CLOV Th e 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? On e says lying? On e doesn't say laying?
HAMM Use your head, can't you. If he was laying we'd be bitched. CLOV Ah. [Pause.] Wha t 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 Go d 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 toivards door ] HAMM Wait! [CLOV halts.] Is it not yet time for m y pain-killer? CLOV [Violently.] No! [He goes towards door.] HAMM Wait! [CLOV halts.] Ho w are your eyes?
CLOV Bad.
HAMM But you can see.
CLOV All I want.
HAMM HOW are your legs?
CLOV Bad.
.
240 6 / SAMUEL BECKETT
HAMM But you can walk. CLOV I come . . . and go. HAMM In m y house. [Pause. With prophetic relish.] On e 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.] On e day you'll say to yourself, I'm tired, I'll sit down, and you'll
go and sit down. The n 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 go 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 closeithem. And when you open
them again there'll be no wall any more. [Pausej] 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.1 [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.] An d 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. On e day
you'll say, I'm tired, I'll stop. Wha t does the attitude matter? [Pause.] CLOV SO you all want me to leave you. HAMM Naturally. CLOV The n I'll leave you. HAMM YOU can't leave us. CLOV The n I won't leave you. [Pause.] HAMM Wh y 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 The n 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.] Sam e answer. [Pause.] You've asked me these questions mil
lions of times.
HAMM I love the old questions. [With fervour.] A h 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?
1. Level grassy plain devoid of forest, especially in southeast Europe and Siberia.
.
ENDGAME / 2407
