Perhaps it's still green. Eh? [Pause.] Flora! Pomona! [Ecstatically.] Ceres!2
[Pause.] Perhaps you won't need to go very far. CLOV I can't go very far. [Pause.] I'll leave you. HAMM Is my dog ready? CLOV He lacks a leg. HAMM Is he silky? CLOV He's a kind of Pomeranian. HAMM Go and get him. CLOV He lacks a leg. HAMM G o and get him! [Exit CLOV.] We're getting on. [Enter CLOV holding
by one of its three legs a black toy dog.]
CLOV Your dogs are here. [Me hands the dog to HAMM who feels it, fondles it.] HAMM He's white, isn't he? CLOV Nearly. HAMM Wha t do you mean, nearly? Is he white or isn't he? CLOV H e isn't. [Pause.] HAMM You've forgotten the sex. CLOV [Vexed.] But he isn't finished. Th e sex goes on at the end. [Pause.] HAMM YOU haven't put on his ribbon. CLOV [Angrily.] But he isn't finished, I tell you! Fjirst you finish your dog and
then you put on his ribbon! [Pause.] HAMM Ca n he stand? CLOV I don't know. HAMM Try. [He hands the dog to CLOV who places it on the ground. ] Well? CLOV Wait! [He squats down and tries to get the dog to stand on its three legs,
fails, lets it go. The dog falls on its side.] HAMM [Impatiently. ] Well? CLOV He's standing. HAMM [Groping for the dog.] Where? Where is he? [CLOV holds up the dog in
a standing position.] CLOV There. [He takes HAMM S hand and guides it towards the dog's head.] HAMM [His hand on the dog's head.] Is he gazing at me? CLOV Yes. HAMM [Proudly. ] As if he were asking me to take him for a walk? CLOV If you like. HAMM [As before.] Or as if he were begging me for a bone. [He withdraws his
hand.] Leave him like that, standing there imploring me. [CLOV straightens up. The dog falls on its side.]
CLOV I'll leave you. HAMM Have you had your visions? CLOV Less. HAMM Is Mother Pegg's light on? CLOV Light! Ho w could anyone's light be on? HAMM Extinguished! CLOV Naturally it's extinguished. If it's not on it's extinguished. HAMM No, I mean Mother Pegg. CLOV But naturally she's extinguished! [Pause.] What's the matter with you
today? HAMM I'm taking m y course. [Pause.] Is she buried?
2. In Roman mythology, respectively, the goddesses of flowers, fruit, and crops.
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240 8 / SAMUEL BECKETT
CLOV Buried! Wh o would have buried her? HAMM YOU. CLOV Me! Haven't I enough to do without burying people? HAMM But you'll bury me. CLOV NO I won't bury you. [Pause.] HAMM She was bonny once, like a flower of the field. [With reminiscent leer.]
An d a great one for the men! CLOV We too were bonny?once. It's a rare thing not to have been bonny?
once. [Pause.] HAMM GO and get the gaff.3 [CLOV goes to door, halts.] CLOV Do this, do that, and I do it. I never refuse. Why ? HAMM You're not able to. CLOV Soon I won't do it any more. HAMM You won't be able to any more. [Exit CLOV.] A h the creatures, the
creatures, everything has to be explained to them. [Enter CLOV with gaff.] CLOV Here's your gaff. Stick it up. [He gives the gaff to HAMM who, wielding
it like a punt-pole,4 tries to move his chair.]
HAMM Did I move? CLOV No. [HAMM throws down the gaff.] HAMM GO and get the oilcan. CLOV What for? HAMM To oil the castors. CLOV I oiled them yesterday. HAMM Yesterday! Wha t does that mean? Yesterday! CLOV [Violently.] That means that bloody awful day, long ago, before this
bloody awful day. I use the words you taught me. If they don't mean anything
any more, teach me others. Or let me be silent. [Pause.] HAMM I once knew a madman who thought the end of the world had come. He was a painter?and engraver. I had a great fondness for him. I used to go and see him, in the asylum. I'd take him by the hand and drag him to the window. Look! There! All that rising corn! An d there! Look! Th e sails of the herring fleet! All that loveliness! [Pause.] He'd snatch away his hand and go back into his corner. Appalled. All he had seen was ashes. [Pause.] H e alone had been spared. [Pause.] Forgotten. [Pause.] It appears the case is . . . was not so ... so unusual.
CLOV A madman! Whe n was that? HAMM Oh way back, way back, you weren't in the land of the living. CLOV Go d be with the days! [Pause, HAMM raises his toque.] HAMM I had a great fondness for him. [Pause. He puts on his toque again.]
He was a painter?and engraver. CLOV There are so many terrible things. HAMM NO, no, there are not so man y now. [Pause.] Clov! CLOV Yes. HAMM DO you not think this has gone on long enough? CLOV Yes! [Pause.] What? HAMM This . . . this . . . thing. CLOV I've always thought so. [Pause.] Yo u not? HAMM [Gloomily.] The n it's a day like any other day.
3. Barbed fishing spear. 4. Long pole, pushed against the bottom of a river to propel a punt (a shallow flat- bottomed boat).
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ENDGAME / 2409
CLOV AS long as it lasts. [Pause.] All life long the same inanities.
HAMM I can't leave you. CLOV I know. An d you can't follow me. [Pause.] HAMM If you leave me how shall I know?
CLOV [Briskly.] Well you simply whistle me and if I don't come running it
means I've left you. [Pause.] HAMM You won't come and kiss me goodbye? CLOV O h I shouldn't think so. [Pause.] HAMM But you might be merely dead in your kitchen.
CLOV The result would be the same.
HAMM Yes, but how would I know, if you were merely dead in your kitchen?
