.

  CLOV I’ll go and get the glass.

  [Exit Clov.]

  HAMM No need of the glass!

  [Enter Clov with telescope.]

  CLOV I’m back again, with the glass.

  [He goes to window right, looks up at it.]

  I need the steps.

  HAMM Why? Have you shrunk?

  [Exit Clov with telescope.]

  I don’t like that, I don’t like that.

  [Enter Clov with ladder, but without telescope.]

  CLOV I’m back again, with the steps.

  [He sets down ladder under window right, gets up on it, realizes he has not the telescope, gets down.]

  I need the glass.

  [He goes towards door.]

  HAMM [violently] But you have the glass!

  CLOV [halting, violently] No, I haven’t the glass!

  [Exit Clov.]

  HAMM This is deadly.

  [Enter Clov with telescope. He goes towards ladder.]

  CLOV Things are livening up.

  [He gets up on ladder, raises the telescope, lets it fall.]

  I did it on purpose.

  [He gets down, picks up the telescope, turns it on auditorium.]

  I see . . . a multitude . . . in transports . . . of joy.

  [Pause.]

  That’s what I call a magnifier.

  [He lowers the telescope, turns towards Hamm.]

  Well? Don’t we laugh?

  HAMM [after reflection] I don’t.

  CLOV [after reflection] Nor I.

  [He gets up on ladder, turns the telescope on the without.]

  Let’s see.

  [He looks, moving the telescope.]

  Zero . . .

  [he looks]

  . . . zero . . .

  [he looks]

  . . . and zero.

  HAMM Nothing stirs. All is—

  CLOV Zer—

  HAMM [violently] Wait till you’re spoken to!

  [Normal voice.]

  All is . . . all is . . . all is what?

  [Violently.]

  All is what?

  CLOV What all is? in a word? Is that what you want to know? Just a moment.

  [He turns the telescope on the without, looks, lowers the telescope, turns towards Hamm.]