Endgame Act Without Words I (7 page)

[
Pause.
]

Unless I bring in other characters.

[
Pause.
]

But where would I find them?

[
Pause.
]

Where would I look for them?

[
Pause. He whistles. Enter Clov.
]

Let us pray to God.

NAGG
Me sugar-plum!

CLOV
There’s a rat in the kitchen!

HAMM
A rat! Are there still rats?

CLOV
In the kitchen there’s one.

HAMM
And you haven’t exterminated him?

CLOV
Half. You disturbed us.

HAMM
He can’t get away?

CLOV
No.

HAMM
You’ll finish him later. Let us pray to God.

CLOV
Again!

NAGG
Me sugar-plum!

HAMM
God first!

[
Pause.
]

Are you right?

CLOV
[
resigned
] Off we go.

HAMM
[
to Nagg
] And you?

NAGG
[
clasping his hands, closing his eyes, in a gabble
] Our Father which art—

HAMM
Silence! In silence! Where are your manners?

[
Pause.
]

Off we go.

[
Attitudes of prayer. Silence. Abandoning his attitude, discouraged.
]

Well?

CLOV
[
abandoning his attitude
] What a hope! And you?

HAMM
Sweet damn all!

[
To Nagg.
]

And you?

NAGG
Wait!

[
Pause. Abandoning his attitude.
]

Nothing doing!

HAMM
The bastard! He doesn’t exist!

CLOV
Not yet.

NAGG
Me sugar-plum!

HAMM
There are no more sugar-plums!

[
Pause.
]

NAGG
It’s natural. After all I’m your father. It’s true if it hadn’t been me it would have been someone else. But that’s no excuse.

[
Pause.
]

Turkish Delight, for example, which no longer exists, we all know that, there is nothing in the world I love more. And one day I’ll ask you for some, in return for a kindness, and you’ll promise it to me. One must live with the times.

[
Pause.
]

Whom did you call when you were a tiny boy, and were frightened, in the dark? Your mother? No. Me. We let you cry.

Then we moved you out of earshot, so that we might sleep in peace.

[
Pause.
]

I was asleep, as happy as a king, and you woke me up to have me listen to you. It wasn’t indispensable, you didn’t really need to have me listen to you. Besides I didn’t listen to you.

[
Pause.
]

I hope the day will come when you’ll really need to have me listen to you, and need to hear my voice, any voice.

[
Pause.
]

Yes, I hope I’ll live till then, to hear you calling me like when you were a tiny boy, and were frightened, in the dark, and I was your only hope.

[
Pause. Nagg knocks on lid of Nell’s bin. Pause.
]

Nell!

[
Pause. He knocks louder. Pause. Louder.
]

Nell!

[
Pause. Nagg sinks back into his bin, closes the lid behind him. Pause.
]

HAMM
Our revels now are ended.

[
He gropes for the dog.
]

The dog’s gone.

CLOV
He’s not a real dog, he can’t go.

HAMM
[
groping
] He’s not there.

CLOV
He’s lain down.

HAMM
Give him up to me.

[
Clov picks up the dog and gives it to Hamm. Hamm holds it in his arms. Pause. Hamm throws away the dog.
]

Dirty brute!

[
Clov begins to pick up the objects lying on the ground.
]

What are you doing?

CLOV
Putting things in order.

[
He straightens up. Fervently.
]

I’m going to clear everything away!

[
He starts picking up again.
]

HAMM
Order!

CLOV
[
straightening up
] I love order. It’s my dream. A world where all would be silent and still and each thing in its last place, under the last dust.

[
He starts picking up again.
]

HAMM
[
exasperated
] What in God’s name do you think you are doing?

CLOV
[
straightening up
] I’m doing my best to create a little order.

HAMM
Drop it!

[
Clov drops the objects he has picked up.
]

CLOV
After all, there or elsewhere.

[
He goes towards door.
]

HAMM
[
irritably
] What’s wrong with your feet?

CLOV
My feet?

HAMM
Tramp! Tramp!

CLOV
I must have put on my boots.

HAMM
Your slippers were hurting you?

[
Pause.
]

CLOV
I’ll leave you.

HAMM
No!

CLOV
What is there to keep me here?

HAMM
The dialogue.

[
Pause.
]

I’ve got on with my story.

[
Pause.
]

I’ve got on with it well.

[
Pause. Irritably.
]

Ask me where I’ve got to.

CLOV
Oh, by the way, your story?

HAMM
[
surprised
] What story?

CLOV
The one you’ve been telling yourself all your days.

HAMM
Ah you mean my chronicle?

CLOV
That’s the one.

[
Pause.
]

HAMM
[
angrily
] Keep going, can’t you, keep going!

CLOV
You’ve got on with it, I hope.

HAMM
[
modestly
] Oh not very far, not very far.

[
He sighs
.]

There are days like that, one isn’t inspired.

[
Pause.
]

Nothing you can do about it, just wait for it to come.

[
Pause.
]

No forcing, no forcing, it’s fatal.

[
Pause.
]

I’ve got on with it a little all the same.

[
Pause.
]

Technique, you know.

[
Pause. Irritably.
]

I say I’ve got on with it a little all the same.

CLOV
[
admiringly
] Well I never! In spite of everything you were able to get on with it!

HAMM
[
modestly
] Oh not very far, you know, not very far, but nevertheless, better than nothing.

CLOV
Better than nothing! Is it possible?

HAMM
I’ll tell you how it goes. He comes crawling on his belly—

CLOV
Who?

HAMM
What?

CLOV
Who do you mean, he?

HAMM
Who do I mean! Yet another.

CLOV
Ah him! I wasn’t sure.

HAMM
Crawling on his belly, whining for bread for his brat. He’s offered a job as gardener. Before—

[
Clov bursts out laughing.
]

What is there so funny about that?

CLOV
A job as gardener!

HAMM
Is that what tickles you?

CLOV
It must be that.

HAMM
It wouldn’t be the bread?

CLOV
Or the brat.

[
Pause.
]

HAMM
The whole thing is comical, I grant you that. What about having a good guffaw the two of us together?

CLOV
[
after reflection
] I couldn’t guffaw again today.

HAMM
[
after reflection
] Nor I.

[
Pause.
]

I continue then. Before accepting with gratitude he asks if he may have his little boy with him.

CLOV
What age?

HAMM
Oh tiny.

CLOV
He would have climbed the trees.

HAMM
All the little odd jobs.

CLOV
And then he would have grown up.

HAMM
Very likely.

[
Pause.
]

CLOV
Keep going, can’t you, keep going!

HAMM
That’s all. I stopped there.

[
Pause.
]

CLOV
Do you see how it goes on.

HAMM
More or less.

CLOV
Will it not soon be the end?

HAMM
I’m afraid it will.

CLOV
Pah! You’ll make up another.

HAMM
I don’t know.

[
Pause.
]

I feel rather drained.

[
Pause.
]

The prolonged creative effort.

[
Pause.
]

If I could drag myself down to the sea! I’d make a pillow of sand for my head and the tide would come.

CLOV
There’s no more tide.

[
Pause.
]

HAMM
Go and see is she dead.

[
Clov goes to bins, raises the lid of Nell’s, stoops, looks into it. Pause.
]

CLOV
Looks like it.

[
He closes the lid, straightens up. Hamm raises his toque. Pause. He puts it on again.
]

HAMM
[
with his hand to his toque
] And Nagg?

[
Clov raises lid of Nagg’s bin, stoops, looks into it. Pause.
]

CLOV
Doesn’t look like it.

[
He closes the lid, straightens up.
]

HAMM
[
letting go his toque
] What’s he doing?

[
Clov raises lid of Nagg’s bin, stoops, looks into it. Pause.
]

CLOV
He’s crying.

[
He closes lid, straightens up.
]

HAMM
Then he’s living.

[
Pause.
]

Did you ever have an instant of happiness?

CLOV
Not to my knowledge.

[
Pause.
]

HAMM
Bring me under the window.

[
Clov goes towards chair.
]

I want to feel the light on my face.

[
Clov pushes chair.
]

Do you remember, in the beginning, when you took me for a turn? You used to hold the chair too high. At every step you nearly tipped me out.

[
With senile quaver.
]

Ah great fun, we had, the two of us, great fun.

[
Gloomily.
]

And then we got into the way of it.

[
Clov stops the chair under window right.
]

There already?

[
Pause. He tilts back his head.
]

Is it light?

CLOV
It isn’t dark.

HAMM
[
angrily
] I’m asking you is it light.

CLOV
Yes.

[
Pause.
]

HAMM
The curtain isn’t closed?

CLOV
No.

HAMM
What window is it?

CLOV
The earth.

HAMM
I knew it!

[
Angrily.
]

But there’s no light there! The other!

[
Clov pushes chair towards window left.
]

The earth!

[
Clov stops the chair under window left. Hamm tilts back his head.
]

That’s what I call light!

[
Pause.
]