We're getting on. NAGG Me Pap!6 HAMM Accursed progenitor!7 NAGG Me pap! HAMM Th e old folks at home! No decency left! Guzzle, guzzle, that's all they
think of. [He whistles. Enter CLOV. He halts beside the chair.] Well! I thought
you were leaving me. CLOV Oh not just yet, not just yet. NAGG Me pap! HAMM Give him his pap. CLOV There's no more pap. HAMM [To NAGG.] DO you hear that? There's no more pap. You'll never get
any more pap. NAGG I want me pap! HAMM Give him a biscuit. [Exit CLOV.] Accursed fornicator! Ho w are your
stumps? NAGG Never mind me stumps. [Enter CLOV with biscuit.] CLOV I'm back again, with the biscuit. [He gives biscuit to NAGG who fingers
it, sniffs it.] NAGG [Plaintively.] What is it? CLOV Spratt's medium.8 NAGG [AS before.] It's hard! I can't!
6. Mushy food. 8. Brand name of a biscuit (cookie). 7. Parent.
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239 8 / SAMUEL BECKETT
HAMM Bottle him! [CLOVpushes NAGG hack into the hin, closes the lid.] CLOV [Returning to his place heside the chair.] If age but knew! HAMM Sit on him! CLOV I can't sit. HAMM True. An d I can't stand. CLOV So it is. HAMM Every man his speciality. [Pause.] N o phone calls? [Pause.] Don't we
laugh? CLOV [After reflection.] I don't feel like it. HAMM [After reflection.] Not I. [Pause.] Clov! CLOV Yes. HAMM Nature has forgotten us. CLOV There's no more nature. HAMM No more nature! You exaggerate. CLOV In the vicinity. HAMM But we breathe, we change! We lose our hair, our teeth! Ou r bloom!
Ou r ideals! CLOV The n she hasn't forgotten us. HAMM But you say there is none. CLOV [Sadly.] N o one that ever lived ever thought so crooked as we. HAMM We do what we can. CLOV W e shouldn't. [Pause.] HAMM You're a bit of all right,9 aren't you? CLOV A smithereen. [Pause.] HAMM This is slow work. [Pause. | Is it not time for m y 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 The y 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.]
9. You're pretty good (British slang). Balshazzar, king of Babylon. Translated as 'Thou 1. 'Mene mene, tekel, upharsin': words written by art weighed in the balance and found wanting,' it a heavenly hand on the wall during the feast of foretells his ruin (Daniel 5.25-28).
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ENDGAME / 2399
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.2 [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 Wha t is it, my pet? [Pause.] Tim e 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 Wh y this farce, day after day? [Pause.] NAGG I've lost me tooth. NELL When? NAGG I had it yesterday. NELL [Elegiac.3] A h yesterday! [They turn painfully towards each other.] NAGG Can you see me? NELL Hardly. An d 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.] Ou r sight has failed. NELL Yes. [Pause. They turn away from each other.] NAGG Can you hear me? NELL Yes. And you? NAGG Yes. [Pause.] Ou r hearing hasn't failed. NELL Ou r what? NAGG Ou r hearing. NELL No. [Pause.] Have you anything else to say to me? NAGG DO you remember? NELL No. NAGG Whe n we crashed on our tandem4 and lost our shanks. [They laugh
heartily. ] NELL It was in the Ardennes. [They laugh less heartily.] NAGG O n the road to Sedan.5 [They laugh still less heartily.] Are you cold?
2. Born (usually applied to puppies: whelps). Army was defeated in 1870 during the Franco3. As though lamenting something lost. Prussian War. Ardennes is a forest in northern 4. A bicycle made for two. France, which was the scene of fierce fighting in 5. Town in northern France where the French both World Wars.
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