HAMM NO. . . . Perhaps it's compassion. [Pause.] A kind of great compassion. [Pause. ] O h you won't find it easy, you won't find it easy. [Pause, CLOV begins to move about the room in search of the telescope.]
CLOV I'm tired of our goings on, very tired. [He searches.] You're not sitting on it? [He moves the chair, looks at the place where it stood, resumes his search.]
HAMM [Anguished.] Don't leave me there! [Angrily CLOV restores the chair to its place.] A m I right in the centre?
CLOV You'd need a microscope to find this-? [He sees the telescope.] Ah, about time. [He picks up the telescope, gets up on the ladder, turns the telescope on the without.]
HAMM Give me the dog. CLOV [Looking.] Quiet! HAMM [Angrily. ] Give me the dog! [CLOV drops the telescope, clasps his hands
to his head. Pause. He gets down precipitately, looks for the dog, sees it, picks it up, hastens towards HAMM and strikes him violently on the head with the dog.]
CLOV There's your dog for you! [The dog falls to the ground. Pause.] HAMM He hit me!
CLOV YOU drive me mad, I'm mad!
HAMM If you must hit me, hit me with the axe. [Pause.] Or with the gaff, hit
me with the gaff. Not with the dog. Wit h the gaff. Or with the axe. [CLOV
picks up the dog and gives it to HAMM who takes it in his arms.] CLOV [Imploringly.] Let's stop playing! HAMM Never! [Pause.] Put me in my coffin. CLOV There are no more coffins. HAMM Then let it end! [CLOV goes towards ladder.] With a bang! [CLOV gets
up on ladder, gets down again, looks for telescope, sees it, picks it up, gets up ladder, raises telescope.] Of darkness! And me? Did anyone ever have pity on me?
CLOV [Lowering the telescope, turning towards HAMM.] What? [Pause.] Is it me you're referring to? HAMM [Angrily.] An aside, ape! Did you never hear an aside before? [Pause.] I'm warming up for my last soliloquy.
CLOV I warn you. I'm going to look at this filth since it's an order. But it's the last time. [He turns the telescope on the without.] Let's see. [He moves thetelescope.]Nothing . . . nothing . . . good . . . good . . . nothing . . . goo? [He starts, lowers the telescope, examines it, turns it again on the ivithout. Pause.] Bad luck to it!
HAMM More complications! [CLOV gets down.] Not an underplot, I trust. [CLOV moves ladder nearer window, gets up on it, turns telescope on the without. ]
CLOV [Dismayed.] Looks like a small boy! HAMM [Sarcastic.] A small . . . boy!
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ENDGAME / 2419
CLOV I'll go and see. [He gets down, drops the telescope, goes toivards door, turns.] I'll take the gaff. [He looks for the gaff , sees it, picks it up, hastens towards door. ]
HAMM No! [CLOV halts.] CLOV NO ? A potential procreator? HAMM If he exists he'll die there or he'll come here. An d if he doesn't . . .
[Pause.] CLOV You don't believe me? You think I'm inventing? [Pause.] HAMM It's the end, Clov, we've come to the end. I don't need you any more.
[Pause.] CLOV Lucky for you. [He goes towards door. ] HAMM Leave me the gaff, [CLOV gives him the gaff, goes towards door, halts,
looks at alarm-clock, takes it down, looks round for a better place to put it,
goes to bins, puts it on lid O/NAGG'S bin. Pause.] CLOV I'll leave you. [He goes towards door.] HAMM Before you go . . . [CLOV halts near door.] . . . say something. CLOV There is nothing to say. HAMM A few words .. . to ponder .. . in my heart. CLOV Your heart! HAMM Yes. [Pause. Forcibly.] Yes! [Pause.] Wit h the rest, in the end, the
shadows, the murmurs, all the trouble, to end up with. [Pause.] Clov. . . . He never spoke to me. Then, in the end, before he went, without my having asked him, he spoke to me. He said . . .
CLOV [Despairingly.] Ah . . . ! HAMM Something . . . from your heart. CLOV My heart! HAMM A few words . . . from your heart. [Pause.] CLOV [Fixed gaze, tonelessly, towards auditorium.] They said to me, That's
love, yes, yes, not a doubt, now you see how? HAMM Articulate! CLOV [As before.] How easy it is. They said to me, That's friendship, yes, yes,
no question, you've found it. They said to me, Here's the place, stop, raise your head and look at all that beauty. That order! They said to me. Come now, you're not a brute beast, think upon these things and you'll see how all becomes clear. And simple! They said to me, What skilled attention they get, all these dying of their wounds.
HAMM Enough!
CLOV [AS before.] I say to myself?sometimes, Clov, you must learn to suffer better than that if you want them to weary of punishing you?one day. I say to myself?sometimes, Clov, you must be there better than that if you want them to let you go?one day. But I feel too old, and too far, to form new habits. Good, it'll never end, I'll never go. [Pause.] The n one day, suddenly, it ends, it changes, I don't understand, it dies, or it's me, I don't understand, that either. I ask the words that remain?sleeping, waking, morning, evening. They have nothing to say. [Pause.] I open the door of the cell and go. I am so bowed I only see my feet, if I open my eyes, and between my legs a little trail of black dust. I say to myself that the earth is extinguished, though I never saw it lit. [Pause.] It's easy going. [Pause.] Whe n I fall I'll weep for happiness. [Pause. He goes towards door.]
HAMM Clov! [CLOV halts, without turning.] Nothing, [CLOV moves on.] Clov! [CLOV halts, without turning.] CLOV This is what we call making an exit.
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