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 m y 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!
2. A sticky sweet candy (originally from Turkey). 3. Words spoken by Prospero in Shakespeare's The Tempest 4.1.148.
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ENDGAME / 2413
CLOV I must have put on my boots. HAMM Your slippers were hurting you? [Pause.] CLOV I'll leave you. HAMM NO! CLOV Wha t is there to keep me here? HAMM Th e dialogue. [Pause.] I've got on with m y 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.] Wha t story? CLOV Th e 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.] O h 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.] N o forcing, no forcing, it's fatal. [Pause.] I've got on
with it a little all the same. [Pause.] Technique, you know. [Paitse. 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.] O h 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 Wh o do you mean, he? HAMM Wh o 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.] Wha t 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 O r the brat. [Pause.] HAMM Th e whole thing is comical, I grant you that. Wha t 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 An d 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.]
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241 4 / SAMUEL BECKETT
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.] Th e 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 O/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 The n he's living. [Pause.] Did you ever have an instant of happiness? CLOV Not to my knowledge. [Pause.] HAMM Bring m e under the window, [CLOV goes towards chair.] I want to feel
the light on m y face, [CLOV pushes chair.] D o you remember, in the begin
ning, when you took me for a turn? You used to hold the chair too high. At every step you nearly tipped me out. [Wit h senile quaver. ] A h great fun, we had, the two of us, great fun. [Gloomily.] An d 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 Th e curtain isn't closed?
CLOV No.
HAMM Wha t window is it?
CLOV Th e earth.
